Greed, and the petty thirst for good bargains, can make people do ugly things.
Today is my grand-aunt's birthday, and we were all geared up for the meal-of-a-lifetime (well I exaggerate, but at the Shangri-la Flash Your Age 82% discount we were getting, I was making sure we have a damn good lunch), but before we even left the house, my mother had had an argument with a friend, gotten the phone slammed at her, I had been accused of being "unflexible" and "not willing to open up", and despite our greatest efforts, nobody was in the best of moods when we arrived at the restaurant. Long story short, friend asked mother to crash grandaunt's birthday lunch 'cos friend couldn't get table, mother said no, friend threw a hissy fit at mother, everybody angry.
Anyway, I digress. Happy things corresponding to post title now.
We were four at the lunch. Grandaunt, mother, mother's cousin and I. I wanted to get the most expensive signature items on the set. Unfortunately they were mostly seafood and/or beef dishes, which I/my mother and grandaunt, weren't fans of. So in the end we took the easy way out with a set. According to the menu, the one we chose was the "Rain Flower" set. Comprised of:
Peking Duck. On the must-try list of almost every blog I researched before going to Shang. The skin was crispy, the cucumber stick was crunchy, and the sauce was just the right amount of sweet. Hit all the marks. We were each given only 2 rolls, and the Peking Duck course was over. It must have been a really small duck. I wonder what happened to the rest of it. The waitress was slicing it to the side and I never actually saw the duck itself. I must commend the waitress here. When we were on our first roll, my mum took out the spring onion in it, and our observant waitress here removed all the onions in the next round.
Double-boiled Shark's fin Soup. This I wouldn't ordinarily have ordered. The whole animal cruelty and wastage of resources thing. But anyway it was part of the set and I ate it. At least the cabbage and soup part of it. Sea cucumber, fish maw and most of the fin I gave to ma and yipuo. The soup was actually quite nice and light. But I scalded my tongue on the first sip, which left a not-so-nice memory.
Sauteed Egg White and Crab Claw. Everyone oohed at the texture of the egg white and the freshness of the crabmeat. It was a bit like scrambled eggs, except only with the whites, and much more velvety. I don't think they added any seasoning to the crab, so it tasted very pure, I guess this must be what people mean when they say something has the taste of the sea. I asked a stupid question when I asked the waitress if the crepe under the bowl was meant for wrapping the things in the bowl. Oh well. Hey they might come up with a new dish like that.
Baked Cod Fish in Miso Sauce. I thought this looked really pretty, and based on past experiences with cod, I had quite high expectations with this. Points deducted once I sank (or tried sinking) my chopsticks into the meat though. It was tough and tasted chewy. I don't know if it was overcooked, but it definitely wasn't the flaky, melt-in-the-mouth softness I was anticipating. Redeemed by the miso sauce though. It was quite thick, almost cheese-y, which I liked because it was different from the thin soy sauce-type I'd tried.
Pork Belly, Golden Mantou. If I had seen this in a photo, I would've salivated, thinking it's chocolate mousse with breadsticks. As it was, knowing it was a slab of belly cellulite from a pig, my first reaction was to push the bowl towards the middle of the table and asked the rest to help themselves. But everyone was a little full at this point and ma told me to "just eat lah", so I did. Good thing. 'Cos it was only half a slab of pig cellulite. The other half was lean meat. And I liked the gravy. It was quite rich, herby, and made a great dip for the mantou sticks, probably my favourite part of this dish.
Hot Stone Fried 'Five' Rice. This I would really like to have noted what it was called in Chinese. It's just fried rice, really. But it had that claypot taste (with guo1 ba1) and they threw in some brown rice and maize and made it a really healthy dish. Yipuo and I couldn't finish our shares, so we got a bowl's worth of rice da-paoed. They even packed it in one of those little CNY bags for mandarin oranges. We re-steamed the rice for dinner and it was still yummy.
Cream of Avocado, with Vanilla Ice Cream. Ma loved this. I like it more for its novelty than its actual taste. The ice cream was normal vanilla, with little slivers of ice in it, not a good thing for me. The avocado cream was somewhat milky, so the small chunks of strawberry was a good idea to break up the thickness. I thought the cream was too much though, got a bit nauseated towards the end. This was the last dish of the set, but I felt we weren't making use of our 82% discount enough, so we got a couple more items...
Fried tofu with pork floss. Some blog I read recommended it. Maybe I remembered wrong. The tofu was soft, but I thought the salt was a bit much, and the floss was ordinary. And it cost a whopping $10. Nobody liked it. I would have been super pissed if we hadn't ordered it at a discount.
Green Tea Dumplings. Also came recommended by a blog, and a signature item on the menu. But this I liked, as did ma, who was inspired to order more desserts (but didn't) after tucking into one of these babies. It's the dumpling equivalent of the chocolate lava cake. It was served warm, the green tea-flavoured skin was marshmellow-soft, and sesame paste oozed out when you bit into it. One for each person is just the right serving. It's delicious the first two bites or so, needs a few sips of tea between the following bites, and the last bite leaves you just satisfied. Anymore and I would've found it cloying.
And that was the end of our birthday lunch. By the second last dish, one of the waiters was already asking us if we were ready for the bill. I think the boss probably breathed a huge sigh of relief when we walked out of the restaurant without ordering any of their hundred-dollar abalone or buddha-jumps-over-the-wall or shark's fin or lobster. We did wonder afterwards if we'd under-ordered. After all the bill only came up to $80. We could've ordered up to $500 worth of stuff and it would still only have been $100+. Ahh greed and its ugly little head again.
Ooh there's an epilogue. What's a birthday without a birthday cake? This one (probably looked better before ma dropped it when putting it into the fridge) comes with compliments from the chef:
Took bus 61 from Holland V to this tiny fine-dining enclave tucked away among HDB blocks along Clementi St 12.
My yellowtail cheek was delicious. Fresh fish - cos the flesh's snow-white. Seared on the skin while the flesh is soft and tender. I didn't like the tough and slightly bitter skin (a little charred). The mild wasabi kills the fishy-ness of the dish.
We ate till the late evening. Cosy ambience was created with the lighted tea-lights and coloured lightings.
(Photo of Janice, Steven and Mariati posing with D24)
