03 April 2012 - Lobster day

Got two live Boston lobsters after some physical training in the evening. Lobsters for supper, that's quite a good Tuesday night. Killing them was quite a harrowing experience, as they were as easily put to sleep in the freezer, unlike mud crabs. They had good meat though.

20 Nov 2011 - Dining on Harvest of the Sea at Spices Cafe

Read online about an interesting "Harvest of the Sea" buffet at Concorde Hotel, priced at $48++ per person for a weekend dinner. Coupled with 15% discount for some credit cards, the pull factor just got stronger.

Checked out the inclusive a la carte menu for crabs while waiting for the single serve of lobster halves. He would go on to eat 5 different styles of crabs, cold, chilli, black pepper, steamed and butter.


While the lobsters were taking their time, he drew first blood. The salmon sashimi was really delicious, probably of the better variety. The crab was probably mud crab, claw was good, but the torso piece he had was a little mushy. Nobody can guarantee a perfect crab though.


Next plate was of smooth and juicy oysters. They would have another round of plumper ones later on. Bit into some sand/shell bits, but hey, it's seafood alright.


For the sweet toothed. He would be too stuffed with crabs and miss the fondue.


Her platter of cold seafood. Prawns were fresh and had crunch.


Then came the order of butter crab. Those shreds were probably egg wisps. The dish was very tasty, and was still dripping with butter.


Steamed crab was done with Chinese wine and egg whites, he liked it that the meat was moist and flavorsome. Notice that they were served the torso, but it would be claw-fest later on.


The lobster halves arrived, spicy sambal for him and cheese for her. Spoke to the manager and found out that these were from Indonesia, probably spiny lobsters. They didn't do Maine or Boston lobsters. Nevertheless these were succulent and went well with their toppings and had them wanting for more. Unfortunately, these were single-serve, and would cost ~$29++ each for additional orders.


From eyes of the other half.


Flipped the cleaned out cheese lobster for a mugshot.


Beef rendang, soy chicken, stir fried clams and lamb. Turf after surf for her.


He continued with his seafood feast.


Another shot of the pastry spread, about to be attacked.


Shot of the seafood counter, sporting an intermittent blue glow from under the ice.


She returned with slightly healthier stuff from the salad and cold cut counter.


He too, felt that it was time for some salad... with maybe some salmon sashimi, maybe some chicken, and perhaps also some smoked duck...


Crab and scallop soup, she was starting to engage the brakes...


Or so he thought. She sprung a fruity surprise. Kiwi and strawberries were really sweet, he seldom got any that tasted this sweet from the regular supermarket.


Tried some cheese, and heaped on a few slices of freshly replenished braised sea cucumber that was still steaming. Sneaked in 2 pieces of ebi tempura on the way back to the seat.


Felt that it would have been a wasted trip not to have black pepper crab and chilli crab, so those were placed on the order.

Black pepper crab that warmed the stomach. This time round, they were given 2 or 3 nicely cracked claws, as compared to just 1 in the previous crab dishes. An incident occurred here when he was trying to twist the pincers apart. The swollen meat snapped towards him and dirtied his shirt a little, but his mind was on the claw on the floor. What a waste.


She continued with another round of dessert while he took his time to polish off the crabs.


Was trying to catch his breath from downing the fiery black pepper crabs when the chilli crabs arrived. It was all meaty pincers, probably 4 or 5 of them.


Rotated the serving dish to be sure. No assistance of any sort was rendered to him, and she was laughing at him while he struggled with the claws. The numbers nearly overwhelmed him, but it was he who prevailed in the end. OK, no more mud crabs for a long long time....

15 Oct to 07 Nov 2011 Mashup

For the first few days, he suffered badly from jet lag. Totally knocked out once it was rest time, it was lucky that the colleague had packed dinner from Hong Kong Buffet for him. Gratefully devoured this at around 1am. Yeah, that's dinner.


Stocked up on groceries. Cheap beer that worked out to about 50c a can, 1L bottle of Perrier at 1USD odd. All from K Mart which was within walking distance. It just was difficult without the car.


A&W Root Beer with aged vanilla. Couldn't find the original to compare against, so he wasn't able to tell if there was any difference.


$7.99 Domino's for late lunch. This deal was only available on Mondays to Wednesdays, for large pizza with 3 toppings. Chose Philly steak, pepperoni and spinach. The staff were a happy bunch, singing, dancing and playing while at work. Not forgetting the exuberant black lady at the counter who had eyes that smiled.


Saw tall cans of this peculiar drink. Haven't tried any green tea mixed with ginseng before.


