A Dinner Date With SM Goh (Opening Ceremony)

I msged a friend on monday nite that i had to miss choir practice because of a dinner date with SM Goh. Oh well, it was a dinner date together with more than a 1000 delegates as he was the Guest of Honour for ATF.

That's Alicia, Jasmine & me @ the reception area. As usual, security was extremly tied. I was in charge of all the badging and mind u, the requirements from the police is really stringent. So once we cleared the police checks, there is no way i am getting out of the ballroom and get checked again. So instead, i went around the ballroom and chatted with some of my 'laotian friends' instead. Ha ha ... these are the ones whom i see once a year during the same event.



What's for dinner? Well, it's 4-course western style dinner. I went for the food tasting last month and well, apparently, the standard of the food has dropped quite alot. That's always been the problem with mass cooking.



Appetiser:
Freshly boiled prawns on Asian slaw, chilli sesame and shallot oil

Verdict: I like it although some of my colleagues said that it's abit too sweet.



Soup:
Double-boiled winter melon with oriental herbal flavour, steamed glutinous conpoy rice dumpling

Verdict: Not my liking. I wonder if it suits the tastebuds of the european and americans.



Main:
Braised confit of chicken drumstick on honey cinnamon jus and baked snow fish fillet coated with laksa paste, baby pea shoot and light ginger butter sauce, japanese pumpkin mash, infused with coconut milk

Verdict: A weird combination. Either u like it or hate it. Initial plan was for the guests to choose either fish or chicken. Now, we have both.



The menu says no pork, no lard, no beef. It was funny. I had people telling me that the buyers added on to the list by saying that there is no wine too. Not that u can't have it, u'll just have to pay for it. U can call it, well ... Uniquely Singapore perhaps.

And here's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, the Guest-of-Honour delivering his keynote address.





SM Goh together with the 10 ASEAN Tourism Ministers



Cultural performances by the 10 ASEAN countries.







And of course, here's our own Singapore Idol, Taufik Batisah singing ASEAN's 40th Anniversary Song entitled "RISE". The song, composed by Dick Lee and choir accompanied by The Singapore Lyric Opera Children's Choir. It's a very nice song and i've even received an email from a delegate saying that they are proud of it.






And hey, does the 'ball' looks familiar? We found this backstage. Yeap ... it's the opening ceremony mechanics for SM Goh & the 10 ASEAN Tourism Ministers which they used earlier. How timely, my colleague called me when i was just about to take this picture.