A star of Cantonese cuisine is born, with an aura embracing the old and new of Hong Kong. Sing Yin, the latest from W Hotel, is located on the first floor of the hotel. Steve Leung, renowned architect and interior designer, takes elements of old Hong Kong and fuses them into the décor of Sing Yin, completed with a contemporary design. Diners are greeted with metal-print sign images and traditional Chinese artefacts suspended from the high ceiling. On one side is the bar reminiscent of an old Chinese tea house with wooden shelves displaying a selection of wines and spirits. A long stretch of semi-private dining booths displays the décor of boutiques and barbers that underlines the harmony and interdependence of the local community in Hong Kong. A wall of clear fish tanks and LCD screens of virtual marine life leads diners into the main dining room that showcases the cosmopolitan skylines of the city, while a private dining room honours the picturesque countryside of Hong Kong.

Characteristics of Sing Yin

Manning the kitchen is chef Bryan Lee, who started his culinary career at the age of 14. In the early 80s Chef Lee started working all over China. Accumulating more than 30 years of experience under his belt, Chef Lee learned to appreciate the diversity of regional cuisines as well as cooking techniques and gastronomic philosophies across different parts of China. Hong Kong, Lee revealed, as a vibrant city with unique a colonial past and Chinese roots, has much to offer when it comes to food, particularly with an audience that enjoys novelties and various options that bring challenges to chefs here. With great experience and understanding of the different food cultures, Chef Lee continues to be inspired by the uniqueness of food culture in Hong Kong, allowing his inspiration to take centre stage for customers to enjoy his take on Cantonese cuisine with the same theme taken by Sing Yin itself - "A Pinch of Then, A Dash of Now".

While serving dishes made from prime ingredients and arriving at the table piping hot is important, Chef Lee revealed that creative dishes that expresses the chef's inspiration and artistry are equally important. Lee demonstrates his culinary style in some of Sing Yin's signature dishes.

Signatures in Style

One of Chef Lee's own creations is the Steamed Minced Pork with Crab Meat Dumpling. Presented in individual servings, the semi-translucent dumpling is made carefully with ground pork and crabmeat, combined with crab coral to fill up a thin, elastic wrapper made with wheat starch. The dough of the dumplings gathers at the top, forming pleats along the sides. This improved Xiao Long Bao holds flavourful juices from the filling better and creates a unique combination of textures.

As a famous Chiu Chow dish, Chef Lee revamped the White Pomegranate Chicken with a new seafood take of the dish, replacing the chicken with sea scallops. The change in steamed scallops with mushroom wrapped in egg white and winter melon improves with sweet bursts of ocean flavours, which are balanced out by the mellow softness of braised winter melon setting at the base of the dumpling. Chef Lee pays homage to the popularity of Japanese cuisine by introducing salmon roe as a crown jewel that stimulates one's appetite.

Matching Flavours with Textures

Soups play a significant role in a Cantonese meal. The famed Buddha Jumped Over the Wall, is a traditional Cantonese long-simmered soup made with abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, mushroom, bamboo pith, ham, and vegetables. Sing Yin's version is a harmonious marriage of flavours from all of these ingredients - each carrying their own weight, with particular focus on Napa cabbage clarifying the soup, while a unique addition of the Morrison mushroom, adding an earthy balance to the soup itself.

Chef Lee extends his creativity towards constructing vegetarian dishes with Steamed Bamboo Pith stuffed Fungus and Mushroom. Each piece of bamboo pith is filled with a combination of three mushrooms and six fungi, mixing different characteristic elements of each of them - contributing crunch, crispiness, aroma, and flavours into each bamboo pith, which is tied on both ends resembling segments of a mid-summer lotus root.

Chef Lee rounds up his signatures with a contemporary take on Deep-fried Egg Puffs. Instead of using traditional syrup as topping, the one at Sing Yin presents a fruity alternative adopting a honeyed mango sauce in place of thick syrup and an accompaniment of fruit on the side for desserts.

Cocktails Revamped

Other than a fine selection of wines and teas, Sing Yin excels in a selection of Chinese-inspired cocktails such as the Floral Dreamer, a warm concoction made with mild Chinese wine, herbal syrup and infusion of osmanthus, Chinese wolfberries and chrysanthemums. Other favourites include the Asian Delight, a twist on lychee martini with the addition of aged Chinese wine.

Sing Yin matches the essence of old and the contemporary, where Chef Lee and his team continue to inspire diners and their palates with creative vision on Cantonese cuisine based on his appreciation of the diverse range of regional food cultures and gastronomic practices that make Chinese cuisine the unique cuisine it is today.