Changi Airport Run

I never knew there was a Paradise Inn outlet hidden on the second floor of Changi Airport's Terminal 1. I was about to say I hadn't been at any of the Paradise Group outlets for a long while till I remembered I was just at their outlet at the Flyer in June.

A casual outlet, order forms are left on the table for diners to fill in before calling for the waitstaff. That wouldn't have been a point to note except we attempted to place our orders directly with the waitstaff. :p

And when they do come to repeat your orders before sending it into the kitchen, I was duly impressed with her memory of the items if only just by the 3 digit numbers that we wrote on the order form.

I'm no Cantonese but I love soup. Double boiled soup especially. pork rib with old yellow melon. Direct translations. That's double boiled pork rib with yellow melon soup. 

It's the first time I'm eating up all my soft bones full of collagen. :) *slurps.

Three egg spinach braised in superior stock. I could totally be cooking up the descriptions. That's century, salted and regular egg for you cooked with minced meat and spinach in a slurpingly delicious soup.

Carbo staples?

Just for the two girls, you gave up your selfish choice of a la mian.

Sorry!

And decided on seafood braised rice noodles.

Lacking in that umami flavour.

Braising has to be done with those canned pig trotters I swear.

And yay!

Venison.

I used to balk at the thought of eating deer.

Doesn't the image of Bambi with its pretty white striped head and spots make it pure cruelty to ingest?

But of course, with a taste reminiscent of beef, similar in protein but lower on all counts for calories, cholestrol and fat as compared to beef, lamb or pork... 

I'd choose venison anyday.

Love you tender. :)

And just for a coffee break.

We headed to Ritazza on the first floor of arrivals. It's behind Ru Yi and next to Watsons.

This latte was 95% steamed milk I kid you not.

But it was enough to keep us awake for awhile.

It's been awhile.

:)

killiney's early morning breakfast @ changi airport T3

breakfast before 8am at the airport.

tcc or killiney?

he chose killiney.

12 years my senior.

every bit the family we never really were.

it's been awhile since i missed you this new year's at grandma's.

catching up at a time and place that couldn't be more perfect.

in the east.

early morning so that ah kim could sleep in.

and sharing of a new addition to the family by years' end. :)

the horfun was mediocre.

plain boiled flat rice noodles.

covered with a sauce that had bare whiffs of a savoury seasoning.

the chicken slices were adequate

and the chilli was a lifesaver.

no dishsaver.

thanks for the time.

and the ride home. :)

much love to the wifey and baby boy! <3

Changi T3 on a Saturday night

This Merlion. No matter how strange looking has become a familiar national icon.

A lion head with a mermaid's tale. The romantic interpretation of Singapura.

Now dressed in a coat of green, dotted with brilliant burst of colours from the flowers.

This must take a lot of daily work from the landscapers. Literally to cut it down to size, and

to keep it in shape eh. :)

I would've never imagined the queues at the dining outlets in Changi T3 on a Saturday night but well, I saw it for myself. And no way were we waiting. Well, I would. But with 70 year old senior citizens (who are pretty fit still!), a son with a flight to catch, we eventually settled for a restaurant with almost full capacity but no queues.

Thai Express it would have to be.

They are running these promotions on new items that I haven't yet seen before.

Curry with Thai style pancake *ahem prata that's supposed to be award-winning and

these sets that were pretty value for money.

Dad surprised me with a choice of softshell crab rice with egg and green curry sauce. The softshell crab was fried well with enough crisp batter and not burnt to a crisp. The sauce was good. Green curry mixed with egg made for a thick gravy that went well with rice. This would be on my list of to-order mains next time.

 Mum made an order for a green curry fried rice set that came with a small serving of vermicelli clear soup and a pulut hitam. For $12.90. She was too far away for me to take a peekture of the food. The rice was a little oily but definitely green and yums. :)

I wanted something soupy for my tummy and this looked just like it did in the menu.

Essentially just bean vermicelli mixed in with seafood and vegetables to be cooked in broth.

This would've been fun if it came in an individual hotpot for me to cook my own noodles.

But I suppose there's nothing quite -express- about it.

Spicy. Sweet. They could've been more generous with the serving of soup.

But this was comfort enough.

Before I blew up from the indignance of being patronized. Our orders for a char kway teow for the one person catching a flight was not served up till he eventually left for his flight without dinner. Now this was. not. what I had expected. It would've been manageable had we been informed that the dish would take a while to arrive. But honestly? A lag time between the first dish and the last dish was at least 25 minutes. Tardiness at an express restaurant.

Food for thought.

Aside from that major misdemeanor, the food that was actually served was pretty good. Better than some other outlets I've been to. :)

kopi @ changi terminal 3

In order of taste from left to right: Qiu Lian Braised pork dry ban mian (卤肉干捞面), Mini wok's pork in herbal broth- Set A3, Jin Yu fish soup

Sending Josh for his 3 week Brunei training so we did a late dinner at the airport. Everyone's ordered a soup item :)

Qiu Lian's latest offering was marred only by the braised pork. Fatty cuts of meat and yet they were still not braised for long enough to melt in one's mouth. It wasn't hard separating the fat from the meat since neither was tender. Is this the way braised pork china-style should be? That aside, the noodles were al dente as if eating chinese style fettucine. :) And the braising sauce was a crowning delight.

Mini wok's herbal soup broth was surprisingly tasty and the set comes with a selection of vegetables, some tunghoon, pork slices, sliced mushroom, crabstick and fishmeat items. We liked it that the soup was kept bubbling throughout and was still hot by the end of the meal. 

Jin Yu's fish soup was... to be subjective, the ample slices of fish meat were fresh but the soup, even with the addition of carnation milk was not saved. It lacked flavour. A terribly watered down version.

Fats is fatty no more, digger has no special interest in diggers anymore but pet names they are and pet names they'll stay. If only for me. And even though we fight, we quarrel, we yell and sometimes we absolutely hate each other's guts,

these are my sibs and I'm happy I've got them. :)

Have a safe trip fats and we'll have abalone miso hotpot when you get home!

langkawi

just got in from a break. :)