Broken Utensils in mayim

Finally blogging again after suffering a week of stomach flu & another week nursing my sick son. Sam's fever has finally subsided after 6 days, and tonight had dinner with my anxious parents in one of our fav Chinese restaurants, mayim, in West Mall.

Had to wait a bit while they prepared our table, but the grey Rubbermaid baby chair & the plastic kid's utensils (bowl, cup & metal soup spoon) were all laid & ready for Sam when they ushered us in.

Daddy Mummy both ordered the 烧味双拼汤面 (roast chicken & char siew noodle in soup, S$6.50), since they enjoy the springy Hong Kong style noodles. I personally prefer mayim's handmade noodles, but Sam wanted to eat rice - he must be tired of 6 straight days of noodles, since he's supposed to abstain from rice & porridge when running a fever.

So I ordered white rice (60 cents) and 2 easy-to-digest dishes for Sam & me - 赛螃蟹 (shredded crab & fish in egg white, $8) and 牛油果炸琵琶豆腐 (deep fried minced pork & tofu with avocado cream, $9). Er, sorry, the picture of the dishes were taken after we've eaten 2 of the tofu & the waitress had mixed up the egg white with the sauce.

Anyway, my guess was accurate: the egg white/crab/fish dish was slightly salty & perfect with rice, and Sam didn't have to chew much to swallow the food. I didn't feed him the tofu after all though, remembered last minute the fried food wouldn't really be good for the just-recovered child. Otherwise, surely the well-flavoured tofu would have been welcome by Sam, though I don't see the point of adding the bland avocado cream.

Sam finished his whole cup of warm barley drink ($1.80), hopefully this would remove some of his 'heat'. I had to empty half the serving of syrup into my 花旗参甘露汁 (sugarcane juice with ginseng & carrot, $3.50) before I could tolerate the surprisingly strong taste of the ginseng.

I had made the mistake of forgetting to pack a few toy cars for the meal, and Sam got so bored at dinner I resorted to letting him play with whatever was on the table - a spoon holder & a sauce plate. He was enjoying this makeshift 'aeroplane' and 'rocket', then to my horror, the ceramic spoon holder fell on the floor and broke into 2!! My embarrassment doubled when the waitress offered to replace the spoon holder..........I am never going to forget Sam's toys again!!!!!!

In case you're wondering how Sam survived the rest of dinner: Mummy had to play 'making faces' with him!


Mayim Chinese Cuisine 天乐里精品食馆
#02-04 West Mall
1 Bt Batok Central Link
Tel: 6794-1590

Breakfast in Swenson's

Hubby had to go for his annual eye checkup 'early' in the morning before most shops in Orchard open, so decided to just give Sam his fav yogurt drink upon waking up, then rustle off to the Swenson's next to Paragon for breakfast.

Was surprised to find out the Crown Prince hotel has now became the Park Hotel. Really, one can't be away from Singapore for too long, else may really get lost upon returning home! Luckily the exterior of the building didn't change much, and the Swenson's below was still as popular as ever.

Decided to sit outside in the non-smoking area, so that Sam could look at the passing traffic in his Rubbermaid baby chair. Was pleasantly surprised to find the breakfast menu now (ie. compared to my last visit 2 yrs ago) included some Asian dishes, eg. chicken soup noodles. Not sure if this is available across all Swenson's outlets or just unique to this 24 hrs outlet.

Anyway, I stuck to my initial intention of ordering the eggs & sausages kiddie set (S$5.90, including a juice) for Sam. Forgot to ask for the eggs to be scrambled instead, so I had to end up eating the 2 sunny-side up myself, this cooking style not one of Sam's fav. The cresent moon-shaped hash browns were too crispy for my liking, seems to have more oil & crunchy bits than potatoe, luckily there wasn't much offered. While Sam happily ate his sausages & drank his apple juice, he refused to try the cup of fruit yogurt (chopped apple & canned orange slices in yogurt), so again those ended in my tummy.

I never understand why Swenson's, after going through the effort of creating the kids' menu and the train-decorated plate, never trained their staff to offer teaspoons or plastic plates/bowls to young children. I had initially wanted to let Sam self-feed from a smaller plate. After receiving a blank look from the waitress & a waiter who told me they have no plastic bowls, I gave up & just let Sam make a mess of his breakfast on the big train-plate with his big adult-size metal fork. After all, I'm not the one who has to clean up all the fallen food from the floor! ;P

I myself ordered the Eggs Florentine set (S$10.90, with juice & tea). The sourdough toast is really sour, but it's perfect with the creamy spinach & poached eggs. Had hoped Sam would be willing to eat some of the spinach, but he was in a picky mood, refused to eat it plain or with his sausages, picking out every single green strand. :(

After an hour long breakfast, Sam & I hopped across the road to play in Paragon's children playground on level 5 with all the musical cars. Then he promptly ruined my morning by disappearing while I was hunting for his CNY clothes! It was 10 anxious minutes before I found him playing with the toys in Early Learning Centre. Needless to say, I was scolding him all the way to the baby room (also on level 5, opposite the toilets), where I had to lower my voice (still nagging) to avoid disturbing the baby nursing in one of the 2 nursing rooms.

I nearly lost my temper when I found that Sam had pooped in his diaper without telling me. The saving grace was discovering the plastic bags hanging in the baby room for the express purpose of disposing used diapers! Oh, how I loved the Paragon management then! So while it was a stinky & embarassing affair having to clean up Sam on one of the 3 changing pads while another poor father tried to make up a milk bottle from the hot & cold water dispenser in the same small baby room, at least I left in peace of mind............


Swenson's - Park Hotel
270 Orchard Road #01-06
Tel: 6836-3320
Opens 24 hrs daily