I couldn't sleep much after dawn and fussed with my
e-mail until almost noon, when monitor called: we made
lunch arrangements, to wit: Meet at the Marriott at
1:30 and put ourselves in the able hands of belle3388.

So off we went, Falco Peregrinus and Franny joining,
to Din Tai Fung in Paragon Center, Orchard Rd. This is
a branch of a Taiwan restaurant that is famous for its
xiao long tang bao, steamed Shanghai-style dumplings
stuffed with meat and broth.

The place was hopping, which guarantees fresh food, and
we waited for what seemed like an hour (but was probably
15 minutes or so). As the lunch crush was tailing off,
we got a table for 8, which was good, as the food (we
ordered it while we had been waiting) started filling
up all available space.

We started with shrimp egg fried rice, which, as I told
belle, was pretty much like what my mother used to make;
then the famous dumplings (we got pork ones and pork and
crab ones; I had a hard time telling the difference),
which had extra thin wrappers and were appropriately
filled with juice, which you sip after puncturing the
wrapper; then you pop the rest in your mouth and make
the yummy sound.

Dan dan noodles were excellent fresh noodles in a very
nice peanut sauce; I thought they needed a helping of the
hot oil that came on the table. Sa jiang mian, noodles
with meat and soybean sauce, were almost as good, a tad
spicier. Franny has come to love a slightly out of the
way dish - soup noodles with pork and pickled cabbage -
so we got a bowl; this was a very delicate version.

Shrimp with dou miao (pea pod sprouts) featured the
youngest pea sprouts I've ever had. An order of the
special siu mai was pretty standard except for a
teaspoon of broth hiding in each one (the secret: pop
a little blob of aspic in with the filling as you make
the dumpling; the aspic of course melts on contact with
heat; and, presto, magic!),

Dessert was a pretty standard thousand layer cake;
belle had said that the version made here melts in your
mouth. It doesn't, but it's pretty decent.

We then went to Takeshimaya to look for durian, which
monitor and Franny hadn't seen before. At the food hall
we were informed that it wasn't season, and they wouldn't
have any until new year's. I don't know what's up with
that, as for the last two SIN Dos they were available at
the Carrefour stores.

As I was halfway home, and as I wanted a bit of a nap,
I said goodbye and walked back to the hotel and had a
brief snooze.

It was soon time to go to the Conrad, where I found
Magic and tom911 comfortably situated; gradually people
filtered in: I met some new people (Dedehans, Johnosan,
JayBee and Mr. JayBee, some guy named Joe who looks kind
of like Joe Namath) and saw friends from ago (peteflys,
RestlessinRNO, gvdIAD (from the day before), Punki and
Hunki, Manchester Flyer, etc.). And at last we found our
host, who had been incommunicado for what appear to have
been reasons beyond his control. He hustled us into a
couple snazzy white vans that whisked us in short order
to the No Signboard Seafood, Geylang Branch.