Buffet in Orchard Hotel

If there is something that I'm really thankful for, especially in the months past, it is that I have had the opportunity to try out different buffets at a somewhat lower-than-RRP price. 

I don't know if this price comes from an app or if it's advertised elsewhere.

All I know is that I come about an hour before the buffet's close and I get it for a price that is apt for my wallet, and for me. 

I've had it at a couple of places now- most of them in town- but this one in particular was at The Orchard Cafe in Orchard Hotel on Orchard Road. 

Now the pictures don't look much, I know, but that's because I decided to spend more time eating than on taking pictures of the food. 

I only had an hour half.

And I was going to have to make the best use out of it. 

One thing great about these buffets is that even though it's just about half price, it don't mean that there's no more food. 

On the contrary, they continue to bring out as many dishes as there are offered in the full price, and you don't have to worry that you're being served leftovers, or stuff that they've taken back into the kitchen from the serving counter and brought out 'specially' for you half-priced peasants (patrons). 

Everything's the same as it be had you come for dinner one and a half hours earlier. 

It wasn't a very expansive seafood buffet this time at The Orchard Cafe though.

That didn't mean that there wasn't any seafood. 

It simply meant that there weren't any freshly shucked oysters for the taking. 

And that you could have other kinds of seafood instead. 

I can't remember just what there were, but if I'm not wrong, there were prawns and mussels and maybe crayfish somewhere. 

Except that for one reason or another I didn't help myself to those, and instead began my meal with cooked food. 

Okay I'd like to think that I can remember just what it was I ate, but I don't, and so if I'm not wrong it is this plate of fried kuay teow, cherry tomatoes, and a bit of what is either mushroom, or duck. 

It's probably mushroom. 

Then again it might have been beef rendang. 

Definitely something local.

The one thing I'm pretty sure of is that I went for a full plate of fried kuay teow. 

Char kuay teow, or "stir-fried flat rice noodles with soya sauce" is one of my favorite dishes ever- I don't need to think twice about ordering it when I happen to be at a hawker center that has a stall or two famous for frying up oily, greasy, delicious plates.

Obviously I'm not going to miss out on the char kuay teow here either. 

Yes, there's less sauce, the noodles are less oily, and there's no hum, but the feels- the dry, dry feels of the kuay teow as I cram them into my mouth- are there. 

I wasn't going to skip on as much of local food as possible, of course- it all seemed so good- so after wandering about and around the buffet counter, I got myself a plate of chicken satay, a couple chunks of what I think is fried chicken with salted egg sauce, and a bowl of sayur lodeh.

The satay, to my surprise, was actually pretty good. 

Not hard, not dry, not tasteless, not cold. 

It might not have been burnt at the edges or dripping with oil as some say excellent satay should be, but the meat wasn't stringy and dry, nor was it unappetizing, and the chunks were all of the right size.

I liked them.

I liked them enough to go for a second serving after the sticks on this plate were finished. 

It would have been lovely were I able to have a second bowl of sayur lodeh as well. 

I mean, I do love me a dish of cabbage, long beans, carrots and other vegetables boiled in a rich concoction of spices, and coconut milk, but by then I was starting to feel full, and there were still this other plate of cooked seafood... and dessert.

So I finished up this one bowl and simply stopped there. 

It's never good to have food on a full stomach, and I didn't want to not be able to appreciate the baked oysters and the tiger prawns. 

It's not every day that I get prawns this big. 

Neither is it every day that I get to have scallops (raw!) and oysters- still in their shells- baked with a thick layer of cheese. 

You can say that I lean towards the raw. 

But I too like seafood when it's prepared in any other way, even if they be grilled so good their shell looks a bit chao tar. 

Got me a bit scared to remove the heads of the prawns- I'm timid like that- so my friend helped me, I buried the prawn head underneath the shell of the scallop, and munched through the juicy prawn all the way. The meat was thick, and chonky, and juicy, and although it didn't have those semi-marinated, salty, salty, umami umami taste, I liked the clean flavor of the prawn, and the thick chew of it. 

