Ho Chiak

Its time for a new reference for steaks in Singapore: The Fat Cow is it! But with a twist. This is not the standard fare of US styled steak, but with a strong Japanese accent...and I don't mean only in the wagyu, but also the style.

1. Fat Cow

   
   
2. Japanese Steakhouse
5. Address: 1 Orchard Boulevard, 248649

   Phone:6735 0308

Rocku is a fun place. Built like a large dining room, each table with its own smokeless charcoal grill. It has been a popular venue for the younger set to have a good meal, and catch up with friends. The venue provides live band entertainment 5 nights a week. And from March, every first Sunday, it turns to be a Cosplay styled venue.

Guests will be entertained by Cosplayers from Singapore, China, Malaysia and Korea. And if you come dressed in a Cosplay costume, you get 50% off their $29.90 Yakiniku buffet.

The discount will be moot if the food is not good...but I was pleasantly surprised that the food is actually very good.

I particularly liked the wagyu beef. The regular buffet features Australian beef, US pork. But we wanted to try the premium wagyu (not part of the buffet)

Nice cuts, no marinade, perhaps just a touch of salt. The beef was nicely marbled, and grilling over the hot, smokeless grills at the table proved to be easy. And made a delicious meal

We also had the seafood platter, which is part of the buffet promotion

Here the marinade is quite well done. Grilling the squid, salmon, mussels and prawns were a treat.

As were the buffet, but to be ordered as a la carte garlic fried rice

Wonderful fragrance. The rice was a bit on the wet and sticky side, but it was nicely aromatic, and tasted very good.

An in addition to the good food, we were entertained by the Cosplayers:

All in the name of a fun evening, good food and drinks, and nice entertainment. Kinda of a different style of establishment as I am used to blog about, but one which I enjoyed all the same.

Rocku Yakiniku
Bugis +
201 Victoria Street
#04-06
6634 3313
www.rocku.com.sg

Au Petit Salut is one of the kingpins of the local French culinary scene for a long time. I have reviewed this once before, and have eaten there many, many times...mostly very happy with the food and service. I recently went back for an event, and sampled their fare.

Nice place...sitting in a colonial bungalow, by the Dempsey area. Very nice, plentiful parking slots. Within, a charming ambience.

The evening was hosted by The Hour Glass and DeBethune, who makes some of the most interesting watches in the market. With a banquet of perhaps 30 pax, I was impressed with the swiftness of the service, and the quality of the cooking...but I am letting the cat out of the bag.

First the amuse...

Norweigian King crab, served cold with avocado puree, radishes and tomato espuma. Delectable. The crab was delicate, sweet flavoured. Nice.

A second starter of winter vegetable volute was then served

Tasted like a kind of pumpkin soup, rich creamy. The light taste of the pumpkin shone through the soup.

The main course was a 400 day grain fed Wagyu ribeye, sauteed mushrooms and pommes mouseline

I found my cut of the ribeye had a sinew running through it...and kind of spoils the experience for me. But otherwise, the meat was quite nice. Smooth, rich, almost creamy wagyu, cooked medium rare and seared outside. The mushrooms were very nice, as was the whipped potato.

For desserts, I had creme brule

Chocholate flavoured. This made the grade, but was nothing special. The chocholate a bit thick and heavy.

Other than the cut of beef which a bit off side for me...I did check with my friend who sat opposite me who also had the beef, and he declared his cut perfect, I think Au Petit manage to retain a position amongst the top French restaurants in Singapore.

40C Harding Road
6475 1976

with SYT

Kobe beef raises eyebrows. Accountants sometimes ask, "how can a dinner be so expensive". But here, I introduce a Kobe beef restaurant which is reasonably priced...well priced like a regular steakhouse in the US.

But then, can beef be that good, that it literally just melts in your mouth? Can the fat be packed so full of gorgeous flavour? Can it still be beefy tasting at the same time? Many wonder. Many never find out. To do so, would require a trip to Japan where the best wagyu is never exported, only to be consumed within the country. The Kobe prefecture is perhaps the most famous for wagyu, but in Japan you can find equal or even higher quality from other prefectures.

Gyu-an, a small steakhouse at the basement of a side street in Ginza is one such restaurant which can answer this question. The steaks served here are all from Kobe, and all perfectly executed. The service is excellent, little Japanese waitresses busy running around, fussing over diners. The manager is a gentleman who speaks perfect English.



