Hong Kong advert for "seat chopper"

I had a good chuckle when I saw this advert in HK.

This is what I love about HK for their "ingenuity".
Here we have people willing to pay for seat chopper while in Singapore, I rem our polite "tissue pack" seat reservation was being frowned upon and discouraged. I personally thought the tissue pack system was a very civilised culture. I mean how many countries can proclaim that no one will fight over seats that is reserved with brolly or tissue pack but oh well....there are always differing opinions.

Translating the advertisement, it basically was an urgent search for long term "Seat chopper" (to occupy seats). The person is living in Mei Foo and works in Central, and hoped to have a diligent, polite and responsible "Personal seat chopper". The engaged person will be responsible for grabbing a seat in the train for the guy, and to watsapp the "employer" which cabin and seat position from Mei Foo station.

Advert Foodnote: Pretty ladies with good figure are given priority, those with piles or sweaty bum (pat pat) need not apply.

HK Food Review: I M Teppanyaki, HK

The 2nd birthday dinner out was closer to home, which I had opted for Japanese Teppanyaki this time.

鐵板燒·鑄  I M Teppanyaki and Wine 

(http://www.imteppanyaki.com/)

Again, it was a new place, that was literally new and as well, a first visit for us. I chanced this accidentally while surfing for places to eat without having to travel much and what caught my eyes was the fact that the chef Lawrence Mok was from Shangri-La, HK's Nadaman.

I had been to Nadaman several times for those special occasions and we did like the Teppanyaki food there. So I was a little hopeful but cautious after the disappointment last night at St George.

I had initially booked the dinner at 7.45pm but I called to check if we could go earlier at 7.15pm, which the lady on the phone apologised to say it was not possible as they are really full. Okie...so we linger at home for a while longer but fearing heavy traffic on Sunday night, we still headed out abit earlier to catch a cab to Tin Hau.

We arrived at 7.30pm and thankfully our seats were ready. There he is in person, Chef Mok.

We decided to try the Mok's menu since we were both after some lobster and Japanese beef. The other menu was the American beef. Thanks but no thanks. It was Japanese beef or nothing.

Just a little description of the place. The entrance is unassuming and easy to walk past without expecting a whole lot. Inside, the place is split into 2 section, each able to host 2 chefs at work concurrently. The seating is a little tighter than I like but its ok so long as you have considerate diners next to you.

I had an idiot who was watching his video on his Samsung phone at max volume and it was a little annoying since it was disruptive to me actually wanting to have conversation with my date. I find it really strange that HK couples tend not to talk on their dinner date but this arse next to me was worse, playing videos during his dinner time while disturbing others. Great manners there old uncle. Luckily his female partner had more common social sense and told him to turn off the volume....esp SINCE IT WAS A KOREAN video and he was reading the subs instead of listening to the conversations. Classic idiot.

Anycase, appetizer was a trio combo of urchin, vege and sweet prawn. Fresh, light and nice.

Appetizers

Other diner's order.

Our choice of menu for the night.

Watching Chef Mok at work

Counting the number of diners he had, he started to pan fried his scallops...though unfortunately he somewhat accidentally left us out in his count. So we were served the lobster first. They didnt even realise it till I asked the server what had happened to my scallops? If I had not paid attention and asked about it, I would have missed out on my scallops!!! Now we wouldnt want that! Lol. Ooops!

My lovely Hokkaido scallop

I think Chef Mok was alittle overwhelmed and so Chef Calgine Cheng stepped in to take over the other 4 diners including us.

Chef Cheng cracking our lobster claw

While I didnt get to taste Chef's mok version, I think Chef Calgine was a little more showy in his "cooking" than actually getting the seasoning right. Personally we thought the scallop was kinda under seasoned because when he scattered the salt, none of it hit the scallop....it was just all over the cooking top. Lol. However that said, the 2 seafood dishes were still very good and I actually prefer their lobster sauce over Sessyu's Teppanyaki. It's lighter here and less rich, hence the lobster flavor was able to shine through.

Teppanyai Lobster.

Plate setting for foie gras dish

This is cooked to perfection. Flawless. Except I didnt like the round berries on the left which was slightly bitter.

The highlight was obviously the A5 premium Japanese beef. It literally melts in your mouth and it was GLORIOUS. The fresh wasabi, when coated over the meat was strangely non spicy at all. Completely harmless! It was sheer amazement. There is no way to describe the meat texture except for the buttery fragrance that coats the inside of your mouth and the juice oozed ever so gently on your tongue sending you straight to 7th heaven. It was a magnificent piece of meat, not a lot of pieces being so fatty but the food volume was just right.

