Woeful 3-Hour Dinner

15th February 2006, Wednesday

I am officially having phobia about lame Valentine's Day dinner by any restaurant after the miserable fall out of what happened yesterday...

What supposed to be a romantic dining session for the 2 of us hit a very lousy turn of events and now I am flabbergasted by the ability of some restaurant//cafe/bistro/canteen/tuckshop/deli/whatever-assfreak-places-couples-went-to-eat to serve on time and properly in our little island anymore for this occasion...

To commemorate a fine day out, I brought my Canon Ixus 400 and shot a nice parting shot with the full moon hanging over a blue sky, with the day breaking out of the dusk...



Was a bit caught up at work with the absence of JxMMy (which find actually as the tag team of me and Bobby is running smoothly to get everything settled at the shortest time possible with a bit of chemistry between us); therefore was late to meet up my lass at City Link.

She was suckered enough to buy a Peranakan-style pouch which holds 2 V-day cookies which seriously is maybe worth 50 cents each and that low-quality pouch itself worth as much as a "New Folder" you created with your Windows OS; but she had to be gullible enough to pay that well-known aggressive local confectionary franchise (with "Bread" and "Talk" in their name) $4.90 for the whole packet..it did get to me that she could just give me that money and I go get some ready made Famous Amos which should taste much better...
Anyway not to ruin anyone's day we headed among the crowd in the congested City Link to Millenia Walk via Marina Bay Shopping Center... Along the way couple cuddling with one another with the notion to spread the message of love on this very day or perhaps to highlight their talented showmanship...

Reaching Millenia Walk, we had like half an hour for her to pick something nice and comfortable from Chalone which boasts luxury undergarments and lingerie collections from Europe which was recommended (make that swindled) by a friend of hers.
If you had not already known but a shopping trip to the undergarment department for a lady is an intricate session with a lot of trying and precision recommendation from the store experts and then another long period to ponder on which one to get...
Fortunately my lass knew of the time constraint fixating us, and took the few she had in mind and spent the next 20 minutes or so to try them out as soon as she could.
I was left behind in a vastly empty lingerie shop, wondering what I could do not looking too prominent.
Seriously unlike normal fashion retailers when I could follow her to the fitting room and give her opinions; I couldn't rammage through the selection on the display shelves which seemingly entitles me the title of "Perverted".
As much as a hot-blooded guy as myself I try hard not to stare at the advertisement posters littering around the shop with those Caucasian models in shimmering underwears which never fails to arouse one's.....imagination...
.However queer as it can be, within the time span when we are there, there were only 3 more customers came in and out and 2 of them are guys...
One a guy in smart office attire seems to come by to exchange a pair of knickers for someone else (or could it be his?)
Then a supposedly gym instructor, looking all beefed-up with a title "Personal Instructor" on his shirt came in to get a pair of erotic looking G-string which he later told his colleague as a gift for his wife (woo yeah, someone getting lucky tonight..and I'm not talking about the wife)
So in the end, my lass managed to make her decision and I duly went to the counter to foot the bill seen below...

I wonder why I am still wearing Crocodile underwear which cost a few dollars....

With less than 10 minutes to go from the time we supposed to appear at the Bistro we had a great distance to cover from Millenia Walk to Middle Road but with some brisk walking and some intimate tussle which often leads to my lass accelerating in a fit and me trying hard to catch up...

Then we came to "My Secret Garden" which was a pleasant surprise for her who was expecting fried dumpling noodles at Sunshine Plaze beside La Tendo since we are heading the same direction.
The place was well loaded with patrons both on the outside garden and the L-shaped interior, even Ferris and his girl, Annalisa (or is it Annabella?)

I had made my reservation for a table indoors but it bewilders me why the waitress led us to a balcony like pavilion by the side with an urn as a decoration...



Directly behind my seat is a half burnt mosquito coil which smell greatly disturbed me and my lass exchanged the seat with me but still it did not take away the fact that on a windless, humid night, that place is not really the most ideal for someone who detest humidity as much as eating coliander leaves.



As we waiting patiently for our cold appertizer of soba with caviar to be served, my lass kept enticing me with the fact of changing my iPod which she is quite determined to get herself with the 60GB 5th generation model which has capacity to hold both video files and mp3s which cost about the same as my 3rd Gen one which she had enquired about the fact that I could go through an official Apple evaluator to trade my old iPod for vouchers for future purchases of Apple appliances...Tempting as it can be I need to find that extra cash especially the total expenditure for this evening featuring in my credit card bill soon...

