Grandpa's birthday

On 13th December, my grandfather celebrated his 78th birthday.

The night before the extended family decided to celebrate it with Chinese fine dining in V Gardens. Normally, unlike western fine dinings, Chinese Fine dinings courses usually involve huge portions where everyone just digs in. (I guess it must be due to the Asian collectivist culture), but this time the Chinese fine dining was a little different. It was served in personal portions (though the portions were huge and not fine..) and there was a little bit of fusion as there was grilled cheese shrimp (probably that is why they served in personal portions).

And the outcome was a very satisfying delicious dinner.

This was what us grandchildren gave to my grandfather :) A medal to honor him as the best grandfather. (He really is a great man).



There were 7 courses served throughout the dinner. If you notice there was fried chicken served in the picture. That was ordered as an extra dish.
The first course started off with some sharkfin. The portion of the shark fin was generous that night. (Okay do let me backtrack, my dad's friend's influential friend helped book this dinner. So apparently they give him good rates as well as good portions. And he was actually there to help oversee the whole dinner) which probably was why the dinner was so good that day, and the portions were generous that day.

Appetizer: some fried fish ball served with diced mango, and smooth duck with apple. Normally I do not enjoy eating duck. But this duck meat was really smooth and good.
Vegetable round- giant sea cucumber. Enough said.
Fried fish with soy sauce and a generous helping of fried garlic. Normally I don't enjoy fish. But this fish was good. However the portion was equivalent to a fish and chip size, that I was not able to finish it.

Noodles with seafood (sliced abalone, squid, shrimp..etc). This portion was so huge, I was not able to finish it either.
Cheese grilled shrimp with mushroom. I am not a huge fan of cheese, but I love this shrimp that I ate my dad's helping.

Dessert: Coconut jelly. OMG this is the best coconut jelly. It was so soft that you can actually use a straw to suck the jelly out. Apparently the jelly cannot be kept for a long duration of time, so batches jelly coconuts are made fresh and served on the same day.

Then we sang Grandpa a birthday song while my grandmother prayed for blessings upon him :)