There's really only one word describing today's food: Ambrosial.
It simply means food that is extremely delicious, or another meaning would be that something that is so wonderful that it simply is worthy of the gods. Both are equally apt, as you'll find out later.

Seriously, today's food was fantastic. Actually, the title above that says Reunion "Dinner" is somewhat of a misnomer. Because we were actually quite busy on Saturday night, we decided to have a Reunion lunch. Of course, it wasn't any less tasty than it would have been.

As you can see from the image above, my family went to this place called Peach Garden at OCBC towers. It's some bank building *roll eyes* located near the Asian Civilizations Museum and Fullerton Hotel. The restaurant is really high up and when you're standing in the elevator your ears start to pop.



So yeah, enough of the photos, you must be wondering what we ate. Well, before that, let me introduce the surroundings. Obviously, when something's on the 33rd floor you expect it to have a view of some kind. Normally, we'd have a special room all to ourselves with a telescope in it, but unfortunately the restaurant management obviously needs to make money so they converted the special room into a mass seating area. We got a smaller room, but hey, it's a ROOM.



Yeah. So you must really be wondering what I ate already. You know, I've probably been spamming photos more than anything, so I'll post a photo of the menu!



As you can see, they specially create a menu for you when you order so it's easier than scanning an intensive menu and not remembering what you're going to eat after you've placed your order.

Okay, now on to the food. As you know, the Chinese always eat something called "Yu Sheng" for Chinese New Year, which is basically some thinly sliced carrots and assorted vegetables and whatnot, mixed with many ingredients such as a special sauce and some nuts. This particular variation of ours also had some abalone and salmon mixed in, and basically the legend or story goes that the higher you toss it while mixing, the better your fortune would be. Of course, this results in everyone trying to toss it higher and higher and in the end the whole table gets messed up. As you can see they were tossing so quickly that it was hard to take a photo in the first place.

We have to chant some "prosperous" words and since my cousin's mandarin standard is roughly the same as mine, we both just said some vague stuff and the best part was when we looked at each other and we were like, "Let's just say "random Chinese phrase!" because we don't know anything else!". Literally, that's what we said. :)



After that came the Chicken(Peking Duck for the elders), which was largely delicious and would have been as uneventful as any other dish except for the fact that my cousin Andrew just stole an entire drumstick for himself and it was seriously funny watching him relish(or was it ravage) the drumstick. The chicken was actually quite tender, as in the "Melt in your mouth" tender, it was also very full of juice, and yeah. I think you get what I mean by now.



Andrew's already in Primary One this year, but lamentably he's still quite childish. One of the highlights of the meal was when he came up with this sentence: "Yoda didn't have a lightsaber because Yoda was a puppet until he changed into a computer". Seriously. I have NO idea what he was talking about.

Moving on, next was the shark's fin. Now normally shark's fin is something that's quite colorless and all, however this one was orange-ish because of the fish roe they put inside. It was quite fishy somehow, so I and my cousin Kevin spammed soy sauce. Other than the fishy taste it was actually quite tasty and the consistency and texture was remarkable. It's kind of an insult to the chef, I know, but I don't think he would prefer that I threw it away! Maybe it was just our taste buds, because when I looked at everyone else it was possible to see that they all relished it.



There were other dishes such as the fish and the fried rice which were equally tasty but by that time I was almost gorged full and basically I was too lazy to take photos, but I assure you that the dishes were of the same standard and consistency throughout. The desert was a coconut with jelly and the juice inside. Of course, cold deserts are always one of the best and it was a satisfying conclusion to the meal.

So yeah, it was really a great time to catch up with family again, and seriously a private room helps a lot because the place was actually quite crowded. The food was also pristine and really fantastic. There was a lot of effort put into the dishes and the presentation. You might think I'm dressing it up just because of the atmosphere and all, but they actually carve the Peking duck in front of you and you can see the skill required. Also, all the staff also wear Qipaos(Chinese traditional dress) or designer suits.