Lastly, we caught up to the rest and Chef Mok was cooking the fried rice for the 8 of us. Looking at his intense face had me chuckling with respect because I had never seen anyone sooo serious over fried rice.

Veges with beef. they were in my tummy before the meat arrives.

 I have to declare this is the best fried rice I had in any Japanese Teppanyaki, JAPAN included. Usually they serve you some lame garlic rice with some onion or eggs if lucky, but Chef Mok's fried rice was awesomely pack with goodness! There's everything in here and i love the lobster head miso soup that came along with it. It was soooooooo full of flavor and I loved it!!!

My satisfied man agreed too that this was the best fried rice at a teppanyaki store to date.

The sweet ending was the Japanese sweet melon. The sweetness....the aroma, need I say more?

All in all, it was a delightful meal despite the small mixed up on my "lost" scallop, I loved the meal here. It's definitely a joint I would love to see flourish and prosper because it's simply fantastic and worth every penny.

Food Review: St George@Hullet House, TST Canton road, HK

Since my man's birthday was over the weekend that just passed us by, I decided to spring him with two special dinner out.

The first dinner was trying out St George restaurant@Hullett House, across the harbour at TST. Figuring out where the building was was relatively easy but it took us awhile to figure out which level to head to. Kinda convoluted since we were not exactly heading in via the main entrance of the hotel...lol

So we were first greeted by this nostalgic British kinda lobby lift entrance with all the "rich photo" history on the wall. Walking through the halls was like walking in some old European statehouse.

We were early at 7pm and so the tables were relatively free. It wasnt a very large place but at least the tables were not crammed too close to each other.

To save us the headache of what to order and since the degustation looked alright, we decided to go with the Le Menu du Chef, without the wine pairing since we aint much of a wine drinker. I did have my moscato d-asti by the glass though.

I think the sign of things to come was from the serving of the langoustine starter. The portions was tiny. I dont mean small, I meant TINY. Like little baby jars of food composite. The taste was nice and so we were left hoping that the remainder of the course would be better.

This was an interesting dish. The idea was to serve the fatty tuna like sushi, with the crab meat replacing the rice instead. The ingredients were fresh but I didnt think much of the tomato cress pairing. Frankly, it was a little on the bland side and needed something to perk up the dish.

When I saw this dish, my head was like going WTF? Another tiny dish? Who exactly are they trying to feed? The dish was overall ok but the curry emulsion didnt do it for me.

This sweet onion pancake however was pretty delightful but the urchin didnt pack any punch. I think it was overwhelmed by the onion flavor. However, I did like this and prob the best we had from the course so far.

When our roasted lamb saddle arrived, we were shocked by another tiny portion. We have eaten in many places and no other degustation served such appallingly small sizes that even a kid will still be left hungry.  The slab was no longer than my thumb nor thicker than 1.5 finger width. It's quite a cheeky thing to do for a reputable restaurant.

The servings between courses were also a fairly LONG wait and it wasnt 2 hours later than we were served this food portion fit for Ms. Thumbelina. So of course the birthday boy was upset and so was I. We reflected our dissatisfaction to the manager who happened to be the one serving the main dish. We explained our concerns about the fact that we are STILL famished. It didnt help their cause either when our "medium" meat was served Rare, and the other waiters simply forgot our request for more bread (to fill up our hungry tummy)

The manager, taking in our immediate concerns, without hesitation addressed our problems with an apology as well as promising to top up our meal with another meat course, the beef. I told her I honestly dont want to wait for another hour but she promised it will be ready in 10mins. The beef itself was simply seared and grilled without much seasoning. It was ok, not great. The manager came back to us again and to apologise for the night because someone in the kitchen decided to MIA and didnt show up for work causing the "disruption" in service. I highly doubt the size would double even with the kitchen help appearing though. It is honestly shameful to serve such a small portion at such a price.

The extra beef dish

The puny roasted lamb saddle

 Probably because knowing this was a birthday celebration, the manager again took the initiative to serve us an extra cheese tasting dish. I'm not a cheese fan, so this did nothing for me but I did appreciate the gesture and we certainly let her know our appreciation at her "recovery" actions.

The 2 desserts were served one after another. First the sorbet and followed by the chocolate cake. Didnt blow my mind if you asked me.

Our meal came with tea and we opted to try the house blend. My goodness, the tea was actually rather nice, packed with a nice fruity flora flavor and fragrance. I had asked if I could buy a packet back and after waiting for 10 mins, the manager came back with this big bottled tea leaves and offered it as a gift instead as the souvenir shop was already closed by the time our meal was over at 10.45pm (we started at 7pm - longest meal ever!)

