River Hongbao 2014

I have not visited River Hongbao for about 10 years. This year, I don't know what came over me, but I thought of going down to take a look again. Wanted to try the China street food also :D~~ Must be because I have not gone on a real outing since end September. Dinner dates and meeting colleagues don't count. It's the second day of Chinese New Year and going out seems like a bad idea, but I don't have other choices. Bo bian lor.

Parents are going also, but later. Mother hoped to meet up with us there later. Shall see.

So Brother and I went for a walk at Raffles City first. We had some snacks first; early dinner later. Tried mille crepe cake for the first time to discover what the fuss was about. I bought a slice from First Love Patisserie at the basement. Instead of a slice on display, the lady opened a nondescript chest freezer, asked us when we intended to consume it, defrosted it briefly, packed it and gave it to us. We got a box of Gindaco Takoyaki also.

We sat at the fountain to savor our sweets and salties.

The mille crepe cake is made up of numerous thinly-layered crepe alternating with subtly-sweet frozen cream. Tastes like ice-cream with cake. Now I understand why we were asked when we intended to consume it. The taste will be not be its optimum if it's too warm, or worse, it might melt! It's nice, but too expensive. The price is that of a standard piece of cake ($6+ I think), but looks only 2/3 the size.

Gindaco definitely tastes better than the pasar malam type. Crispy skin with soft, but not mushy (worse, uncooked) insides. Chewy piece of octopus. Yummy!

Early dinner means no queue everywhere. Logically, you should choose to eat at places with perennial long queues. Which is why I chose Nam Nam Noodle Bar! But when we circled back there, it has already grown a short queue when there was none like 5min ago!

Not sure if Nam Nam is trying to recreate a certain ambience, but its premises is too narrow even for my smaller manual wheelchair. Hence I had to wait until a table near the entrance was available. When I was seated, it kind of felt like a foodcourt, with strangers sitting in such close proximity that you could hear their conversations, and the whole restaurant was bustling with activity. Maybe they are really trying to recreate the street-dining atmosphere.

I ordered a beef pho and a Fresh southern rolls with prawn, fresh herbs, peanut sauce. The beef pho was simple and that's where its appeal is - clear soup with umami, doesn't taste of MSG. Luckily Nam Nam has the decency to charge less than $10 for a dish as simple as this. I didn't quite enjoy the rolls - found them quite tasteless. The peanut sauce is a must-dip. Coz tasteless mah.

Couldn't try the coffee at this hour.

It dawned upon me why people are queuing - it's like just $3 more than foodcourt for better quality food.

We went over to Marina Square to walk walk until Sister came over. Turned out that she hasn't had dinner yet! It was dinner time and every single eatery was having long queues! For those with short queues, it's because they have sold out!! Famine! Luckily I ate early lor!

Forgot what she bought, but I do remember her buying a cup of fresh juice from a kiosk. Well, they have almost sold out too - only stuff like celery and carrot left, and I guess we all know why they were left behind (unpopular mah!) I still don't understand why anyone would drink celery or carrot juice. I digress. Ya, so, Sister got a cup. It was a pain watching the girl preparing the juice with that slowwww juicer. OMG OMG, second time seeing a slow juicer in action. ZZZzzzz... Sister tasted the juice and started shaking salt in it. Alas, it still couldn't be saved.

Marina Square was boarded up all over. Our usual routes to the Floating Platform were gone. As a wheelchair user, it's duper inconvenient. Hurry up with the renovation already!

Can't remember much, except that there's many, many people! Tried calling Mother, but she didn't pick up. Ok, we tried. Many huge, pretty displays, but good enough to be seen from afar. Most of the crowd was in the sheltered food section. Couldn't see anything. A big turn-off just moving along with the human traffic flow. Food was expensive too. Luckily we had dinner liao... instead of going through with my insane plan of having those for dinner... hahaha.

Heard a public service announcement reminding the visitors to mind their belongings. Of course, so freaking crowded.

I know 热闹 then got atmosphere, but I guess I still dislike crowds. Besides, I don't recall it being as bad as this last time?! Another proof of Singapore's burgeoning population! I won't be back again soon. Make this a pilgrimage every decade?

Back at home, Father said that Mother's camera got snitched from her handbag and she made the emcee help her find the thief -_-;; So the public service announcement was commissioned by Mother lah...

I conclude that River Hongbao is not good for my family.