Last Christmas.....

Last Christmas.....I gave you my heart....heheh, not quite.  It's not about the song Last Christmas by George Michael@Wham....or the holiday movie Last Christmas starring the hottest Malaysian actor right now, Henry Golding (hubba hubba!).  I'm referring to What I Ate Last Christmas (ho ho ho!).  P/S: By the way, this isn't one of my intended posts (promised in my farewell post) but a summary-kind-of post of what I've been up to (or, more specifically, what I've been eating during the year end holiday season).  I guess you could say I have a blogging itch to scratch. :O

But, huh?  I bet you're wondering why there are shots of Christmas trees instead of places.  I just wanted to see if you can recognise the place and the food (or the tree and the surroundings)...hihihi! ;)  You might if you've followed my blog long enough since they're places I've been to and have written about before.  Want to play a little trivia game? ^_~

Venue 1 is a convenient stopover to get my coffee fix

(though the photo of this tree is from my archives).

Although the food isn't great, the coffee is.  If you're looking for something simple like a soup or a sandwich, then the place is a possibility.  I'd get myself either a mushroom or pumpkin soup or a smoked chicken ham or tuna egg sandwich for a light meal with a glass or cup of coffee.

Venue 2 is a usual place for family gatherings.

Would you believe it that on Christmas Day itself, we had a Chinese meal this year for a change.  I remember there were two set meals to choose from that cost RM55 per person (pretty decent price for an 8-course meal).  Note that the names of the dishes are concocted by me (I didn't bother to snapshot the menu for their actual names since I wasn't planning to write a post on it).

Starter of Four Combination Platter (a play on dim sum varieties)

Fish Lips Soup with Crabmeat

Stir-Fried Chicken with Dried Chillies (pretty similar in taste to kung pao-style chicken)

Poached Prawns (in a light broth with subtle hints of Chinese herbs of dong guai & kei chee, a bit like drunken prawns but a lot less rice wine)

Braised Tofu with Mushrooms & Sugar Snap Peas

A plain vegetable dish of Stewed Broccoli (served separately)

Fried Rice with Almonds & Raisins (always good)

Chilled Sea Coconut with Lychee & Longan (among my least favoured desserts)

Venue 3 is one I wouldn't expect you to guess correctly since it's a new entry (as in I've not written a blog post on it) + the tree is obviously not even from the venue (I didn't see one or I was too preoccupied with the food to notice one...haha!).  So I used another tree, within walking distance from the venue, instead when we went on a walkabout (after dinner) seeking a place for drinks.  Ok-lah, maybe this one isn't fair at all but do know that this tree is a very recognisable and iconic one, so some of you would probably recognise it.

Get ready to fall into a see food coma here.....it's seafood everywhere you look....from live mud crabs to flower crabs, lobsters to yabbies, fresh water prawns to tiger prawns, bamboo clams to clams, black mussels to green mussels, freshly shucked oysters to scallops, steamed whole fish to salt crusted baked whole fish and ready-to-eat lightly steamed baby lobsters, king crab legs, flower crabs & prawns.

Before you overdose on seafood, there are also non-seafood items to keep your cholesterol in check from roast turkey to roasted beef, sushi to tempura, pasta to live action noodle stations...and more!  P/S: Even though I'm supposed to be in 'retirement' mode, I feel compelled to write a post on this since I learned of 'something' (that I feel I should share with my readers) since it wasn't mentioned by any of the food blogs that reviewed this place. >_<

Venue 4 is an easy guess as I've been eating here countless times.

For their warmly, comforting rice bowls, first and foremost, though the rice nor the soup was all that warm on this visit (hopefully this was one of those off days).  Not only that but the unagi also seems to be shrinking in size (most top photo was the latest)! T_T  I can't show you more photos of what I ate otherwise it'd be an even easier guess if I did.

Venue 5 is a place I was introduced to only recently.

We were here for a celebration of some sort...and we feasted on truffle fries, beef ragu pasta, smoked duck spaghetti, Jamaican jerk chicken pizza, grilled red snapper and roast chicken.  My favourite turned out to be the dish I ordered.....the fish.  If I ain't too lazy, I might just write about this one too.  We'll see. ^_*

So, how many of the Christmas trees looked familiar to you?  Or how many places do you think you've guessed right?  And did you do it without referring back to my old posts? ;)

P/S: I think I should defer publishing the guesses to give those (my usual commenters-lah) who wish to participate in this little trivia of mine (just for the fun of it) an equal chance.  But, sorry, there won't be any prizes for guessing right except the personal gratification of an all-correct answer....and my congrats...kekeke! :D  Happy guessing!!