I was first introduced to this restaurant by J. Nakazawa who had taken Kin and I to sample wagyu. Nakazawa-san is truly a Japanese amongst Japanese with an eye of the traditional and special. I returned with SYT this trip, and we spent a good 20mins searching for the restaurant. Finally I found it, and the walk to search was worthwhile. Unfortunately my Blackberry GPS could not lock into a location reading so I still don't have the coordinates, so please bear with the google map below.

The Menu in English, as translated by the Tokyo Metro Tourism folks.

SYT selected the Hana Taizen ladies set, and I did a 200g sirloin steak.

First, a beef with soy sauce amuse bouche - Gyu Tsukudani.



This was beef, ground and boiled with soy sauce. The taste of the beef was rather apparent...so, yes, wagyu retains the beefy taste. The texture was fibrous, but soft and tender, and the soy sauce adds its punch with saltiness and soy flavour. Very nice.

A small salad was next:



Fresh, fresh vegetables in a simple soy sauce based dressing. Very nice.

Then, the main event...SYT's fillet:



The beef was tender, but the cut was not very fat, though what fat present was well marbled and spread through the muscle fibres, making the beef very tasty, tender, and flavourful. Just a nice touch of chewiness.

My sirloin was somewhat fatter...



The characteristic skirt of fat on the sirloin was particularly flavourful...burst in the mouth, with great umami mouth feel, and beautiful flavour...I can almost taste the corn fed to the cows...and I am sure it is my imagination, the beer it had drunk.



The beef was very tender...had to be with the high level of marbling, and cooked perfect medium raw. At the same time, it had the robust, beefy taste. As can be seen the light browning of the outsides - a characteristic of the Maillard Reaction is evident, as indeed the flavours released were very clear to the palate. I am not sure if the beef had been dry aged. I am not aware that the Japanese practice dry aging...and indeed in the tasting, the nuttiness, foie gras flavour is absent, indicating that this was fresh beef...just very high quality and very beautifully cooked.

The beef was served with 3 different kinds of sauces, but being a purist, I only ate with the rock salt - extreme right.



Indeed one of the more pleasurable steak dinners I have had in a while...how I lament that all of these have been eaten outside of Singapore. This is a must try steakhouse when in Tokyo, especially if you are staying in the Ginza area.


6-13-6 (Hibiya Line Higashi-Ginza), Tokyo
(short walk from Gucci Ginza) Marked A on the Google Map:

View Larger Map
tel: +81 3-3542-0226‎

with the ieaters, organized by Holybro

ieat has blogged about Damien D'Silva and his Big D'Grill when he was still in Bedok South...but this year, Damien moved his stall into another coffee shop, but this time in Holland Drive...in the very same coffee shop, and almost right next door to Ricky of the XO Fish Bee Hoon Cze Char fame.

A group of 14 ieaters gathered by Holybro decended on the coffeeshop one Monday evening, and did what ieaters do best...eat.

We started with a trio of Italian inspired dishes...all pasta.

First, Crab meat linguini



The pasta is home made, and fresh. I would have preferred the pasta to be al dente, and firmer to the bite, like they serve it in Italy. In one of my conversations with chefs in Italy, they told me that in fresh pasta was only used for the dumplings like gnocci, et al, and for the traditionalist never for spaggetti, fetucinni, linguini, because in order for the firmness required to qualify as al dente, the pasta needed to have been dessicated, and rehydrated only just so. As with canned tomatos, the method originally intended only to preserve and lengthen the shelf life of food, adds and enhances the flavour and quality of the food. Canned tomatos, and dried pasta is indeed superior in taste and texture than their fresh cousins.

Circuiteously, this is my way of saying that the linguini was too soft. The tomato crab sauce was very good...it showed off the subtle taste of the crab meat very well.

Next pasta was the bacon carbonara



This was the winner. A favourite in our table (actually it tied with the crabmeat linguini)...we had 2 tables joined together like a figure of 8, and had two sets of each dish. The carbonara sauce was thick, rich, flavourful. The eggy flavour was well infused with the cream, and the sauce was just enough to cling onto the spagetti. My Italian friends - the el Professories Landi - Massi and Francesca, often lament that because of the typical Singaporean kiasu attitude, we demand too much sauce in our pasta. Its called sauce and not gravy for a reason, so the Italians demand not too much of it. The test is that when you pick up the pasta, and finish off the plate, the plate should be clean...rather dry of sauce, and not have gravy that you then drink up like a soup.

