Jumbo talk

We were having dinner at Jumbo Seafood with Mr H’s family and a guest from Japan one night. The guest was not keen to eat crabs and that dish was not ordered.

Midway through the meal, Z asked me, “Why didn’t we order crabs?”

I replied that the guest did not want to eat, so the order was not placed. We had arrived after the food order was taken. Hence, I asked if he wanted to order and we could do so.

Z hesitated and declined. He said he did not want to eat.

Five minutes’ later, he asked, “If we are not planning to eat crabs, why did we come to Jumbo for dinner? We can go other places.”

I really laughed out loud at this point. 

We ordered a crab in the end. We were deciding non-spicy options such as steamed, salted egg yolk or ginger with spring onion. The other adults had no preference so I thought of trying spring onion. As the waitress was penning down the order, Z suddenly voiced out, “I want salted egg yolk!”

While I had asked almost everyone, I forgot to ask him. He probably realized I wasn’t going to ask him and decided to speak up before the waitress sent the order to the kitchen.

I could only say I was very, very amused.

In the end, he ate the lion’s share of the crab. 😁

Steamboat dinner

Mr LKY had referred to steamboat as battleship in his telegram many years ago.

Our family’s version was a tad cuter. A while ago, Z confused steamboat with Facebook.

He asked us, “Are we going to eat Facebook for Chinese New Year?”

These days, he acknowledged that Facebook could only be found in Mummy’s phone. However, his slip up would stay as a family joke forever. 

It was a working night when we opted to have a mini steamboat, or more like Shabu Shabu style. I discovered dried Japanese noodles which worked well for Shabu Shabu. It was much better than the usual udon or soba.

 

Sun dried fruits

I came across these dried fruits (Peach, Apple and Strawberry) at Isetan. They tasted so good but cost a bomb at $15 per packet.

The sales promoter offered a discount at $35 for 3 packets. Still steep, but these babies were too delicious. My boys were so thick skinned and they ate so much samples that they nearly emptied the bowls. 

Yellow goodness

I was a noob when it came to buying durians. Thanks to social media, “self-help” articles on how to pick durians, media recommendation and transparent pricing, it made it easier for us to buy durians.

My first encounter for the season was Ah Seng Durian’s MSW durian. It was followed by MSW durian from a neighboring stall of Combat Durian as the queue for Combat was way too long. We paid $22 for a 1.2kg durian (the rate was $18 per Kg for MSW). There were 6 seeds.

Subsequent attempts to “book” durian was tricky because of how busy the lines were. We were introduced to Durian Tree ($15 per Kg for MSW). Having called in advance to reserve, Mr H got a 2.5kg MSW for $37.50. There were 16 seeds which was pretty reasonably priced in my opinion. 
Through this episode, I also found out that Z liked to eat durian too! He had earlier claimed to dislike durian. Such a funny boy he was.

Because we can never get tired of birthday cakes

Everyone was so busy that we continued to enjoy birthday celebrations when it was very much belated.

We were such creatures of habit that we headed back to Gyu Kaku for a 3rd consecutive time over a span of 2 weeks. Some of the staff recognized us by then.  

We also patronized Jumbo 3 times within 6 days and the staff recognized Mr H when he bought takeaway crabs too.
 

It was a year with many cakes, many crabs and many slices of marbled beef. 😋

It also meant dieting season should be round the corner soon.