Imperial Herbal & Sinchi TCafe @ Vivocity #03-08

I've been here for a quick weekday lunch previously.

This time, I came over the weekend. Which means more crowds. But also means that I get to have a more leisurely lunch. It was a good thing as I got to try more dishes.

First, we had the signature fluffy egg white with dried scallop in tapioca basket (SGD4 per single serving). It was as good as I remember it to be - cloud-like, soft, tasty egg white (not over-cooked) in a crispy basket that was light and not oily. Yum. A very good start.

The shark cartilage soup with bamboo pith (SGD20 per single serving) was milky-hued, which one obtains by slow boiling the shark bones and cartilage until all the richness is infused in the soup. That would give the soup an unmistakeable gumminess and umami richness. This soup however, took a shortcut by adding evaporated milk to obtain that creamy hue, so there was a little milky smell to the soup (which would be obvious to a foodie like me) and the soup was a little thin and not at all rich as it should be. A let-down.

Deer Tendons (SGD18 per serving) - it was served with some obligatory greens and a few pieces of fried yam slices, but the rest of the plate was filled with these slippery yummy things. I love tendon, and so I really liked these.

Cod with lily bulbs and black fungus (SGD12 per single serving) - each ingredient had some lengthy health benefit which I cannot remember. This dish was slightly sweet, and therefore not one of my favourites. The fish was well cooked, just right and still flaky.

This is deep-fried scorpion on a beancurd puff (SGD5 each), so cute! It was a tiny thing, the size of my little finger, and quite a novelty. It tasted like any other crunchy deep fried thing, it could have been a mini-spring roll with my eyes closed. It's meant to have some antioxidant properties. Whoa.

This home-made bean curd (SGD4 per single portion) wasn't that great, perhaps because we were getting a bit full when it arrived. It was quite tasty, and sufficiently soft in the centre, so objectively speaking it wasn't bad. I didn't like it because the green topping was not spinach as I would have imagined it to be, but rather seaweed, which infused the bean curd with a bit of a strong fishy(?) taste. I usually like seaweed (in sushi, handrolls, even crispy seaweed snacks) so I don't know why this one just didn't work for me.

We also ordered deep-fried brinjal slices (SGD12 per serving) and some ee fu noodles (SGD18). The brinjal slices were dipped in batter and reminded us of deepfried nian gao one eats during new year - same crispy tempura-like exterior with a hot, yielding centre. The ee fu noodles were ok, but nothing to shout about.