I deliberately chose to stay away from the shopping, the crowds, and the terrible sidewalk Christmas carol choirs this Christmas. I prefer to stay at home with my love one surrounded by food, Manchester United games, and also Munich & Inside Man.
I’m glad I’ve made the right choice.
Merry Christmas, people…here’s wishing your Christmas is as good as you want it to be.
All the signs are there, and it doesn’t need rocket scientist to figure it all out. Fergie encouraging Curbs to take up the job. Chelsea’s comeback at Goodison Park. Upton Park. Paolo DiCanio & Fabien Barthez. Sheri & Jon Spector.
Why wasn’t I surprised?
Last week, we braved ourselves to try the Singapore branch of Garuda, a famous Padang restaurant originating in Medan, North Sumatera. Its Jakarta branch was one of our favourite places to visit together with the mother-in-law while we’re in Jakarta. We always enjoyed our visit there for its crispy fried chicken, delicious rendang, sinful ayam goreng pop, or for my mother-in-law’s case, its daun singkong tumbuk.
Back to the topic in hand, we were quite surprised upon arriving as it was nowhere near the usual Padang restaurant. The ambience was like the one normally reserved for a fine dining restaurant, which wasn’t rocket science considering its location in the Orchard area, with white dominating the whole place from the server’s uniform to the curtains, tables & chairs.
The food wasn’t served in the ol’ Padang tradition either. We needed to order the food first from the display, and had it delivered to our table. Therefore, there’ll be no interaction with the servers in telling which dish they need to take back to the kitchen.
We had rendang, crispy fried chicken, ayam goreng pop, and beef tendon, which were our normal order in Jakarta, anyway. The white-dominated setting caused us to be very, very careful while eating, as it’s such a shame to drip a curry sauce into that pristine white table. No "brutal" eating here, mister. Please mind your manner 
Here’s our verdict on the meals: The rendang was tender and satisfying, and it’s even bigger than the one in Jakarta. If only the sauce could be a bit more spicy. The crispy fried chicken was a bit hard to chew, and they’re a bit stingy in giving the crispy crumbs; considering I could ask the whole crumbs in one small plate in Jakarta. As I didn’t touch the ayam goreng pop I wasn’t sure about it, but as my wife only complained about its size, I think it should be okay. The tendon was good & tender, and the chicken curry gravy was marvelous; I could finish tens of plates of rice just with it.
The service was above average with the servers came up to you asking if the food was satisfying once they saw you clearing your plates. But, the high mark was for one of the guys specially assigned to carry the rice bowl. He hovered readily around the restaurant, and once you wanted to order another helping of the rice, he’d already be by your side ready to serve you what you wanted. Now, that’s what I called good service!
The amount on the bill was expected from dining at such place, even though its total cost was more than enough to cover for two of our visits to its Jakarta branch. But I can’t complain as Garuda is the closest choice to authenticity when it comes to nasi Padang here so far.
This season, we took our revenge on the team that beat us last season one at the time. Blackburn, checked. Middlesbrough, checked. Benfica, checked (twice), City (checked). Hopefully we can do the same on Chelsea & Arsenal in their respective home. For the time being, let us enjoy the 9-point gap for at least another two hours.
I had a bowl of Korean ramen after watching the Manchester Derby, and the TV was showing some live coverage from the Asian Games in Qatar. It wasn’t long before it showed the final match for badminton men’s single between Taufik & Lin Dan.
The match was entertaining and pretty close with Taufik winning the first set, and Lin Dan just one-point shy to force the third set. But then, Taufik rallied by scoring 5 consecutive points to force a 2-point deuce and won the match. What a comeback and it truly wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
While watching the game, I remembered the time when the whole nation would practically camped in front of the TV to support our badminton heroes in Thomas Cup or the Olympics, resulting in empty streets & offices. I can’t remember any other sporting event where 180 million hearts were made to suffer with every stroke of the shuttlecock. It was one sport that united the whole country and made you proud of being an Indonesian.
And I miss such joy.
You delay me on one of the most important things to me, and then I have to give you a Christmas gift during the office Christmas party??? Is this a joke or something?
I was at HMV last night when they were playing Muse’s new album in the store. I know its first single is captivating, but I didn’t realize that the same thing applied to the rest of the album! And it felt like a cosmic glitch when I promptly saw the ads for their upcoming January concert here in today’s paper.
It must be the result from such divine intervention in their universe of black hole.