Finally got the local mobile activated. Check out the difference in screen size. Needed some time to get used to texting on it. Was entertained at the AT&T shop by the iPhone-Android exchange between a Sgt Fuller and Kari, the store personnel.


Lettuce from Walmart provided some fibre respite from all the processed food. Learnt that one should smash and remove the stem to obtain nice whole individual leaves.


Waffle at breakfast. Check out all that syrup in the pockets.


Cheap Ben and Jerry's. Haagen Dazs was around the same price.


Popeye spinach which he didn't buy. Got a small can of Walmart's housebrand instead.


Odd pumpkins, dressed for Halloween perhaps?


Brazil mango which tasted like a peach. Still not ripe even after it had been left for a week in the fridge.


Raisin bread sandwiching the sausage. Nice to eat but never failed to upset his stomach.


BK Stacker for lunch. Beef and bacon for a sinful combination.

He actually also lunched on Church's chicken for almost one week straight. Found it weird that people there preferred chicken breast to legs(drumstick) and thighs. Loved the spicy rendition of the fried chicken, not to mention that it costs just around USD1 per piece. It was interesting to note that they fried the chicken with the buttocks attached. Be careful where you bite. The picture of half eaten chicken was only because he was too eager to dig in.

Re-loaded the fridge.


Had Arby's French Dip in 2009 and loved it since. USD6.85 for medium.


Liked that beef slices were used instead of mince beef patties. No vegetables included, but one may add their own from the condiments counter. Onions, pickles, jalapenos.


Jalapicklenions.


IHOP pancakes for breakfast. Fluffy and fragrant. Topping it with the syrup made it all the more heavenly. USD6 for a set of 6?


Good colors at sunrise, something one may not see when the landscape is peppered with buildings.


Chef Mu for dinner, less crowded than Hong Kong Buffet. Similarly priced for dinner (USD8.99?), similar spread, but they still liked Hong Kong Buffet better.


Hong Kong Buffet for lunch, USD6.99? Good place to get his dosage of broccoli, and proteins from seafood and various meats.


Seconds.


Brought the new guy to Wok N Roll for some dinner takeaways.


Had spinach and instant noodles for dinner himself. Heated up the canned spinach in the microwave before transferring to the cup on the left. Didn't like the taste of the spinach, maybe because the tin can itself imparted some other properties. On a side note, really glad that he bought the SGD2 microwaveable bowl from Daiso.


Microwaved egg in the juices of ham right after breakfast.


Lunch at El Chico. Nachos appetizer which they couldn't stop feeding on.


J's Special Mexican dinner, USD9.99.


H's Mucho platter, USD 8.79. It appeared that both of them only liked the rice, and nothing else. The rice tasted a little like saffron rice over here, but was tasty in it's own unique way.


His Combo Fajita for USD13.38. Good choice, they all said. This came with many wraps, toppings, rice and braised peanuts. Wrapped beef and chicken together, throw in some toppings and he had something good to bite. The colleagues started to pick at his onions in attempts to enhance their own meals.


Frozen mango margaritas for each of them, USD1.99, topped up another USD0.75 for the mango flavour.


First trip to Red Lobster in 2 years. Starter of fried platter of clams, calamari and broccoli.


Caesar salad to settle the stomach.


Didn't miss out on the 1 1/4 pounder this time. USD27.99. Steamed whole to preserve all that flavour. Juices spurted out from each claw they cracked, and having to grapple with stripping the lobster tail of its armor made them want to have more lobsters.


Wood-grilled lobsters, shrimp and scallops. USD23.25. H looked a little disappointed that he didn't order the live Maine lobster.


Vege-pizza for dinner because they were sick of meat. Topped with onions, spinach and jalapenos. Got the USD7.99 deal again. Really cheap as compared to Domino's in Singapore.


IHOP's Mega Mushroom, USD8.29. Huge burger. Some half it through the middle and eat with hands for a hearty meal, others painstakingly carve out bit by bit with fork and knife.


J's Monster Cheeseburger, USD8.79. Dual core processors? Nah. Dual beef patties anytime.


H's Tuscan Chicken Griller, USD7.99. Well-marinated chicken breast to make anyone's day.


Large Anthony's pizza topped with tomatoes, green peppers and olives was lunch for the vegan.


BK Big Fish, finally. USD4.99 for the small combo.


Had a couple of frost warnings but nothing happened. The cold front brought several days of strong winds, up to 40mph, before they finally found the car covered in frost one morning. 20odd farenheit this day. The dew drops on the grass patch were frozen solid too.