Back to the point about family discussion, I was talking to Kevin about how hard it was to cope with siblings and he commented that actually I was quite lucky with no siblings. Also, we were discussing how RI(Raffles Institution) makes psychology a compulsory subject for its students and so it was a really enlightening conversation. We discussed the different subject combinations and how the learning environment was different in each school, but in the end we agreed that we were genuinely enjoying our stay in our respective schools.

Not only is Chinese New Year a great time for get-togethers, you also learn a little about things going on around you like for example the example above, and you also get to reminisce a little. I and my cousin used to play Pokemon cards together a lot but we grew out of it and he passed his cards on down to his brother. Of course, being the evil brother he is, he passed the fake cards down to his brother xD

After lunch, we went for a stroll around the scenic area at the Singapore River. Just outside the OCBC towers, there was this interesting sculpture. Of course, my two young cousins had anything but fine art on their minds. Rather, they were more interested in the water flowing around it...




See the wet footprints? That's because Jennifer(That's my cousin by the way) stepped into the water and then ran up and down the pathway. I guess she had a lot of fun...although in this photo she looks rather scared of the sculpture, I have no idea why. In the background, you can see Andrew frolicking in the meadows(A concrete one, by the way).

All in all, it was a rather exciting day where I could bond and meet up with my family again, and also learn a little more about each other's likes and dislikes and of course more about their personality itself. I suppose the fellowship is one of the key components that make up a celebration, isn't it? It isn't really about the treats or even the red packets. It's about family and the conviviality of it all. Everything else is just an outlet to augment the true spirit of togetherness.

On that note, let me take this opportunity to wish you guys Happy CNY :D

Labels: chinese new year, Reunion dinner

There's really only one word describing today's food: Ambrosial.
It simply means food that is extremely delicious, or another meaning would be that something that is so wonderful that it simply is worthy of the gods. Both are equally apt, as you'll find out later.

Seriously, today's food was fantastic. Actually, the title above that says Reunion "Dinner" is somewhat of a misnomer. Because we were actually quite busy on Saturday night, we decided to have a Reunion lunch. Of course, it wasn't any less tasty than it would have been.

As you can see from the image above, my family went to this place called Peach Garden at OCBC towers. It's some bank building *roll eyes* located near the Asian Civilizations Museum and Fullerton Hotel. The restaurant is really high up and when you're standing in the elevator your ears start to pop.



So yeah, enough of the photos, you must be wondering what we ate. Well, before that, let me introduce the surroundings. Obviously, when something's on the 33rd floor you expect it to have a view of some kind. Normally, we'd have a special room all to ourselves with a telescope in it, but unfortunately the restaurant management obviously needs to make money so they converted the special room into a mass seating area. We got a smaller room, but hey, it's a ROOM.



Yeah. So you must really be wondering what I ate already. You know, I've probably been spamming photos more than anything, so I'll post a photo of the menu!



As you can see, they specially create a menu for you when you order so it's easier than scanning an intensive menu and not remembering what you're going to eat after you've placed your order.

Okay, now on to the food. As you know, the Chinese always eat something called "Yu Sheng" for Chinese New Year, which is basically some thinly sliced carrots and assorted vegetables and whatnot, mixed with many ingredients such as a special sauce and some nuts. This particular variation of ours also had some abalone and salmon mixed in, and basically the legend or story goes that the higher you toss it while mixing, the better your fortune would be. Of course, this results in everyone trying to toss it higher and higher and in the end the whole table gets messed up. As you can see they were tossing so quickly that it was hard to take a photo in the first place.

