We love Peking duck, but of course, it’s not always easy to ‘catch’ the vague signal to the Pony’s likings. He responded to most questions with ‘it’s ok’, ‘it’s alright’, ‘it’s fine’. You can’t really tell if he actually meant, ‘I LOVE it!!’.
For his last birthday, we had Peking duck and dim sum at Cherry Garden, Oriental Hotel. We went there because Crystal Jade restaurant that cooks my other favorite dish – mixed grains fried rice – was too packed. I had thought that the Pony brought us to Cherry Garden because I love Peking duck, and that’s one of the places he knew served good peking duck and dim sum.
Now, he never expressed that he loves the dish too. He merely said, ‘I’m ok with it’. It didn’t sound very enthusiastic, did it?
Anyway, long story short. I love Peking duck. I wanted to have Peking duck on my birthday. I saw Groupon’s promotion for one whole Peking duck for S$39 the day before my birthday. I grabbed. Mandarin Court (the merchant for this promotion) couldn’t allow me to reserve the table on my birthday. We decided to have the duck on the Pony’s birthday instead (our birthdays are 2 weeks’ apart). After many times of asking, I conclude that the Pony LOVES the Peking duck too.
So, we got up as early and as late yesterday. I spent the morning working on the Pattern Launch Promotion for my eShop. Sent out the newsletter, announced on facebook page. Showered and got ready to go out.
When I hopped into our car (yes, the universal wives’ theory stands – his car is my car, my car.. oh well, I don’t have a car, so his car is my car, period.) My eyes widened! ‘Mini television!!!!’ (the mini telly is not new to the car, just to me. I don’t think I have taken the passenger’s seat in our car for more than 30 times!) The Pony rolled his eyes and ignored me. ‘What is that!!! what is that!!!!’ Dug into my seemingly bottomless bag, I fished out the camera!
The naughty Pony refused to stop for me to take photo, hence the shaky blurry image. Just so you know, the mini telly didn’t show very interesting show, and it is highly needy. It auto-shuts off when no one plays with it. Poor attitude, I say.
We went to the Imperial Treasures at Great World City. The boy loves the dim sum. I didn’t bring my camera as I suspected that we were most likely to order the same dishes.
It turned out that we ordered most of the dishes we had on my birthday. The Pony ordered duck noodles in place of the porridge. A mini drama episode of ‘striked off order still served’ acted out, and the waitresses showed distress and panic. We, carried on eating. The Captain arrived, but without apology, ‘approved’ for the waitress to return the wrong dish back to kitchen.
I am always impressed with the Pony’s people’s skills. He is an exceptionally sweet and funny guy if you don’t try to climb on his head. He hates that. Otherwise, he is usually super friendly and warm.
One of the reasons why I didn’t want to celebrate his birthday on his actual day was that we planned to do shoes hunting for him. I would avoid Orchard on weekend at all costs. The Pony is always obliging to me. 
Moreover, I think since he and I become ‘us’, he enjoys restful weekends at home too. I managed to convince him that shopping during weekend is a waste of time (waiting to be served and queuing to pay), and waste of effort (elbowing your way out of the crazy crowd!). There you have it, therefore, we celebrate his birthday in advance.
After lunch, the Pony suggested to ‘window shop’ for IT products. Puzzling and suspicious. See, I am objective-driven, my goal was set to shop for shoes which was long overdue.
Anyway, he recycled my power phrase of ‘I am birthday boy (girl)’. Goody, never teach a Pony tricks, he will turn around and kick you so silly, you don’t even know what happened!
We headed to Funan, the DigitalLife Mall. We were supposed to window shop, which I am never good at. I buy things, I don’t window shop. After wowing over some products, we bagged a few.
I desperately needed a ‘back’ break. My back is incapable of handling prolonged standing, walking, or sitting in same position. We had coffee at Coffee Club, and I stole the Pony’s small cookie that came with his hot latte. Why are we not given cookie when we ordered iced latter?
The roadshow at the ground level was scanty in crowd. Can’t say that the staff is trained in product knowledge. I was interested in a laser gaming mouse and the staff had to consult two bosses and still couldn’t provide firm reply if the mouse is supported by Mac OS. The reply was that the mouse is a gaming mouse, and most gamers use Windows. Seriously!!! (o_o) Thanks for trying anyway. We decided not to buy because I prefer to have extra configurable buttons which are extremely useful for Expose on Mac.
At around 4:30pm, we left for Orchard. The offiical shoes-hunting took off!
From Takashimaya, to Wisma Atria – where we managed to buy a pair of casual shoes from a boutique, to Tangs.
When at Tangs, we headed to the MAC counter to get me the compressed poweder. The music was playing so loud, I could hardly hear anything that the cashier was trying to tell me. I managed to catch snippets of ‘free’, ‘members’, ‘accumulate’. I smiled, said no, thank you to what I guess was an invitation to join their free membership by accumulating receipts.
Loved Tangs, love Tangs, and hope to continue to love Tangs as long as they keep the excellent service! Always one of my favorite places to shop with! The sales staff are so well-trained and customer oriented, you would feel bad not to buy anything.
While waiting for the sales staff to bring Mike the shoes to try on, I spotted a pair of shoes that look like my baby booties design!
Me: Can I take photos?
