Wedding First, Cider After

Saturday was interesting because 1) I had a wedding lunch, and 2) had 3 pints of cider in the afternoon in an irish bar.

First the lunch. It was a substitute for the dinner. The groom, Solomon, wanted a simple affair and all the Mandarin Oriental could do was cater for lunch that weekend. Not so bad it seems. A very high percentage of invitees showed up on time and the food, goodness, was amazing and different. Out of the entire course of 8-9 dishes (I can't remember), the only dish in common with a typical Chinese wedding dinner was the shark's fin soup (which I left on the lazy susan for other guests to relish) (I could go on ranting about mankind killing off the highest form of life in the oceans but that deserves an angstier time)! The opening dish was prawn and lobster salad with seafood rolls served with melon. No cold dish with jellyfish and other weird things. And it came wonderfully presentable too. We had cod as the fish dish, a lovely yet intriguing yam-date-mushroom dish. Lovely prawns and the desert was a serving of 2 mousse cakes - one chocolate, the other lemony cheesy. Loved them both. How many wedding feasts can you recall fondly because of the food?

Now, the bar. Chris, the gallant gentlemen in the picture, brought us to Durty Nelly's. (The lovely lady is Ariel, fiancee. Down, boys and girls, down.) It is an Irish bar apparently set up by a company that sets up Irish bars across Asia. Who knew. Anyway I was very very happy to learn that they served Strongbow on tap. Cider is my weakness. The fruity slightly sweet fizzy alkie beverage is right up my alley next to Star Wars, Sri Sujana nasi lemak at Changi Village and taking photos as favourites. And the place was showing rugby on tv and the rule is an hour before and after a match, pints are at $10. I had 3 pints. Happy like bird, some might say. The gang of ex co-workers hung out and talked till about 6ish, after the NDP marchpast well marched past. It was an afternoon well spent.

More images at my Flickr.