Address:  80 Raffles Place, UOB Plaza #60-01, Singapore 048624
Tel: (65) 65356006

While we are on the topic of weddings, another friend of mine just (..not really “just”…it was actually a month ago…which would indicate to you how large my backlog of entries is) got R.O.M-ed (i.e. he registered his marriage with his partner with the Registry Of Marriage).

He had his ROM ceremony at the Masonic Lodge. Call me crazy, but I have always thought of the Freemasons as a rather secretive and all powerful sect that probably controls much of the activity that takes place on this planet. To have them rent out their meeting venue to couples seeking a place to take their vows sorta diminishes their “all-powerfulness”…in fact it smacks a bit of desperation. Maybe the Freemasons in Singapore have fallen on hard times…or maybe the Singapore chapter is being ostrasized by their parent group (probably due to the fact that our distinctive singlish lingo bears little resemblance to the Queen’s English/Yankee talk that would be the lingua franca of the group…or someone from the Singapore contingent gave a bad rep through his hogging of the buffet table..or some over-friendly chap tried to introduce durians to the board members at their monthly meeting..or something like that…)

After a very much pleasant and intimate ceremony, we proceeded for our dinner at Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant at UOB Plaza. Located at the 60th floor of the building, it would have provided an excellent view of the cityscape if not for the bloody haze that enveloped the island (again..please note that this visit was taken one month ago…)

The newly registered couple first proceeded to cut their cake. Congratulations dude and dudette!

A characteristic of the Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant chain is that they employ professional tea pourers from China that specialise in …err…tea pouring. The novelty in which they use kettles with very long spouts and they adopt various impressive gong-fu stances while dishing out hot water straight to our tea cups.

I was told that the professional tea pourer spends like 10 years to master the art of pouring the water. That is quite a duration to acquire such a niche skill. I wonder what made them take up the profession of hot water pouring. Did they wake up one day and just decide that hot water pouring would be their career….did their parents inculcate in them that the world is in need of bearers of hot water…did they chance upon some career fairs/road shows that showcased the employment perks of being a tea pourer (”get to handle long things that spurt…amaze your friends at dinner parties…no need to upgrade or re-train for life”)…I will never get to find out.

The funny thing is that when the professional tea pourer is away on his breaks, this waitress, carrying a conventional kettle, would come around and refill our tea cups….

Anyway, there was quite a good promotion going on. It was an ala carte buffet for around S$40 per head.

The starters itself was already very impressive. There was prawn salad, cold chicken immersed in hot chilli oil…etc etc. And a visit to a Si Chuan restaurant will not be complete with the Si Chuan Hot & Sour Soup - which was excellent by the way.

The Fried Fish in Soy Sauce - Good. Four seasons beans & broccoli - foul tasting for a meat lover…but Good for health…

Deep Fried Prawns in Oatmeal and Sweat & Sour pork. Acceptable standards. The next dish was a disaster for me. The tofu and crispy cracker combination was awful. I stayed away from it.

Fish cooked cantonese style. The flesh of the fish was rather wooden. Ending off with a palate cleansing sweet dessert of fried pancakes with red bean filling.

I felt it was good value for money. Bring your parents/family members here. You will be able to fixed the amount of your expenditure…heh heh.