Missing the Tour, Hate the Buffet

Here I am sitting in my office, talking to guest, troubleshooting every single niggling problem they encounter and missing the Tour de Langkawi as it passes by on Jalan Raja Chulan/Laut/whatever. Would be nice if I could see a crash like the one in the paper but there isn't any particular corner you can go to anticipate that (ooohhh.....what evil thoughts!!!)

Nope, here in KL, just a straight ride, a procession like Paris. BORING!
what a boring tour! what a 'boring' day! (since none of the guest have yet to produce any catastrophic crisis to overwhelm the staff, thank you and the Almighty)

Which reminds me of the earlier lunch appointment with my parents, who needed their (local) japanese food fix after 1 decade (not counting the annual trips they make to japan every autumn before 2005). So back to their 80s haunt, the Equatorial Japanese Buffet on Sunday.

Normally when I was younger, the only experience I had with Japanese food was Chikuyo-Teh (where I just downed Unagi after unagi, had no idea that I was eating an aphrodisiac) and the Equatorial buffets (which was tempura, unagi, tempura, california roll, tempura, unagi, tempura, california roll until I was rolled to the car by my brother). Nowadays, as per my blog, I am getting spoilt on omakase and kaiseki menus, so I really don't know how I would react to the, erm...hem, throwback.

(apologies to all food bloggers, I am not going to photograph my food in front of mom and dad, etiquette is such a harsh mother. And I am not going to photograph the queues for the food when I am making a mad dash for it, either.)

First impression after arriving at the Mezzanine floor : P-A-C-K-E-D!!! (insert expletives of choice here: examples include *!@#$&%^!^@#$ and !@)#$$#@^*&@*#*$%! and !@#$*&#$^*!&$*#&!@ as well as !@#$*#$^&@!*&#$*!&$%@!#$%!@#$^@)
There were plenty of stations, Sukiyaki, Teppanyaki, Tempura, Sushi/Sashimi Counter, Japanese Grill, but people were all heading for the usual favorites.

So mom and I employed the usual D&C strategy (Divide and Conquer). I go Teppanyaki (beef), she goes Sashimi/Sushi (Toro, Octopus and Hamachi). Then she goes Sukiyaki (everyone wants the beef but I don't see any Wagyu beef being served while the Udon and Chicken Sukiyaki station remained unmanned), I go Soba/Udon (2 bowls). Back to table, consume.

First thing first, quality definitely lower since it tends to resemble factory mass production rather than fine dining exquisite, the Hamachi was too thick and overpowering while the Toro was bleeding my heart out. and the Octopus was so thick (the cook didn't score the surface so it took two bites to cut through) that it reminded me of eating cardbox. (don't ask me for the story)
Teppanyaki was okay since it was fresh off the surface and the Soba should be eated cold anyway.

Round 2: she goes Teppanyaki, I go to the empty stations for some onigiris and japanese pickles. She goes Japanese Grill and Sashimi/Sushi, I go Sukiyaki and juice bar. Back to table, consume.

Onigiri gone cold (they should be serving this at the Japanese Grill, fresh from the oven, which would make a real difference), at least the pickles are okay. Sukiyaki soup ends up tasting like homemade French Onion soup (no kidding). Unagi is okay, but not moist enough for my liking (I so pine for a complete slice of unagi that I had since childhood) since they sparsely basted the sauce, at least mom and dad enjoyed the salmon sides. The poor people at the fresh juice counter were overworked but I really enjoyed pointing out to mum what happened to the juice after 30 minutes (you could see the pulp floating at the top of the melted ice at the next table, but I am too courteous not to photograph the evidence). So remember to drink the juice when it is freshly made, really really fast.

Round 3: she goes fruits, I go Tempura. she goes Miso, I go Sashimi/Sushi, Japanese pancakes and MOCHI!. Back to table, consume.

Backtrack, went back to tempura station for sauce (Haiz!)

The funniest thing was probably the un-emptied basket of tempura veggies but people were just swiping the tempura prawns as soon as they came out of the oil, at least it was decent, nothing to write home about (after a few Kaiseki menus, that is, especially when you tasted deepfried anglerfish and fugu, which were much better prepared). Miso was me-so-so, mum-so-so, dad-so-so. No wasabi in the sushi, ugh! Japanese pancakes was probably the best of all the stations (but still fell short of the one I had in Japan when I was a poor exchange student) but the MOCHI absolutely stole it crown (firstly, I adore mochi. Secondly, I hate the way we chinese make it so runny, especially the hawkers). These were firm but soft to chew and the nutty coating was just nice, not too sweet (It actually made my mother go for them after she declared she was stuffed). Polished off the rest of the fruits and I thankfully give gratitude for the gym session so that I don't roll down to the carpark on the way back.

I still hate buffets, especially the ones where you have to queue *sniff*.

PS: I am so taking mom and dad to Hilton's Jampagne when I get the chance.