The spagetti was again the same texture...too soft, but the sauce was magic. The pieces of bacon was generous in size and number, and added a further dimension to this dish.

Tagliatale Ragu was next.



Ragu is the quintessential Italian pasta sauce. What many of us know as Spagetti Bolognaise is known as ragu in Italy. Tomato based, it is cooked with ground beef (or another meat, but the Italians prefer beef). Damien's version had ground beef and veal.

On our table, this was received with mixed reviews. Some felt it was wonderful, I thought it was rather ordinary.

Next up, the Western...two of the piéce de resistance the kurobuta pork chops and the wagyu.



The kurobuta drew ooos and ahha from the table as it was served. It had already been sliced, and one can see the pink insides peeking out fromt he nicely browned exterior.

Sink your teeth into it, and you know why the Japanese and the world now come and pay homage to the humble Berkshire pigs...the meat was sublime. Tender to a fault, it was flavourful, each bite bursting with umami sending small torrent after torrent of pleasure to the brain. This was comfort food.



My slice shown above...note the generous fat, and the wonderfully cooked lean part of the meat. This was my absolute favourite of the evening.

Next up, Blackmoore Fullblood wagyu, intercostal cut:



The Blackmoore farm in Australia was one of the original wagyu farms. David and Julie Blackmoore, who own the farm are obsessed with their beef. They only produce full blood wagyu. Wagyu are Japanese cattle - wa meaning traditional Japanese, and gyu meaning beef. Traditional strains in Japan are the Black breed's famous breeding strains: Tajima from Hyogo Prefecture, Itozakura from Shimane Prefecture, and Kedaka from Tottori Prefecture are selected and bred in Australia by the Blackmoores. Fullblood wagyu means that both parents are wagyu. Thouroughbred means that only the steer (father) is wagyu. The sperm of the wagyu is inseminated into Angus or Hereford, and the offspring is known as thouroughbred. See their website for more info.

The wagyu presented for tasting by Damien was from the intercostal of the cattle...I am not sure if this is the superior cut or not, but I am impressed by a chef who is obsessed enough to know and describe his meat by the cut. The intercostals are the muscles between the ribs, and I guess not used for hard work, but only to expand and contract the ribcage. I would imagine it to be very tender.

It was not clear if the meat had been aged, but tasting the meat, I suspect not, and if it had some form of aging, was wet aged. See my earlier blog on beef aging.

The meat was very tender, but did not have any nutty taste that is characteristic of dry aging. The flavour of the wagyu was strong and sufficient, and there was no trace of an overpowering beefy taste. The cut was done medium rare, and the outsides midly brown. I would have preferred medium all the way through inside, and charred crisp on the outside.

I enjoyed the wagyu, but preferred the pork.

We also had a fish dish...but all of us were fussing over the pork and beef to pay much attention to the fish. I did taste it, and found it unremarkable.

Next round, we had Peranakan...this was not typical peranakan, but Damien style...so I guess this is Eurasian rather than peranakan. The Eurasians have developed their own cuisine, mixing western dishes with strong powerful spices and making the cuisine east meets west, like the people.

Some in the table found the beef rendang and buah keluak to be fascinating. I never fancied buah keluak - a difficult dish, where the buah keluak is rigrously cleaned, cooked, cracked and stewed for some 3 days. Damien puts in his special sambal for extra kick.

The beef rendang was quite tender, the spices ok. But frankly, my mom's beef rendang is superior.

We also had an intresting dish - the belimbing shrimps...belimbing is a fruit much like a small starfruit. Damien picks this from his mom's garden, and creates this dish...sour, a bit bitter. I didn't quite fancy it as well.

The only dish I had some feeling about in this round was the Bang Bang Chicken:



This was a chicken chop, but with a spicy twist. The crisply pan fried chicken, was done just right, and smothered with a special sauce which was so spicy and hot, that it even got me going...I would describe the spicy taste as peppery spicy and not chilli spicy. The effect was a numbing bite on the lips and tongue...what the Chinese would call ma la. I liked the dish, but this was not a dish to eat on its own...but to savour with a bowl of rice.