You really could chew through all the meat. 

What surprised me a little were the oysters. 

I had half been expecting smallish oysters- I mean, you can't tell their size when they're all covered in a rich thick layer of cheese- but they were actually regular sized, they weren't hard (as I thought cooked oysters might be) and together with the cheese they made for a burst of (oyster juice) that blended with gooey cheese. 

Would've been better if they were warm, but oy, it was my bad, and they were just as good slightly coldish anyway.

Mains being over, I now wanted dessert. 

And, something that I'm thankful for is that even though I hadn't been able to hang around at the dessert counter to choose what I wanted, my friend had, in my (necessary) absence, gone ahead and got me a plateful one of each of everything.

So happy was I that I began eating the cakes and the tarts and the warm desserts as soon as I sat down.

So this picture of all the different cakes is all I have. 

I don't have a picture of the iced chendol with little chewy green strips and the gula melaka. 

I don't have a picture of the chocolate ice creams two scoops I took. 

I also don't have a picture of the other coconut milk-based warm dessert which I've since forgotten what exactly it is but my friend had happily gotten for me. 

A pity I don't have these pictures.

I really should have taken them.

I should have taken pictures of the warm desserts no matter how white on the surface they seemed.

I also should have taken pictures of the ice creams which had been reserved for me. 

But perhaps at that time I might have been relieved enough at the sight of these oblong-shaped cakes, one of which I'm sure was matcha, one of which I think was Red Velvet cheesecake, one of which was Earl Grey something something, and then there was probably a fruit-type of Swiss Roll. 

I'll be more conscious of my pictures next time. 

Especially those of meals where nothing is too small, nothing is too commonplace, or even too unimportant. 

I miss the times when I had the spirit to take pictures of my (mundane) day. 

There might still be too much on my plate. 

I might, no, am, still feeling overwhelmed. 

But I must not forget what's important. 

Whether it be at a plate of rice, whether it be a buffet, whether it be anything else I'm doing, I shouldn't simply forget, and leave it behind. 

Bus Ride Sights: Eunos-Harborfront

Would you find it hard to believe if I told you that this entire set of pictures was taken right after Chinese New Year, sometime around March, in the first quarter of the year? 

That although I had hoped to start writing about this bus ride as soon as I could,  other trips, other meals and other stuff swung by, and I couldn't get to them on time. 

What's interesting though is that I still have a clear recollection of this bus ride as if I'd only taken it last week or the week before. 

And even though I might not remember the exact route very well- it is a long one- the landmarks are as clear as day, and fascinating they are too. 

Bus 93 has one of the longest routes this side of Jalan Eunos. 

You could count 966 and maybe 61 and 63 as well but I've not taken the last two buses yet (I really should) and the other super long route that I know is 51 on the opposite side of the road. 

93 takes a sort of old-road kind of journey that begins from Eunos Bus Interchange, goes onto Jalan Eunos, Eunos Link, and then Airport Road. My bus stop begins from Blk 17, and so along the way I get to see a couple of HDB blocks, the junction into Ubi Avenue-something, a couple of car dealerships and then the Comfort Driving Center where you turn circuits as part of your practice session and where you go (I suppose) for your driving test. 

On Airport Road, the bus passes by the Comfort Test Center, an SCDF HQ, and then it's onto Upper Paya Lebar Road. 

I don't really know just what the names of the buildings on this road the bus passes by, but let's just say that they're industrial-use, and that there's Asiawide Industrial Building amongst them.

It's easy to recognize the Tai Seng area that's along this road. 

For me, at least. 

I just need to see the factories and industrial buildings that line on either side. 

Bartley Road is a little more difficult to recognize. 

I don't know it very well, save maybe for the entrance of Maris Stella High School, and which, in a couple of years time, may or may not be there as the road undergoes extensive renovation. 

