Dinner at Upper East Side

When your mom's friend becomes yours, what do you call them? By their title or simply by their name? Or better yet, what would you call them if they are not really too old, but yet significantly older than you? Auntie? Or Sister?

That's who i'll be having dinner with tonight. 敏慧姐姐's family. I remember back in the days when she came over from Shanghai to Singapore, joined the TV station to become an emcee and an actress. My mother met her in ballet school and took her under her wing. She had bigger sights for herself and took off to New York. In the years to come she was so busy, looking for jobs and tried to make ends meet. She found a job in the chinese TV station in Manhattan and she finally made a name for herself. Somewhere down the line, she met Ted, who is now her husband and they have 2 kids. Haven't seen them yet, but from the pictures she sent, they look cute.

Now, i have to find something relatively respectable to wear..hmm

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Ah...the goodness of pasta...ohh, i'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take it from the top!

I headed over to Bloomingdale's to look at the fabulous mall. It has been in a lot of hollywood movies and i am so thrilled to see it! It is such a nice building.

I got my makeup done at the Clinique Counter and i must say, it sure was interesting. Got quite abit of tips from there. =) Now if only i can remember it.... Hmm...

Got a couple of stuff from there as well. I needed them anyways. I browsed around there for a while more and then i went out where the streets were jam packed with the holiday crowd. Got a lamb gyro. Yummy!

Walking around, looking and admiring the sights and sounds of NYC for the last time... at least for a while.

I walked my way uptown, and the transformation was obvious. The human traffic lessened, the neighborhood got more posh and the cars don't honk anymore. I was sure nervous meeting 敏慧姐姐's family. My heartbeat quickened and i was very much in shaking in my knees.

They stay on the top floor of their apartment building and it is such a quaint place. The black & white tiled floor brought a wave nostalgic memories of my younger days in my grandmother's shophouse. ...only our was green & white.

Upon entering the front door, i was greeted by light and a whole lot of plants. Polished wood floors, lovely ceiling patterns and a very very very nice slim HDTV that hung from the wall. 敏慧姐姐 is was youthful as before, but she sure is skinny! Almost stick & bones! My goodness!!! But she eats a whole lot! Hah! Kinda like my mom. We headed out to dinner at a really nice italian restaurant near the apartment. Caffe Grazie. Kinda like a hole-in-the-wall place, but it was a double storey. The ambience was elegant. We sat near the fireplace. We each got a mini bottle of champange. Brut. Fruity. Excellent.

I skipped out on the appetizer and got Linguine with N.Z Mussels & Sea Scallops. The word "Delicious" does not do it justice. The scallops was just nice and the mussels was fat, full and fresh. The linguine was al dante and the sauce was one of it's kind. The ingredients was very generous. I loved it. It's such a great meal to end my NY trip. This meal shall be my benchmark in all my italian meals in the future. Oooh...the pairing with my champange was perfect as well.

I throughly enjoyed my chat with 敏慧姐姐 & 王大哥. They are jovial people and we shared food stories and memories. I got complimented for getting prettier! =) I guess i do look better than when i was 14 when i first met her. Hah! I probed into their love lives since i missed the whole story. They were candid abt it and we joked.

Like many people, they mentioned about how different i was from my brother. 潇洒 is the word that 王大哥 used to describe me. 潇洒 = sauve/savvy. 敏慧姐姐 told him that i have always been that way since the first day that i met her. My brother is the more introverted one while i was the one that is extroverted. That made me smile.

As the champange entered into our bloodstream, we most definately warmed up to each other even more. They laughed at my childhood stories of my pet chickens & ducks, night safari trips with my mom and we discussed about ballet (敏慧姐姐 is a pro ballerina!), other world news and of course, like any true blooded chinese, food! We exchanged food tales and i peppered them with questions about the foods that the chinese pple still eat in China. From monkey brains to raw drunken river shrimps to dog meat to farmed rats meat to fried silkworms and many others. Yummmmmmmm...no? =)

They promised that if they visit Singapore, they would look up my family.

It was been so long since i met 敏慧姐姐....it was in 1998 that i last saw her! Wow...7 years! I am so glad that i made this trip to have dinner with them.

As my trip to NYC draws to an end, i will always have this journal to look back on and smile again.

Pity i didn't get a chance to take pictures and show you how 敏慧姐姐 & 王大哥 looks like! By the way, 王大哥 is 敏慧姐姐's husband.

And for the brave hearted and curious, here's the recepie for raw drunken river shrimp:-

Ingredients:-

Live river shrimp (as many as you want to eat) (MUST BE RIVER SHRIMP!)
Really strong wine/brandy/or whatever is the strong alcohol you have
Chopped chives
Shreded ginger
Sugar (optional)
(i think that's about it...)

Steps:-

1) Take live river shrimps from tank & put them in a deep bowl

2) Pour in alcohol

3) Swirl the shrimps & alcohol togther and leave it (You WANT the shrimp to get DEAD DRUNK. plus, the alcohol disinfects them)

4) When the shrimp is no longer moving and conked out from drinking the alcohol, lay them in a nice shallow dish & garnish with the chives & ginger.

5) Peel the shell off & enjoy!

PS: If the shrimp happen to jump or wriggle when you pick it up, go ahead and dunk it into the alcohol again. AND make sure that you chew it well, if not it may wake up in your belly and tickle you like crazy! =) nah!