Pony: No one’s looking, take now, quick quick!!
I spotted a nice belt from UrbanStranger, and ‘forced’ the Pony to pick out one to replace his old belt from Paul Smith. It’s quite affordable, so I gladly paid for the belt as birthday present. I am a very poor person, made poorer by iPad purchase, and business expansion which requires larger inventory.
The sales person of this brand was exceptional. She was friendly, and helpful. As usual, the Pony charmed the lady with his humor. The lady said, ‘I see he always make you laugh and happy.’ Alright, it’s not a good idea to praise the Pony, he will become self-conceited; but there is some truth in that statement.
Our dinner reservation at Mandarin Court was made at 6:30pm. The lifts sure looked confusing to us, with Orchard Wing, and don’t know what other wings, we took the wrong lift, went to wrong place, and finally found the right one to bring us up to Level 35, where the restaurant is located.
I absolutely love beautiful lighting. It makes everything nicer.
We were among the earliest patrons.
More nice lighting.
We were given a table with window view. As you can see, we were facing… Oh well, just Orchard, maybe… Skyscrapers look identical to me. The tiny and short white building could be the Supreme Court, I think. (Disclaimer: Don’t take my words for it, it’s not my fault if you ended up somewhere completely different from what I thought it was)
While waiting for our Peking duck, we were served with steamed peanuts.
Just the night before, I was telling Mike one of my fondest childhood memories. Most of my fondest memories as a child were created at my favorite grandpa’s. With him, it was non-judgmental, no expectation, protection, and just unconditional love. There was this hawker – possibly illegal back then – who stopped by the roadside and sold steamed peanuts (with shells). My grandpa would always bring me downstairs and buy a pack of steamed peanuts for each of us. With the steaming hot peanuts, we sat by the stairways and ate away.
While eating and reminiscing the good old memories, I could almost tell that the ‘star shaped’ herb (I don’t know what they are really called) was used in steaming these peanuts.
Then, the star dish arrived! When asked if we preferred to wrap the Peking duck ourselves – by the way, it’s really just crispy roasted duck skin with a very thin slice of meat under the skin, not a whole duck – or to have the server helped wrap them, Mike was quick to reply. I guess that was a better idea, to have the duck readily wrapped.
In order not to keep us waiting, we were each served with two pieces of wrapped Peking duck, while the waitress returned to the working counter to continue wrapping the rest of the duck.
Wrapped under the sheet, is a slice of the duck skin, a small stick of cucumber, a short part of spring onion, and spread with special sauce (sweet).
Taste? Heavenly!
One of the blessings in a marriage/relationship is to find a partner who shares similar food preferences. It has always been challenging to find a man who loves vegetables. I love veggies, and I would choose veggies over meat. Mike loves veggies too, so we always have veggies in our meals.
We ordered stir fried asparagus with mushroom. Can’t pick on this dish too, it is exceedingly delicious! I tasted a tinge of rice wine, and XO sauce. The mushroom is so irresistibly smooth and soft.
With an additional S$15, we could have the duck’s meat cook in another variation.
By the time the asparagus was served, we were stuffing a lot of wrapped Peking duck down the stomachs already. I looked up when the duck’s meat was served, and involuntarily exclaimed, ‘Oh My God!!!!’. It was giant portion!
We had the staff packed the meat. We knew we couldn’t possibly finish that, and I preferred to have the food packed right away, instead of catching whatever that was in the air by the time we finished our meal.
Mum finished the whole duck, minus the skin, of course. She loved the duck. The duck meat was cooked with thin slices of ginger, generous spread of spring onions, and very special sauce, as the mum said.
We were so full, and I couldn’t finish the last piece of wrapped Peking duck. Overall, we had ordered 3 dishes, all 3 dishes were exceptionally delicious. I would definitely recommend this restaurant for the good food and great service.
After dinner, we went back to Takashimaya, men’s shoes department. The Pony liked a pair of Dr. Marten’s shoes, a lot. After some contemplations, we decided that he should just get another casual shoes. The first pair that he really liked, I called it ‘Frankenstein’, because of the unique ‘patch-work’ stitches.
Unfortunately, that design is sold out for Mike’s size. The promoter was eager to ‘abandon’ us, I guess we didn’t look like we could afford the shoes. When asked to check on the size for another design, she told us curtly, ‘it doesn’t come in that size.’. When rebutted that we had tried on that size at Tangs, she appeared offended and dumped us as soon as she finished saying, ‘Takashimaya NEVER brings in that size’.
The formal work shoes-hunting adventure continues…
Overall, it was a wonderful day out, with a huge pack of guilt on my part. The problem with not having a full length mirror is that when you ‘finally’ get to see your inflated body – apparently not overnight, but definitely feels like it – in the huge full length mirror in the washroom in the mall, you could hardly believe it’s the same person staring back!
Reference:
MANDARIN COURT CHINESE RESTAURANT
333 Orchard Road
Level 35, Orchard Wing
Singapore 238867
Operating Hours
Lunch
Monday to Friday
12.00pm to 2.30pm
Dim Sum Brunch
Saturday, Sunday & public holiday
11.00am to 2.30pm
Dinner
Monday to Sunday
6.30pm to 10.30pm
Dining Reservations: 6831 6288/62
Email: dine.orchard@meritushotels.com
