Chinatown Blues

Mediocre. Is what I would use on Chinatown, our Chinatown. It was a little drizzly and wet the night I was there with LG. I even bumped into a friend of mine who announced my name pretty loudly, but you know, no one really turned around or cared to find out which human-ling of the so-so-crowd belonged to the name. Whatever. *pair of interlocked V ‘s on forehead*

To the left already, a la Beyonce.

Aside from lacklustre atmosphere, wet furniture and a one-off appearance of cheesy trishaws transporting clueless tourist couples to wherever at rip-off prices in disco renditions of nineties’ pop hits, the food fare was BOR(E)-RING. Really, people. Ugh, ugh, ugh. *stomping silver Gucci python pump heels*

I went all the way there, in my favorite gold Roberto Cavalli drawstring tote, and cute Topshop Unique dress which I vacuumed-packed from Oxford Circus, to ingest fumes from the long line of standalone food stalls. AND. Swiftly chopstick my way from the plasticky plate of char kway teow (fried broad noodles in dark sauce), into my hungarian mouth. (I’m not really Hungarian, but what else could you call someone who’s hungry? Hun or Hungry-let? Duh.)

The color looked right and the taste was sufficiently balanced between the sweetness of the dark sauce and saltiness of the MSG. But the absence of lab cheong (Chinese sausage) was deeply felt and sadly missed. The school-canteen-like dish was drab-looking and depressing. Sad-o-rama.

The seafood selection looked happier and cheery but I wasn’t craving for crustaceans and friends. But I did check out the ah balling with LG.

Read her blog on : http://ladyglam.blogs.friendster.com/ladyglam/

Ah Balling refers to stuffed rice glutinous balls in hot soup. The store here was (wo)man-ned by two little old ladies who were struggling to get the orders right. It can be quite a challenge, folks! There were a bunch of stuffings and soup flavors which you, as a willing makan-ster, could choose from which promotes consumer empowerment. And extreme work stress for our senior-citizen aunties :( The price though is almost free! Two bucks for 6 balls…S-I-X…Cheap-o-rama. Yasui ne! Murah Lah. We shared a bowl of green tea, peanut and black sesame balls in ginger soup. The ginger concoction was heavily hinted with white sugar and some ginger oomph. Not very happening.

The green tea ah balling was mochi-like. The paste was clumpy even in hot soup and tasted blasé. As for the black sesame, LG, you comment since you ate ALL of them! And for the peanut ones, mmmmmmmmm, they punctuated the end of my dinner with a sweet and happy ending. Melt-in-your-mouth fluidity and crunchy texture cradled in gooey rice sold me to these things for life.

Come on now, get ballsy in the new year. *wink*

My Green Loves - The Sequel

When I was a practising vegetarian a few years ago (and lost a LOT of weight might I add), my dearest friend, let’s call her Bubu, sent me a picture of a well-known vegetarian. A COW.

Isn’t it nature’s wonder that although cows and cow-like animals share the same diet as Love Princess, they weigh a ton, and I lost a ton? Hah.

Since I’m on a winning streak here with this whole “Go Green, You Can Eat Whatever You Want” campaign, shake your cute bon-bons to Lingzhi Vegetarian Restaurant @ Liat Towers.

Happening, man. You will feel guiltless about gorging yourself with everything on the menu. EVERYTHING. The most digestive-worthy dish is “Fire In The Belly” – fried monkey head mushrooms with spinach and shredded ginger. It’s spicy too. Mmmmmmm… You can pop these babies like popcorn. My virgin encounter with these monkey-head things was at Four Seasons’ Jiang Nan Chun. SHIOK. It was crispy and peppered with sesame seeds (sesame seeds should be on everything!), and had me serial-popping till they disappeared from the communal lunch table. Pai seh (embarrassing) *blush*

The dim sum selection was really nothing to shout about. And the soup, sheesh. It’s grossly diluted.

Stick to the star dishes such as “Rolling Crunch” – crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, fried mushrooms are rolled and served sushi style, with chunks of capsicum, shredded cucumber and moistened with soya vinaigrette; sweet and sour vegetarian fish, and beancurd skin “satay” on a stick heavily drizzled with spicy peanut sauce will leave you a satisfied bunny.

And of course, the black sesame glutinous ball dusted with fine peanut shavings, and mellow yellow custard roll is yummy-doodles.

With attentive service and accessibility (geographically speaking), and a tasty menu tagged at S$18.80++ per pax only, wasted if you don’t go lah.

Then after you makan, make sure you come back, and tell me whether the trip was worth it or not. Remember ah! (Oh, minimum two diners for buffet treatment)