17/03/06 REDSTAR, TONGZHI AND TONKICHI

2 days ago on Wednesday, mum planned lunch at Redstar (Hong xing 红星）restaurant because it is near to the Chinese Hospital 同济医院 that she wanna bring me, in fact it was just across the road.

Walk across the traffic light crossing and turn left, will see this :

It is at this HDB office building that looks like a HDB flat, even the lift is very HDB. So like people who have been there says, it will be quite shocking when you step out of the life and see this old huge grand chinese restaurant. Me and meimei were very amused to see the lighted eyes of the dragon and phoenix on their stage. What really tickled was the fake multi-tiered wedding cake wrapped in plastic bag beside the golden dragon.

It's huge, about the size of five 4-room flats? Wonderful suckling pig there...that's about it. The rest of the food were not quite up to standard. The novelty maybe being the pushcarts of dimsum which cute smiley aunties wheel all aound the place.

I was trying to figure out why business is so darn good at an old place like this with less than desirable dimsum. Then I looked up and saw this!

The entire ceiling was tiled with this motif and some other auspicious stuff. This 五福临门 symbolises fortune and prosperity, fengshui! Guess that may work more than just the lure of the rustic charm the place has?

After dimsum, Papa left for work. Me, Mum and meimei went over to the hospital to see the chinese physician and waited till about 4 plus to collect the herbs. It was off to Chinatown to collect air tickets for meimei's bangkok trip and then Orchard for some shopping~

BL and Ros joined us for dinner while mummy decides to go home on her own to probably cook dinner for the old man :p

I recommended Tonkichi and what a sumptous dinner we had!

Cosy little Japanese place

BL had this Udon set with the yummiest clear soup and thinly sliced white pork, a refreshing prawn salad with very delicious dressing. We love the potato croquette he didn't want. Meimei had this 3 huge pieces of fried fish and curry. Super flaky, crispy and light fried fish...best I ever tasted. We were so touched...wahahhaa.

I had Tonkotsu Ramen, the ramen is so bouncy and the milky soup a satisfying drink till the last drop. However, the pork slices I had smelled too much of fat. Deardeer's bento was so huge, I finished all her fried pork which were Tonkichi's signature item. She enjoyed her grilled salmon and ramen drenched in vinegar. Hmm...I forgot to snap a shot of the chawanmushi we ordered along with the set meals, they were really pretty good too. Must compliment the tea we had, Houji Cha they call it. BL had one cup after another! The write-up says it fights cancer so I drank at least 2 cups also :p

I persuaded meimei and BL to join us for the movie "The Constant Gardener" in Lido after the meal. It's such a great show and I managed to find out that Lido is still showing it, probably not for long though. Must catch it! The scenes were awesome, revealing the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry, how Africans are therefore exploited and the love for humankind, the deep feelings a couple can hold in their hearts. So glad I watched the film after I missed "Walk The Line" and "Matchpoint"!