Soon after I came back from my trip from China, then our office had to hold a farewell lunch for one of our colleagues. It was decided that the restaurant will be Ba Yu Ren Jia 巴渝人家 along North Bridge Road in Singapore. Obviously this is a Chinese restaurant, more specifically one specializing in Sichuan food, one of my favorite cuisines.
We actually got there ahead of the one we will hold the farewell for, it seems like he had some problems getting there. Anyway, since we needed to get back to work soon, we ordered the food. The food didn’t disappoint. There standard Sichuan dishes were all there. Whenever I go to a restaurant for the first time, I normally order stuff that I have tried elsewhere. I usually use this as a point of comparison. It may not be the best way to compare but it works for me.
Our standard cold dish appetizer was the Husband and Wife Lung Slices 夫妻肺片. Such a creative name for this dish. It used to be that the Sichuan cooks would used actual lungs to cook this dish but thankfully it has given way to a more palatable beef instead. The beef slices are soaked in the typical Sichuan style sauce complete with the Sichuan pepper to give it that numbing sensation.
Another dish is the Saliva Chicken 口水鸡. This gross sounding dish is actually very delicious, so good that it will make your mouth water, which is where they got the name. At least, I think that is where they got it. I don’t dare to think what the other possibility is. Much like the Husband and Wife Lung Slices, the chicken slices are also soaked in that delicious Sichuan style oil giving that wonderful and fragrant smell.
Their Chongqing style Spicy Chicken 辣子鸡 was so-so. The chicken came with bones which I don’t really like even though it is the proper way to cook this dish. The chicken meat near the bone is supposed to be the be part. I do not know about that, but I would like to eat without the occasional crunching sound of chicken bone in my mouth.
They also had Boiled Fish 水煮鱼, before you think that this dish is quite unlike the other dishes. The fish is indeed soaked in a basin of oil, but the entire surface of the basin is covered in dried chilli. At first glance you might think that this dish is going to be really spicy, but in reality it is really not that spicy. The waiter will scoop away the dried chilli from the surface giving you access to the fish.
The stir fried pig intestines looked good but when we went there it was a little too chewy for me. I have friends who wouldn’t eeat those saying that they “look like they been ripped out of somebody”. I can’t help but compare this place to Hometown my favorite Sichuan place. I could say that some of their dishes are quite nice and maybe even superior to Hometown. Their Mapo Tofu though pales in comparison to Hometown’s. Plus Hometown’s Spicy Chicken doesn’t have bones.
Ba Yu Ren Jia is a welcome addition to the growing list of Sichuan specialty restaurants in Singapore. It is along North Bridge Road near the Sultan Mosque and is easily accessible by bus. Customers coming by MRT might has to walk a little.
Ba Yu Ren Jia Restaurant
791 North Bridge Road, Singapore
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