Soup’s up: City Garden’s pork rib soup has herbs in it. [Photo provided to Shanghai Star]

As the popularity of the dish expanded north to Malaysia, some vendors added Chinese herbs to the soup mix, especially those from Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur.

City Garden’s pork rib soup was heavily flavored with danggui, or angelica root and it also had wolfberries added. While it was a pleasant version of bak kut teh, it cannot be branded the Teochew version as it claims to be. There was no hint of pepper and no garlic in the soup.

Our next dish was water convolvulus fried in shrimp paste, the popular sambal kangkong offered in almost every zichar stall in Singapore. Happily, the vegetables were nicely done this time and we had no complaints.

In fact, I must compliment the restaurant on this dish.

Water convolvulus, or morning glory vegetable, is hard to grow in winter and it must have been imported from warmer climes, yet the serving was very generous and somewhat assuaged our homesick pangs.

The next dish was disappointing. It was sold as "ink fish cakes" on the menu, with allusions to the famous squid meatballs from Singapore’s Old Chang Kee, a recognized street snack favorite. What turned up were flat half moons of something tough and chewy, served with a bland but vinegary syrup in which some pickled cucumbers forlornly sat.

We asked the station manager what it was and were fed what we felt were excuses for a dish poorly done. City Garden chefs need to visit the Lion City again and do some serious homework.

The black pepper crab was last to arrive, impressively laid out on a warmer. Now this is one of Singapore’s "national" dishes and every citizen at home or abroad will tell you at once if it is done right, or not.