Overslept and missed the dinner date. The nice colleagues bought dinner for him, McRib burger for USD2.99. Succulent meat topped with fresh onions and a tangy sauce.


The party dispersed and with the 2 of them left around town, they decided to go all out. Visited Red Lobster again for lunch. The restaurant was left with only 3 lobsters, and they picked 2 out of those. Unfortunately, the kitchen messed up the order of steaming the lobster whole, so they had to redo it with the last lobster in the tank. Never knew what happened to the other lobster...


Finished the basket of biscuits, and the waiter replenished it immediately. It's a kind gesture, but it would have been less wasteful if they had been asked if they wanted seconds.


Garden salad with vinaigrette. Came with the set. Never knew if dessert was part of the meal because they were always bloated after finishing the lobster.


View of the place while driving out.


Experienced an earthquake on the night of 05 Nov 2011 at around 10.30pm. Was falling asleep already when the bed started rocking, as if someone was trying to emerge from below. Then the whole room started to quaver and the noise just got louder. Immediately dialed reception, but no one picked up. This left him stunned for a moment, was he living out the Paranormal Activity series? He recovered only when the colleague called to ask if he also felt the tremors. Big haha for thinking too much.

The very next day would be their flight to Dallas, but they woke up to a very foggy morning. So foggy you could almost stare at the sun. Had them worrying if the flight could be cleared for takeoff.


Turned out that their fears were unfounded. Upon landing in Dallas, they paged the hotel for the shuttle service and managed to check in around 3pm. Hilton Garden Inn featured the Garden Sleep System, where one could adjust the firmness of the mattress. Couldn't wait to try it out.


Comfy sofa in the corner... where you could just sink in and relax.


Neutrogena amenities.


Crab Daddy at Joe's Crab Shack for very late lunch. USD28.99. This consisted of King crab, Dungeness crab and Snow crab. First time trying the Dungeness crab and liked it best out of the three crabs. The shell was "crispy", cracked cleanly and was easier to remove as compared to the other two. Got some cuts unknowingly while eating the King crab, but it was worth the wounds. The whole process of removing the whole chunk of meat from the leg, dipping it into the butter sauce before eating was pure enjoyment. A bib was provided to avoid messing oneself up with crab.

Had wanted to try the Lobster Daddy set for dinner, but he probably had too much of crustaceans so he settled for the Big Hookup. $20.49.
Whole fried snapper was delicious, tail-on but skillfully deboned. Great balls of fire was actually crab meat and peppers, but he found the meat too mushy for his liking. There were also crab stuffed shrimp, coconut shrimp (found it overwhelmingly sweet), fried oysters and fries. Found this to be overtly salty, should have gone with the fresh stuff instead of processed food. Lobster Daddy, Diablo Steampot or Joe's Classic would have been great.


At San Francisco, they had a late breakfast at Tomokazu. The staff and chef ignored them even as they walked into the shop and checked out the menu. After deciding on what they should order, the chef then informed them that it was still 10 minutes to opening hours. So they waited. From the way they spoke, he surmised the shop was staffed by Cantonese.

His first taste of uni sashimi, USD9.95. Smooth, slimy, with a little odour. Heaped on the wasabi and that solved the smell issue.


House Ramen, USD10.50. Not much pride, with the egg so mutilated. Noodles were springy and generous, however.


J got the sushi set for ~USD12, can't really remember the price.


More events had to occur after breakfast. The flight from San Francisco to Narita had been delayed. No big deal for them, and they were actually looking forward to stays in Tokyo in the event that they also missed the connecting flight. (Un)Fortunately, the delay was only for around 2-3 hours, not even enough for them to claim from insurance.

On the flight from San Francisco to Narita, he had some chicken masala. Tender chicken patty under all that sauce. J didn't like it though.


For the second meal, he had some form of vegetarian noodles. The mushrooms were dehydrated and were very rubbery. Didn't like this.

Sat beside a Japanese lady named Noriko who was in Houston for a silk trade convention. Spoke some Japanese vocabulary picked up from anime with her, and she shared with him quite a fair bit about silk and silkworms. She was into textiles as a hobby, and was from a group called Tama Silk. Couldn't find much about it online though.

Finally, on the last leg from Narita to Singapore, he had penne pasta, but did not manage to finish the salad due to fatigue. The pilot could have lost concentration from the long flight too, as he made a very hard landing. The bump was so clumsy that onscreen images went off for a second before coming back on.

That marked the end of this particular adventure.