Monday, October 01, 2007

Hai Tien Lo @ Pan Pacific Hotel

Hai Tien Lo (63rd floor, Pan Pacific Hotel) has a great view and a great selection of dim sum and dishes in its weekend ala carte buffet (SGD58 per person).


We started with the soup - either braised sharks' fin soup or buddha jump over the wall (one order only).




My Buddha jump over the wall came in a dark-coloured, clear (as opposed to starchy) soup which tasted strongly of mushrooms and chicken. Ingredients were quite generous, as you can see. Combs of sharks' fin, dried scallop, lingzhi, mushroom, chicken.


DH's sharks' fin soup was much nicer. It wasn't too starchy, and had a very hearty, yummy aroma.


There were also generous combs of sharks' fin and scallop in his soup. I want!!





We then had wasabi mayo prawns - such a popular dish these days. Even zi char places do it nowadays. This dish was well done, crunchy, sweet, not too cloying, not too pungent. The addition of some fruit provided some tartness and sweetness, a very interesting and welcome contrast.


Fried calamari - Nice. Crispy and chewy squid, very easy to eat and very easy to like.
Steamed cod with scallions - DH likes fish when it is cooked like this - HK style. It was very nice. We ordered a 2nd portion with sea perch.


DH ordered some century egg porridge. It was smooth and fragrant. MIL ordered some ee fu noodles.

Cutie entertained himself by calling people using his daddy's handphone - "Por Por, where you? Come here, come quick. Eat fish and noodles! I'm a good boy". It was hilarious because he was carrying on this scintillating conversation with his imaginary friends. We didn't really let him call Por Por, obviously.
Steamed pomfret with bean sauce - A little too heavy on the sauce for me. I don't really like sauces to overpower my fish. However, the fish was steamed just right so I still managed to scoff it all up.

The best value dish, in my opinion, were the Steamed Live Prawns - This was a half portion, btw. We dug in as soon as the prawns arrived and I forgot to take any pictures until we were halfway through. The prawns were definitely live prawns. Not the frozen ones, with a wooden taste. These were sweet, succulent, lively, fresh. Wow. I really loved them.

So much so, we also ordered a portion of Live prawns in Herbal soup - This was even better, as the herbal soup was divine. It had a heady aroma redolent of herbs like dang shen, and we could taste the delicious chinese rice wine in it. OOh. So good, I ordered another portion of this.


Funny thing is, when DH first ordered it, DH ordered a portion for 3 persons and so, 6 prawns came. Then when I ordered it again, I specifically said I wanted only a portion for 1, as DH and MIL had already surrendered. And another plate, containing 6 live prawns came. (!!!) I was expecting 2 prawns right?

DH said, maybe the waitress figured, that 1 portion for me is equivalent to 3 portions for normal people. -_-

Well, the prawns really were very good. Look at how many I ate! I can feel my cholesterol levels shooting waayy up.


Then just another plate of braised sea cucumber with beancurd to round off the meal. A little bit spicy, but very nice. I wish they could have put less beancurd.

There was also a buffet spread of desserts - fresh fruit (rock melon, honeydew, watermelon, strawberries and a local crunchy fruit that's red on the outside and white on the inside I forgot the name!), chng tng, nyonya kueh, cakes.

Next to it was a small spread of appetisers like braised duck wings, japanese baby octopus, etc. And I ate a lot of braised duck tongues! It's like eating braised duck wings, but slightly chewier! Oooh. It's a delicacy in HK, I believe. Haha, I can see people out there shuddering. Well, all I can say is... sign me up for Fear Factor!

Marina Square Shopping Centre - Lego Shop

Walked around Marina Square a bit... DH was looking for a new carry-on luggage bag (he did succeed in getting one, but I won't tell you how it cost... but let me just share with you my shock and amazement that luggage can actually cost so much... I was half-expecting the bag to fold open into a small studio apartment or something, considering its price tag!)

We ended up on the Lego shop next to Traveller's Planet, where Cutie parked himself on the lego motorbike, and had a really good time.


I think we spent a good 15 minutes just waiting for Cutie to play and get tired of this.


Cutie: Vroom Vroom! I am speeding down the highway!


Cutie hugged the lego penguin before he left, saying: "Bye Bye Penguin!" Awww.






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know I know the fruit... It's called JAMBU!!!!!

And i think DN (dear nephew) is so sweet and cute... Think DM wishes he'll hug us more than those inanimate toys! :)

Chocolate Reindeer said...

DS: Ha Ha, well done! You're right, it IS jambu.

Yes your DN loves to hug his soft toys, the teddy bears on his seat belt, even pictures of animals in his books... goodness!