But still there're all these blocks from the still-new Bidadari Housing Estate and I don't think they're heading off anywhere. 

From this road the bus headed straight on passing the junction of Upper Serangoon Road into Braddell Road. 

I've always been fascinated by this road.

Not so much for it being what it is, but because it's sort of a connector between the East side and the Central side, exactly like what Bus 93 is now. 

Sometimes it's hard to imagine a place like Upper Paya Lebar Road or Tai Seng being so close to Toa Payoh and beyond but that's where Braddell Road comes in, and she stretches all the way from the Bartley Road end to the Thomson Road end, which is, really, the MacRitchie Reservoir. 

No small road is she.

Maybe that be why there used to be a reservoir or waterworks or something. 

And maybe they be there because of the canal that runs perpendicular to Braddell Road after the junction of the Central Expressway. 

It's a bit of a pity that I wasn't able to take more pictures this side of the road but I did get that of the PUB, and some recreational grounds that I think belong to that of the club there. 

The blocks of Toa Payoh Lorong 8 came right after the building of ComfortDelgro Corp Ltd, then further on there was the SPH Building, then a couple of flatted factory buildings and then there was Braddell Heights, or as it is known now, Braddell View.

The bus continued on for a little bit onto Thomson Road, Lornie Road, and then Lornie Highway. 

This is a stretch with just one bus stop, a lot of pretty houses, a lot of trees and a turn into the Pan Island Expressway.  

Adam Road comes right after- a rather short stretch of which I was not able to take any good pictures- and then onto Farrer Road. 

Farrer Road is again another interesting road this side of town. 

Like Braddell Road it gives me strong connector vibes, but where Braddell connects the East to Central, Farrer Road links the Central to where one might call the Southwest Central side.

It's not immediate, of course, and there are a couple of intersections, but it is the road you take when you're coming from say, Marymount or Thomson or Toa Payoh towards Queensway, Commonwealth and Queenstown. 

You don't think much about it when you're looking at a map, but come onto Bus 93 and the route becomes somewhat obvious. 

Maybe that be why there is a housing estate on this stretch and maybe that be why there is a school there and condominiums.  

From Farrer Road, the bus heads into Queensway, and this is where the view gets a little bit more interesting.

Right from the junction where the road cuts via Holland Road, the bus passes by Holland Hill Lodge, and opposite Blk 95. There's an Esso station somewhere along here, Queensway Secondary School, Queenstown Polyclinic, and then the blocks near Mei Chin Road. 

They're not hard to recognize- these housing blocks- and different it hits when you see them behind the canopies of these beautiful old trees. 

These blocks have witnessed times, I tell you, and sometimes I wonder how it were like for those living here to be this close to the Alexandra Hospital, the former railway track, Tanglin Halt and even Stirling Road. 

It's still a significant neighborhood, this place, and long, I believe, will she stay that way. 

After this the bus turns into Alexandra Road and although the bus stops are distinguished by landmarks like Queensway Shopping Center and Alexandra Point, the bus actually passes by the blocks of a housing estate oft referred to as the Alexandra Village Hawker Center that side. 

Alexandra Retail Center is a distance further down from the Village Hawker Center, by the way, you'd have to pass the junction of Depot Road, the former Gillman Heights condominium, and the somewhat steep-looking slopes of Telok Blangah Hill Park before you get to it, but from there, the bus makes a left, and onto Telok Blangah Road it goes where it trundles along all the way until it reaches Harborfront Interchange on Seah Im Road. 

Is there much to be seen on Telok Blangah Road?

Well, yes, and no.

For one thing, there're a lot of trees. 

Well, there are a good number of housing blocks and careful horticulture planted here and there, but it seems to me that there are more old trees than there are new ones.

And delightful they are too, for Seah Im's not that far away, and what would it be if there were no trees nearing Mount Faber?