still awake...

1.15am and I'm still waiting for that damn layout... copying my ppt and plonking it on pagemaker, is not called layout

Sadler up!

Ok, corny attempt to pun... We went to Ristorante Sadler last weekend with my uncle & family to try a 2 Michelin star meal. Located in Beijing's Legation Quarter ( No. 23 Qianmen), this is one of those glam places the snotty types would like to see and be seen. We were just there for the food. 2 star chef wor! I've always wondered what was the big deal about the Michelin stars. Apparently, chefs have gone into depression and even attempt suicide after losing a star!! 

So off we went to satisfy our curiosity and our rumbling tummys. 

 

On the decor - it was elegant and chic. A great place to relax but not the kind

 for a boisterous party!  

On the service: Attentive and they served iced water. Unlike some places in Beijing that insist you have to buy mineral water that costs as much as a starter! The staff also made an effort to take our order in English when they realised our conversation was in English. So I give them points for effort.

On the food: 

The bread basket was fantastic. They were very generous with the bread which were served warm. The cheese flavored bread tasted the best. My cousin quietly polished off all three in the basket he was sharing with his parents. Bread was served with pesto, olive oil and salt. My cousin asked for butter but apparently there's none to be had. No big deal since I like bread with olive oil anyway. It dawned upon me much later in the meal, why they gave so much bread... 

My cousin ordered a lobster consomme ( i vaguely remember this being 150RMB). He didn't like it. I ended up having most of it. It' nothing like a creamy lobster bisque. This is a brown broth that's poured over grilled veggies and I think morel mushroom. On first taste, you'd think you just drank perfumed water. It tasted very floral.  The taste grew on me. Takes a while to realise it's not flowers you're tasting but lobster roe. But there's not a hint of lobster flesh anywhere in the serving. So this was one really expensive soup. 

We also had squid- balls. Kinda like bouncy sotong balls bac

k in Singapore, without the bounce. There were only 4  balls. The sering was small but the plus point was, each ball was pure unadulterated minced squid. No flour.  The best starter was the Risotto cooked with Prosecco ( bubbly wine). it was cheesy sweet and oh so good! 

My Aunt had the blue fin tuna, daniel had the slow cooked lamb, my uncle had the wagyu beef, my cousin the lobster ravioli and myself, the sea urchin roe pasta.  The ravioli and pasta servings were super duper tiny. My cousin, a growing teenage boy was disappointed to count only 5 pieces of ravioli on his plate. 

My pasta had quite a generous serving of sea urchin but the overall serving was so small that I finished my pasta in 4 bites. 

I guess the pasta isn't supposed to be a main course. I believe pasta is kind of like a 2nd starter in real Italian meals.  ( Lightbulb went off in my head here... so that's why there's so much bread!) 

Serving size aside, my sea urchin roe pasta was delicious. It had an interesting flavor reminiscent of seafood marinara... just with a more premium type of seafood I guess.  My cousin did not enjoy his lobster ravioli as much because it had that same perfumed taste of his consomme. Poor boy just ate more bread. As did I. 

The beef and lamb came in much bigger servings. My uncle proclaimed the beef to be yummy (it better be at over 300RMB!!) and Dan's lamb was good too - tender with a mild gamey taste and coated in a delicious pastry with crushed nuts. The blue fin tuna was also nice ( again... better be at that price!) 

We shared 2 desserts - one of Tiramisu which was really yummy, and the second was Tete de Moine( cheese) with a glass of port. Dessert ranged form 70 - 150RMB.  The restaurant also served us a plate of complimentary after dinner sweets. That was really nice of them! There were 3 varieties and enough for each of us to try all three sweets.  

At the end of the meal, our curiosity ad rumbling tummys were satisfied though the servings were small. I suspect I was stuffed from all that bread. I enjoyed the food and the wine immensely but I'm not sure if I'll be coming back again soon at these exorbitant prices and tiny servings. 

But would I recommend the restaurant? Sure! If you want to expose your palette to something different, and if you need to impress a client or a date. And if you want to experience the creativity of a 2 michelin star chef. 

Seoul fun

I never was a fan of Korean TV series so the thought of going to Korea never quite occurred to me. My parents and siblings went to Seoul years ago when I was taking my A levels... so I couldn't go. My sis also went again to visit friends. And both times, she didn't seem to have much to say about Seoul apart from hating Kimchi. So I never thought of Seoul as an attractive destination.

I was wrong. Seoul is loads of fun!  There's plenty of interesting foods to eat, shops to browse, people to watch. I thought it would be similar to Japan. It was.. but not quite. It was very uniquely Korean. People behaved differently, the pace of life was slower than in Tokyo and the the shopping was very varied too.  

We stayed at the Dongdaemun area, in an apart-el ( service apartment sorta place) called Eastgate Tower Residence. It was located in a office/ shopping mall which I thought as rather strange but it was a really nice room with good basic facilities. The rooms were spacious and comfortable. For SG$100 a night. I thought it offered good value. 

Each day we'll gather with other travel mates ( 2 other couples) at the nearby subway station and then hit the sites and shops.  Dan & I seldom travel with other people or as part of a tour. It was great to have company! Great company on a holiday makes the entire trip a whole lot more fun!! 

One thing I didn't get to do in Seoul was explore the markets near our hotel. The wholesale markets are closed on Sunday.. as I discovered on Sunday morning, the day I designated to hit the button, fabric and bead markets. Ah well... all the more reason to go back again! 

Goodbye and enjoy the swim

This is severely delayed... I was back home in SG for a week. Why?  I flew home for my grandma. 

She passed away in late May at the ripe old age of 88. Got back just in time to say a final goodbye, though logically speaking, she was already gone. 

I used to be terrified of my grandma when I was a kid. I had this impression that she was super strict and fierce. An impression created by my parents... when I bit my nails, didn't finish my food, procrastinate over homework, picked on my brother, refused to go to bed... the threat was to send me to my grandma's house. Never happened of course. But it effectively made me think of her as the Dragon lady.  

Only in recent years did I discover that she wasn't that "dragonly". True, she seemed a little grouchy. But I think most old folks are like that. She was in fact a person who was very determined to live life on her own terms, determining what she ate, wore, shopped, prayed and which maid she got stuck with. Some of the stories my aunts and dad tell me of her antics are just hilarious. The underlying message I got from each story though, was this was one tough and crafty lady who didn't care what others thought. She held firmly on the reins of where life was taking her and she wasn't gonna take no order from her 7 children.  

I admired her for that. She lived the way she thought best, refusing to become a burden to anyone and retaining a rather wry sense of humor that I only learned to appreciate in the last few years. She's gone now, ashes scattered in the sea and all as per her instructions 9 see... even to the last, things had to be done her way ). I just want to say her feisty spirit will be missed. 

Flashback

My sis goes home tomorrow... boohoo... 

Here's a "now vs then" moment: 

 

The monkey on the left is my bro....who now towers above all of us at over 1.8m tall. Sigh... so sad to be short