Dining Out For Life with Cous Cous

Yesterday was "Dining Out For Life" where a hundred restaurant of so in the city donates one-third of their profits to HIV/AIDS service organizations in the area. Me and some of my colleague went to a Singapore vegetarian restaurant near chinatown. Us working in the field of health care and HIV/AIDS were glad to have an excuse to go out eating and do some good at the same time. But our so-called boss scolded us for taking time out of the office and supporting some organization that he did not like. He tried to guilt some of us into not going, and made a big fuss out of it, I wonder if he realizes what a jackass he sounds like.

The food was ok, I have a lot of experience with Chinese vegetarian restaurants and that wasn't quite up to par. We ordered a mock duck which was pretty good, my colleague wanted a sizzling tofu and one wanted a tofu with eggplant. The description was a bit different, but when the dishes came they were baically the same thing, same brown sauce with same vegetables. It's so much like those crappy American Chinese food. Fried stuff with goo.

After work ES, ES' son KEL and MP went across the river to a Moroccan restaurant called Cous Cous. The lighting is a bit dim and we sat on some couches and order a 10 course Royal Feast. 1. Lentil Soup, 2. Mixed Salad, 3. Chicken Bastilla, 4. Chicken with Lemon and Olive, 5. Lamb with Honey, 6. Beef Kebab, 7. Couscous with vegetables, 8. Baklava, 9. Fruit Salad with Cinnamon and 10. Hot Mint Tea.

The lentil soup was really good, the mixed salad however was seasoned a bit too heavily. I'm usually quite fond of carrot but in this case, there were so much cumin that I can't stand the taste. It's usually such a classic combination too.

The bastilla is a filo dough wrapped chicken, almond and egg pastry topped with powdered sugar. It's my first time having bastillas, it's really strange but good. It's like there's ground chicken inside an almond croissant, if you can imagine. The chicken with lemon and the lamb with honey tasted very similar, they are both lightly sweet and pleasant. The beef too tough, the couscous too soggy. Up to this point we were literally stuffed to the max, but I still had the baklava and it was one of the best baklava I have had. It's very light and tasty. With all the food and it's only $25 per person, very inexpensive indeed.

KEL was a bit sick and was whining a bit throughout the night which bothered ES a bit, but I reassured her that I would take care of him for the night so she can rest and relax. I think I did pretty good, KEL is actually a great kid. We catched up with MP and I generally had a pretty good night. We went to a Korean supermarket afterwards and got some groceries. Made gyoza for principe after I got home and slept like a log.