Valentines is a time to be suckered! Call me a sucker!

I was always of the opinion that Valentine's Day was really conjured up by some marketing geniuses to create a boost for the retail and F&B industries. The famous St Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago in 1929 between two rival gangs (Al Capone and Bugs Moran), I thought was very aptly named and should be remembered always since consumers are constantly being massacred by the retailers on Feb 14. Some may say that Valentine's is a day to show your love to your loved one. Isn't that supposed to be every day?

So I can ignore my loved one every day but on Valentine's...BAAMMM! I buy her flowers, gifts and a meal that cost more than some African country's GDP, to make up for being a jerk all year long! Anyway, Melissa and I have made a pact that Valentine's was not a compulsory celebration for us. While I still send the occasional flowers to her office and sometimes get her simple gifts if I happen to see something unique, we hardly do anything for Valentine's dinner.

The other difficulties are:-

1) Our kids.....not very on to take them with you and a babysitter is not always available. They are getting older now, so this excuse is getting thin.
2) Not all Valentine's are on weekends
3) Restaurants are always full!!

So this year, my cousin KLY and I thought we will surprise our wives a bit and take them to dinner. We thought that with the economic downturn, we would see better offers that are less inflated and more service provided into the offering and if you had the same thought as I, then perhaps you are very simple minded!

We called about 10-11 places and they were all booked solid. Of course the fact that we decided on the night before Valentine's didn't really help la. We called places like Luna Bar whose set at RM700 per couple were still booked solid. Places like 3rd Floor at Marriott didn't even want to tell us the price. I guess if we had to ask, we couldn't afford it. Economic slowdown, my Chindian fanny!

So at 5pm, both of us were communicating via IM (thank God for technology) while frantically calling restaurants. We even got my cousin, Sow Yee (KLY's sister)into the exercise and finally settled on this new place called Courtyard Gardens at Jalan Dungun.

When KLY called for reservations and asked what was the Valentine's set, the person on the line said the set consists of appetizer, soup, entree, main and dessert! Erm...technically that wasn't a wrong answer but we must first class court jesters and the village idiot combined not to know that!! So we were kinda concerned about this place and the intelligence of the service staff. It's like the lights are on but not everyone's home!

Needless to say, we were very pleasantly surprised. Of course our wives didn't know the tension or the last minute scrambling that went into the process....until now....dang!

Food was not great but was definitely very enjoyable. The ambiance was really, really nice as all converted bungalows are. Unfortunately I had a very old, cheap Sony Cybershot which didn't take night pics very well and hence couldn't take very good pictures.

Here are some shots of our menu. I did take some shots of the restaurant, but it didn't come out well so you have to take our word for it.

Our table was decorated with 2 peacocks!



This is the appetizer. I seem to remember it was something to do with Salmon. The sauce was a little sweet and the Salmon was very fresh.



The entree was Wagyu Beef which was very soft and cooked to a very delectable medium rare (or so is my opinion la).



Our sorbet was served on a very unique and what I thought to be very creative holder. If you look closely, the sorbet glass is sitting on a block of ice but what I enjoyed was that the ice has flowers, reeds, leaves and seeds of different colours frozen in it.



Our main dish was cod-fish with some buttery sauce that was not too filling or creamy served on top of what I could only describe as a very large wantan like substance. The middle's filling is very well marinated and prepared but the wrappings is thick and totally tasteless.



Our dessert was creme brulee slowly heated over a blue flame. It's not very clear but that contraption was to heat the syrup. While it wasn't necessary but it sure made a good show.



We men did get some brownie points for our efforts and while it wasn't much compared to when we were dating or compared to when we had more time and knew more places to hang out, it was very commendable for our standards. So while Chindians are typically still Valentine's Day sceptics and humbugs, I hope you had a good lovers' day celebration on Valentine's Day this year.