SINGAPORE, Feb 7 — We did an almost lightning sweep of the eateries at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore recently. We started from our base at the Hard Rock Hotel where we were staying and moved easily around the resort, and Universal Studio.

It was a late start for breakfast and I was ravenous when I arrived at Wing Choi, one of the restaurants within the casino. Here I found an excellent mee rebus and a really nice chwee kuih.

I waded into the thick, spicy sweet potato gravy of the mee rebus that had hints of dried shrimps, and slurped up the noodles coated with it. In the gravy too were potato and fried bean curd, while topping it were cut green chillies, a hard-boiled egg, fried shallots and Chinese celery.

The chwee kuih, which are small steamed round cakes of rice flour, were perfect with an intense salty sweet topping of chopped preserved radish and dried prawns. It hardly needed the sambal served with it. They were delicious.

These were some of the local specialities alongside the Hong Kong char chan tang offerings like milk tea, thick French toast with peanut butter, mini egg tarts, and the por loh pau, a famous Hong Kong baked bun that has a crust that resembles pineapple (por loh) skin.

I loved the wickedly rich French toast and the egg tarts with a fine, light pastry. The por loh pau failed the “pressure” test. If you place a piece of tissue paper on top of the bun and press down with your hand, it should flatten and then bounce slightly back. That’s THE way a soft, fluffy por loh pau should be. This one stayed hard.

Wing Choi serves breakfast from 7.30am to 11.30pm. Everything seems to be priced at S$5 (RM12). It’s an all-day eatery you may want to come back to after your foray into the casino. At lunch you could have roast pork or roast duck rice, steamed rice with pork patties and salted egg, instant noodles with pork chop, chicken curry rice, or soup of the day and rice, and perhaps a platter of barbecued meats.

We made a brief stop at Fengshui Inn, a fine-dining Chinese restaurant that has the highly-prized Empurau and So Mei in its glass tanks, as well as Boston Lobster, Golden Crab and Scottish Bamboo Clams, among others. The wild variety of Empurau costs S$1,480 per kilo, and some Himalayan royalty had ordered it the previous night for dinner.

Then it was to Chinois where we had the Chinois canapes of Steamed Prawn Siew Mai with Black Truffles, Pan-seared Scallop Burger and Chilled Tomato with Avocado and Mango Salad. But first the Luscious Sunshine Mocktail of honeydew blended with mango, and lemon juice, to quench our thirst.

Chinois is a contemporary fine dining Chinese restaurant opened by the TungLok Group within the boutique Hotel Michael at Resorts World. It is headed by internationally acclaimed chef Susur Lee.

The chilled tomato filled with avocado and wasabi cream sent small explosions of flavour to my mouth. It was so lovely. The Prawn Siew Mai was in a squid ink wrapper, with truffle bits on top, and a dash of truffle sauce at the bottom. The aroma, the texture of the shrimp filling and wrapper all came together with aplomb. It was so good. The lush pan-seared scallop had chopped pickles in the centre.

I spotted three set menus (for at least 2 people) – the Treasures, Triumph and Opulence menus, priced at S$80++, S$100++ and S$120++ each person. The Triumph menu offers: Hot and Spicy Chicken Roulade marinated with Hua Diao wine, accompanied by cucumber and black fungus in vinegar; Braised Bird’s Nest with crabmeat and mashed melon broth, braised marble goby fillet with black truffles, mushrooms and sautéed egg white in noble tanfu sauce; Braised Kurobuta Pork Belly served in Chinese wine, Wokfried Aloe Vera noodles with poached prawn topped with bean sauce, minced pork and mushrooms, and coconut shaved ice topped with strawberry.

Then we were off to Palio (this was all in one afternoon!), where its chef de cuisine Davide Bizzarri managed a bustling open kitchen, and served us first buffalo mozzarella with fresh vine tomato and basil, Caprese style, then a Lobster Linguine with Arabiatta Sauce. The linguine was scrumptious with the knobs of sweet lobster and the sauce.

The chef also presented us with Pizza Michael, his signature pizza topped with the freshest seafood. Palio is about Tuscan cuisine with traditional Italian recipes and hearty, rustic dishes. You can enjoy a three-course set lunch here for S$25++ or a four-course Executive set lunch at S$30++ on weekdays. Main courses and gourmet pizzas are priced from S$22++, and antipasti, from S$12++.

All these restaurants are very accessible once you are in Resorts World. And there’s always one to suit your needs and your pocket.

Next: Osia and Loui’s NY Pizza Parlour