282. Forrest @Orchidville

We drove on the meandering road, unaware of what lies at the other end of this road. Curiousity struck us to embark on an adventurous trail along this road. A continual of 10 mins didn't bring us anywhere. We were still on the meandering road. How fearful would one be if he is abandoned here. The colourful neon lights were our amulet. We are not on the LAND OF THE LOST.


Our Miss Joaquim is clearly remembered but how many of us remember there exists an orchid ville in the desolated part of Mandai?

Forrest @Orchidville is the place we were invited to. For the food, not the flora. I would describe it as a solitary home in the woods. 'Home' for the many foreign employees, mostly Chinese nationals, working in the orchid ville in the day and as waiters or waitresses in the night.

Diners can bask in the artificial nature ambience while enjoying their dinner. The surroundings is dim with the twigs and branches intercepting the lights.

Braised peanuts and something different, one of our Korean pan chan (side dish), marinated zuccini.

Majestic Forrest Platter

The cold platter. The usual stuffs.

Braised Superior Shark's Fins

First of all, I'm not a conservationist. Every minute I'm consuming the bowl of shark's fins before me, a large number of sharks are killed. Unfortunately, it also means forgoing this bowl of shark's fins is not going to reverse the grim reality. I guess more efforts have to be put in to advocate rights to save these man-eaters from extinction. The amount of human consumption of shark's fins is just too large.

I stand on neutral ground. How superior is this grade of fins? I do not have an exact idea. But from the texture, one roughly knows. I would not say this one here is of a very superior grade but it's a can-do and if this is so, I would rather this shark not be killed for its pathetic dorsal fins. The bowl of shark's fins was basically just a slab of fin immersed in a bowl of starch. Go Green?

Poached Fresh Prawns

Forgive me for being a tad over critical on this part. I'm being skeptical on the word 'fresh'. The majority of the prawns we could get in the market are from kelongs, i.e. they were reared. Feed them hormones-boost foods and the production boosted. How to define fresh? Hauled from the rearing ground in the sea? Yes, they are fresh but......

I do not have a liking for reared prawns. Not sure if you have noticed, these reared prawns have a soiled taste. If you have eaten prawns caught from the sea where fishermen spread their nets, you can immediately taste the difference. Maybe I was a little disturbed by the taste of the prawn, I felt the herbal content wasn't so evident.



Forrest Famous Pork Knuckle - German Fusion Style

This was thumbs-up. Pork knuckle was crispy fried on the exterior. Yet, the meat was still moist and tender. The moisture was not lost in the process of deep-frying. Done almost like our Peking duck, we had the pork in place of the duck, lettuce in place of rice dough wrap, minced garlic in place of spring onions and the plum sauce in place of oyster sauce. I think it is not so common nowadays to find pork knuckle, the German style, on the menu. Braised pork knuckle is more common.
Steamed garoupa in Hong Kong style

'Gui Fei Abalone' with season vegetables with scallop

This is the name for the dish as stated on the menu. Weird, I thought and what's the 'gui fei abalone'? It was sliced slightly thicker than the usual abalone slices. The texture was a bit like mock meat but was more flavoured and chewy. I find it a tad hard to chew it to smaller bits. Not good for the elderly, I thought.

Tea Smoked Duck

Mr. duckie won applause from all of us. It was very flavourful and could jolly well do without any plum or oyster sauce.

Fragrance glutinous rice in lotus leaf

Even though it was named glutinous rice, it was not entirely glutinous rice in the lotus leaf. Else, the whole ball would be sticky like a big ball of bak zhang. Chefs would usually mix our table rice with glutinous rice so as to separate the glutinous rice. I felt it wasn't well done for Forrest's. I could still see balls of rice in it. It was fragrant though.

Homemade silken mango pudding

I was taken aback when I saw the waiter came with the mango pudding. Why with the spoons in the glasses? It was like someone ate a scoop from it. Minus on the presentation. A big chunk of mango was placed in the 'silken' pudding (pss...it wasn't silken) with very runny mango puree layered on top. The mango puree was not sweet, it tasted like diluted mango puree. The pudding was rough, honeycombed. It was a dessert made without love.

It cost $638++ for 10 pax (excluding BYOB corkage charge and GST), it probably worked out to about $700+ for the total bill. I think it was overpriced. Location is not so ideal, advisable to get there in a car.

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Forrest @Orchidville
10 Lorong Lada Hitam
Mandai Agrotechnology Park