今日は、お友達数人とランチをご一緒しました。多分５月ごろから会っていないお友達もおられて、全員で５人。シャングリラホテルのロビーのプラナカン料理のセミ・ピュッフェに行ってみました。プラナカンの食器が可愛いかったです。
I had lunch with a few friends including some that I hadn’t seen since … probably May. There were 5 of us altogether and we went to the Lobby Lounge at Shangri-La Hotel. The Peranakan dishes they use looked very cute.
プラナカン料理も結構お魚やシーフードが多いので、わたしが食べられたものはこれだけ。
They tend to use lots of fish and seafoods in Peranakan cooking so this was all I could find without them at the buffet.
メインは、６種類から選ぶというシステム。わたしは、唯一お魚もシーフードも入っていない、チキンライスをいただきました。まぁ、こんなものでしょうね。ソース（ダークソースはわたしは使わず、チリソースとジンジャーソースを使いました）がとても美味しくなかったのとチキンも硬めな感じで、やっぱりチャッター・ボックスの方がずっと美味しいと思います。チリクラブは今日は終わってしまったと言われ（１２時半ごろオーダーしたと思うので既に売り切れというよりもともとなかった？？）、それぞれに色々オーダーされていました。
Then you choose the main dish out of 6 dishes. All the others had fish or seafood so I chose Chicken Rice. It was OK but I much prefer Chatter Box for this dish. Some of my friends wanted to have Chilli Crab but they were told they’d finished it today. I think it was only around 12.30 so it seemed too early to run out, maybe they didn’t have any? Another friend chose Chicken Rice but the other 3 ordered different dishes.
デザートも、ニョニャのものばかりで、おぜんざいのようなもの（日本のもののように甘くない）やもちもちしたデザートを数種類いただきました（写真は撮り忘れ）が、丸いおだんご状のものをフォークで突き刺したら中から黒蜜がぴゅーっと出てきて、攻撃されました（涙）。後で見たら、そのときに気づいた胸のあたりだけでなくジーンズにも結構かかっていました。（そして、なぜかブラックジーンズの膝から上が白い毛玉のようなもので覆われていました、ナプキンですかね？）。
Dessert was also only Nyona desserts. I forgot to take a photo but I had a bowl of slightly sweetened beans with coconut milk (not very sweet) and a few pieces of sticky desserts. One of them was a small ball and when I pushed my fork in, dark black syrup shot out and attacked me! I did clean it up from my top but later I saw there was a lot on my black jeans, too. I also noticed after we left the restaurant that my legs from my knees up were covered with white fluff, I guess they are from their restaurant’s napkin, I cannot think of anything else.
今日ははずれの日だったのか、キッチンのスタッフが足りなかったのか、メインが出てくるのがとてもとても遅くて、それも１品ずつ１０分から１５分間を開けて出てくるのでみんなで食べるのではなく、１人ずつ食べる感じ。たまたま今日がそうなのか、いつもそうなのかはわかりません。
I don’t know if it’s only today or always so but their service was painfully slow. My Chicken Rice and a noodle dish for another friend came relatively quickly (but it wasn’t quick) but the rest of them had to wait for a long time and they came one by one about 15 minutes or so in between. We guess they didn’t have enough staff in the kitchen but we don’t know for sure what the problem was. It wasn’t as if the place is particularly large and full.
サービスに問題ありでしたし、食べ物も個人的にはあまり美味しいと思わなかったですが（思うにやはりわたしはプラナカン料理は苦手のようです）、雰囲気は良いですし、みなさんとゆっくりおしゃべりするのがメインの集まりだったのでそういう意味ではゆったり出来て良かったですし、コーヒーか紅茶がついて４５ドルとホテルの中でいただくランチとしてはとてもお得なお値段だと思いました。ローカル料理に興味のある方には、１箇所で安くて色々食べることが出来て良いのでは？
Fortunately, as we were in a group chatting the time went fast, but even so we were quite annoyed, it’s not nice not to be able to eat together. I personally didn’t enjoy their food but I sort of knew there wouldn’t be a lot for me before going there (I have a strong feeling I don’t like Peranakan food) but went there because the main thing for us today was to get together and catch up with each other, a couple of the friends were going to be late so we thought a buffet was a good choice and it was. The lounge is very nice and you don’t have another table close to yours so you can enjoy chatting with each other. The bill was S$45 each including coffee or tea, which is a very good value. I guess it’s a good choice if you’d like to try a lot of local food in one place.
たくさん笑って、とても楽しいひと時でした。皆さんそれぞれにお忙しく、このメンバーで次回集まれるのはクリスマス前かもしれませんが、また集まれるのと楽しみにしています。
It was lovely to catch up and laugh a lot! Everyone seems busy so maybe next time when I can see them altogether is before Christmas, but I’ll look forward to catching up with them again.
The Lobby Lounge At Shangri-La Hotel
22 Orange Grove Road
Singapore 258350
Tel: 6213 4288