June 21, 2004
Mei Jiang, The Peninsula Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
The Verandah, The Oriental, Bangkok, Thailand
I always make it a point to have lunch at The Verandah (48 Oriental Avenue, Bangkok, 10500, Thailand) when I'm in Bangkok, whenever possible. The Verandah is decorated in a colonial style with rattan furnishings. It is not overly opulent but the ambience, together with the view of Chao Phraya River and its boats, exudes a charm of the past. My usual fare there is chicken green curry with rice vermicelli. The service is the legendary standard of The Oriental.
The Chinese Restaurant, Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok, Thailand
Had lunch with family at The Chinese Restaurant (Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok Hotel, 494 Rajadamri Road, Bangkok, Thailand). The setting reminds me of Jiang Nan Chun at the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore -- sleek and cool! We had dim sum for lunch, all of which turned out to be quite good. The crab fried rice is also quite nice. However, we were in a rush that day, so didn't take more time to savour the ambience and the food.
Mocha and Muffins, Four Seasons Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
Mocha and Muffins (Parichart Court, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok, 155 Rajadamri Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand) is a nice quiet cafe nested within the lush courtyard of the Four Seasons Hote in Bangkok. Enjoy newspapers or a book with coffee and great cakes in a laid-back manner to pass a lazy Saturday afternoon at this cafe!
Chao Suki Restaurant, Bangkok, Thailand
Chao Suki Restaurant (47 Rachadapisek Road, Huay Kwang, Dindaeng, Bangkok, Thailand) is a kao tom (Teochew porridge) buffet restaurant. The restraurant is located at the Chaophya Park Hotel compound. I found the spread good, but lacking in quality. The dishes were not tasty. A lot of locals told me the food is good. Perhaps it is more suited for local palate.
Mori Grill, Chaophya Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
Had lunch at Mori Grill (247 Ratchadapisek Road, Bangkok, Thailand). Mori Grill is a Japanese restaurant at the Chaophya Park Hotel. The lunch buffet is rather good in spread. There's tempura, sushi, sashimi, stewed dishes (oden), deep-fried chicken, soba, soup, fruits, and cakes. Staff is also courteous and efficient.
Chaophya Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
Chaophya Park Hotel (247 Rachadapisek Road, Huay Kwang, Bangkok 10320, Thailand) is a nice four-star hotel that is comparable to a five-star hotel in terms of room appointments and amenities. However, it is also priced closer to the five-star category than the four-star category of hotels. It's location is also not that great, being quite far from the central business district and shopping districts. They have quite a good spa (Bali Spa) and a descent Japanese restaurant (Mori Grill), but avoid Chao Suki Restaurant serving kao tom (Teochew porridge) buffet though.
D' Ma Pavilion Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
Asia Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
Stayed at Asia Hotel (296 Phayathai Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand) on one of my trips to Bangkok. This is a tourist class hotel with very good access to the shopping districts of Ma Boon Krong, Siam Square, World Trade Centre, and Prathunam. Moreover, the Skytrain is right at the footsteps of the hotel. Rooms are simply appointed but comfortable.
The hotel lounge serves good and inexpensive apple strudel.
June 20, 2004
Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar, Singapore
I revisted Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar (8 Raffles Avenue, #01-06/08 Esplanade Mall, Singapore) with my family this afternoon. And what a disappointment it was this time!
First, the menu is badly presented. Some of the menus had prices missing! And beware, not everything on the menu is available! We were told one of the items we ordered is available only for breakfast even though it was not stated anywhere in the menu that it was so. The souffle we wanted is also not available.
Second, the staff is unprofessional. We were told that the souffle was unavailable because it had to be imported. Imported souffle?!?! Give me a break! Do they even know what a souffle is? How can a souffle be imported? It is supposed to be prepared fresh! Or are they referring to the ingredients? Which of the ingredients need to be imported? The eggs? The chicken laying the eggs? Ridiculous!
Service is also inattentive. They actually missed preparing one of our items and had to be reminded when they send us the bill. Even topping up our drinking water requires reminder.
