dining experience: service vs quality…

most people would probably, at some stage had some real bad dining experiences which is one of blubber’s many pet hates!! blubber had on numerous occasions experienced atrocious service, which ultimately leads to blubber not returning to the restaurant / cafe.

This may sound drastic but blubber feels dining is all about the service contributing to an unforgettable dining experience. One area which people in the hospitality industry should take pride in providing . Unfortunately, there are a lot of restaurants around that do not see this, especially chinese restaurants, more particularly in blubber homeland. Of course, not all chinese or asian restaurants should be stereotyped this way. There are instances of bad service in other non-chinese restaurants. However, bad dining experience with chinese restaurants definitely sits on top of the ranking!!

It probably stemmed from the fact that lots of restauranteaurs seems to think that if their food is good, customers WILL come back. True to a certain extent. Great food is important to a restaurant But blubber chooses to adopt a different philosophy- basing on the principles blubber has about dining.

Blubber’s opinion is that even if the food served is not of ‘fine dining’ standard, if the service staff takes the effort to make it a gratifying dining experience, blubber will be more than happy to go back. Its the service that contributes to a memorable occasion.  YES, ideally, restaurants have to strike a balance between Service & Quality of Food BUT there is no utopia!!

Given a choice, blubber will choose Service over Quality of Food.

Some food for thought: Would you choose SERVICE or QUALITY during a dining experience?

thai green chicken curry… yum!!

blubber havent cooked for a long time…had a pizza and pasta night with McClarence, Coolio & Auntie Murphy last night… blubber was disappointed with quality of blubber-cooking. pizza overdone…. pasta too dry… only the mango longan salad was good….
maybe blubber seeking perfection… but somehow blubber did not like the cooking that day… that probably inspired blubber to cook again today! if not blubberdream of opening cafe will not happen

anyways, had some chicken thigh, red pepper, coriander in the fridge… thot may whip up a green curry chicken dish… yum! it turned out to be quite good i have to say… ever tried green curry with brown rice?? nice!!! together with a glass of Oakover Lost Song Verdelho…. PERFECT!!

beers of the world

what time is it?

TIGER time?? NO WAY!!
blubber thinks Tiger is one of the most foul tasting beer ever!! yuks!! heehe!!

sounds like a very random blog i know… but it prob got started cos blubbersis commented on a previous blog about blubber having Tiger when blubber returns to blubber homeland….

anyway, back to the beer. To each their own and blubber fully respects that… but, blubber thot probably he shoud compile a list of blubber’s top beers…. hehe!! blubber’s perspective of the real stuff… boutique beers, especially those from Microbreweries in Perth!!
especially lil creatures!! (blubberthots: blubber is so going to miss that place!!)

1. Little Creatures Bright Ale (Lil Creatures Brewery, Fremantle, WA)
2. Little Creatures Pale Ale (Lil Creatures Brewery, Fremantle, WA)
3. Feral’s German Red (Feral’s Brewery, Swan Valley, WA)
4. Feral’s Organic Pilsner (Feral’s Brewery, Swan Valley, WA)
5. Kronenbourg (France)
6. Dunkles Hefe-Weissbier (Brozeit Bier Bar, Sg)
7. Cooper’s Pale Ale (SA)
8. James Squire Amber Ale (Malt Shovel Brewery, NSW)
9. James Squire Golden Ale (Malt Shovel Brewery, NSW)
10. Kilkenny’s
11. Guiness
12. Leffe Blonde (Belgium Beer Cafe, WA)
13. Leffe Brune (Belgium Beer Cafe, WA)
14. Asahi (Japan)
15. Sapporo (Japan)

guess what!? for beer enthusiasts.. a beer map (extracted from Malt Shovel Brewery in Sydney)

blubber breakkie…

blubber saw this very interesting breakki fr Woolies during grocery shopping on Sat.

Natural Muesli & Mango Yoghurt by Nestle – makes a very handy ‘take-away- style’ breakkie.

a good Muesli  with Fresh Yoghurt is always the BEST Breakkie!! Best way to start a blubbery-day!! yummm….

dinner @ oxford hotel

met up with ante for dinner tonight @ Oxford Hotel in Lederville.
usual, met up his place, had a bit of chat with petruska about blubber new job… sharing the excitement….

after which, we cruised over to Oxford Hotel… started with 2 pints of Little Creatures Pale Ale (blubberthots: sigh! blubber is so going to miss Lil Creatures when i return to blubber homeland – rogers, pale ale, bright ale, pizza… yummmm)

as usual, we had lots ot chat…. i mean for 2 guys… there is definitely lots to talk amongst us both but blubber really enjoys the company of ante! blubber always gets inspired when talking with ante cos he has this very interesting philosophy in life. blubber respects that and is always trying to learn to adopt that positive outlook in life. that philosophy whereby any setbacks is viewed as a learning experience…. there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes… its how we learn from mistakes and move on that is impt!!

anyway, talk / gossip over beer should be regarded as blubber’s 2nd fave pasttime now…. hehehe!! but there were serious talk as well… blubber really excited about some biz plans put forward to ante.. looking fwd to making it happen.. till then, it shall remain as ‘the biz plan’, hehehehe!! the news will be out soon… real soon!!!
anyway, we had dinner at the restaurant just behind The Oxford. Quite a gd meal!! Turkey Roulard and Tasmanian Salmon…. a bit pricey…. but it was pretty alright for pub food…. blubber has no complaints at all… blubber is feeling inspired!!!

Morton’s of Chicago @ The Oriental

Morton’s Website

never would blubber imagine dining at Morton’s of Chicago!! It was a treat from blubbergal aunt…. so blubber somehow scored another free meal!! hehehe!! and an expensive one as well… hehehe!!