I was pleasantly surprised and thanked her for it. It was a nice gesture on her part and she told us that she hoped we will be back.

To sum up the experience, not great. Jessica the manager made it better but will I be back, likely not ever.

After dinner, we went for a nice stroll under the autumn skies and the surrounding was prettier than I had expected. I got to get out more to explore HK....

Hullett House, TST

Hullet House with landscape

Food Review: An Nam Vietnamese, Lee Gardens, Causeway Bay HK

The slacker in me has decided to make more of an effort to "introduce" the good food in HK. I have been eating non stop but apart from loading to FB, it has become sort of a chore to try to blog separately here but oh well....in case there is ever a day I need to close my FB account...better to have spare memory bank here as well. Heh heh.

Let's start with the newly opened An Nam Vietnamese restaurant, located at Lee Gardens 4F. (http://www.leegardens.com.hk/dining/LG/2435/An-Nam) The description says "upscale", I guess that simply means very elaborate nice ambience setting and prices packed with a punch. However that said, I loved the new Viet food joint here. Ever since Rice paper has closed at WTC mall, I have been lamenting about the lack of good Viet food in CWB area. Someone heard my wish list and gave me 2 viet dining spots within the same month after a long year's wait.

The other viet place is Nha Trang (http://www.nhatrang.com.hk/) now located up at Times Square Food Forum. I didnt particularly like the food here though cheaper than An Nam, but that's for another day.

To date, I have been to An Nam twice, and had tried all different food to sample the relatively wide choice. Surprisingly, they didnt have my fav grilled pork neck, but I suppose that's more Thai than Viet.

On my first trip, I had ordered the Tamarind Chilli crab (HK480), the Jumbo clams cooked with coconut in broth, and lastly the Angus beef sliced pho.

tamarind crab. *yummy*

I seriously love the crab dish. The claws were meaty and fresh, no funny business there with the freshness. The sauce was honestly finger licking good with the right tangy sweetness and spice.

We ordered the clams belatedly after seeing what the table behind us had. They were fat, juicy goodness and the coconut did a splendid job of enhancing the flavor.

I had never had angus beef pho before and to be honest, chicken pho is my usual order. However, wanting to break away from convention, I bravely ordered this and was nicely rewarded. The meat was sweet and nicely cooked after being soaked in the broth for a while. This got to be the best beef pho in town, but like my fren said, how not to be good when its angus. Ha! he took the words out of my mouth.

On my 2nd trip last night, I tried a different starter. The marinated chicken on prawn crackers.
This came as a delightful yummy dish, the meat was tender and the prawn cracker has the right crunch. You know how horrible prawn cracker can be if its stale, like chewing tasteless chalk, but not An Nam prawn cracker. They were a solid bite and freshness guaranteed on my visit!

Marinated Chicken on prawn crackers.

 The next starter we had was traditional spring rolls. Personally, this didnt do it for me. I think after my backpacking trip to Ho Chi Ming a decade back, and having the BEST spring roll ever at the backpacker alley, I could NEVER find another spring roll as good as that ever again. Repeatedly, I get disappointed. The wrap was a little too hard for me. It didnt break nicely when I had my bite, so it kinda "cut" the back of my gum after 3 of these. The fillings was ok. Nothing special or wow about it. i think I prefer our Chinese spring rolls instead.

Wanting to try something unique not often seen in other Viet dining, we ordered the "Pork knuckles Vermicelli". First off, I would like to correct the misconception. In Asia, or at least in Singapore, when one says Vermicelli, you think of the fine white noodle or even mee suan. However, this vermicelli here in HK refers to the thick white laksa noodle （Hk's 米線）.

The flavor was delicious. No seriously, it was good! I cant describe it but its not spicy yet has a slight hint of spice. Apart from the fact that one dont get much meat out of the pork knuckles, this is a very good bowl of noodles which I didnt have a chance of trying in my past Viet trip. If I could have my way, I would keep the broth and noodle and throw in pork neck instead to make this a bowl of kickarse undefeatable noodle.

Pork knuckle noodles

The last main for the nite was Jumbo prawns. They were JUMBO alright. Think the size of a huge lobster, that's what these freaking prawns are like. However, maybe they were too big, so the meat is not as tender as I would like and there is nothing special about the sauce though they were nice. Basically what I mean to say is, I could cook this in my own kitchen without a fuss and so it wont be something I would be in a hurry to order anytime soon. However, if you dont cook, and you generally fancy prawns cook with tomato sauce and worcestershire sauce mixed with dash of water and sugar, this will be your dish.

jumbo prawns

My dessert for the night was the chocolate fondant with coconut icecream. We started laughing at the appearance because it looked as if someone in the kitchen slipped and scattered some flour or icing sugar over it accidentally. It looks a mess! Lol!