It is no wonder that the place is rather quiet nowadays. If the management doesn't do some serious improvements, it will be in trouble.
I would put this place in the "give it a miss" category.
The review for my earlier visit can be found here.
Postscript: Nadia has ran a blog on what she thinks are the worst restaurants in Singapore in terms of food and/or service. Do check out her site.
Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant, Singapore
Had dinner with family at Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant (273 Thomson Road, #01-06 Novena Garden, Singapore) yesterday night. YM recommended me this restaurant recently. The place was quite full when we arrived at 7:45pm. Reservation is strongly recommended if you don't want to end up with a 1/2-hour wait. We had the melon and seafood soup, wasabi prawns, roast goose, baked spare ribs, deep-fried scallops and seaweed, and crab fried rice.
The melon and seafood soup is tasty, although what was stated as melon in the menu is actually old yellow cucumber. The soup is double-boiled in the hollowed-out cucumber. The wasabi prawns are deep-fried and bathed in a wasabi-mayonnaise sauce. It is crispy and refreshing. The roast goose, which the restaurant claims to be its signature dish, is on the disappointing side. Although the skin of the roast goose is crispy, the meat is dry. The baked spare ribs also turned out to be too fatty. The scallops are also disappointing. I had expected whole scallops, but they turned out to be minced and reformed beyond recognition and taste. I couldn't tell if they were scallops or prawns. The crab fried rice is also average.
Service is quite good considering the number of tables the waiters and waitresses have to serve. There's also no corkage charge for bringing your own wine.
June 16, 2004
Al Forno, Singapore
Had dinner with family at Al Forno (400 East Coast Road, Singapore 428996) some three weeks back. Al Forno is an Italian restaurant. On the day that we went, there were people queuing up outside the restaurant even before it opened at 6:30pm! This is beyond my comprehension since I didn't find the food that great.
We had steamed clams with white wine, seafood spaghetti, seafood risotto, baked fish, and pizza. The steamed claims was the best among all. My pizza is average and pales in comparison to what I had at OGGI.
The quality of service is dependent very much on the particular waitperson serving you. It ranged from rude to friendly. The kitchen is rather inefficient. We had to wait for nearly an hour before being served our appetizer of steamed clam. And you would have guessed that pizza is one of the fastest items to be served. But not in my case. My pizza came last! This place is also very noisy.
June 15, 2004
Fine Intersection of Steiner Triple Systems II
With regards to the fine intersection problem for Steiner triple systems, I can now prove that |I(v)| = Θ(v³).
June 13, 2004
Fine Intersection of Steiner Triple Systems
The intersection of two Steiner triple systems (X, A) and (X, B) is the set A∩B. The fine intersection problem for Steiner triple systems asks to determine for each v, the set I(v), consisting of all possible pairs (m, n) such that there exist two Steiner triple systems of order v whose intersection I satisfies |∪(A∈I)| = m and |I| = n. It is easy to show that |I(v)| ≤ v³/18 + o(v³). Previous results only establish that |I(v)| ≥ v²/6 + o(v²). I conjecture that |I(v)| = v³/18 + o(v³). I'm currently trying to prove that |I(v)| = Θ(v³).
Yan Palace, Singapore
Had dinner with family at Yan Palace (Blk 531 Upper Cross Street, #01-49 Hong Lim Complex Singapore 050531) last week. This restaurant is perpetually packed on weekends, so reservation is a must. The food is generally quite good. We had coffee ribs, deep-fried enoki mushroom roll and tofu, baked cod, jellied pork knuckles, and braised pork belly. I like the coffee ribs, which is very aromatic.
Soup Kitchen, Singapore
Had lunch with CC at Soup Kitchen (DFS Galleria Scottswalk. 25 Scotts Road Singapore 228220) last Monday. I like the soups here, especially the tianqi chicken soup, which brings back childhood memories. I used to cough a lot during my childhood and my grandmother would make tianqi pork soup for me. Tianqi is known to have a healing effect on internal injuries. The samsui chicken here is also quite nice, due largely to the ginger sauce.
