Birthday Dinner at Tanyoto, Liang Court

Many of us are guilty of idol-worship.

Some grew up wanting to be Elvis or the next Paris Hilton; while many now would look up to Obama 44. Me? I grew up worshipping my elder sister.

When we were kids, I thought she was the coolest person in the world. I wanted to play with her and hang out with her friends. And I also pretty much traced her footsteps. She had ballet and tennis lessons, so did I. She danced for the school’s drama club- ditto. She said tortoise-shell spectacles were en vogue and I wore them despite looking like the President of the Fashion Victims R Us club. I remember being so envious of her when she started wearing jeans while I was still stuck in party frocks.

Happy Birthday!



My sister flew back from Hong Kong to celebrate her birthday with us and we had the first of her birthday dinner ats Tanyoto, Liang Court. Originally we were supposed to have dinner at Kaiho Sushi but something came up so we had steamboat dinner instead.



The Chinese franchise specializes in Sichuan hot pot cuisine and we had the tomato-based soup and spicy peppery soup; I loved the tomato soup, which was rich but not overpowering.



We ordered a whole bunch of stuff but I didn't take much pictures because steamboat isn't exactly a photo-friendly affair. I mean one can't be expected to snap a picture of every pork ball, beef slice, chicken fillet right?



We were given a special dip made up of stuff I can't recall but I didn't use the dip anyway.



One of the small dishes we had was the pork slices with garlic and chili sauce that was milder than it looks but still packed with flavour...



... and the thinnest ever scallion pastry. I like my carbs... and my pan-fried dough so this to me was ok-but-not-mind-blowing.



For dessert, we had this red bean thing with flower-petal jelly top (I'm clearly hopeless with Chinese dessert names). It was nice enough - I like the red bean niblets.

Can't wait for sushi tomorrow!

* *

While googling for “Tanyoto Singapore”, I came across this article, ‘Where To Find The Sexiest Girls In The World (Outside The US)’ and was somewhat surprised to see Singapore made it to the writer’s list!

Disclaimer: I’m surprised because I thought we usually only make it into foreign media for our Free Trade Agreements and capital punishment system.

In no particular order:

• Mendoza
• Havana
• Tokyo
• Dubai
• Istanbul
• Prague
• Zagreb
• Amsterdam
• Seoul
• Singapore, which the writer said:

It’s all about the accent. Singaporean English (Singlish) is at once sophisticated, endearing, cute, and sexy. Somewhere between public school Londoner, New Delhi socialite, and urban Chinese, this is English as it should be spoken… Fashion-conscious, self aware, and demure, Singapore is smoldering!

Quite frankly, I'm embarrassed. Now people will think we are part of China AND we talk funny.

By the way, there is also a “Sexiest Men in the World, Outside the US” article and no surprises here but we ... er weren’t ... er listed. However before you start accusing the writer of being a Europhile, our neighbours (namely Bangkok, Manila and Kuala Lumpur) made it to the list. I’m thinking travel agencies and budget airlines could really work with this unofficial unvalidated piece of information.

Again, in no particular order:

• Berlin, Germany
• Paris, France
• Rome, Italy
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• London, England
• Madrid, Spain
• Sydney, Australia
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Manila, Philippines
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hoi, I didn’t come up with this list so guys, steer your frustration else where. Oddly enough, where are the Scandinavians?