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.