Finally dessert. Damien is famous for his bonet...



A chocolate pudding with caramel sauce. Whilst some found it to be wonderful, I found the dessert to be a bit one dimensional. The pudding was a bit overpowering in the dark chocolate. Not my preferred dessert.

Overall, the kurobuta and even the wagyu is worth a return visit. I also liked the carbonara pasta and the Bang Bang chicken. Interesting hawker western store, this one...quality ingredients, cooked with passion.

Read the reactions from the makan kakis who ate there, and oters at ieat forum


Big D's Grill
Block 46 Holland Drive
#01-359
Singapore 270046

Open daily from 12pm-2.30pm and 6pm-9.30pm, except Thursdays which is dinner only from 5.30pm till 9.30pm

with Dr. Mycroft

So the terrible twins ride again...Mycroft and self had another great adventure (oops letting the cat out of the bag) in our search for satisfying wagyu.

Tucked in one corner of UE Square, Gyu-kaku looks like a family eatery. By reputation, it is known as one of the top 3 mainstream wagyu places in Singapore - the others being Aribuya and Daidomon. I will blog about the others later...so onto this review.

We ordered the wagyu sampler, comprising of 4 different cuts of wagyu.



The cuts look promising...beautiful wagyu, I believe from Australia's Mayura Station is used, totalling about 180g. Fullblood and Thouroughbread wagyu is available. Full blood means that both the ox and the cow are wagyu, and Thouroughbread means that the steer is wagyu and often crossed with an Angus cow.

The meat was very nicely marbled. Cattle takes on the flavour from the food it eats, and if you are very discerning, you can tell if the last days of the cow ate maize, or grass, or have had beer. The flavours imbue the fat of the cattle.




The meat is lightly marinated, and grilled over hot coal ambers. Special coal is used, as is typical in specialist BBQ shops in Japan and Korea. I was told by a owner of an excellent BBQ shop in downtown Seoul, that the coal makes a big difference because better coals are more even burning, and are hotter. Also smokeless coals are preferred, so this allows the taste of quality beef is allowed to take center stage and not masked by smoke.



We try to make sure the beef is very lightly grilled...to medium rare, especially the better marbled cuts like karubi. Fat is destroyed by heat, melting and burning, so delicate cuts should be lightly grilled. The very hot coals will allow charring (Maillard reaction) of the outside, while the insides remain relative cool at medium rare. Intercostal muscle - the part of the meat between ribs require somewhat longer grilling. And tougher cuts like rump will need a bit more grilling, up to about medium is fine.

Then a few grains of Himalayan pink salt is sprinkled on the beef, and eaten. Himalayan salt is deposited when the Himalayas are at sea level 250 million years ago during the Jurrasic era.



The salt is a very pretty pink. Taste is intense salty...perhaps more intense than regular sea salt. Supposedly Himalayan pink salt contains some 84 minerals - giving the salt the characteristic colour, and is the purest form of salt.

Eaten with just the pink salt, the beef was tender...melt in your mouth. The different cuts have different texture, but all were very juicy and tender, very succulent. Eaten with steamed rice, it is excellent. Very excellent. Satisfying.

The set also comes with mixed mushrooms...fresh mushrooms - enoki, shitake, and oyster varietals are mixed in a aluminium foil box, with a knob of butter and cooked over the coals.





The mushrooms in butter were fragrant, and very nice. Very tasty.



Gyukaku
81 Clemenceau Avenue
#01-18/19 UE Square
Tel: 6733 4001

with Dr. Mycroft



What attracted me to this place was the lure of their hand chopped wagyu burger in truffle oil, and pan fried foie gras. I read about it,and the allure of the wagyu...hand chopped instead of ground, truffle oil, and pan fried foie gras drew me like a moth to a flame. I had to go try this place out. And indeed I did, with my good friend and makan/watch/photo/hobby kaki Dr. Mycroft. We drifted into the restaurant after parking his slick, heavily modified Golf GTi at the free parking within the premises.

Some bloggers have discussed the merits of using premium beef like wagyu in a burger. Mycroft feels its a waste of good wagyu, so he had the pasta.

Tucked in an unlikely place, within a community center with a swanky name - Stardust, perched just off River Valley Road, the eatery looks like a modern, clean joint, like one is apt to find in Sydney.

