Violet Oon Opens At Ion Orchard

A Peranakan Thanksgiving

When Violet Oon opened her fourth outlet on the third floor of Ion Orchard, I knew I had to invite some very special people. Now you all know how hard we work. In truth, A Typical Atypical Day For Our Children’s Emergency Team is hardly ever possible without the backbone of my department. I’m referring to my pool of junior doctors, including residents, medical officers & staff registrars. Hence it gave me great pleasure to invite a dozen of them to the new Violet Oon outlet to thank them & simply hang out.

High Tea

On Monday, I hosted six hungry doctors for high tea. We shared a serving of Marmite sotong salad, Hainanese pork chop & shepherd’s pie as well as two sets of the Singapore High Tea.

The Singapore High Tea comprised of a tower of local delights & scones. We were advised to eat from the lower savoury plates before progressing to the top, a plateful of desserts. The first photograph showcases egg salad tartlet, cream cheese & cucumber openface sandwich, otak otak & coronation chicken. My favorite was the otak otak. The next photograph shows kuay pie tee, yam cake & chilli crab tartlet with quail egg. It was difficult to pick a favourite as every morsel was absolutely scrumptious.

Presently we made our way through the sweet confections, including the financier, kueh dah dah, kueh lapis, kueh ko sui & bubur cha cha panna cotta. Meanwhile we chatted, making sure not to talk shop. Consequently I discovered one the doctors enjoys K pop with her daughter, while another has been married to his wife for over 30 years. Now this dates his wedding to before some of the young residents had been born! One of the residents shared she enjoys yoga & spin cycling, while another prefers jogging in the open to experience nature’s biodiversity. While one was about to move into her matrimonial home, another would soon celebrate the first month of his second-born. By the time we slathered dense scones with clotted cream, pineapple jam & calamansi jam, we all knew one another better.

Dinner

Last night, I brought another six young colleagues to join me for dinner. They chose babi pong tay, sambal eggplant, chap chye & nasi goreng with extra spice.

We also made sure to order the classics like dry laksa as well as ngoh hiang. These went perfectly with my cocktail, the haliatini. This is a concoction of Tanqueray gin, Cointreau, halia essence & fresh pink ginger flower. My colleague enjoyed a white sangria: orange liquor, white wine, prosecco & tropical fruits. Dessert was pineapple upside down cake, kueh beng kah & a myriad of ice-cream flavors including gula melaka.

For one good power hour, we spoke of nothing medical. So I discovered my dinner companions love singing, jogging, scuba diving & trekking. One travels often to see her family, one is about to be married next year to a nurse and one is bothered by bats. Oddly enough, they are all weirdly aware of the latest gossip on haunted rooms & bananas in strange places. Suffice to say I had a very amusing dinner.