Three 90-g Beef Patties :: 挽肉と米

Hopped in for a late dinner at Hikiniku to Come (挽肉と米). I giggled at the name. It meant nothing very much in English, but it's a word play on the romanji. It's rather cute. At 8.15pm, we still had to wait about 20 minutes for a seat. The husband had no idea what this was about. He was absolutely keen on trying. It isn't common for him to be willing to wait an hour for a table.

It was a 'set menu' sort of thing. There's nothing to customize, and every diner gets the same thing. At S$25 per pax for what we get, it's a pretty good deal. You only need to choose a drink if you wish, and add on some side dishes. The restaurant offers chilled water at the side counter; we get a glass ourselves. 

Three cute and fat 90-gram hamburger steaks/patties filled me up nicely. These patties were grilled over charcoal in front of diners. As freshly cooked as can be. The marinade was delicious. There were plenty of condiments and ponzu, and grated daikon. The husband loved the patties. They were well grilled — just about well-done inside without being chewy. They were still tender and juicy. He liked the miso soup so much that he ordered another bowl, along with extra kimchi and potato salad (with minced meat).

They offer unlimited refills for rice, but a bowl is more than enough for me. It was good rice too. A bowl of rice seemed to be about 150g. I most certainly had no issues with tamago kake gohan, something that I eat often. Paired with beef, it was really a most satisfying meal.

To A Reformer Class with Choya!

I had a free afternoon, and at the last minute, I decided to pop in to a convenient group reformer class that was specially hosting floofs today too. They called it 'Pup-lates'. Heheheh. I certainly didn't mind having Choya along. 

This Smol Girl has been to plenty of gyrotonic and pilates classes with me, and she knows the machines, and what a reformer is. But I don't fully how she would do in a darkened studio (like a club), and other floofs. I assumed she would be just fine. And she was.

There was music too, erm, upbeat music. They turned down the volume for the floofs. I appreciated that. There's a reason why I do not do spin classes or like attending pilates classes like I'm clubbing. Choya was cool since the music wasn't anywhere as loud as her Daddy's smallest guitar amps. 

Choya was the goodest girl. She's completely savvy lah. When we entered the studio, she did her usual — she trotted around, deigned to sniff at other floofs a little, watched where I went (the reformer designated for me), and picked her spot by my side. I didn't even have to move her. She chose the perfect place on the mat, away from the next reformer. 

There were seven other floofs in class. The organizers spaced us out nicely. The other owners controlled their floofs fine too. The class was surprisingly okay — the flow was fine, the level of difficulty was acceptable. I wanted tougher classes of course, but in a group setting... whatever... ... I can always adapt or make it harder for myself. LOL. The instructor was very practiced, and her cues were pretty decent. 

With Choya chilling, and all other floofs understood her cues to be left alone, I didn't have to keep more than an eye on the Smol Girl. I got in a fair workout, especially with 12 press-ups, and then more press-ups on the carriage while out in a plank. No sweat. There were lunges too. Deep lunges always get the glutes hurting; I oddly never cheat on lunges and splits. Hurhurhur. 

A Very Greasy Zi Char Dinner!

I rarely do full zi char or seafood meals. They tend to induce really bad IBD flares; either from the allergies or from the sheer amount of grease in the food, even for plain vegetables. Once in a while, I can have a little bowl if there's a full table to share these dishes with.

That night, we bravely went to a collaboration dinner: Origin Grill X Keng Eng Kee Seafood (or KEK Seafood for short). For two nights, the dinner menu at Origin Grill at Shangri-la Hotel only held KEK Seafood's menu. They printed menus, wall stickers and little fans. It was a cute set-up. I like it that Origin Grill tries to keep things interesting by doing plenty of collab dinners this way. 

We've never eaten at KEK Seafood; we don't know what it's famous for or if it's popular or stuff. I only know it's a family-run restaurant, and they work pretty hard to draw the crowds. I might as well stop by tonight to taste its food rather than going to its actual restaurants because I wouldn't have stomach space if it's just two or three people, and it's tough to gather a table of 8-10 to share the fats. 

Tonight, we took the S$118++ per pax 'degustation menu' so that we could sample a little of everything. Chef Wayne Liew and his father Paul Liew were there, checking on diners and the kitchen. I don't know them, and I'm not interested in schmoozing. I just wanted to eat my food and leave. LOL

The food was typical Singaporean zi char, except tonight it was at Origin Grill at Shangri-la Hotel, so we got better service, cutlery and really decent alcohol. The rye bread and awesome butter that came at the start of the meal was lovely. I ate a little more bread, thinking that it would help soak up the incoming oily dishes. 

The appetizers were a hit and a miss. Two items were really quite delicious, like the coffee pork ribs and cereal prawns. The fried prawn rolls were average at best, and the sauce was equally iffy. The smashed spicy cucumbers with Sichuan peppers turned out bitter and simply gross.

The mains arrived together. There was a total carb and oil bomb in the form of 'moonlight hor fun' (月光河粉), with Miyazaki A5 wagyu striploin that melted into plate once stirred in. There were lupcheong and yuncheong too. Gawwwd, it was tasty and it was also utterly greasy af. It was impossible to eat more than five mouthfuls of it. I wouldn't know if the kitchen held back on the oil tonight, or it went full-on. If it did, then I dare not imagine how much more oily these dishes would be at the KEK restaurants.

The Boston lobster in black pepper sauce was underwhelming. Except that I do not like black pepper anything. I would really rather have my lobster in garlic, or just butter. I guess this is KEK's thing. They wouldn't do it as 'chilli lobster' at this dinner in order to cater for the diners who don't take too spicy stuff. I suppose they do crabs in the same manner. The fish dish was surprisingly good — Aquna Murray cod in KEK's version of fish head curry sauce with fried beancurd skin. At the end of dinner, all I can say is, each time I eat these dishes, I'm reminded that this isn't my kind of food. :P 

I skipped the dessert. I simply couldn't stomach anything else. Sugar and more carbs on top of grease would kill me. It wasn't my kind of dessert either. The man was keen to have a spoonful. Dessert came in the form of rainbow bread and sweet corn ice-cream. I have no words to describe sweet corn in the form of ice-cream.