Die, die, must try! -- Eating outside Singapore

[StarG]

Sounds like fun! Have a great time, cawhite, SQ LPP & SQFAN.

[SQ LPP]

Sounds like fun! Have a great time, cawhite, SQ LPP & SQFAN.

We absolutely had fun. This morning the day started with coffee then dim sum afterwards. Followed the parade and we ended up in Castro with more coffee. Beautiful sunny day in San Francisco.
Now waiting at RCC with cawhite for our flights in different direction. Thanks for the great weekend all. Thanks SQFAN for stopping by here. Thanks to DFP and his spouse for coming up from the South Bay. And not to forget, thank you to kluau88 for dealing with the amuse by everything guy from a small village. Definitely virginity has been lost in this flash visit.

[B727]

KBV: Ko Tung Restaurant

Across from the Kongkha pier night market is this restaurant that displays its daily fresh supply of Thai veggies on ice in a glass display.

Ordered the dok hai (wonder if it's also actually called dok kare), these white flowerbuds cooked in a sour-spicy soup with fish (salivating just thinking about it ). Also the pak kood (fiddlehead fern) stirfried with kapi (shrimp paste/ham ha/belacan/trassi/bagoong), yum! The fern was leafy and crunchy.

An alternative to the stalls by the water that needless to say also serve amazingly delicious and cheap local grub.

[stargold]

Roast Duck Comparison Report - London

After the very nice group lunch at Market in Camden including jjpb3, StarG and Savage25, the hard-core gluttons in the group (me, jhm, phaleesy ) went to Bayswater to test out jjpb3's hypothesis that there's a place in Bayswater which is better for roast duck than Four Seasons.

Contender 1: Four Seasons





Contender 2: Gold Mine









Verdict (after a distinct feeling of pregnancy and not wanting to see any more roast meat for at least 2 weeks):

The duck meat texture/quality was better at Gold Mine - very juicy and succulent. The one at Four Seasons was a little tired - the skin/fat was a bit chewy and overall not in its best condition. However, the soy sauce at Four Seasons was better.

Solution: somehow find a way of putting the soy sauce from Four Seasons onto the duck at Gold Mine In all seriousness, I think we preferred the duck at Gold Mine overall. But not for the next 2 weeks!

[jhm]

stargold, your pictures are making me hungry for more duck!

(He says after the fourth cup of tea to dilute the MSG which is no doubt swilling around in his system...)

You forgot to mention that as far as service goes, we prefer Four Seasons. Lots of leng lui's and leng jai's there to banter with unlike the staff at Gold Mine who seemed rather serious (and in a hurry to get rid of us even before giving us the bill!).

[Kyo]

I find it of interest that in the novel Mile Hi! Club by Janet Chew, it seems the Four Seasons has fallen out of favour with the SQ crew, though.

Gold Mine seems the preferred choice now due to a bit of an attitude problem at the former.

[SuperJonJon]

Was the taste test done in 1 sitting? If so

[StarG]

Another vote for Gold Mine's roast duck.

[jjpb3]

Wow, the test was carried out later in the day? That's impressive.

Lunch was excellent -- great choice of restaurant, jhm.

[stargold]

stargold, your pictures are making me hungry for more duck!

OMG Personally, 24 hours later, I'm still nowhere near hungry for roast duck... Maybe tomorrow

I find it of interest that in the novel Mile Hi! Club by Janet Chew, it seems the Four Seasons has fallen out of favour with the SQ crew, though.

Gold Mine seems the preferred choice now due to a bit of an attitude problem at the former.

You forgot to mention that as far as service goes, we prefer Four Seasons. Lots of leng lui's and leng jai's there to banter with unlike the staff at Gold Mine who seemed rather serious (and in a hurry to get rid of us even before giving us the bill!).

We did remember the bit from the book talking about better service at Gold Mine, but at least yesterday, we had friendlier service at Four Seasons. Still, not sure whether I'm ready to start calling the waitresses leng luis...

Was the taste test done in 1 sitting? If so

Yup - finish at Four Seasons, walk 50 metres and order our next food at Gold Mine. Bear in mind it was barely 3 hours after finishing a rather substantial lunch with the others!

Another vote for Gold Mine's roast duck.

I shall go again in the near future for a more reliable opinion! It's a hardship, but someone's gotta do it... just like eating copious amounts of food on NH F. All for the benefit of SQTalk

Wow, the test was carried out later in the day? That's impressive.

Lunch was excellent -- great choice of restaurant, jhm.

Lunch was indeed very nice - good choice, jhm! And yes, we literally just walked from Camden to New Oxford Street, had a brief look at Jessops and then jumped on the tube to Queensway!

[phaleesy]

OMG Personally, 24 hours later, I'm still nowhere near hungry for roast duck... Maybe tomorrow

I felt sick on Sunday night. Monday slightly sick. Tuesday recovered and longing for roast duck. Should have got a takeaway.

We did remember the bit from the book talking about better service at Gold Mine, but at least yesterday, we had friendlier service at Four Seasons.

Service was sulky on both occasions at Goldmine. Four Seasons was always brash but friendly. Much prefer the latter.

I shall go again in the near future for a more reliable opinion! It's a hardship, but someone's gotta do it... just like eating copious amounts of food on NH F. All for the benefit of SQTalk

You might be doing this pretty soon. I believe a SQT premium empty vessel might be on the way to LHR to load up on roast duck in the near future.

And yes, we literally just walked from Camden to New Oxford Street, had a brief look at Jessops and then jumped on the tube to Queensway!

I think we should have walked from Tottenham Court Rd to Bayswater. But you wanted to take the tube! At least we had a nice walk back later. Did you hit the gym on Monday?

[stargold]

I think we should have walked from Tottenham Court Rd to Bayswater. But you wanted to take the tube! At least we had a nice walk back later. Did you hit the gym on Monday?

Do I look like the type that would actually hit the gym, regardless of what I say just after the meal?

I felt sick on Sunday night. Monday slightly sick. Tuesday recovered and longing for roast duck. Should have got a takeaway.

Well, I only managed to last 5 days before darkening the doors of Gold Mine again! I dragged along two of my friends for a repeat visit last night.



Comments:

1. Service still pretty poor - just no warmth at all. And they hassled us to leave while one of my friends were still eating, even trying to take her plate away (with food still on it!!) It goes without saying that we got the bill and orange segments well before any of us finished.

2. Duck was good, but not as good as first visit. The observation of "meat better, sauce worse" did not hold as much this time - the meat looked a bit tired and was not as juicy and meaty as first time. Still, better than Four Seasons last Sunday...

3. Other dishes were a bit of a let-down. I think the food at FS is much better overall, as long as you're not completely mad about the duck. If you're just having the duck on rice, Gold Mine is probably the better choice however.

[HUGE AL]

The girl has some nice nails.

[jhm]

Having eaten there four times now and it being mentioned a few times in other threads but not this one:

Peter Luger, Brooklyn, New York - for their amazing steak of course! Their thick cut bacon is pretty good too as a starter. I don't bother with any sides as I'd rather eat more meat. So I just order bacon (1 or 2 slices) to start; steak (for three if with another person with an appetite) and a plate of tomatoes (five slices, each very large); and dessert (the cheesecake or the key lime pie). Cash only. The staff are gruff but I've never found them rude - in fact, I find them genuine and warm unlike other places where I get the feeling the staff are only saying what they must say.

[HUGE AL]

Cash only.

IIRC you can also purchase a USD$50 or USD$100 Gift Certificate from their website and use it to pay for your meal and, thus, gain those precious points/miles.