Monday, July 14, 2008

Dumbo: Gourmet Extraordinaire - #8: Avoid this Bull

I have a theory about food: the more thoughts they put into the garnishing and presentation, the less tasty it often turns out to be.

And my theory scored another point the other day when my wife and I dined at this "Taiwan Bull" (台湾公牛) in Queensbay Mall (I won't even bother to tell you where to look for it).

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My wife ordered rice with minced meat. And it sure looked nice...


But tasted just like 600cc repackaged. And 600cc was not all that tasty to begin with.

I ordered stone-bowl rice with skewer-roasted beef. Again, looks pretty nice. And sizzling hot (the stone bowl kept the rice steaming hot until the last bite - which, to me, was rather a nuisance; I have what the Japanese call "a cat's tongue").


And how did it taste like? Well, it tasted exactly like what half-raw beef (which was OK) and raw carrot and raw cucumber and half-cooked soy bean sprouts and half-cooked tasteless spinach and raw egg should taste like. That was totally not worth the RM16.xx I had to pay for it.

All in all, it was RM35.xx (including drinks) badly spent.

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And speaking of the cost... the service was bad, too. In the whole restaurant, you get this one guy wearing bull-horned cap running around handing out menus. To place the order, you have to step over to the counter, and pay UP FRONT! It felt almost like an insult. =.=

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On the way home, I was kicking myself for not going over to the Golden Lake Hawkers Center (金湖饮食中心) for a nice steaming bowl of Yong Tau Foo (酿豆腐) instead.

Remember: good food should be delicious, not pretentious.

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