Beast & Butterflies Lunch

This restaurant was opened recently in Robertson Quay area. We had lunch there not too long ago and had this Crispy noodles with lobster and sambal gravy. Despite its name, it was very mild in terms of spiciness. In my definition, sambal should be at least a little spicy.

We also tried their Duck crispies or basically wonton with duck fillings.

For dessert, we had their Extravaganza, which consisted of their four desserts, all were in their normal size. So, I say, they were too big and too much for the two of us. The yam brulee was our favorite followed by the mango and sticky rice.

Yank Sing Stevenson, Dim Sum - San Francisco

Sunday morning in San Francisco. It rained and rained so much. I was under the weather, my nose was stuffy and I was not feeling well in general. It was our last full day in the city before flying back the next day. It's time for dim sum and DH chose Yank Sing Stevenson. 

We had reservation so we got a table immediately upon arriving. Somehow, I did not find the table pleasant, the table is small, the space was tiny. We had bags, wet umbrellas and thick jackets and there's no place to put them. I kept on reminding DH not to get too much food because we did not have space on the table. We needed to finish before we getting more. 

Sadly, what I imagine to have, i.e. rice porridge, was not on their menu. I had to settle with other dim sum items. So here we went with lots of them, including the glorious xiao long bao.

Hairy Crab Business, Wang Bao He

If you go to Shanghai when the season of hairy crab is on, it's like an obligation to have them at least once. People seemed to ask and tell us to go and eat them. It is the perfect place to have them, surely. Of course, you can get them elsewhere in other countries, but the experience probably would not be the same. I know some restaurants here in Singapore, sell them for $40 per piece, not a big one. They are rather small and it's a tad challenging to eat actually, at least for us.

While some people would be super excited to experience the delicacy, both DH and I were on "limited" excitement. First of all, we stayed in Pudong while the restaurant is in Puxi. It's a bit of distance. A friend had managed to book us a table at the very last minute and it was for dinner. I am famous for not liking to go out in the dark and most of the time, we do not take big dinner. We tend to take smaller dinner these days.

But, --. People had been so nice to us and we were in Shanghai for Pete's sake. Just go. So off we went to a restaurant called Wang Bao He, a restaurant that is well known in specializing in crab dishes. Probably all dishes there have crabs in them, except for their desserts and drinks. 

In the end, we were not particularly impressed about the crabs and the dishes we had.  We are glad to have gone and sampled such a popular kind of crab in Shanghai and tasted the dishes (see below) in this well known restaurant, but I don't think this is a restaurant that we'd like to return to. 

PS Cafe Petit Dinner

This was about three weeks ago, before Miss K returned to Berkeley. Summer holiday went by so fast and it's time for her to go back to California before classes start. She needed to move in to her new apartment and get everything she could use. It was a very busy Summer for her. 

PS Cafe is located very close to our place and they have reasonably good food. Just the three of us. DH's pick is never far from pasta and seafood, and if a restaurant have both of them one dish, he would select it. It's way too easy to guess. His dish is called Shrimp, Crab and Crumb. It is spicy spaghettini with sugar snaps, spinach, crab meat, shrimp and garlic crumbs. The size suits well for people with big appetite. I had a little bit of it and I thought it was a good one.

Miss K chose Panini Slim, called Truffle Cheese Mushroom. The name is very descriptive of what's inside the grilled sandwich.

Finally for me, I had Vegetarian Moussaka. I tend to try something new or something that I rarely or do not make at all at home. This dish seems to have good reviews online and I was curious to try. I actually am not a fan of pumpkin and pumpkin is one of the ingredients listed, aside from capsicum, celeriac, spinach, mozzarella and smokey tomato jam. Looking at the items that make the dish, I should have known that it is on the sweet side, which doe not suit my preference too well. The size was a bit too big for me as well. 

Sedap Malam, Jakarta

We were in Jakarta at the end of May, surely we got plenty of time to eat here and there. Our first stop for lunch was a place called Sedap Malam.

There was four of us and we ordered quite a bit. We had nearly all types of seafood, fish, squid, crabs, prawns and of course, a plate of vegetable. Fried, grilled, sauteed and whatever. Coconut drink was a must too.  They may not be the best or well prepared but they were tasty, spicy and yummy. 

Plane Food - Singapore To Tokyo

Thanks to my new Leica and flying during day time, I managed to get some decent pictures of the food that I picked (was served) during the recent flight to Tokyo.  I chose to have Char Siew Rice for my Entree, as it sounded so good and simple on paper. Too bad, it actually was not up to my expectation. I, however, love the crab salad starter and cheese and crackers. And dessert too, which was macadamia ice cream.

Lunch At Wan Hao

We had lunch at Wan Hao for the first time just yesterday. The waiter showed us their special set menu that they were having and it seemed a nice set so we decided to have it.  It started nicely with the combination platter appetizer, which we (DH and I) both enjoyed.

The second course consommé with scallop, egg white and black truffle. DH thought it was good, but I did not like it that much.

Next was steamed fish and more consommé, which I enjoy better than the second one. Next came crab fried rice, plainly presented and was lacking of flavor.

Dessert was lemongrass jelly with lemon sherbet and chopped strawberries and mango. It was just ordinary, but the sherbet was rather nice. 

Overall, this would not be something I'd like to repeat. 

R & G Lounge, San Francisco

DH had this place recommended to him a friend in Jakarta, who frequents this place when he is in town.  We went there a couple of times, the first of which was just DH and I, while the second was with three other hungry mouths.  The restaurant was always full with lots of people wait for the table as well. Busy, busy place indeed. Nothing fancy, no superb fine dining service, but the food is enjoyable. And that what matters.

The above is their famous crab that we had when the five of us had dinner over there.  We also had This is place to go to when we are in San Francisco. 

The dish above is R&G Special Beef (Secret Recipe) that tasted quite delicious.