Good, not great

"Perhaps it was not a dream," the technician said, reviewing my responses, with a graveyard humor that was also chilly and serious. Working nights will do it to you.

Hmm I doubt working nights has given me graveyard humour. I suppose it's more of an innate thing.

Do people naturally gravitate towards working odd hours? I realise that for most of my working life I've been at the office at odd hours. It was only about 1 1/2 years that I did a slightly more ordinary shift of 10-7 or 930-8 (although it was more like 930-9/10/11 so maybe that doesn't count). Now I work 4-1230 or thereabouts, and from 230-1130 on Fridays. And people have commented that I'm looking rather cheery these days. Ok so that might be more of a reflection on the previous role that didnt seem to have a regular cutoff hour. But I do feel more relaxed, I feel like I'm still on holiday.

Working nights though, does mean that I am going to miss out on many on the film fest shows this month. Plus I'll be away for a week or so starting Thursday.

And going away for 9 days means packing, picking out what clothes/shoes/accessories/toiletries etc. And what books to bring!

A beach holiday calls for something not too taxing on the mind although of course I don't think I'm going to veer into chick lit as I'm trying to start on the books on my shelves.

Oh decisions decisions! Hahaha!

Shit I'm so looking forward to getting out of here.

But first, a lunch at My Dining Room.

It was a sweatingly hot afternoon. Too hot to be walking around town trying to get to lunch. But I'm trying to save money and not take cabs so I sweated it out. Braving the Raffles Place crowds, and mostly ignoring them by plugging into Snow Patrol's new album Eyes Open, I finally made it to Club Street and climbed the narrow wooden stairs into the bright, airy, industrial-looking My Dining Room.

I was a bit taken aback by the number of people in the restaurant. There were a few tables of two and a larger table of six. Decent business for a Tuesday lunch in this sleepy corner. I clattered across the room and slid into that lovely aubergine-coloured high backed chair for lunch with DSD who had only just arrived back from Beijing that morning. (And as usual, had arrived at the restaurant before me... heh)

(You could tell that some thought went into the design and decor of the place. One wall was left with its original red brick exposed and the rest were left concrete. The colours used for the chairs, lights and gauzy curtains (which could be used to separate off the room) were all well coordinated, simple, classy. That scored some points.)

DSD brought me up to speed - telling me that she had overheard various complaints about service from other tables. And yes, the food did take its time to arrive - not helpful if you are having a business lunch. But we weren't. So it didn't matter so much.

However, it was a bit pricey for a starter, pasta, dessert, coffee/tea. $32.
If you choose a main course, its $39.

We went with the cheaper version. I had the asparagus starter - a couple of nice chunky spears, wrapped in bacon and grilled. Accompanied with a slice of goat's cheese (mm love goat's cheese and that intense smoky flavour) and a herb salad. The highlight was the herb salad, which was dressed, I believe, with a basil oil. Very light, very fragrant, very delicious. Wish there could've been more.

DSD went for the tuna tartarte nicoise salad. The dressing was something of Chinese/Japanese origin that we both just couldn't put our tastebuds on. I hate when that happens. When that flavour is just so familiar, something you know you've had before but you just can't figure out what it is. Her tuna tartarte was topped with some beans, potato slices, a quail's egg, some strange flattened ikan bilis.

For the pasta, I had the cannelloni. Simply done, it was filled with beef bolognaise and topped with cheese. Nothing extraordinary. Had been considering the mushroom pasta but it sounded rather rich and creamy and the type that would leave one with gout symptoms. Besides, there was dessert to come.

DSD's tuna/prawn pasta had an unwelcome ingredient in it - a strand of hair. She called the waiter over. He took one look at it and muttered, "oh my god", apologised and took away the plate. And replaced it with a fresh dish of course.

Dessert - I had the coffee bavarois, which was essentially a coffee-flavoured mousse served in an espresso cup. Not bad, but it didn't make me go 'mmm'. I kept trying to uncover the hidden kick to it - say some bits of dark chocolate or maybe a nice base. But nope. It was nice. It wasn't great.

The apple mille-feuille DSD chose was strangely made with uncooked slices of apples that were sandwiched with some custard between layers of crisped puff pastry. Not too bad though.

At the end of it all, we were charged only one set lunch, in apology for that something extra.


My Dining Room
81B Club Street.
Tel: 6327 4990