Quan Xiang Yuan Seafood Restaurant, Singapore
Had dinner with CH, YH, WX, and KL at Quan Xiang Yuan (252 Jalan Besar, Singapore 208925) last Monday to celebrate CH's birthday. I haven't been to this restaurant for quite some time, but the food is still not bad. We had prawn balls, jellied pork knuckles, braised duck with sea cucumber, braised pork belly, and fried Hokkien noodles, all of which are still specialty. The jellied pork knuckles is a traditional food that is increasingly hard to find. Don't expect a restaurant setting, because it is not. This is more like a coffee shop, and it has both a airconditioned and a non-airconditioned section. But what you get is good food at a very affordable price.
Swee Kee Restoran, Jakarta, Indonesia
Had dinner with HS and MB at Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restoran (Automall, Sudirman Central Business District, Jakarta, Indonesia). We had boiled chicken, chicken char siew, pigeon, and kai lan. The chicken rice is not as good compared to those in Singapore. The menu is also very restricted. I would recommend giving this place a miss.
Sari Kuring, BSD, Indonesia
Had lunch with HS, MB and Permata Bank officials ES and GH on Wednesday at Sari Kuring (Selatan BSD Ruko Sektor IV blok RG No. 1, Tangerang, Indonesia). Sari Kuring serves traditional deep-fried and grilled Indonesian food. We had deep-fried gurame, tahu lapis (deep-fried tofu), grilled squid, and grilled pomfret. Food is simple and good.
Pisa Cafe, Lippo Karawaci, Indonesia
Had lunch on Thursday with HS and MF at Pisa Cafe (Menera Matahari, Lippo Karawaci, Indonesia). I've always liked Pisa Cafe (whether in Lippo Karawaci or Jakarta), for its laid-back ambience, and ok food that is value for money. My favourite here is the calzone marinera (seafood calzone). This is one calzone that is packed with cheese, shrimps, squid, and mussels. And don't forget the gelato!
Paprika Wine Bar, Jakarta, Indonesia
Had dinner with HS and MF at Paprika Wine Bar (Jalan Wahid Hasyim 55a, Jakarta 10340, Indonesia) last Thursday. This is a chic and trendy wine bar that also serves good quality food. I ordered the Crab Supreme, which is baked alaskan king crab and scallops in white sauce on a puff pastry. The portion was small but quite tasty. HS had the baked baramundi which he also liked. I had a taste of MF's baked seafood in aluminium foil which was also quite good.
Gunung Mas, Jakarta, Indonesia
Had lunch on Friday at Gunung Mas (B1, Tower B Angana Danamon, Jl. Sudirman, Jakarta, Indonesia) with HS, MF, and Bank Mega officials WS, BS, SH. This is a Chinese restaurant serving some localized versions of Chinese food. We had fooyong hai (crab omelet), deep-fried kampong chicken, steamed fish, deep-fried soft shell crab, and shrimp in mayonnaise. The quality is average, nothing extraordinary.
The Duck King, Jakarta, Indonesia
Had dinner with HS, MF, MB, and LL at The Duck King (STC Senayan Lt. VII Mezzanine, Jl. Asia Afrika Pintu IX, Gelora Bung Karno, Jakarta Pusat 10270, Indonesia) last Friday. This restaurant serves all kinds of duck dishes and on the night that we were there, the restaurant was full and we did not make a reservation. So we had to wait a little while. Fortunately, by the time we went through the menu, we got our table. We ordered a peking duck, which was served with traditional rice-flour pancakes instead of the eggy crepes that is more common. The meat was fried with black pepper and was tasty and tender. We also ordered half a roast duck, the skin of which is crispier than the peking duck. We also had braised enoki mushrooms with spinach, stir-fried tou miao (bean shoots) with garlic, and deep-fried tofu. All of which were above average. This is a nice little restaurant with good food, although somewhat noisy, which is expected from a Hong Kong style restaurant.
Marriott Cafe, Marriott Hotel, Singapore
