Had Lunch today at Pete's Place with Chin. We both went for the buffet lunch, which was a mistake. The chefs kept returning the pasta dishes onto the stove to keep them warm. Naturally, the pasta turning soft and soggy, not al dente which is the right way to serve pasta. I normally have quite good experiences here. I like their seasonal lobster bisque and desserts. But today's lunch was disappointing.

Had dinner tonight at Korean Restaurant (277 Orchard Road, #05-35 Specialist Centre, Singapore 238858). I never had authentic Korean food before, so I don't have a basis for comparison. But what I had at Korean Restaurant I didn't like. The food was terrible. We wanted to order the raw fish but was told they don't have it. This is a sign that things weren't good -- this shows that demand for raw fish is so low that they were afraid to be carrying inventories because raw fish must be served with the freshest possible fish. So instead we ordered pork ribs and squid for BBQ, prawn cakes, and claypot sea cucumber. The pork ribs and squid BBQ was ordinary, not much better than the mass market Seoul Garden restaurants. The prawn cakes had a funny smell, and the sea cucumber had a funny taste and a little sour. I didn't enjoy the meal at all!

Had dinner tonight at Beng Hiang Restaurant (112-116 Amoy Street, Singapore 069932). Beng Hiang has a long history (established in 1978) and specializes in Hokkien cuisine. They do a number of dishes very well: braised pork with steamed buns, prawn rolls, stir fried spinach, Hokkien noodles, and yam paste. The service, however, leaves much to be desired. The waitresses are not attentive and slow. If you are looking for just good food, without bells and whistles, this is one choice.

Had buffet dinner at The Orchard Cafe, Orchard Hotel last night. The spread was international. I like the cold crabs, which were very fresh, sweet, and rather big compared to those you usually find on buffet tables. They also served live drunken prawns.

Had lunch with Chin at Big O Cafe (501 Orchard Road, Wheelock Place, #02-04/05) today. This is a sister establishment of NYDC. The place was chic-ly decorated with wood and glass, and felt spacious. We ordered the Citibank promotional 1-for-1 set lunch at $25, which came with chicken pesto soup, linguine carbonara, ice cream cake and soft drink. The soup was quite nice, but the linguine was a little over done.

Just got back from Jakarta. It was an interesting trip to say the least. Jakarta's business vibrance surprised me. There is enough upper class to support the economy. The problem is that Indonesia lacks a middle class. People are either upper class or else fall into poverty. So while the economy is rather resilient, social problems remain. But I think Indonesia has lots of potential. People are willing to work. People are willing to embrace technology.

Had dim sum lunch at Ah Yat Abalone Forum Restaurant, Dusit Mangga Dua, Jakarta today. The dim sum here is much better than my experience in Lotus Cantonese Szechuan Restaurant at Hilton Hotel. Just like you can tell the quality of a sushi restaurant by sampling their tamago sushi, you can almost always tell how good a restaurant is in their dim sum by just tasting their har kow (steamed prawn dumpling). The har kow at Ah Yat is delicious, with thin translucent skin and packed with big prawns -- much much better than the miserably small and thick-skinned har kow of Lotus. The rest of their dim sum did not disappoint. The chives and prawn dumpling is also very good. It is no wonder that the place was full.

Had lunch at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao Restaurant in Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta yesterday. This is considered a 5-star restaurant in Jakarta, a contrast from the mass-market Crystal Jade restaurants in Singapore. It is a pricey restaurant by Jakarta standard but it is still fully packed for lunch and dinner everyday! I especially like the crispy eel wuxi style and live prawns baked with salted egg yokes. The live prawns cost 40,000Rp for 100g! Very expensive!

Had supper at The Cafe, Hotel Mulia Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia last night. I ordered a lobster bisque and croque monsieur. The lobster bisque, at 32,000Rp was very good and value for money, with chunks of lobster meat! The croque monsieur was disappointing, worse than a badly done grilled ham and cheese -- the cheese wasn't even melted!

Hardy from Indoartha brought me to Jamz Jazz Club, Aston Hotel, Jakarta on Monday night for some jazz music. This club is really a 3-in-one:

1) A music lounge called "New Orleans" playing jazz and blues.
2) A pub called "Top 40" playing all the hits.
3) A discotheque which I don't know the name because we never go there.

We spent most of our time in New Orleans. The music was good and so was the drink -- Hardy ordered me a Cendana, a medley of 24 different liquors! That single drink lasted me the whole night.

Had dinner at Tamani Kafe (along Pintu Besar Selatan, Jakarta) last night. This air-conditioned restaurant serves both western and local food. The nasi goreng and spaghetti are supposedly quite good. I had honey fried chicken, which is deep fried chicken tossed in honey. The taste is OK but the portion is a little small.

Had lunch at Pondok Djaja (along Hayam Wuruk, Jakarta) yesterday. This is a small eatery serving nasi padang. It is a favourite with many locals but I don't find the food particularly nice, except for the fried chicken, which is skinless and tasty.

C's is a new steak and seafood restaurant in Grand Hyatt, Jakarta. The design is chic with an open kitchen concept. I had dinner there last week where I ordered a grilled live garoupa at 170,000Rp. The experience would have been rather nice except for two incidents:

1) I asked them to filet the fish and make sure there're no bones but I still find bones in the fish when they served it to me.

2) After the chef removed my fish from the grill and put it aside, he entirely forgot about the fish and went to do something else. As a result, the fish had become cold when he realized he had forgotten. He threw the fish back on the grill to warm it up, which resulted in the fish becoming a little over-cooked.

Had dinner at Sumire, Grand Hyatt, Jakarta with a colleague last week. I ordered the sukiyaki at 120,000Rp which came with generous portions of vegetables and beef. It was nice at the beginning but the sauce became too salty and sweet at the end. I had a sore throat from that meal!

Had lunch at Kashi-no Ippachi (Wisma BNI, 46 Kota BNI 2nd Floor, Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 1. Jakarta, Indonesia) with Hardy and Harianto. I ordered the sashimi set lunch at 68,000Rp, which came with tuna, yellowtail squid sashimi, grilled salmon, miso soup and a bowl of rice. The sashimi was very fresh and the price is cheap by Singapore standard.