Busy season is upon us folks and that meant some additional late nights and a Saturday in the office. The good news is, flights were cheap from Singapore to the Pulau and I found myself with a roommate for the weekend. On a scale of hibernating to climbing Mt. Everest, we found ourselves on the low end of activity, but sometimes you need to recharge the batteries that way. What we did do (is that even proper English?) is pay a visit to our 3 favorite Western joints on the island.... once we of course had had some dumplings on Thursday.
Marshall's - the new kid on the block. How I Met Your Mother has been my favorite TV show for going on 7 years. So much so that we made sure we had the proper TV connections and internet apparatus to be able watch it over here. Especially because we finally get to meet the mother this season. As usual, I digress. In one episode, Marshall is on the hunt to try and re-find the best burger in New York City. He found it once, but was new to the city, got lost, and could not find his way back. Even Regis gets involved trying to find this burger. Apparently there are two people on this island who love HIMYM because one guy named his burger restaurant after this specific episode of the show. 
Normally, we consider OK food here to be good and good food to be great, more on that in a minute. In this case, this is a pretty good burger that you would even consider to be a good burger back home. The names crack you up - if you order the "Bison" you get two patties and bacon and cheese. You can use your imagination for the chicken burger names (everything is a burger here - even if its really a sandwich). I was hemming and hawing as to whether or not I really needed 'dos patties' but it took minimal prodding to add it to our order. Just an extra little slice of burger heaven in the tropics.
Campbell House - I've written about this place before, but its like coming home when you walk through the door. In fact, its kind of like being Norm on Cheers - everyone knows your name. It had been a few months, but we settled right into our usual table, the usual drinks appeared without having to order them and the next 2 hours could have been at any Italian joint on the planet. The Christmas music was a nice touch, I had completely forgotten where I was as Bing Crosby sang White Christmas to me while digging into my ice cream dessert. I almost expected to see little snow flakes drifting past the window outside. Then I caught a food cart out the window and a stray cat walking by - right back to the present day. Didn't matter, the food was great as always - the peppercorn steak I had would have been outstanding anywhere in the world. We followed it up with the annual viewing of Love Actually. In a moment of desperation my acquiescence to watching it yearly was given as a Christmas present. Oops - another year down - dozens more to follow.
Berlinz - you know if there is a Z in the name of the place it must be good. The better example is if there is a #, but this will have to work for Asia. Its kind of like my theory on how hand claps in a song equal excellence (see Mellencamp, John "Jack and Diane" or Boston "More than a Feeling). A combination German/European Bistro that I have to admit, does have the best tap beer on the island and the service is rapidly moving up the list as well. The usual Cesar salad, potato wedges and Hawaiian pizza were ordered. If you think that combination sounds odd, well, the couple from Chicago/London sitting next to us would agree with you. Nice folks, funny how you meet people from relatively close to home all over the world. Only one more week and then the family adventures continue - from the islands of Penang/Singapore to the island of Phuket. Relatively live updates have been requested. My guess is, the level of frequency will be directly correlated to the amount of Singha that is pushed in my direction - likely with diminishing returns at some point. I'll ask Mr. Whittington to graph it out at a later date. Feel free to send donations towards to cause, Thai Baht are cheap when paying in US dollars.
Until Thailand......
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