However, taste wise it was good but no surprise there, moist on the inside. Def better than the mango pana cotoo dessert I had the last time though.

choc fondant with coconut icecream

Are the meals here cheap? Definitely NOT. My second nite set me back by HK1000, including 2 fresh coconuts to the meal. However, freshness and service is a definite thumbs up. The lady who waited on the table was very pretty to me and from her accent, I knew she wasnt local nor in Hk for long. I made a guess she was from Viet and sure enough in our conversations later, she confirmed her origins and I just love her smiles:)

Even "lunch stealers" dont want our Singapore citizenship

It was our wedding anniversary and so my man decided to take me out for a weekend celebration at Four Seasons Hotel HK.

Was having dinner at the Chinese Restaurant,LUNG KING HEEN It had a great nite view to the harbor!

Then came a table of 8 Filipino seated next to us. Initially I wasn't paying much attention until they started talking loudly in a mixture of Tagalog and English.

They were talking about their IT work and about how they got their SG PR easily having only stayed in SG for 2 years. One guy was really LOUD, the one with semi bald head, and I commented to my husband that he was the Filipino version of a China man. So loud and crass. It was impossible to not hear him talk.

I was minding my own business until my ears caught them talking about Singapore. What can I say, you can take a girl out of Singapore but you can't take the Singapore element out of the girl.

Even though I don't live in Sg presently, what they said was like a stab to my heart. That our citizenship has really gone down the gutters. (Not that I didnt already know that with the flooding of PR in our country but to actually HEAR it from a foreigner's mouth really made me hot behind the ears.)

The really loud guy have been in SG since 2005 and you can actually hear the Singapore accent from his speech mixed with his Filipino accent. He asked one of his younger guy Filipino "So you converting to SG citizenship?"

You should see the "HORROR" look on the young guy's face and he replied immediately "NO NO! I am just PR, I dont want the citizenship." They said something in Tagalog and they all LAUGHED and the fren repeated the question as to why not?

The young chap replied "I'm only there for career and family."

I assumed they thought it was safe to talk that disparagingly about Singapore (and loudly mind you) in HK.

Later on, they continue to talk about plans to work in London etc..and asking another lady about her experience on the cross over.

Having read what our dear PM Lee warned us about recently, it was ironic and like a HUGE slap across our face. Fantastic isnt it? Even lunch stealers DON'T WANT SG CITIZENSHIP.

Footnote:
I dont usually add a footnote but I felt compelled to do this based on some mistaken and "not so nice" comments. 

This post isnt about shaming the foreign workers, nor about being anti-global workers. That has NEVER been my stand throughout this post or in my blog. Which is why you dont see details like the companies these folks work for here, ther names nor do I take clear pictures of every single one of them to go viral on FB. Which is also why I declined to have this post reposted in TRE or any websites where it might trigger more extreme responses which is not my intention. I'm not here to encourage hate post in case some of readers perceived my post wrongly, or their selectively reading and jumping to conclusions to is their key problems.

However what this post IS about, is stating an incident that I have encountered, which contradicts what our nation's policies seemed to be geared towards - desperate attempts to lure foreigners to be PRs and then to convert them to SG citizens, and making reference to the recent comment warning us about "lunch stealers". Plus these folks talked so loudly on such sensitive issues that I figured if they are not afraid to be heard, they shouldnt be afraid to be "seen" either.

One more note, precisely these are seemingly well educated professionals (aka the sought after targets) that makes the whole situation an irony. If these people are taking cheap shots at us, then who exactly are we as a nation attractive to? These folks merely confirmed what many of us believed, they are not here to make Sg their home forever, to integrate with us, they are just here for career and family well being, and some nastier ones to milk the system (eg: buy HDB and resell for a profit when they give up their PR and head elsewhere).  Without a link like a local spouse, or some other commitment,  it's hard to imagine any of them being concerned for the nation or any integration intent.  

Finally,the issue in this post has nothing to do with globalisation of workforce, but rather that I am disappointed with these fellow people who are here in our land, drinking our water, working amongst us, enjoying whatever comforts they have are taking cheap shots and mocking its host nation and her people. THAT is not nice is what I am saying. I dont see what is wrong with highlighting such ill behavior, esp if they are happy to be heard in public arena without care.

Singapore not considering poverty line assessment? WTF?

Singapore is not considering having an official poverty line, as it would not fully reflect the severity and complexity of issues faced by the poor, and may also lead to those above the line missing out on assistance.

