Sunday 28 February 2010

Comfort food

Just as Line thot that last nite was the last makan we were gonna have before she left for KT, I popped up from the back of the van to surprise her today. Abt a week ago, I had (after much prayer!) managed to swap out of a work shift so that I could be around with her and send her off. And I am thankful that God allowed this to work out. He knows best, I suppose!

Seeing her lighten up a little after a relaxing foot massage and some bak kut teh comforted me... that at least she was a little better than she was earlier in the morning, when i sensed her being rather out of sorts, to say the very least. Well, tho it's not as simple as for all that to go away after a massage and a bowl of bak kut teh, it did provide some respite. That, i suppose, was enough. After all, sometimes, a breather gives us that bit more of strength to keep going.

Anyways, here's the bak kut teh that we thot was one of the better ones we've had... peppery enough... as Dom's exclaimation on his first sip puts it "Wah! pepper free one ah?!"




Song Fa Bak Kut Teh
Rochor Centre

Our last maken

Earlier this evening, was our last maken session before I leave for Kuala Trengganu.(KT) I longed to go East Coast Park nor for food only, but also the beach. We ate at East Coast Lagoon. At East Coast, it seems like the whole Singapore are going there. But, because we prayed, the Lord heard our prayers and gave us car packing lot.

While Kare and I went round looking for tables, our 2 guys were standing at section waiting. Finally, the 2 guys got a table which was located at a very comfortable and breeze section.

As soon as we sat down, we decided what we wanted to eat. Then Dom and Kare went off ordering food. Not long later, we started enjoying our meal and chit-chatting.

After eating, we walked for ONLY awhile and rested nearer the coast. We saw bright sister moon and many other stars. the East Coast Lagoon and the beach are one of the best place to hold gatherings.

So, this would probably be my last entry. Hopefully I get to use the computer and share something with you while in KT.

Continue to Eat only and I will be back when. Hopefully get to post something from KT.

Saturday 27 February 2010

The long and short of it

While we were at Geylang, we decided to find the shop that sold beancurd with LONG yew char kway. Some taiwanese dessert place of some sort. I remembered the shop being just a short distance down from the beef kway teow shop, and Line and Dom remember it too. Fr was slightly clueless tho, so over dinner, we were trying to describe it to Fr, however our rusty memories could agree on just how long it was... ahem! We had a good laugh over it ;p

Sadly though, we walked and we walked, but never found the shop. Giving up, we decided to head back and drive to another beancurd place at Selegie road. There, in the little back alley, under the cloudy sky, with "sister moon" peaking at us, we had our cravings satisfied... tho they were not as long as the other shop, who cares? Long or short, we enjoyed it, since there was no choice anyways :o)

Rochor Original Beancurd House

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Happy Birthday Everyone

Ok.. this is an overdue entry.

On 20 February 2010, the 7th Day of Chinese New Year, ‘ren re’ (people’s day), is known as everyone’s birthday. So, most Chinese would have a big feast on this special day.

We too joined in the celebration…..ermm…actually it wasn’t planned, it just coincides with the day, moreover, WE EAT THAT’S ALL. Who cares about the day.

So, we went dressed in our ‘Geylang outfit’ (do not think futher than T-shirt, bums berms and slippers) to the famous Geylang Lorong 9 Beef Hor Fun, surely you would know where right. It was at least 10 years ago since I last ate there. It’s still so popular and nice. It was a very memorable place for Kare Kare too (Kare, you know what I’m referring to right).

In addition, it was a treat from someone special (I wonder who?). So, it tasted even better.

We ordered Beef Hor Fun with more beefs and Kai Lan with more garlic, specially requested by our dear friend, Dom.

And as usual, this photo shot, notice the messiness, was taken after experiencing the great enthusiasm for service(I hope!) by our dear Fr. Aloy, who is ever so ready and eager to serve us.





Geylang Lor 9 Beef Hor Fun
Where?? Geylang Lorong 9 lah.



Monday 15 February 2010

Don't wear a yellow polo shirt here!


An overdue post about lunch last Fri...

As you can tell, we've been eating a lot.. cramping as many meet-ups as we can before Line leaves. In the process of fattening Line for the slaughter, I have inevitably fattened myself. Not sure abt our other 2 faithful makan kakis, but I sure am feeling it! Our to-do (and to-eat) list keeps growing, but time seems to be an issue... Oh well, we'll see how much we can do.

So, on that terribly hot Fri afternoon... yes, the same one we had Haato, we headed down to Upper Thomson Road for Ampang Yong Tow Foo, of course, with the other 3 coming by to collect me along the way [thank you! :o)].

There were 2 stalls in that same row, but we chose to try out Ngee Fou. It was my first time trying it, and I was not disappointed. Having ampang yong tow foo seems less complicated than having the usual yong tow foo, or maybe the lazier option. We didn't have to queue up and pick our items. We literally sat down, the waitress confirmed the number of people, and voila! our platter of a variety of yong tow foo things on a big bed of kangkong drenched in a yummy sauce arrived. The food was nice, and something different, at least for me, though we wished we had more of the crispy fried stuff on top!
Piece of advice though... Don't wear a yellow polo shirt there, or other patrons may mistake you for one of the staff!
Ngee Fou Restaurant (Hakka) Ampang Yong Tow Foo
928 Upper Thomson Road

Friday 12 February 2010

Hands off!!