Service was swift. The moment we sat down, we were presented the menu, and shown the blackboard which offered the day's specials. And soon we were offered a bowl of olive oil with vinegar and a plate of warm, toasted, crispy bread.



My burger arrived...it looked kind of small. The patty was perhaps 2.5 inches in diameter, but about 2 inches thick. Served on a toasted split bun, it came with very crispy fries, and a serving of salad.



Perched on top of the hand chopped wagyu is a small sliver of foie gras. Pan fried to near perfection, this piece of fatty liver was gorgeous tasting. I think it must have been duck foie gras instead of the more expensive goose liver. But it tasted so heavenly, though it will surely up my purine intake...Still, wished it was a larger portion. (There is an upcharge of $8 to add the foie gras)

The truffle oil was difficult to discern. The burger patty was very tender...but then, as Mycroft argued, even if the beef was regular Angus, chopped or worse in other cases ground, it would be difficult to discern the superior wagyu texture and flavour. Indeed it was. But the patty was very nicely done. I requested for medium doneness, and it was perfectly so...slightly pink inside, no blood. It complimented with the fresh mushrooms very well. I also liked the bun.

They were quite generous with mushrooms heaped on the patty/foie gras, and being fresh, the fragrance and flavour of the mushroom was intense.

The french fries were also very good...crispy on the outside, and almost creamy on the inside.

Mycroft had the Linguine of Organic Mushrooms in Cream Sauce with Sliced Parma Ham.



He proclaimed the sauce a little too dilute, and the pasta a little too cooked to be al dente. But he liked his carbonara sauce with egg yolk and super thick, like those you get in Cafe Cartel, just as he liked his butter...the option he chose on his bread instead of the vinegar/olive oil.

Dessert was interesting.

I had the Molten 100% Valrhona Chocolate Cake, Raspberry Coulis, Vanilla Ice Cream.



The chocholate crust was softer than I had expected from the ones you get in Bakerzin. Cutting it open, the molten Valrhona chocholate oozes out sexily...enticing. The taste was superb...any dessert with Valrhona choc is going to be divine. It complimented nicely with vanilla ice cream.

Mycroft had the Sticky Date Pudding with Vannila Ice Cream.



Black date pudding was served with a generous helping of dried fig. I had a taste of the pudding...super sweet, but very tasty. Again nice compliment to the Vanilla Ice Cream.

Overall the service, ambience was very good. The quality of the food was excellent as well, as was the cooking. But the prices were a little steep. If the burger was $20 instead of $36 ($28 for the wagyu burger and $8 for addition of foie gras), I might be tempted to eat here more often.



Brown Sugar
277 River Valley Road,
Stardus Clubhouse (enter via Institution Hill)

Photo note: This was shot with a borrowed Panasonic DMC-FX55. Shot with medium resolution (I didn't think to change it. The max from the camera is 8MP, but I think this was shot in JPG at 4MP) Some sharpening, and resizing. I intentionally left it at 800 pixel width, to show the difference in the pictures and those I usually take.

I think the image is less 3D, and the range of colours is reduced. Also, small details, especially in shadow areas are also less visible on the Panasonic. Of course, it is unfair to compare a point and shoot to a professional camera with a professional lens.

With Jems and Dr. Mycroft.

Smoked meats are a staple in the beef towns in American states like Texas and interestingly in Montreal. A typical cut used is the brisket...a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest - the pectoral muscles form the bulk of the brisket. In Hong Kong cuisine, the ngau lam is usually coupled with collagen rich tendons to balance the sometimes tough muscle tissue. But a traditional Jewish method, as is practiced by the famous institution of Schwartz in Montreal (I once queued outside the tiny restaurant for about an hour in Montreal winter, minus 20C! to sample this delightful delicacy) is to smoke the marinated brisket over a low hickory fire. The resultant flavour is a smoky, tender slice of muscle which, depending on the degree of marbling of the beef can be very tender and tasty.

Wood Restaurant in Singapore promises the same enticing experience. The restaurant is at one end of the walkway (broadwalk?)in Vivocity, just below the cinemas. As one enters, one is greeted by a hostess at the front desk. The interior looked very dark from the entrance lobby, looked more like an evening entertainment club than a restaurant. As one enters, a long dark corridor leads directly to a beautiful glass cellar showcasing some very interesting wines. Flanking the corridor are private rooms, and this leads to the very bright dining hall...perhaps its just the contrast from the dark corridor, but it was lunchtime, and the sun was streaking in from the full length glass walls as the restaurant faces Sentosa.

