Braised Abalone in Superior Sauce (by G)

When I checked in at the airport in Ipoh (Malaysia) to fly to Singapore the Immigration guy noticed I had less than 6 months left on my passport (5 months and 22 days to be exact). 'You'll be deported from Singapore,' he said. 'It's not worth even taking the flight'.  I was adamant that I would take the flight and sort it out at the other end so they had me sign a waiver absolving them of any responsibility or financial burden if I got deported back to Malaysia.

Initially I was a bit worried but put it out of my mind as a later problem. When I got to Singapore they either didn't notice (or didn't care) about the expiry and let me straight in no questions asked.

I had worked out that being deported would be an expensive exercise for me - a flight back to Malaysia, changing or re-booking my flight back to Australia... when it didn't happen I figured I had a bunch of hypothetical extra money and decided to blow some of it on dinner.

I found a seafood restaurant that looked okay (though totally deserted of customers) and ordered the 'Braised Abalone in Superior Sauce'. I've never had abalone before and the rumours are true... it's fucking expensive. As you can see below, the plate consisted of a mushroom, a small whole abalone and three pieces of broccoli for the reasonable price of 38 Singapore dollars.

The flavour and texture of the abalone was not that dissimilar to the mushroom. I've heard abalone can be chewy if cooked incorrectly so I guess they did a good job of the braising. I don't know what goes into superior sauce but it turned out to be a glossy, mild, savoury sauce that complimented the abalone.

Not shown is a large plate of excellent seafood fried rice - essential for filling the vast recesses of my stomach not filled by the small abalone.