....photo needs to be taken first

After Ampang Yeung Tow Fu for lunch, we adjourned to Haato at Thomason Plaza for gelato.

We ordered a waffle with black sesame gelato and 3 individual cups of green tea gelato, strawberry gelato and lime sorbet.

At the table, we tried to plan for more makan sessions before I leave Singapore, especially immediately after Chinese New Year after collecting Ang Pows.

Ai ya... I have to go now for another reunion dinner..... would like to write more but.... words coming in too slowly...

Haato is good... go for it....

Level 2, Thomason Plaza

Rest helps the memory :o)

Continuation of our Bird Park day...

After shutting our tummies up with Casurina Curry, 3 post-prandial souls headed home for some rest, with plans to meet up again later for dinner. So promptly at 8.15pm, we dutifully kidnapped Line after her duty in church, and cruised our way to be gong gong...oops i meant, to eat gong gong. This time, with a bit of rest, we remembered the photo.. *yay*







This place has been my favourite place to have chut chut and gong gong for ages. The chut chuts are always well cut such that it's optimal for sucking the lil snails out of their homes, and the sauce spicy and with heaps of garlic. *shiok* Once more, this time, they didn't let us down. Their gong gong cousins did well too! Being so fresh, the flesh was firm, and had no hint of muddiness. In fact, the beauty of being gong is that you can be enjoyed plain, just blanched, so that your sweetness steals the show. Our 3rd dish from the well known Hua Kee in Pasir Panjang Food Centre is the BBQ stingray... Well grilled to seal the juices, with the fragrant sambal basted all over, it was a champion, and it sure did satisfy Line's stingray craving!

My personal bonus was that the Yusoff Haji Jalal satay stall still had Babat satay! Bonus because the past 2 times I went there, they had run out of babat. They have one of the best babat satays, in my opinion, as they've managed to consistently panggang the babat to perfection, leaving the lil skewered piece of beef tripe fragrantly grilled soft and chewy. Heavenly. I was most glad to have Dom also enjoy babat, since it sometimes seemed like I was the only savage eating some animal's tummy. Of course, along with the babat, we ordered some chicken satay, especially for our less barbaric friend and sister, and they were just as yummy!

With sugarcane juice as the finishing touch, it was... Good Food, and Good Company!

Wednesday 10 February 2010

It happened again!!!

Yes.. it happened again…. What happened??

Well as usual, see the photo taken… sigh..

We were tired and sleepy after spending the morning at Jurong Bird Park. As we did not have a proper lunch, our tummy tells us that we need to EAT. So, we went to Casuarina Curry at Casuarina Road. We ordered Garlic Prata, Onion Egg Chili Prata, Mutton Curry and Chicken Curry. And…. Lime Juice to quench our thirst.

I love the Lime juice…. Ermm as for the food stuff, they were really delicious. Personally, I finds the chicken curry a little too spicy but SHIOK!!!. The pratas were very crispy too.

I would recommend this place to you if you are looking for crispy pratas in an air-conditioned restaurant. There’s no need for me to say further as this prata place is superbly well-known…..

Go …. Enjoy…

136 & 138 Casuarina Road

Sunday 7 February 2010

Happy food... on 2 levels


It has been a trying week... Not so much the work load that made it trying, but working with one of the bosses. Having spent the last month with a boss who was such a wonderful person, this was a stark contrast. I mean STARK. I loved the way my ex-boss saw his patients... with so much human touch and compassion. He reinforced, by example, that medicine requires more than the hard-core scientific stuff. He always made his patients feel listened to, and he genuinely cared for them. And being like-minded, working with him was JOY. This week, however, I felt that for the better half of the time, we were managing diseases rather than caring for patients. Doesn't help that this boss seemed as if he was perpetually MANopausal, with frequent displays of his irritability... and guess who bears the brunt of it... What saddens me most is that sometimes, the patients get a taste of his irritability. Sigh.


So, anyway, on Thursday night, I msged Line to arranged for dinner on Friday, as I was so in need of happy food. Whatever that might be. When we met up at my workplace, we decided to have a quick-ish dinner somewhere along the way, then head to our favourite place. :o) So we headed to Bishan and walked around in search of food.


Lobs-xi-fa-cai caught our eye... It was a seafood platter with a small lobster, calamari, and fish, served with garlic rice and fries. Manhatten's current 1-for-1 promotion. The tasty lobster was succulent, and topped with mayo that was flamed brown; the calamari tastily battered, though slightly overfried; the fish was well done, retaining its juices. Topped with my extra serving of chopped garlic (pardon my garlic breath!), the meal did well as happy food. :o)
What followed was actually more instrumental in helping me unwind... sitting at the steps of our piazza in the silence and God-sent gentle breeze, and staring up at the 3 warmly-lit crosses against the background of the dark sky. It somehow was a reflection that in the darkness of the world, we are called to look to the Cross, for there is the light. That place is special to me... to both of us, in fact! A place that we've often sat at to share & enjoy each other's presence, and also a place that we sometimes go on our own to be alone... It has never falied to calm and soothe me, a place where I can take a step back... to retreat... I suppose that was my spiritual happy food. :o)