Mr. L's Retirement Lunch

Mr. L's retired. His retirement was celebrated in a grand way in school. He fully deserved it as he's a legend in the school, having taught there for 38 years. That morning, his table in the staffroom was piled up with lots of gifts from students and teachers alike. Then, there was an assembly held in his honour. I was surprised when his wife showed up in the middle of the assembly amidst cheers from everyone. I think that was the best part of the whole assembly. Heh. Another of my favourite part was the send-off. The school prefects lined up from the staff room door, right up to the gate where a car was waiting for him. After Mr. L clocked out for the last time, he slowly made his way down the line, shaking hands and hugging some of the prefects ... and when he reached the car, the students gathered around and said "Thank you, teacher!" for the very last time. I thought that was really meaningful. Mr. L headed straight to the airport, as he would be flying to KL for his retirement holiday. :))

For us staff - old and new - we celebrated his retirement with a lunch at Li Garden a week after; and here were some of the food we had ...

Hot and cold platter 

Not a very memorable cold platter ....


Thick soup
Sharks fin gourd soup, I think ...


Braised noodles with shredded chicken
Many found the noodles the be bland


Roasted Duck Skin, served with
Everyone's favourite dish


Pancake, and
Loved the smokiness of the paper-thin crepe

Cucumber and scallions

Hands down, the duck skin was everyone's favourite. The combination of the wrap, and the crispy duck skin with a thin layer of fat underneath, the refreshing cucumber, the pungent scallion, and sweet plum sauce .... divine. Better than those mediocre ones I ate in Beijing the other day .... 

Teochew-style steamed Tilapia
Luckily no smell of mud on the fish .... 

Braised mushrooms with deep-fried spinach

I thought this was an ugly-looking dish ... tastewise, however, it did deliver; I loved the battered-coated vegetables as it tasted like tempura .... 

We also had sweet and spicy prawn, braised pork leg with steamed buns, and stir-fried roasted duck meat with lettuce leaves. No pictures for those dishes .... unfortunately. We thought the prawns weren't that fresh, and the braised pork leg was too sweet. No one liked the stir-fried roasted duck meat.  

Pancake for dessert
The lotus filling was sweeter than the red bean filling .. but they were indulgent and I liked them. 

Mr. L, though retired, had volunteered to come back to school to teach! How great he was! He did not want to abandon the students since they would be sitting for their exam in a few weeks' time.

After lunch, J, AL and I changed our clothes and headed to Singai .... time to burn off those calories.