Have you heard? Did you know? The boss behind Boon Lay Raja has planned to fold up its business following his retirement.
For the
Westerners (people who reside in the West), Boon Lay Raja should not be unfamiliar. Situated in the heart of Jurong East, this unassuming Chinese restaurant is one of my childhood memories of many dinner gatherings with friends, relatives and ex-colleagues.
So today, we made a trip down to memory lane, partly to make memories again and partly to celebrate our helper's birthday.
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| entrance |
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| napkins and all |
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| helper & matt |
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| mil & jon |
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| my parents |
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| father & jon |
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| mummy & matt |
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| jon with his dazzling smile |
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| forever cool matt |
It was a dinner gathering with my parents together with my mother-in-law. We selected a set menu and the kids waited quite patiently for the first dish to serve.
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| appetizer |
Appetizers consisted of mostly fried stuff, with ngoh hiang, prawn spring rolls, fried slice squid, sliced abalone & mayonnaise prawns.
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| steamed soon hock |
We changed out the deep fried marble gorby to a steamed
soon hock (which we had to top up another $50). Just to make it easier for the kids. The fish was really fresh so it's worth the top up.
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| shark's fin with crab meat |
There was little shark's fin but plenty of crab meat. In fact, taking the shark's fin soup neat, without vinegar and pepper, I could taste it freshness.
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| live poached prawns |
This poached prawns I have to say, it's really good and fresh and juicy.
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| brocoli and scallops |
It is a pity that this dish was cooked with slight dried chilli. I felt that it was not necessary to add in the chilli as I looked forward to taste the broccoli's sweetness and the succulent scallops.
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| traditional yam paste |
We ended the dinner with traditional yam paste and a generous serving of ginko and pine nuts.
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| birthday cake |
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| cut cake |
Of course, the star was at the end of the dinner. Awfully Chocolate cake as the birthday cake. Everyone was delighted with the dinner, children included.
At the same time while we had our dinner and birthday cake, there was a wedding ongoing and another grand birthday celebration in a VIP room together. To me, this restaurant is just full of characters. Where else could you find such a place with kampung spirit, having different occasions all under the same roof.
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| retro box |
To top it off, the restaurant was still using such a retro box to pack takeaway. Ah…. I would miss this place.
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