dinner at tung luk singatures,vivo city

it was ah emm's 90th birthday celebration and it would have been ida's farewell dinner on the day she was due to depart for melbourne for her university studies. in fact, they had brought forward the start of the dinner so that we could have enough time to eat and make it to the airport for the check-in. however, because of the delay in ida's student visa approval, we had the luxury of an unrushed dinner.

ah emm's family had invited relatives from her own side. lay bee and her siblings were the only relatives invited from the paternal side. ah emm, who lives in frankel avenue, was surrounded by her six children and dozens of grandchildren and two great grandchildren, who showered her with gifts and love.

although signatures is supposed to boast all the signature dishes from the many tung luk restaurants, i could not discern any 'specialness' in all the dishes that were served. two which did stand out were the handmade beancurd and the fried prawn in batter.

the birthday dinner started with presentation of gifts to ah emm, group photo taking and ended with the singing of the birthday song (in mandarin) and more photo taking.

for takeaway, each of us had a piece of belgian chocolate, gift wrapped by her children and each family went home with some indonesian delicacy.