Forlino: Singapore Dinner Report

On Monday night I went to a massive client dinner that was actually really fun.

I was tired and kind of not in the mood to be charming and pleasant for three hours after a full day of meetings and preparation for those meetings, but I told myself to suck it up.

Eating good food at a fancy restaurant with a beautiful view on someone else's dime - there are worse problems, am I right?  Right.

And it actually turned out to be great.

The restaurant faced the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which actually consists of three buildings connected at the top by a huge ship.  The infinity pool up there is supposed to be amazing.  I found out that you get access to all of it if you get a spa treatment.  Maybe for the next time I am in Singapore… Anyway, it is pretty amazing because that hotel has nearly 3,000 rooms/suites and they seem to have no trouble with occupancy.

And that would be because...

The bottom of the hotel, the part that is supposed to resemble a dragon, is the casino.  If you are not a guest at the hotel, it costs S$100 entry to go into the casino.  In a breathtaking show of blatant discrimination, the hotel only charges the S$100 entry fee if you are a mainland Chinese tourist (and maybe if you are of some other "questionable" ilk).  They will not grant you entry unless you have your passport.

They are obviously raking it in.

The Marina Bay Sands hotel. 

It was a beautiful night, with a full, rotund moon.  There are two light shows that occur at 8 pm and 9:30 pm every night.  They were so unimpressive.  Laser-like beams of Matrix-like green light shot out of the hotel and swiveled around a bit on the water.  And that was it.  They were not even pretty.   I felt like I was caught up in a game of laser tag.

Night shot.

Sixteen people showed up - fourteen of whom were men.  Oh, how skewed the business world still is, my friends.  It was such a ridiculous ratio that it was pretty comical.  The two women (that would include yours truly), both lawyers, sat next to each other near the center of the table.

The dinner was delicious.

Amuse bouche.  Not very exciting and had a weird red pepper flavor to it.   B

I was feeling self conscious and did not manage to snap a picture of my foie gras.  It was a sizable chunk and very tender.  The greens on the side however were utterly limp and uninspiring. A-

Perfectly cooked risotto with tender, fresh chunks of shrimp and strong, vibrant tomato flavor. A+

The main.  Braised beef cheek on a bed of polenta paired with a slice of brussel sprout and water lotus root.  Very tender, well done.  A- because it was not all that exciting (maybe I am just not a beef cheek fan), A+ if I feel generous.

Meh.  It was chocolatey and I took a few bites of it for lack of anything else better to do.  But this was not the right dessert for me.  However, not really their fault that chocolate is not my thing.  I mean, that's probably on me, right?  B+