***
Some of the 452 medics met up yesterday, and we went to Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant in Plaza Park Royal, featuring "wushu trained tea servers known for their acrobatic tea pouring" with their long-spouted kettles of hot water.
Most of the dishes we ordered (ie most of the dishes on the menu) were good, which explained why the restaurant was full for most of the time that we were there (almost 3 hours). And as a bonus for non-chili eaters like me, there were much fewer hot dishes than one would expect at a Szechuan restaurant. Among the dishes were the best Fried Kailan I have ever tasted; Sweet and Sour Pork in Szechuan style which wasn't hot at all, and the first serving of which was quickly devoured by the 9 of us in under 2 minutes; a deep fried Soon Hock which Yiliang grumbled was not actually Soon Hock, but which tasted great anyway; Beancurd with Shrimps where the beancurd was smooth, the shrimps bouncy, and slightly tart cherry tomatos were added to the dish to impart a unique flavour; and a prawn dish where I swear I bit into a cube of Nata De Coco. Allan Tay liked the food so much that he made a reservation for lunch the next day with his family!
In the end, we ended up sampling 3 of their 4 whole fish dishes, and all 5 of their prawn dishes. I think our blacklisting was sealed by our dessert orders.
This was what the waitress brought out for the first round of dessert (we later added 2 bowls of mango pudding)
37 bowls of dessert and 7 Sesame Seed Balls
37 bowls of dessert, 7 Sesame Seed Balls and 6 bowls of Tea for effect (to complete the chain of concentric circle)
Interestingly enough, I didn't, at any point, get the feeling of being overly-full.
The only disadvantages of going for the lunch/dinner buffets at this restaurant are that you need a minimum of 4 people, and they charge an exorbitant $2.80 per head for their "Eight Treasures Tea" (even for those of us who had iced water), so the prices of $28.80 per head for dinner and $27.80 for lunch are a little misleading. Luckily, Nigel's UOB card got us a 20% discount. Interestingly, before presenting the bill, they gave us fortune cookies - something I thought was done only in Chinese restaurants in America. Perhaps it was to lessen the shock at the $2.80 tea.
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For those who missed the guest food review I did for Luther 2 weeks ago, I reproduce it in its entirety:
Rabbit Brand Seafood Delicacies
Lut's Food Review #6: I eat the food for you!
Lucky us! Today we've got a guest review by Gabriel aka Agagooga of Balderdash! fame.
[Rabbit Brand Seafood Delicacies]
Rabbit Brand Seafood Delicacies
Outlet 1: #02-114 Lucky Plaza. 304 Orchard Road. Singapore 238863 (Tel: 67379722)
Outlet 2: 11 Circular Road. Singapore 049367 (Tel: 65570874)
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays
When I first saw the pamphlet for this place, I couldn't believe it. $8.90 for Buddha Jumps Over The Wall + Bean Sprouts, Rice and Chinese Tea (with free dessert - white fungus and red date drink)?
Rabbit Brand Seafood Delicacies advertises that it has set menus at factory prices (though I doubt factories offer set menus). If that's the case, we're really being ripped off by all those Chinese Restaurants.
The joint at Level 2, Lucky Plaza (the one I went to) was non-descript, as befits a no-frills outlet, and the interior resembles one of the cheap cafeterias that office workers go to at lunch for $2 economy bee hoon.
My family tried 3 sets: Buddha Jumps Over The Wall, Baby Abalone and Braised Shark's Fin.
The servings sizes weren't very big - more of a snack than a meal, really, and I was still hungry even after 1 1/2 bowls of rice. Also, the Seafood Delicacies were not served unadulterated - they even put crabsticks in the plate with the Baby Abalone! The bean sprouts were nice though - tender but not mushy, firm but not too raw.
The Buddha Jumps Over The Wall was probably the best of the lot, relatively speaking, with a rich stock and various mysterious Chinese Seafood Parts floating in it. The Baby Abalone was fair-sized, and came with 3-4 pieces of Baby Abalone - rather generous. The medley of vegetables and Assorted Seafood Pieces accompanying it included tender mushrooms, but I was riled by the crabstick (sacrilege, even in a budget outlet!). The abalone sauce was mediocre, though, and tasted like it'd come straight from a can. Lastly, the Shark's Fin also had Assorted Seafood Pieces (including Fish Maw) in it, to cut costs, naturally. The characteristically thick soup thus did not have the pure taste normally associated with Shark's Fin soup.
Overall, the food wasn't too bad, but it definitely wasn't anything to write home about (except about the price). Of course, the prices are much lower than in places such as Ah Yat (*the* place in Singapore to go for Abalone), so I'm not complaining.
Eat at Rabbit Brand Seafood Delicacies if you want cheap thrills, are on a diet, or don't have money to burn.
Verdict:
Rabbit Brand's Set A (Buddha Jumps Over The Wall + Bean Sprouts + Rice + Chinese Tea + Free Dessert)
Price: $8.90
Rating: 8/10
Rabbit Brand's Set B (Baby Abalone in Sauce + Vegetables + Rice + Chinese Tea + Free Dessert)
Price: $7.90
Rating: 7/10
Rabbit Brand's Set C (Braised Shark's Fin in Claypot + Bean Sprouts + Rice + Chinese Tea + Free Dessert)
Price: $5.90
Rating: 7.5/10
***
Tiresias was the son of Everes and the nymph Chariclo; he was a blind prophet, the most famous soothsayer of ancient Greece.
The most famous account of the origin of his blindness and his prophetic talent is as follows. When Tiresias was walking in the woods one day, he came upon two great serpents copulating; he struck them with his staff, and was thereupon transformed into a woman. Seven years later, she/he passed by the same place and came upon the same two serpents copulating; she/he struck them again with the staff and was turned back into a man. Some time later, Zeus and Hera were arguing over who had more pleasure in sex, the man or the woman: Zeus said it was the woman, while Hera claimed men got more pleasure from the act. To settle the argument, they consulted Tiresias, since he had experienced life as both sexes, and Tiresias sided with Zeus. In her anger, Hera struck Tiresias blind. Since Zeus could not undo the act of another deity, he gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy in compensation. (Source)