Eighty-two…

My mother-in-law celebrated her 82nd birthday…

…last Wednesday, the 15th of July, but we had a small celebration earlier that Saturday evening before the actual date so that the grandson from KL and her grand-daughter from Singapore could fly back to join in the dinner. Yes, it was the birthday cake that we would order everytime as  my niece, the grand-daughter in Singapore, loves it so much and would insist on it and it alone.

We all got together at this restaurant, together with my two brothers-in-law and their wives and in keeping with the tradition, the evening started off with the longevity mee sua, fried…

…that came with a “golden egg”.

That was followed by the “hot plate”…

…our version of the Four Seasons except that we have a lot more than just four here.

Here, you can see the filial grandson…

…dishing out some of the goodies from that platter for his grandma. I don’t know if he and his Thai girlfriend beside him would look familiar to any of you. Perhaps some of you may have seen them in person or on Facebook or in the newspapers or on TV – they are the people behind that Sangkaya coconut ice cream venture found at many places in KL and I hear it’s available at AEON in Seremban as well now and will be available in Malacca very soon.

There was this 2-in-1 chicken…

…roast chicken on one side and Thai-style chicken on the other or in fact, it was 3-in-1 as there was also the Thai-style jelly fish in the dish. We had this same thing not too long ago here.

Then, of course, we had their signature dish – the curry fish…

…with rice except that this time we had fish, not the head but I would prefer the latter as I did not quite like the texture and taste of the fish they used that night – everything else was great, of course and as always, the gravy went absolutely well with rice.

We had these spare ribs…

…a number of times before too except that this time, they were served in a yam basket though it did not look like the ones I would be more accustomed with – those in which they would serve the mixed vegetables.

Talking about vegetables, we had broccoli…

…and everything inside the ring and a soup dish plus a fruit platter at the end.

My very nice niece and nephew (the grand-daughter and the grandson) picked up the tab and shared everything between the two of them. This was RM500.00 (excluding GST) which I thought was rather expensive for a 7+1 dish set dinner. We did not even have prawns other than what they served in the “hot plate”…

…and I was told that there was a standard RM20.00 charge for the rice served with the curry, never mind whether somebody wanted just a spoonful or a big scoop or two, RM2.00 per head for 10 persons…and of course, the plate of stewed peanuts on the table at the start of the dinner did not come for free and neither did the wet towels at the end. Other than those, there were the charges for the drinks that we had and the 6% GST and I overheard them talking about a RM5.00 service charge  or something or was that for the corkage for some special beer or wine that they brought along?  All in all , the total came up to over RM580.00, almost RM600.00. Well, I would say the service was very good and the dishes were served promptly, piping hot from the kitchen and other than the aforementioned not-so-nice fish used, everything tasted fine but all things considered, I would much sooner go for the very much nicer RM400.00 set that we had at the other place here where I could request for the use of the VIP room, away from the crowds at the other tables and all the noise and everything…and I could sing karaoke too! Hehehehehe!!!!