Morton’s of Chicago is a fine dining style steakhouse located within The Oriental – blubber’s old work place… memoriez… great food, great atmosphere!!! not a single complain fr blubber after, which is kinda rare, especially when its dealing with food in blubber homeland….

Famous ‘talking menu’ fr Morton’s. The waiter actually describe the menu to you… highlighting the key aspects of the dish. Check out the 3Ib lobster ‘JOE’ he is holding!! and the range of steak cuts they have!! Yummm…

HEAVENLY Appetisers- looks like normal salad.. BUT Morton’s salad is filled with “orgasm inducing” BLUE CHEESE!! hmmmmmm……. PLUS the crab cake!! – ALL!! YES!! ALL OF IT MADE FROM 100% REAL CRAB MEAT!! no artificial rubbery fishy paste…

The main course:

Prime Rib, Bone-In double Cut… medium rare… what more can u ask in a steak?? my mouth is still oozing with the steak juice writing this blog

Maine Lobster…. nicely baked.. whole!! dip with freshly ‘drawn butter’…. wah biang eh… cannot tahan liao!! meat… tender and very very sweet!! (blubber thots: it better be cos its $139 each!!)

No meal is complete without dessert: Morton’s Legendary Hot Choc Cake – Legend it sure is with hot choc sauce still oozing ot fr the centre when u bite on it… Yummm…. and the Hot Upside Down APple PIE!! took 40 mins to prepare.. made to order.. one of the BEST apple pies around for SURE!!

OH!! yes!! meal for blubber without RED WINE?? NO WAY!!

Cloudy Bay PINOT NOIR for the night… great wine.. great taste!!

BUT, thank god its free!! damn! most expensive meal blubber will ever have!!

OVERALL : FANTASTIC NIGHT!! GREAT FOOD!! GREAT AMBIENCE TOPPED WITH GREAT WINE!!!

subi’s viet beef pho… yummm..

subi market pavillion has one of the yummiest Vietnamese food ever!!

blubber had this for his post-chrissie bbq hangover lunch…. emmm.. nothing taste better than a raw beef Pho!!

Subi’s vietnamese beef pho & pork chopw/ broken rice

well.. and i get real viscious when pple disturbs me eating my Pho!!

MRF chrissie BBQ!!

blubber just recovered fr last night’s BBQ. it started real slowly but it turned into a very big and FUN nite!!

blubber loves party!! blubber loves it when everyone’s happy& enjoying themselves!!

well… the story began as this….. thanh arrived at 6pm with 2 awesome lookin mudcakes from DJz.. well the cakes looked really rich…. and it indeed tasted real yummy…. not for heavy stomach though… cos its a pretty “full-on” kind of dessert!!

the food was all ready by the time… blubber was so busy that i forgot to take pics of ALL the wonderful food..

there’s only a few on record as shown below…… which is a pity…

and who can miss out on drinks on a party like this…. missed out pics on the buckets of beer present at the party..

but had some pics of the “hardcore” stuff…. tequila and sambuca!!

and the result of these drinks……

and the nite did not end there….. we continued with pictionary… really wonder how we actually survived all these !!!

some interesting drawings fr that nite! lookin back… WHAT THE HELL WERE WE DRAWING?? hahaha!!

kym and Al formed a great Pictionary team!! me and karey were REAL bad at dice rolling… we kept getting stuck @ the beginning of the game.. blubber gotta learn to toss 6s next time!!

well a game is a game… but what a way to lose a game??Paul was “half asleep / drunk” most part of the game. “the great PIC team” was on ther final draw of the game….. paul shot up and guessed the right answer to give the game to them!! arghh!! anyway it was all good fun!!! hehehehe!

anyway, by the end of the nite, everyone were exhausted!! fr the drinks & all the fun!! What a nite!!

wagamama vs the royal

blubber went on a scouting mission today to check out this new japanese fusion restaurant WAGAMAMA @ Subiaco.

 

had the intention of holding the chrissie dinner there….

blubber actually have copy of their cookbook heehe!! great recipes in there!!

anyway, the decor @ WaGaMama was pretty plain…. reminds me of NOOCH back home… very simple modern Japanese Ramen Noodle bar kinda thingy… price wise was quite pricey for Japanese food blubber thinks.

to be honest, blubber wasnt impressed with it as a large group dinner function place. probably it will be good for a small group of 5-6 close friends chilling out on a fri / sat night sounds like another plan!!! haha!!

so blubber mind started thinking again……

THE ROYAL Bar & Brasserie @ East Perth!! great ambience & plenty of space for 2 “lil monsters’ to be running around…

great range of drinks…. & not bad selection of food… yummm!!

well blubber has decided…. The Royal sounds like a great place to have the Chrissie Dinner.

preparation 4 chrissie bbq….

blubber has organised for the MRF gang to come around for a mini- Chrissie gathering!!

well for a record, blubber has kept to his budget when food shopping… which is a rarity! well its going to be a very simple BBQ, get – together sort of thingy…. mainly to keep everyone together!!!

there wern’t too much food planned… very basic…

BBQ chicken thighs

warm chicken salad (this has become a fave of blubber – and today blubber made a KING size / The WORKz kind of warm chicken salad!! hehehe )

we’ll have the blubber bbq classic (beed carpiccio salad… yum….)

and the latest addition to blubber recipe list……. drum roll pls…..

mango, lychee & peach salad, topped with passionfruit pulp and mint leaves…. hmm great summer salad!!

for the record, blubber finished all these food preparation before the guests arrived!! tts new.

blubber thinking of setting the BBQ area up… but prob will wait for the 1st guest to arrive can give blubber a hand!! hehehe!!

alright… blubber will update on BBQ outcome…. we may be PICTIONARing tonight.. YEHA!