Salad paradise outing

“Tell me how to get back to, back to salad paradise with you!!! I’ll be there in a heartbeat!”

War’s unit kena activated to an overseas mission in India, so he seemed to have a lot of free time before, between and after his trips. (Machiam ORD already sia) To celebrate this ‘exciting’ news, he decided to eat at the newly opened Paradise restaurant 2 in Lot 1. =P

Posting about the outing with War and WL, and also other stuff! =P

~~

Original plan: To go Ikea for a walk, since nobody knew what to do.

What War wanted: To go JP for a movie, then go JCube for dinner.

What WL wanted: To go JCube for movie and dinner, unsure about Ikea.

What Jeff wanted: To go Ikea and eat dinner around there, no need movie.

What we really do: Everything settled at JCube, No Ikea meatballs. =/

So yep, at a very auspicious 5pm, while I was sitting at the spectator seats watching people ice skate (wearing jacket and cap). It’s a nice feeling to remain ‘shady’ and looking at the pros skating around and the small kids riding the cute penguins, while feeling the slight chill and listening to the high bpm music. Ice skating ftw! =D Shortly after, WL arrived at location with almost no difficulty in location my position.

Jeff: WL ah, how the heck you know where I sit?

WL: Cos you are the only person who wears a cap what.

Jeff: O_O

Played bounce on WL’s Nokia phone until War reached. I chose to watch a movie with ‘growing up’ as a theme, so War bought the Wallflower tickets and then proceeded to have dinner. Since War doesn’t like both MFM and Kung Fu Paradise (that’s a Chinese café!), he bombed Mac as his first option dining place and we ended up at that auspicious place. Even if War had any temptations to go back to Chili’s, it would be totally destroyed by frequent whining and strong objections on going back there.

Speaking of Chili’s, I and WL were talking about the Sugar waiter when I suddenly saw him going up the escalator, in the opposite direction of us. I looked at him giving a ‘hey is it you’ kind of look, he gave back a O_O look along with some possible thoughts.

Possibility 1: “Do I know you, why you look at me like that?”

Possibility 2: “What do you think? Where did you buy that cap?”

Possibility 3: “Eh it’s you! Weren’t you the one who destroyed my sugar!?”

WL’s Nokia bounce phone had no SIM card, and his HTC contains his old number. So me and War decided to ‘raid’ his bag and found almost nothing (is there any used/unused condoms?). After calling his phone, I realized his pants had some vibration and hey, mission accomplished! Well, it turned out that after months of ranting of getting a phone from WL, he finally got a new I-Phone for himself! Is it an I-Phone 5? It looks rather small though! A rather nice phone, so he decided to check in at the first possible opportunity, not bad! =P

To be honest, I seriously didn’t feel like eating mac for dinner, thus I ordered something which would be rather different from usual, an item which almost nobody ordered in their entire life. A Salad chicken McGrill.

War: I don’t think anyone else has ever ordered this… O_O

WL: Is this the sample or display set? o.O

Jeff: ^^

The salad is simply just like a burger without the hot toasted bun and has much more vegetables than usual, with the fries being replaced by a serving of corn. The medium green tea I ordered made the meal looked a whole lot healthier! The salad looked kind of boring without any decorations, so I dressed up the salad in a ceremonious way. J

Thousand Island: Comes with the Salad.

Margarine: For the corn.

Cheese powder: War has no interest in it.

Garlic chili: That should go well with the chicken.

Luckily WL didn’t add his curry sauce, or Jurong may have an ambulance call for a case of stomachache. The margarine and chili did enhance the taste of the corn and chicken respectively! The thousand island seems a bit strange, and for the cheese powder, well it's really eating that for fun, it doesn’t go well with anything except fries. =/

Overall rating of the salad: Good! If I have no idea what to eat at Mac, I may buy this again.

Wallflower is a rather nice movie! I will leave the details towards the end of the post. War should understand that the crowd in JCube is generally not as ulu as CCK, cos I realized he has been asked to sit at the correct seats for quite a lot of times. (It’s not accidental somemore!) I had Cheese Naan from Yamazaki to go along, rather hard at the starting, but the taste made up for it, especially towards the middle of the whole pastry. =D

After the movie, we walked for a while in Jcube and then went up to the rooftop garden. Apparently the structure and concept is somewhat similar to the one in Lot 1, except that it doesn’t have a water feature / mini pool for kids to play in. A few couples up there kissing / turning up the mood / other stuff, and a group of teenagers sitting in a group up there. It seems like quiet places are really good for dating, I wonder if Kane and Jaslyn went there before. [Judging by Kane he would take her to a bakery lol] =P

The outing ends here! I shall talk about the movies and the Paradise restaurant in Lot 1. ^^

Movie: Taken 2

Well, basically another story which the man used his wits, intelligent thinking and instincts to save his family out of a dangerous situation since he has killed many people in the previous movie. A rather nice movie, although me and Warren still preferred the original taken. 1 part I like the movie is the scene when one of the thugs showed the guy photographs and asked whether he remembered any of them. He only remembers 1, and that is the one at the electric chair.