We started with a shared plate of Wood signature chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce.



The smell which greeted us as the dish was presented was very woody, smoky. Chicken breast meat was used, and all three of us find it a bit on the dry side. I thought the flavour was quite interesting, but Mycroft demanded more fat...and would have prefered thigh or drumstick with a good helping of skin. He reminisced a yakitori meal we had comprising bishop's nose and grilled chicken skin. This doctor loves his fat.

The mildly spicy sauce was very thick, had plenty of ground crunchy peanuts. Not quite like the super thick sauce they serve on board SIA. But much thicker, and less oily than those found in Kajang.

I had read earlier that the Cardamon coffee 12 hour smoked wagyu brisket is the dish to try. Even the name was enticing. So I ordered that, as did Dr. Mycroft. Jems chose the 2 course set lunch comprising of a Spinach Salad, Chinese Sausage and quail egg in Oriental sauce and the House aged tenderloin with mash and veal jus.



The brisket was quite tender, and had a wonderful smoked flavour. Again Mycroft found the meat a bit dry and was not sufficiently fat. I guess his umami sensors felt unloved. My cut was slightly more marbled and as a result was more tasty. The charred bits hanging on the sides were smoky and full of flavour, but was dry. I am not sure what grade is the wagyu, but the marbling seems to be quite slight. In comparison, Schwartz's smoked brisket was wonderful, melt in your mouth whilst retaining the smoked flavour. Their charred bits were crunchy and as one bits into it, the fat exploded in the mouth, providing great sense of pleasure. But that's half way across the world in Canada.



The salad was very interesting. A concoction of leafy spinach and quail egg in a thin sauce, the chef chose slices of fried Chinese sausages as a topping. The crispy saussage added crunciness, and a beautiful rich flavour and a punch to the mild salad. The dressing was also very mild.



Jems' serving of tenderloin was also very lean. She cut me a small cut to taste, and I found it to be reasonably tender but the lean cut made the meat a bit dry to the palate. I don't normally like jus reduction, so would ask for jus on the side. The red wine reduction technique used will typically result in a thick, sour sauce. Although the two slices of tenderloin was generously covered in jus, it was not sour, but had a mild veal flavour.

Perhaps the cuts of meat was selected for a more health conscious crowd than the 3 of us. We generally felt the meat was too dry, and would have loved more fat.

We then adjourned to Bon Bon Tea one floor up for some dessert. We all tried crepe with ice cream.



The crepe was not as thin as those typically found on the streets of Paris. It was crispy on the outside and still soft on the inside. Reminds me of roti prata. I had hazelnut chocolate filling (I guess Nutella, also a common filling in Paris) and a huge scoop of hazelnut gelato. Mycroft and Jems both had the Bounty Cream on the side of their crepe, and had Hazelnut and Ameretto ice cream. The ice cream was very rich, slightly on the sweet side, but quite tasty and satisfying. The hazelnut flavour was evident in my scoop. And strong taste and smell of toasted almonds was clear in the Amereto.

Wood Restaurant
1 Harbour Front Walk
#01-53 VivoCity
Singapore 098585

Bonbon Tea
1 Harbour Front Walk
#02-141 VivoCity
Singapore 098585

Photonote: The Wood shots were high ISO - 1600. Though the entire wall was glass, where we sat was rather dark. Our table had a tungsten ceiling lamp shining on the table. This usually wrecks havoc on the white balance. White balance was done with a calibration shot of the white table cloth as white reference using custom white balance. After I took the last photograph, the waitress came by an told me, quite politely, I must say, "Sorry sir, our food is not for photoshoot"...to which I replied, "OK...I am actually planning to eat it." I don't understand why I cannot take photographs of the food I ordered and will pay for, especially when I am not disturbing other guests as I am not using flash, and not shooting them. The Bonbon shot was taken at ISO400.

Disclaimer: I actually went to school with the owner of Wood, but we have lost contact for some 20+ years, and only recently got in touch with each other. He was not in the shop when I visited as he was travelling. The staff did not know me, nor were they expecting me, and I believe had no special treatment.