Comfort Food in the City

After an entire day of admin madness, I realised I had not eaten the whole day. Incidentally, as I had to go to Raffles City to collect some suits from alteration, S and I met there for dinner.

We had previously chanced upon this restaurant and had a satisfying dining experience there. At that time, we thought of trying some place new and we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food served. I can’t quite recall the actual dishes we had the previous time but I know the Fried Prawns were extremely tasty and well done.

Today, I suggested eating at LuLu again but this time for a more simple fare as we both feeling broke. Lulu is located at the basement of Raffles City, next to Toast Box (I think). Nothing particularly draws you to the restaurant except maybe the huge paintings of famous women.

For today, we decided to eat as minimally as possible for the both of us were on a “Conserve Money” campaign. I had the crispy noodles with beef, whilst shao had the shanghai fried noodles. I also ordered the fried silver fish with salt and pepper. The quality of food here is pretty high and they maintain a consistently high standard. All the dishes we ordered were well done and tasty, leaving us with no chance for complaints. My beef was tender and served a generous portion; the noodles were crisp and the gravy was just the right amount. Not too starchy and not too diluted. Shao’s noodles were also very good and the boy gobbled it up quickly. Even the fish was yummy. I love it how it’s peppery and salty all at the same time. The fish had relatively more meat than most places I’ve tried, yet it maintained a very palatable feel such that the fish literally melted on your tongue. YUMMY!!

Service here is also quite prompt. The staff are friendly and the restaurant strikes one as being unpretentious, no frills and focused on just dishing out good food.

I will definitely be heading back to check out more dishes. In the meantime, for those of you working in the area and running out of lunch ideas, you just might want to pay LuLu a visit.

Grow Old with Me…

Met up with Duan for a quick lunch one day, well it was 4pm after branch hours so not sure if that still qualifies as lunch. Duan and I go way back. We were pretty close during college days but I guess as we got older, with more distractions in our lives, took different paths, we never remained as close. We still kept in contact but it was no longer the way it was in school.

Anyway, we decided to on Cathay’s basement where we settled into this restaurant specialising in la-mien. I am afraid I can’t really recall the name of the restaurant, but I think it’s called Mian Mian Ju Dao. I had been here previously and had the dry la-mien which was pretty tasty. Today, I ordered my usual favourite – GUO TIE.

Whilse most people come here and order the Xiao Long Bao – it’s not bad too but I don’t know how to appreciate Xiao Long Bao; I come here for the Guo Tie.  This place serves the BEST GUO TIE I’ve ever had. It’s huge and not overly-stuffed. The meat is sweet and the wrap is just amazingly yum. It’s not too thick, not too thin. Just right. And when they fry it, it comes with some extra crustings, like some sort of biscuit, which gives it it’s unique taste and sets it apart from all the guo ties I’ve tried. I highly recommend this dish.

The dry la-mien is also pretty good. Although I’ll have to say I am NOT a fan of la mien but the preparation was full of flavour and very tasty. I didn’t totally enjoy the dish because of the la mien but I reckon some of you out there might love it. (Sorry! But I can’t recall the exact name of the dish!)

Xiao Long Bao. Now I didn’t really like this here. The skin was thick and there wasn’t much soup in the xiao long bao. That aside, the soup wasn’t even tasty and the meat wasn’t sweet. A no-go for me.

We decided to try the Prawn Paste Chicken on an itch. Dissapointing. I kinda knew once the dish arrived when I saw that it was red. The real yummy prawn paste chicken don’t come all red as that means it was just fried with lots of packeted prawn paste. Sorry peeps, the top honours for prawn paste chicken goes to my home-cooked ones for now. Haven’t found any place that serves it better than home.

A pretty nice place to just take a break from work for that mid-meal of the day as it is near my office building, yet nicely tucked in a corner of the basement. I am not sure what it’s like at lunch time or dinner, but at least during the times I am there, it’s pretty empty and service is quite prompt.

I am gonna take a neutral stand on this place. It’s not somewhere I’ll strongly recommend but I’m not gonna diss it either as there are some good yummy food here. So I guess it’s your call.

Seeing Duan was quite a jolt for me. That hour when we were just catching up, I felt so comfortable with him yet at the same time foreign. Granted, he has been there periodically at the various points of my life, but it’s like we just meet each time to tell a story, our story. I don’t really know where I am going with this, but I have some old friends who were there during the “most important” times of my life emotionally, yet now, it all seems less monumental and less significant. Talking to him also reminded me of the girl I used to be. I look at the girl I am now and I am not sure if I like what I have become. I think I turned out ok, but alot has changed. We are coming 26 this year, just started working not long ago, and soon, we’ll be in a different stage whereby we get married, start our families…I am just glad I have friends who are still with me, friends who have been growing old with me…