over brunch at west side lounge this morning, darryl commented on the way american restaurants are increasingly serving dishes "two-way."

darryl: like duck breast and duck confit. pork chops and julienned pork skin. (this we had at pho pasteur)

me: ha! how can we be expected to be impressed when we grew up in singapore? obviously a duck is served at least three ways.

darryl: yes! and there isn't the theatre of cutting the duck! and it all comes on the same dish.

me: exactly!

and this is a good time to pitch in with a review i saw about huating restaurant, which as some of you know is one of my favourite restaurants, along with charming garden and lei garden. it was written by a tourist, i had the impression it was an american, and i was completely speechless when i first read it. they went to huating and ordered their crispy chicken, and gave it a very poor rating, because "it was tasty and original, but there was so much fat! to be fair, there was some lean meat, but we felt that for the price, we should have got more meat."

i have never been so flabbergasted in my life.