The entire time we were, we noticed couples holding hands together, chatting heartily over the course of the dinner but perhaps that's the only thing they could do to console each other to get a grip of oneself as one endeared the hunger for food to be served...
The much delayed appearance of our food was starting to get to me, not even a nice V-day video card my lass had got for me can sooth me..
Just then the cold appertizer made it's overdued appearance:



The quantity is not enough to satisfy an infant, let alone a 180 pounder like myself and that caviar is not even close to the succulent ones we had in Hokkaido but then I realised we are not in a Japanese restaurant to be begin with.
The waiter was prompt enough to serve the drink in this set, a bubbly non-alcoholic beverage with a sour raspberry submerged within:



Then we realised that every table was automatically installed with these couple of items but the hot appertizer was not in sight. My lass signalled to me that the elderly couple behind me was fustrated with the waiting (who isn't) and starting to make noise which led to the manager coming over to have a apologetic chat with them However via eavsdropping, they were actually friends of the manager and the auntie commented that the restaurant was like a "madhouse" ..how aptly a title it was...
The waiters were all over the place except placing the food on our tables!!
It's not that they were understaffed, 'cos our finished plates were off our tables at such uncanny speed The Flash would even admit defeat..
Something is wrong with the production from the kitchen and you knew that the planning when they decorated their ceiling with helium-filled heart-shaped balloons to add on to the ambience except the balloons started to fly everywhere in the restaurant including the kitchen as well as the behind the huge fan at our extension area...

Anyway after a good 45 minutes and assurance by an experienced-looking waiter our hot appertizers arrived..but first the extra mushroom ravioli I had ordered for my lass since she's not too thrilled to have goose liver nor snails... It had to be the most appertizing dish of the night with that thick creamy suace over the unique triangular pasta filled with nice mushroom...We were too busy to have it to even take a picture of it...
However it was another half an hour for the rest of the hot appertizers to arrive before which the waiter had served us the main dish...which I regretted not asking him to put down as well



This is the 2nd time I had escargots and to me it tastes very much like oysters and the butter and herbs did help to reduce that taste a bit.



A French cuisine which neither of us had the luxury to enjoy before but this pan fried goose liver isn't as awful neither was it as sumptous as we had thought.and the mango garnish on the side actually does well with it though my lass found the texture a bit too soft for her liking...

As mentioned I was ruseing over the fact that we did not grab the main dish when it made its way to our table and so another 20 minutes for the main dish to finally arrive...



I was quite skeptical whether I would like this dish as the other main did not appeal to me a bit but this turned out quite nice as the roasted lambloin slices is nicely made to taste a bit like steak and the usual suffocating taste of mutton is kept to the minimum that even my lass dared to have a few slices.
The mash potato and spinach in the middle are nice compliment and the sauce makes the meat much more delectable.



I was right that the salmon would still retain it's fishy smell but the parmesean cheese on below it help to take away most of it and the little garnishes like scallops and asparagus are nice as well...

Despite the measley portion, we were pretty full at this juncture (of course the long wait between each interval spoilt most of the appetite also) and looking at the watch it was around 10pm , my gosh we had eaten for like for 2 and a half hours even though the actual eating time is maybe around half an hour or so with the rest just waiting...
Knowing that I was eager to leave the humid place, my lass quickly requested for the desserts to be served to the waiter that clear our dishes...
But NOOOOOOooooo..we had to wait for yet another half an hour and for some god-forbbiden reason the table beside us with the couple coming much later than us got the dessert just when they were finishing their main dish...Then I realized it was preferrential treatment as that guy seemed to be a friend of the staff...
This really got to me at this point and I just wanted to down the desert and made my way home with work beckoning in hours time...I then stressed to a novice waiter to serve the dessert fast and was snubbed by some impatient obligation, as we sort of knew the waiters had a bad night thus far as well as many other were disgruntled about how slow dishes were served etc.

So after the desserts were served which we didn't even bother to take anymore pictures and we had to grab those ninja-like staff to ask for the bill...

Guess what it's another half an hour before the bill came and I was at the edge to lose my cool and when the fleshy Indian lady came to settle the bill for the manager's friends in front of us I let her know our plight that our patience had been severely breached and taken for granted and it turned out she was holding our bill all these while but instead of passing to me, she gleefully went around chatting with people...
I was incensed and piqued which led me to storm off the bistro even before the apologetic staff wanted to hand me a gift (which i presumed to be chocolate or something)...

So there it was 3 woeful hours at this god-damn poorly organised place..I dunno how it would be like in non-V-day time but the service was badly percieved by me and I doubt I would step back to this secret garden anytime soon...

We intended to take a cab back but with the time creeping to 11pm, all the scheming cab drivers would be hoping for either "On Call" fee or the midnight charge coming in half an hour time...
Totally enraged, all sweaty under the humidity, sleepy and fatugue after a hard day work and regretted spending so much money on such a lousy dinner that made me disenchanted about celebrating this showy occasion...

My lousy night did not end without some bugger pressing the emergency button on the MRT on the way back, halting the train at Ang Mo Kio for a good 10 minutes or so....my wretched life is completed!!

The final picture showed my heartfelt sentiments at the end of the night's run of events:

Japanese word of the day: 我慢~ga-man~(Patience) Seriously doubt even the most holy being had that patience to wait the food to be served at this atrocious bistro which by the time Rome has been built and perhaps destroyed