“You have killed so many people, until you have no idea and cannot remember any of them, but they are people’ sons, grandsons…”

Well, at the end of the whole Taken 2, the guy killed even more people, but I don’t think he remembers them either! If the thug’s future generations want revenge, he will kill them too, so I think any remembrance seems to be wasted on him. =P

Overall: Great to watch! =D

Movie: Wallflower. What’s the exact name?

Warren is growing old! So it’s great for him to watch this movie and think about the crazy, anyhow times he was as a teenager. Come to think of it, among the 4 of us, he’s the one who is ALWAYS aimed by WL, regardless of life, topics, music, and other random nonsense. This story is about a high school kid who wasn’t popular, but in the end got along with a group of friends and his life became more interesting and sociable.

There were issues about gay, love life, friends, personal interests, etc. It’s a rather nice movie for teens and also people who have a bf/gf. Perhaps Yaznisham could bring his gf to watch the movie! =D

The tunnel part is awesome! Imagine driving at night, on music and pretend you are flying / skating across the road at a high speed!

Overall: Can watch. =)

Lot 1 Chinese restaurant: Paradise 2!

*Warren doesn’t know that this is the restaurant that replaced Food Culture… -_-

The queuing system for this restaurant is seriously very much like Gong Cha. Firstly, you inform about the number of people who are dining, next up will be getting a queue number and then waiting for the number to be called before you enter. Apparently Paradise 2 does not accept any reservations, so for those families who are wishy-washy about where to dine for dinner, Paradise ISN’T for them. =P  [Which is good for me luh.]

Why do I say that? Let’s say the opening time for the restaurant is 1800hrs.

1740hrs: I and War got a queue number (0036)

1800hrs: The starting number goes at 0020, and the Q number isn’t called in sequence.

1820hrs: 0036 is being called, the latest Q number taken is 0072. (Wth lol!)

1905hrs: Dinner cleared! The number called is around 0065. Imagine what happens if there is a family waiting to eat at 1930hrs. Happiness siol!

We actually expected a rather small restaurant with some normal tables and chairs inside. However after we got through the cozy passageway, first comment from War: ATAS!

I cannot disagree with that comment, it’s actually a rather large area, with bright lightings and cozy sofas at the main dining area, with another side area with tables and chairs for larger families. Waiters and waitresses are in Chinese dress robes, carrying food, taking orders, etc. Not bad! =D

For the menu, a rather decent number of dishes, although is not as many as I would have expected. Paradise 2 seems to be famous for its 4 different flavors of Xiao Long Bao, with the history, the cook and even a guide on how to enjoy this delicacy fully. There’s the original, cheese, crab roe and one more forgotten flavor. Being uncomfortable with the strange flavors, we ordered 10 pieces of the original ones for $9.80.

Cold dishes, main dishes, rice, desserts. Although is not many items per section, but hey at least the food looked appetizing enough in the menu. I got myself a plate of classic egg fried rice and drunken chicken, while War got some pork rib soup ramen (Yea!). While waiting for the food to be served, the waiter served us some hot oolong tea, receipt, some info on other Paradise eateries, random brochures and a feedback form!

Best of all, the feedback form is being filled! It’s actually one of the rare times I would like to fill in a form, but somehow other people have already filled the form and they forgot to replace it. Well, I think I shouldn’t try the Almond paste seeing that comments were criticizing that poor dessert until a rock bottom level. They also said something about the Xiao Long Bao sticking to the rice paper (not a good comment), but commented on the good service!

The person also left her contact details and phone number, a pity we dropped the idea of disturbing WL during dinner. =/ Not long after, the food is being served! Someone should give them a prize for the short waiting time, despite the large number of customers. =D

XLB (10 pieces, $9.80)

This one must be eaten hot! At first is really very nice, the broth is still hot and the meat dumpling simply tastes awesome! Not as hard as the solid meat you eat outside, and go well with the broth. The skin a bit random la, but as time passes by, it would seriously stick to the rice paper. The serving suggestion is to eat it with ginger, but nah, lazy. If I order this again, I would try to finish this one first before all other dishes, and perhaps indulge with a bit of ginger! ^^

Pork Rib ramen ($11?)

War said is good! I took one slice of a rather large pork rib since they do not cut into really small pieces. Tastes all right, somehow I don’t feel anything special to it. Comes with noodles, egg and it seemed rather filling for a dinner.

Egg fried rice ($6.90)

Doesn’t sound worth it to the people who think that any dish w/o meat simply does not deserve that high of a value. This dish kills that thinking significantly. The fried rice is soft, not too watery dry, the egg taste blends in and it looks very appetizing when it’s being served! We all know that the individual rice grain needs to be alone and not stick to other random nonsense to have the best taste possible. Yup, requirement met and achievement unlocked! A rather filling serving, and definitely worth to order! =P

Drunken chicken ($7.90)

Ah, the taste of the wine is VERY strong! It looks like your normal white chicken you would see in hawker centers / food courts, except that it is with a concentrated wine taste. It’s a cold dish / appetizer. I do not really like it that much (wine mah), but the quality is definitely there! The meat is rather tender, and does not have too much of bones. For people who like this combination, this is a must-try. XD

There’s a $1 misc. charge, and the usual 17% charges. The prices of the food are still ok, so yup, I won’t mind visiting again! (Better than Chili’s ridiculous prices)

That’s all for this awesome post! Now waiting for WL to give his professional evaluation! =D