Belated V-Day dinner

I have not started work yet and thus, have a lot of time with my family and run errands for them and for myself. Just this morning, I walked to Sengkang and did my supermarketing there as the NTUC there has more variety. compared to the one in Punggol. So, I did my grocery shopping there, bought a Toman Fillet Fish for dinner and got a big deep pot for myself.

I have always wanted to own a deep pot for soup. I always use a slow cooker for my soups but sometimes, I prefer soups that are thick, thus needing a pot of soup over a big fire. Once I bought the pot and walked back home, I immediately cooked soup with it!. I cooked papaya pork rib soup which I was very pleased with becasue of the natural sweetness and thickness in the soup. I boiled it over the big fire for an hour plus reducing the big pot of soup to 3 bowls of soup. I added peanuts, north and south almond seeds, honey dates, pork ribs and cut papaya. I have even planned my next soup to cook with this pot! Cant wait!

Last night, I finally celebrated V-Day with CT. Well, it wasnt actually a celebration cos it was just a usual dinner...but it was meant for that purpose. Anyway, we went "Outback Steakhouse" at Millenia Walk. I was hugely disappointed maybe because of my hugh expectations I have developed from eating in US so many times.

"Outback Steakhouse" in US serves larger portions at a cheaper price, with excellent service all the time! However, "Outback Steakhouse" in Singapore serves smaller portion at an expensive price, with very poor service! So of course, I was hugely disappointed with service in Singapore. I went into the restaurant earlier than CT as it took him a while to walk from City Hall MRT station. The waiter did not even bother about me-did not even ask me whether I wanted a drink or not while waiting. I was totally ignored. Nevermind about that. When we needed to order, we had to grab the waiter's attention by standing up and waving our hands frantically.

When the food was served, the waiter did not even notice that CT was without his cutlery. He just placed the food and left as if we were invisible. He should have asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?" People in the service industry need to learn to open their mouths and talk. I can understand that they might be shy but if they are shy and refuse to talk, they should be in another line.

I was disappointed with the portions because in US, when I order a main dish, it comes with free house salad or casesar salad. In Singapore, we have to pay for ordering a salad. So, when I ordered my main dish, all it came was one small piece of steak and my side dish, which was garlic mashed potatoes. Can you imagine paying S$30 for a small piece of steak and a spoon full of mashed potatoes? I was still hungry after eating though paying so much.

And again, to ask for the bill, we had to catch the waiter's attention..sigh..very tiring. When the bill came, it indicated that we ordered beer! Crazy! When we approached the waiter that we did not order, he seemed puzzled as if we were lying..Our tables only had ice water..where ever did the beer come from? Glad we had 20 Voucher from Maybank which helped reduce the price a little...If not, I will got nuts paying so much for a lousy meal and service. The food was tasty but disappointed by everything else.

I do wish Singapore will one day introduce the tipping service and hopefully, waiters and waitresses will thus serve better, despite their race as the foreigners sitting opposite our table seemed to be served much better as the waitresses were filling their cups for them and always going to their table.

Nobody came to our tables except during ordering and paying. Sigh..