Today I had a good sleep until 10am before heading to INSEAD to do some studying for my upcoming Forensic Exam for my pharmacist license, it’s on December 1st! Studying is not really a fun way to spend the holiday but I had to or else I’d never get through all the material. Ron had class from 2 to 5pm anyways so it’s not like we could’ve done much.

But we did go to this excellent Korean restaurant called Hyang To Gol which was recommended by one of Ron’s Korean classmates. Alex joined us for dinner there as well and we were so stuffed! But the food was very nice. But like Korean food usually is, a bit on the expensive side but the service was good. It’s recommended to make a reservation and they do have private rooms which you can pay additional for. The service is pretty quick and thorough, they even BBQ the meet for you and serve it to you.

So where do I start?

First was drinks, lemon soju, basically soju poured over freshly cut lemons. They also had cucumber soju which I liked better, more refreshing. I think it was $30 each “pitcher”.

My favorites are always the “kimchee” they serve you, many many small plates of appetizers:

Green onion pancake, marinated mushrooms, chili crab legs, green salad, kimchee, some sort of green bean or green onion, potato salad, another kimchee, turnip, cold cucumber soup.

My pictures didn’t turn out so well but the food was really delicious!

The sauces (from top: sesame, soybean, soy-hot):

These are BBQ Beef Ribs (Yangnyeom-Galbi):

Something new to us, a kimchee with pork pancake (kimchijeon), but couldn’t taste the pork and was very doughy:

My favorite Korean dish, rice pinkies (ddeokbokggi):

Marinated beef with vegetables (Yachae Bulgogi):

The bulgogi being cooked, sort of stewed and has clear noodles:

Spicy marinated pork belly (basically bacon):

Separate vegetable plate to wrap up the meat, includes lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, green chilis, and another green vegetable:

Recommended by Ron’s classmate, beef intestine hot pot (gopchang jeongol):

We were already so full but it was very yummy, includes noodles, veggies (too much onions though), and beef intestines. It wasn’t too spicy although it was really red in color.

Free dessert of fruit and a ginger/date cold soup:

It was quite a lot of food for 3 people and we did have leftovers. Our dinner was around $260 total including service charge and GST. I think next time we won’t order so much! But it was a very satisfying meal… I’d love to go back especially for the rice pinkies! and the hot pot!

http://www.onerochester.com

Today I had a sort of “culture” training for NUH. They have specific standards on how you should act, how you should look, etc. I think it’s good for people who have never worked in healthcare before but I think some of it is repetitive for people who have worked in healthcare for a while already. Today’s training was about how to empathaize with patients and to understand how they feel when coming to the hospital. It’s like guidelines on how to act, how to speak, how to look, etc. It was interesting but also a bit weird considering some of those things (like empathy) can’t really be taught, I think it’s more of something ingrained in your personality. But I guess it gives new employees an idea of the “corporate culture” and what is expected of them.

We ended early because tomorrow is a public holiday and many people wanted to get home to be with family.

The Taiwanese crew at INSEAD planned a dinner at One Rochester which is a restaurant within walking distance from our condo. Not sure what to classify the food as but definitely not Asian.

I started out with a Dragonfruit Martini which was pretty light and tasted more like fruit punch rather than dragonfruit.

We had some foie gras which was pretty good although the toast was a bit much for such a small piece of foie gras. One order was actually served in two portions.

Ron and I shared two main entrees. One was the ribeye and the other carbonara. The ribeye was really tender and with great sauce. It was served with a sweet potatoe puree and green beans. The carbonara had a cute presentation in 3 bowls. It was a bit salty for my taste, I think because of all the cheese, but the sausage was yummy.

The service for our group wasn’t so good though. One person who ordered got his meal way before everyone else and there were two people who had to wait over 45 minutes for their dish. Some of us had already finished eating by the time they were served their food, even though they ordered at the same time as everyone else. The waitstaff was asked about the orders numerous times and after a while, they began to ignore our group and weren’t prompt with removing plates as they had before the complaints. Eventually though the assitant manager deducted the amount for those late entrees but it took a bit of convincing. He blamed things like they had a small kitchen or that those people ordered after everyone else (which was not true). I guess at least they made it right in the end but those two people where starving. I think about if he or she was diabetic and on insulin, if their meals arrived so late and they had already given themselves the insulin shot, they would’ve gone hypoglycemic and fainted…

Well anyways… afterwards we headed to bar of the week at No. 5 Emerald Hill. They had martinis, 2 for $15. I got to try the pandan martini and lychee martini. The pandan was too strong for me and not much pandan flavor. The lychee was very sweet and served with lychee fruit so was pretty good. The place had free peanuts and you throw the shells on the floor, it was so difficult to stop eating those peanuts! Oh, the bartender upstairs was pretty cool as he had lots of “flair” (I think that’s what it’s called) with his tricks when making drinks (eg, throwing around bottles, flipping cups, shaking drinks).

It was nice to get off work early, have a good dinner, and have a chance to chat with partners I haven’t seen all week. Tomorrow is the public holiday “Deepavali” so I have the day off. Yay!