Of course, like many of the Chinese out there, I had an unrestrained week of feasting and salad tossing that is still continuing today. It is almost bad manners to turn down an invite and not give a toss. We all want to wish everything for everybody over a meal, almost everything, that is. Inevitably, everyone chants wishes of fortune and good health into your ears as the honey and pickled green ginger slices are falling of the table as the fervour of the toss gets serious. “Kongxifacai, nian nian you yu, bu bu kao shen, long ma jing shen, and localized versions like “huat huat teo beh pio, kongxikongxi teo 4D” will ring right through to the other ear at each sashimi salad tossing event. They all want you to be rich, prosperous, healthy, and be, well, even richer.

Wishing Well - Yusheng-tossing goes with the obligatory
shouts for good fortune and good health.

Ever notice how no one wants you to be a better person, be it a better human, dad, mum, professional, colleague, citizen, wife, husband, or even a better restaurant service staff. Over the last week, I had no less than eight loud and merry yue sheng tossing meal sessions. Many were memorable for both the right and wrong reasons. Figure this- it is one of the most extravagant festivals of the year for the Chinese and despite the downturn, close to 3 million Chinese (based on simple Singapore demographics) are still spending on new clothes, furnishings and food. Many can’t cook to save lives so eating out is a norm, which means, it’s boomtown Charlie for the eateries, perhaps for the last time in the foreseeable turbulent future ahead for the restaurants. Yet, that meaningful meal at this meaningful time of the year usually means botched service, mis-recorded reservations and overpriced menus with fanciful names for the same humdrum meal.

So, why can’t all these eateries get their act right, for at least once a year. Many of these fortunate meals usually come with unfortunate service. How many times was I faced with (and often knocked upon) with sad service. I shall count the ways, mitigated by the saving grace in the form of some stunning dishes I encountered.

This first one was a $688 family meal extravaganza in the Thomson Road area (we thought, heck, one more hurrah before we go start scrimping ). Squeezing 12 onto a table meant for ten, was tricky. When we were settled in, there was hardly any space for dust mites to creep through between shoulders and I wondered how on earth they were going to slip the giant platters through when serving. I thought, since I could read the washing instructions on the tag through the back of my brother’s shiny new shirt, they would not squeeze in between us to plonk the platters down (perhaps, over the little space by the little nephew’s chair). I was wrong. Next thing I knew, an elbow was in my ear, followed by pong of an armpit own by a hardworking staff who in that position, patiently graced the whole platter of yue sheng with crunchies, nuts and sauces as she spew idioms of great fortune with each topping. Can you imagine how nice the yue sheng salad was at the end of my ordeal. The sauce was not tangy or cloyingly sweet, had a nice squeeze of lime and the vegetables were lively, crunchy and not soggy. And of course it was fragrant.

Then they brought out a well thought of dish – crispy threadfin fritters in a thick lemon grass curry sauce served with the edge of the platter gracing my temple. No warning and with no apologies. So I consoled myself in that nice dish.

At another eatery, I had a thick and smooth fish maw soup with a nugget of dried oyster in it. It’s the last thing associated with fish maw soup. I casually enquired (and would have submitted to a “sorry but the chef used it as a flavoring agent but forgot to remove it” excuse), but was told “that’s how it is here”. Coincidentally, the next dish served was black moss with dried oysters and mushrooms. It went well with the black Chinese tea although it would be best if it went in the mouth and not splashed on my shirt as they served it three feet away. I dared not ask about the chipped bone china teapot when we asked for refills that which came when at the end of the meal with the bill.

And yes, all that came with a 10% service charge.