CHAN CHUN SING: "If we use a single poverty line to assess the family, we also risk a 'cliff effect', where those below the poverty line receive all forms of assistance, while other genuinely needy citizens outside the poverty line are excluded."
- Straits Times. 23 Oct 2013. 

 https://www.facebook.com/theonlinecitizen/posts/10152015383181383

Is this where SG is heading?

Poverty line is a hand in hand assessment along with GDP to gauge how well a govt is running the country, you shouldnt have one without the other. For the longest time since 2005, it has become more apparent that Singapore is being run like an institution rather than like a country and with all the fixation about KPI, shouldnt then poverty line should be part of a good governing body's KPI? You keep talking about people falling through the cracks, we know that. However, exactly HOW MANY people are falling through the cracks with your vision? How do we know if the country is truly doing better or worse without any statistics to back your claim? 

Otherwise to give an analogy, it will be like a highly paid self-acclaimed (but rather irresponsible) top surgeon trumpeting his own horns, crowing only about one's success op stories but neglecting to share how many failed ops he has. Given a 100 patients, what's the point of saving 20 patients but failing the other 80? Is that still a desirable doctor? 

So, when I read the extract quote above, my first reaction was.."WTF?"

Honestly, I dont really get this statement. How does establishing a poverty line statistics deprive other genuine citizens outside the line? Hello? Social services are run by man, not robots. Human can be flexible. You mean you cant help genuine cases because they are above a yardstick estimate and you need to stick to the line? You think this is classroom marking system? Where 50 is strictly the passing mark and anything under is failure?  Social services should render help regardless to genuine cases even for borderline cases, no? That's why we have case by case assessment isnt it? The ability to use their discretion and compassion. Otherwise what do you think civil service officers are for? Just to fill up forms and answer emails and voice mails? 

Plus having a poverty line does not translate to govt running amok with all the social benefits. You will still have stringent evaluation and assignment or provision of benefits as per necessary and not "receive ALL forms of assistance" as Mr Chan put it across. While I stand corrected, please also spare a thought of the pride, integrity and dignity of poor people. You sound as if our fellow poor citizens are all out to fleece the govt given every opportunity they get. Do you know that there are many poor old grannies would rather slough picking cardboard than ask govt for money? If I'm the tax payer and given a choice, I would rather helping my own people, the genuine poor citizens, than pouring our money into infuriating free scholarship for foreigners, YOG and meaningless projects (ahem...*sky garden*) that amount to nothing except face value. 

Hong Kong already published its own poverty line this year, and this state doesnt even have their own full fledged elected govt. Yet, they seemed to display a more humane way of running the state.  

It was published about a fifth of its people are living in poverty and I'm VERY SURE the actual figures of poor people above the poverty line goes beyond this. I'm living in HK and I'm telling you, its very very very very hard to imagine living in HK based on the below poverty line criteria. 

Accoding to the 2012 poverty line set By  the number of households, one person household is under HK $3600, two people HK $7700, three people HK $11500, four people HK $14300, five people HK $14800, six or above HK $15800.

HK, a city with a surging number of millionaires and home to some of Asia’s richest people, finds a fifth of its population living in poverty.About 1.3 million people, or 19.6 percent of the population, were below the poverty line last year, according to a report commissioned by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and released on Sept. 28. The benchmark, determined for the first time, was set at half of the city’s median household income, excluding impact of tax and welfare transfer, the report said.

“The poverty line is a useful reference point for knowing whether the situation is improving or deteriorating, ” Willy Lam Wo-Lap, an adjunct professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said by phone

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-29/hong-kong-poverty-line-shows-wealth-gap-with-one-in-five-poor.html

"REFERENCE POINT" Get it Mr Chan CS? A reference point, NOT an unyielding criteria line to implement social benefits upon. 

External wall repair time!

With the Typhoon season finally over....it's finally time to set in motion the repair of the outer walls and window rubber seals.

 The cement and rubber had cracked over time (well, it is an old building), and the water has seeped in causing much distress on my interior walls. Wall water stains, cracking, and well, moulds on the water stain. Being the external wall being part of the cause, the cost is luckily borne by the management and not me. Though the rubber seal replacement do fall under my cost...sigh.

So they finally came yesterday to erect the scaffolding and my goodness, these "Shifu" (experts) never fail to impress me. HK scaffolding is truly an art, not to mention environmental friendly. The way they risk their lives to earn a living. How they manage to erect the bamboo structure in the middle of the building, and from scratch never failed to amaze me, knowing where to lay the foundation and build from it. They made it look like a breeze too!

 Scadffolding is not cheap though. Just for errecting a 3 window wide scadffold will set one back by HK3000 . Still considering the risk they take, I'm happy to fork out the money.