Of interesting menu & reads

Yesterday was another glutton day for me as I was invited by Mr.L for a dinner at Imbi Palace with the usual "wine kakis". This time, he suggested a different menu and liquor pairings. Instead of the usual food with red/white wine, we had a several different liquor that night.

The appetiser was roasted pork (siew yoke). It was good but of course not as good as the one near Plaza Pudu where the meat really melts in your mouth. After that, we were served a Chinese Mitten Crab, or popularly known as Shanghai Hairy Crab in individual bamboo baskets. It was piping hot! When asked whether I would like to "dissect" the crab myself or leave it to be served by the waitress, I chose the later. As much as I love to eat crabs, I haven't try "dissecting" a hairy crab myself because I was unsure of the correct method. And thus for the benefit of others, I've posted a video on how it was done.

Now watch the video to learn how to "disect" the crab. Pardon the music of my choice.

And to go with such wonderful crab, we had a few glasses of the Shaoxing Huadiao wine to go with it. I know, doesn't that sounds like the rice wine that we used for cooking? It is but the difference is that - this is a 20-year-old-wine! The wine had to be poured into a porcelain jug and kept warm in a warmer before serving. Sorry, I don't know the value of it but it was good. It tasted much better after adding a piece of sour plum into it.

I spent more than 15 minutes trying to eat the whole crab. Although it doesn't look that big, a lot of effort is needed to lick it clean. The faster you finish the crab, it means that you didn't enjoy it or it still has meat inside the shell. After that, we had a bowl of ABC soup each. Knowing that I love ABC soup, Mr.L ordered this lovely soup - full of flavour, has tender pork strips and the potato has been boiled to a right texture. The ABC soup I boiled of course can't be compared to this!

After that we had the beef steak with a fried egg. The beef steak was too tough and we all rejected the dish so it was off the bill. Mr. L insisted that he wanted to order Kobe but we all stopped him. The dishes for the night was sufficient. Another unique dish that I had that night was instead of foie gras (the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened by gavage), we had it being made with chicken liver. The dish is also accompanied with crispy skin chicken with meat floss. Other dishes are like the cod fish, sea cucumber and also fried noodles and it ends with a bowl of "suit kap with red dates and longan" each.

Throughout the night, we had pourings of Grey Goose Vodka on the rocks with lemon slices. of all vodkas, this has to be my favourite one. It's premium vodka from France and the taste is absolutely smooth.

We also had a bottle of The Old Malt Cask from Bowman Distillery aged 25 years. It's a single malt whiskey and it's really smooth. Love it. This bottle costs about RM600/bottle.

What's a better way to enjoy good food and drinks than with a Cuban Cigar?!! Mr.W, our usual cigar supplier gave us a cigar each. I didn't recognise the label and after some googling, I found out about the brand of the cigar that he gave us that night. It was "Vegas Robaina" (pronounced Vay-gah Roe-bye-na) and was created in honour of famous tobacco grower Alejandro Robaina. Not too bad, quite a good cigar, sweet smell at first and has some spicy notes at the end of it. If I'm not wrong, it's about RM50/stick.

Overall, the dinner was enjoyable with interesting conversations going on. I've managed to get a preview on the book Sex 365 - A position for every day, a book that one of them brought back from Singapore. It's equivalent to a Karma Sutra and gosh, some positions were really difficult to perform! However, most positions are almost repetitive because they looked somewhat familiar. I don't think you can get this book here but you can certainly order it from Amazon.

One of the reviews - "The best part is the little text blurbs added about each position to give advice on how to achieve it and tips to increase the spice. The text addresses sexuality frankly and pragmatically but often has great tongue in cheek (or elsewhere) humor. It rounds out the images nicely and keeps the book from sounding like stereo instructions, but avoids the flighty unrealistic language that is common in many love guides. The only complaint is a large number of positions that need an overhead bar to attempt them. Perhaps I am just in the minority that does not possess the gymnastics equipment necessary. Overall, if you are looking for some variety with your partner and want a well presented list of positions this is an excellent choice."

Now go figure.