臘味飯同埋鮑魚晚餐

When V and I cleared her busy week and could take time out to eat instead of eating in front of the laptop or doing a quick one, we sat down for a leisurely dinner at Asia Grand Restaurant. Felt like some good old Asian soup and claypot rice. 

I didn't want to do a whole pot of soup tonight. No point when I needed stomach space for carbs. Took a bowl each. A papaya pork rib soup for me, and a chicken and fish stomach soup for V. Ahhhhhh, I love a good bowl of soup that I don't have to make any effort to boil it myself. Hahaha. 

Couldn't resist having an abalone. Hadn't had that done in this method for a bit. Abalones in Chinese restaurants are braised tender. I don't particularly care about that thick gravy (with corn starch), and always leave it. Sometimes I ask the servers to not drizzle it over the abalone. Regardless, it doesn't affect the enjoyment of my abalone; I'm not slurping the gravy. Tonight's abalone came with blanched asparagus at the side. Nice. I like different vegetables in a meal like this, instead of all garnished broccoli or nai bai. Ooof.

Well, I was totally here for the claypot rice. The restaurant insists on a minimum order of a portion for three pax, which is ~ $51. The price isn't the point. They use superbly preserved lupcheong, yuencheong and waxed meats. It also comes with nai bai. The point is how much rice there is. I'm reluctant to just waste it, so whenever I order claypot rice here, I'd simply tapau the rest of the rice home. I ate so much rice, OMG. Usually, a small bowl of steamed rice at these restaurants would suffice. Today, I refilled it twice — so three bowls of rice were inhaled. V also ate loads of carbs. Heh. 

We also had fish. It was a giant grouper (龍膽魚) that came in lovely thick slices and stir-fried with broccoli and mushrooms, which was served at the same time as the claypot rice. Always ask for the price of fish in an Asian restaurant, especially a Chinese restaurant. Hahaha. This was reasonable, at $56 a portion. I was too busy eating and didn't bother with photos of the fish. It was a generous portion; no way we could eat it all. We knew, and didn't pressure our stomachs to finish the food. Along with the fish and broccoli, we left a small portion of waxed meats and nai bai too. All these were packed home. V declined to take the food, so I did. Ooooof! They would do fine for a meal the next day.