We have to chant some "prosperous" words and since my cousin's mandarin standard is roughly the same as mine, we both just said some vague stuff and the best part was when we looked at each other and we were like, "Let's just say "random Chinese phrase!" because we don't know anything else!". Literally, that's what we said. :)



After that came the Chicken(Peking Duck for the elders), which was largely delicious and would have been as uneventful as any other dish except for the fact that my cousin Andrew just stole an entire drumstick for himself and it was seriously funny watching him relish(or was it ravage) the drumstick. The chicken was actually quite tender, as in the "Melt in your mouth" tender, it was also very full of juice, and yeah. I think you get what I mean by now.



Andrew's already in Primary One this year, but lamentably he's still quite childish. One of the highlights of the meal was when he came up with this sentence: "Yoda didn't have a lightsaber because Yoda was a puppet until he changed into a computer". Seriously. I have NO idea what he was talking about.

Moving on, next was the shark's fin. Now normally shark's fin is something that's quite colorless and all, however this one was orange-ish because of the fish roe they put inside. It was quite fishy somehow, so I and my cousin Kevin spammed soy sauce. Other than the fishy taste it was actually quite tasty and the consistency and texture was remarkable. It's kind of an insult to the chef, I know, but I don't think he would prefer that I threw it away! Maybe it was just our taste buds, because when I looked at everyone else it was possible to see that they all relished it.



There were other dishes such as the fish and the fried rice which were equally tasty but by that time I was almost gorged full and basically I was too lazy to take photos, but I assure you that the dishes were of the same standard and consistency throughout. The desert was a coconut with jelly and the juice inside. Of course, cold deserts are always one of the best and it was a satisfying conclusion to the meal.

So yeah, it was really a great time to catch up with family again, and seriously a private room helps a lot because the place was actually quite crowded. The food was also pristine and really fantastic. There was a lot of effort put into the dishes and the presentation. You might think I'm dressing it up just because of the atmosphere and all, but they actually carve the Peking duck in front of you and you can see the skill required. Also, all the staff also wear Qipaos(Chinese traditional dress) or designer suits.

Back to the point about family discussion, I was talking to Kevin about how hard it was to cope with siblings and he commented that actually I was quite lucky with no siblings. Also, we were discussing how RI(Raffles Institution) makes psychology a compulsory subject for its students and so it was a really enlightening conversation. We discussed the different subject combinations and how the learning environment was different in each school, but in the end we agreed that we were genuinely enjoying our stay in our respective schools.

Not only is Chinese New Year a great time for get-togethers, you also learn a little about things going on around you like for example the example above, and you also get to reminisce a little. I and my cousin used to play Pokemon cards together a lot but we grew out of it and he passed his cards on down to his brother. Of course, being the evil brother he is, he passed the fake cards down to his brother xD

After lunch, we went for a stroll around the scenic area at the Singapore River. Just outside the OCBC towers, there was this interesting sculpture. Of course, my two young cousins had anything but fine art on their minds. Rather, they were more interested in the water flowing around it...




See the wet footprints? That's because Jennifer(That's my cousin by the way) stepped into the water and then ran up and down the pathway. I guess she had a lot of fun...although in this photo she looks rather scared of the sculpture, I have no idea why. In the background, you can see Andrew frolicking in the meadows(A concrete one, by the way).

All in all, it was a rather exciting day where I could bond and meet up with my family again, and also learn a little more about each other's likes and dislikes and of course more about their personality itself. I suppose the fellowship is one of the key components that make up a celebration, isn't it? It isn't really about the treats or even the red packets. It's about family and the conviviality of it all. Everything else is just an outlet to augment the true spirit of togetherness.

On that note, let me take this opportunity to wish you guys Happy CNY :D

Labels: chinese new year, Reunion dinner

Francis
14
Victorian :D
Arrow Scout :)
VSPB
TGS-ian Xp
Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam - Hannibal.

WISHES

Improve chinese. [ ]
Lose the fats. [ ]
Maintain level position. [ ]
Maintain a good study-life balance.[ ]
Be less vulgar.(How did I become vulgar in the first place) [ ]
2.4km <14 [X]


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