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January 29, 2005
Good friends and good food
I always feel that good food taste better when shared with friends or family. Which is why I cannot stand to eat with people who like to count calories when eating. Oh come on, a few calories is not going to make that much of a difference lah!
Last weekend was a gastronomic adventure of sorts with good friends. I met up with R for high tea at the Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge. The queue was rather long but I managed to get the two of us a table while waiting for "R who was stuck in a traffic jam" to turn up. The Tea Lounge is tuck away in a corner of one of the busiest shopping malls in Orchard Road and I refuse to say which one or else the queue may become even longer and I will have to queue for an even longer time in future!!! Hee hee! The lounge itself occupies a rather small area but the full wall of windows overlooking Orchard Road makes it a lovely place for tea and idle chit chat. Its called the Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge as all its tableware and cutlery are from the porcelain brand "Royal Copenhagen". But its not the lovely tableware that makes the dining experience such a delight. Its the delicious cakes and tea. R (who had not had lunch yet)had a shrimp salad that was overflowing with shrimp and we shared a slice of orange cheese cake and a slice of green tea cake. Both cakes were really lovely. The cheese cake was light with faint orange undertone and the green tea cake was the best I had ever tasted!! Moist and a strong enough green tea flavour but not overpowering. Yummy! We each ordered a pot of tea along with the cakes. She had their signature blend (a variant of English Breakfast blend) and I had Darjeeling. I liked mine better as I found the signature blend a little too weak in flavour. Hey Overacuppa, I will bring you there the next time you come back, you will LOVE it there!
A few hours after my lovely high tea. I met up with another group of friends for a birthday celebration. We went to a lovely Mediterranean restuarant in Holland Village called "Original Sin". I had no idea what sort of food the restuarant served until I looked at the menu and realised that I would be having a vegetarian dinner. OK, I admit, I am a carnivore. I need meat in my diet or else I get cranky! And vegetarian food always gave me the impression that its bound to be tasteless and boiled or steamed. Perusing the menu was stressful as I kept hoping for some meat dish to jump out from the selection. Finally I settled on the tofu patties with mushroom sauce. My friends selected some starters and pizzas for sharing and I was still feeling disappointed with the food.
The starter was a mushroom dish baked with cheese and on my first bite, my impression of vegetarian food totally changed. It was simply delicious! Vegetarian food never tasted soooooooo good! It was unbelieveably yummy! The rest of the dinner was just as lovely as the group of us passed our food around the table and tasted the different mains that each of us have ordered. (Ok, I know that is not very hygenic but we have been friends for many years and are not icky about such things anymore!) The only complaint I have about the food was the salt. Everything was a little too salty for my taste! But overall, the food was fantastic and my impression of vegetarian food is forever changed!
Posted by Fatgirl at January 29, 2005 11:24 PM
Comments
heyee! yup yup you have to take me to the lovely teahouse!!! i think i know where it is... starts with a big T ?
veggie-food is lovely D... i'm glad your impression's changed... in fact i miss the vegetarian food that you can get in the markets... the numerous variations of tofu is delightful!
Posted by: tiggie at January 30, 2005 02:44 AM
ha ha. yes, its starts with T. I have to go back soon, still having dreams at night about the cakes and tea!!
Posted by: fatgirl at January 30, 2005 10:46 PM
okie, let's go there together next time! I haven't checked it out yet!
Posted by: dsd at January 31, 2005 07:44 PM
Glad to hear you discovered Original Sin. Do you know the artwork on the wall was done by Angelo himself?
I've been eating more vegetarian food lately. Went to a Chinese vegetarian restaurant (mock meat etc) in Pearl Centre today with colleagues, and saw an old lady eating there. She was 108 years old, and was walking around without any aid! She would've made a good advertisement for them!
I also like Just Greens which is a more 'Zen' style restaurant with pretty good quality mock food. It's across the road from Pearl Centre in a shophouse.
Posted by: Van Tan at January 31, 2005 08:56 PM
Eh, sorry to sound like a bodoh, but who is Angelo? the owner? But the food was really nice lah. Maybe I shd try Lingzhi next, heard its really nice to eat too!
Posted by: fatgirl at January 31, 2005 11:04 PM
Yes that's the owner's name ... you know the big guy who advertises his restaurants with the line, "Would you trust a skinny chef?"
Posted by: Van Tan at February 1, 2005 06:28 PM