i have been searching Singapore restaurant sites....The Imperial Herbal Restaurant had been recommended as one of Singapore’s finest examples of Chinese cuisine and a good place to go to overcome jet-lag. It’s a place frequented by health-conscious Epicureans who have out-yanged their yin [or vice versa] and by the clients of the proprietor, herbalist Li Lian Xing, who prefer to take their medicine in a sweet and sour sauce rather than the usual tonic of bitter tea.

At the back of the restaurant is a grand old-fashioned teak pharmaceutical counter with banks of drawers and shelves full of bottles. Mr Li presides over it like a lean-shaven Confucius, grinding up powders and weighing remedies on a delicate pair of scales before dispatching them to the kitchen.

His specimen bottles are not for the faint-hearted. Macbeth’s witches would have had a field day with the contents: dried geckos and caterpillars, antler velvet, pickled snakes and seahorses, ox tendons and duck’s webs, and an array of deer penises or ‘pizzles’ that would makes Santa Claus’s eyes water.

Then there are roots, fungi, bulbs and herbs that look as weird and unappetizing as their animal counterparts but are also prescribed for a catalogue of complaints: American ginseng, for example, for ‘spontaneous perspiration and shortness of breath’; polygorum multiflorum for premature aging; fritillary bulbs for smoker’s cough; and birds’ nest for the complexion.

None of these look the stuff f the local take-away and under Sybil Fawlty’s direction there was no chance of avoiding them for a simple spring roll.

“First you will have famous appetizer - quick fried egg white with scallops and ladybell root in fried noodle basket. Good for ‘qi’ - more energy. Also,” she added, with a pointed look at my companion, “good for over-weight.”

She tugged at my hair. “Now need something for this,” she said. “Going grey already. I give you bowl of crispy black ants. Special imported from Northern China. Also good for Hepatitis B and arthritis.”

I tried to look grateful.

She continued prodding her finger at my menu. “Next you like black chicken for PMT or special Whip Soup for aphrodisiac?” By the time we had fought our humiliating way to the end of the list she had prescribed an additional course of deep-fried scorpions on prawn toast, “for the brain,” two portions of a bizarre potluck panacea called Buddha Jumps Over The Wall, and a dish of menthol jelly for desert. We managed to steer clear of her final recommendation for double boiled snow frog’s glands with rock sugar to, “improve functions of liver and kidney.”

As soon as her back was turned we ordered a couple of Tiger beers to settle our stomachs.

It is not only the medicinal aspect of food that is dished out with headmistressy insistence at the Imperial Herbal. The Chinese believe that whatever you eat has a direct effect on the body. To be in perfect health the internal ‘yin’ - the cool, contemplative forces - should be kept in equilibrium with the ‘yang’ - the more active, hot energies.

Every food has its own energy, so eating ‘cold’ foods like mussels, cucumber, snake and bean sprouts, has a calming effect on your macho hothead, while ‘hot’ foods like chocolate, beef, butter, onion and chillies can invigorate the wimp.

And some foods have a direct effect on different organs in the body. Egg yolk, for example, affects the heart, peppermint the lungs, wine the liver, salt the kidneys, and sugar the spleen. The small intestines are affected by spinach, the large intestines by pepper, the gall bladder by chicory, the bladder by watermelon, and the stomach by rice.

Every dish at the restaurant is a balanced combination of ingredients and each one should be chosen to complement the next. It’s a hypochondriac’s heaven and might have proved pleasantly diverting were any of it edible. For sheer disgustingness I rate only Fernet Branca and school cabbage higher.

Some of it was virtually impossible to put into your mouth without stomach-churning panic. The scorpion, for instance, flipped its tail up as I bit it and hit me on the nose.

Our waitress returned with gusto to see how we were doing. She was clearly disappointed to see our unfinished plates.

“Eat your soup,” she commanded, fishing about in my bowl with a spoon. “See, here is nice lotus seed - make ginseng taste better. And sliced sea cucumber, and abalone - good for sex life.”

“Will it do anything for jet lag?” I asked queasily. “For jet-lag,” she said helpfully, “you need plenty sleep,” and bustled off to persecute the next table."
- Skinny 1-07-2002 2:55 am

thinking about going to Vietnam, when i told Jim of the snake restaurants, he said he wanted to come---you pick the snake the more venomus the beter, they bring it to your table, kill it and drain the blood, you than drink it, next you eat the gall bladder raw while drinking the still beating heart in rice wine, the snake is than cooked served with a few dipping sauces....
- Skinny 1-15-2002 12:25 pm [add a comment]


  • quick, lets buy the franchise rights! every food court in america will be clamoring for our snakeblood stands. is there anything in there we can deep fry?
    - dave 1-15-2002 6:24 pm [add a comment]


    • fried, grilled, or sauteed i am sure
      - Skinny 1-16-2002 1:39 am [add a comment]


      • Its a really interesting restaurant!But may i noe the price and menu?tt would b helpfull..anyone has lobang?
        - Charlyene (guest) 7-27-2004 2:47 pm [add a comment] [edit]


      • Its a really interesting restaurant!But may i noe the price and menu?tt would b helpfull..anyone has lobang?Thanks!
        - Charlyene (guest) 7-27-2004 2:47 pm [add a comment] [edit]


  • 12/7/03
    You forgot to tell everyone about the delicious snake bones and veggie course. Very crunchy!
    - anonymous (guest) 12-07-2003 1:15 pm [add a comment] [edit]






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