Text 19520, 68 rader
Skriven 2014-11-17 05:23:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Asia 305
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A couple days of routine as follows:

breakfast at Oscar's down on the ground floor, where every
morning I feasted on beehoon noodles and various dim sum and
the occasional bowl of congee with scallions and Chinese
sausage, while Lilli and the other friends we met up with
generally had the full American breakfast, followed by a
dish of ice cream (there mostly for the Belgian waffles but
available plain or as a sundae);

wandering around town seeing the sights we have seen a
dozen times before;

lunch with friends;

afternoon drinks at the lounge;

dinner with friends;

late drinks at the lounge;

oblivion.

At some time it became too expensive to stay at the Conrad,
so we moved operations to the Hilton down on Orchard Road,
which is slightly less swank and slightly less polished but
tries to make up with service, which can be very good. Here
Lilli shared my accommodation, another corner room but
somewhat bigger, on a lower floor. We had our choice of
breakfast in the lounge (pretty good, limited selection) or
at the Checkers restaurant downstairs (bigger selection, not
as good but still better than anything you get stateside).

Meal highlights.

Long Beach Seafood - this was the main event of the
gathering, which builds itself around a big crab meal at
one of the famous seafood joints (Jumbo, East Coast, etc.)
every year. We hire a bunch of taxis or shuttlebuses and
trek out to one of these open-air pavilions where heaping
plates of crabs and big beer towers are the order of the day.

Each table orders its own, and this year, as I was one of
those in charge, the offerings were satisfying but perhaps
more modest than usual (to the tune of $20 less a head than
other tables).

We had to have a meat dish, and beef ginger scallion was an
honest, abundant, and satisfying version, the flank steak
done a little chewier than I'd like, but made it quite clear
that you were eating meat.

Instead of the standard chili crab, we had pepper crab,
tangy and utterly delicious. Someone requested mantou (I
forget steamed or baked), which was a nice relief to the
overburdened palate.

Fried baby squid got mixed reviews, especially from those
who are used to rings only. It was a little on the chewy
side, truth be told, with some of the little tentacles a
bit overfried, but the flavor was superb.

Heaps of spinach and garlic rounded out the meal in a
healthy way.

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