Towards Kim San Leng

A while back I wrote about having dinner at the Kim San Leng Food Court (or coffee shop).

What I didn't write about, however, was the walk I took from home to get there.

It isn't often that I get the opportunity to appreciate the sights of Kembangan the same way I did this particular evening. 

But the air was cool and the light of dusk exceptionally good, so we slowed down, and looked about us a wee bit more. 

The Kim San Leng coffee shop sits at the junction of Telok Kurau and Changi Road, so instead of taking Lorong Melayu and Lorong Marzuki (which is nearer to where we are) we decided we'd walk the road nearest to the petrol station and the traffic light, and so headed towards Lorong Marican instead.

Coming out from where we were, we first took a left. 

Were we to walk all the way down Jalan Daud- as we normally do- we would have come to the end where the road meets the highway. 

But this evening we weren't heading that direction. 

Instead halfway on Jalan Daud, after walking past by the junction of Lorong Marzuki, we headed down a bit more until we got to Lorong Marican afterward. 

There would be no more turns on this road- a nice, neat straight one it was down Lorong Marican towards Sims Avenue East, but first, the small cute little junction of Jalan Ishak and Lorong Marican, which, by the way, every car has to stop, and which has one of the most iconic-looking houses this side of Lengkong Tiga and Kembangan. 

It is not a huge house by any standards- just a single storey building- but I'm charmed by its semi-circular shape, simple plain wire fence between the pillars, and low shuttered windows that look out onto the road. 

There're not many houses I've seen that have such a design. 

The last time I saw one was probably on Simon Road. 

Passing this junction, it was a continuous walk down. 

There wasn't much else to be seen- I'm not the sort to take pictures of people's houses for no good reason- but there was this (vacant-looking) house that I thought had an air of silent poignancy about it, and beyond it, the distinctive green minaret of Masjid Al Abdul Razak, on Jalan Ismail across the Lorong Marican road. 

A good five minutes later, past many more houses each with their own garden and own little plot of flourishing trees, we came to Sims Avenue East.

No traffic, so quickly across the road we dashed, entering into the other side of Lorong Marican, which, as I found out when we first moved here, does not actually end at usually-busy Sims Avenue East, but instead continues all the way down to Changi Road. 

Makes me wonder what Sims Avenue East as an old road once used to be.

After crossing, down the Changi end of Lorong Marican we went where I took a (discreet) picture of three symmetrical windows on the ground floor of a house- they reminded me of a set of building blocks I used to have when I was young.

And then we were at the traffic light, waiting to cross the road, petrol station on one side, a row of shops on the other.

But, I have no picture of the Kim San Leng coffee shop. 

I don't know why. 

Dinner @ Kim San Leng

Kim San Leng Food Center- at the junction of Telok Kurau Road and Changi Road- is fast becoming one of our new favorite places for dinner. 

I say dinner, not lunch, because it is a long walk down, and noon time- with the sun glaring unyieldingly above my head- makes for a necessary walk, not a favorite one. 

The food at Kim San Leng Coffee Shop does make it somewhat worth though.

More than once we've had their chicken rice, which, even though I don't have a picture, is pretty good. The zup sauce leans more to the salty side but neither is it so salty that the taste gets uncomfortable. The chicken, for most parts of it, is tender too.

What I really do like, however, is the soup. 

It's surprisingly refreshing, and they have vegetables inside! 

Another stall that's great at this coffee shop is the Western food stall.

What the name is, I don't know- I haven't paid attention- but their food's popular, and even though I haven't had the chance to try everything, the plates in front of other diners seem pretty good. 

This evening we had come here not knowing what we wanted to eat. 

On one hand I had wanted to try the zichar- they do a good sam lou hor fun- but there was also the Western, which, given the day and time of day, I too wanted to try.

in the end we decided on the latter. 

I took fish and chips. 

My friend took salmon and spaghetti. 

Which, in actual fact, I was surprised. 

I had always thought of him more of a rice person than a noodle person, but he said the spaghetti tasted good, and there was that good balance of olive oil and herbs mixed with the pasta. 

Me, I liked the batter of the fish and chips. 

It had a springiness I enjoyed, and there was a bit of salty and savory that contrasted with the clean taste of the soft, tender, perfectly fried fish.

Would've been nice if there were more dollops of mayo, but oy, I'm not complaining- it was enough, the stall holder had given a wedge of lemon, and there was a side, of which this evening my friend had chosen a little cup of lightly baked macaroni and cheese. 

Marine Parade's Chap Chye Png

Okay, so, I've been trying to write about this plate of chap chye png from the corner stall in Marine Parade Hawker Center, but guess what, I'm failing very badly at it. 

I don't know why. 

Technically it shouldn't be too difficult. 

Chap chye png is one of the most popular foods in Singapore, and so ubiquitous it is to the local dining scene that there's one in nearly every coffee shop and hawker center, where, more often than not, it is the very first stall you look to whenever you're down there for lunch, or dinner. 

It doesn't matter whether you've set your mind on duck rice or fish soup or wanton noodles or cai tow kuay that day. 

Somehow you'll still peek at all the different foods glistening under the bright lights of the stall enticing you to change your mind. 

There are no bright lights at the counter of this stall here at Marine Parade Hawker Center. 

It's just an upright counter with trays of food stacked vertically from one shelf of the display to the other on top. 

There's no special arrangement. 

One tray might be having stewed vegetables. Another tray might be having stewed pieces of chicken or stir-fried kangkong. Still, another tray might be holding all the fried stuff that customers, depending on their appetite, can choose. 

There's hardly a shortage of queue whenever this stall's open. 

It might be because it is the only chap chye png stall in the whole hawker, or it might be because the food reminds one of zichar dishes you have from the coffee shops, except that here you can pick and choose all your favorite dishes (whatever's available) without splashing $10 minimal for the a whole hotplate of braised egg tofu.

I think it's the taste.

I think it's also the portions. 

You know how most places chop up the food into smaller pieces and mix them all up so that you get bite size pieces of whatever you choose? 

Here they're all big piece big piece. 

They dont' chop it up for you.

It is one whole piece, one whole chonk. 

This afternoon my friend got for me a plate of bee hoon- he had seen some of the morning's economic noodles still on sale- and knowing my love for economic kuay teow and noodles, got me some.  

Food wise, there was egg tofu, sweet and sour pork, one big slice of a braised eggplant, a bean curd wrap, and what I think was a ball of ngoh hiang stuffed with something but didn't taste like one. 

What's really cool about the food here is that some of them will not taste how you imagined them to be. 

It's like I had thought the bean curd wrap would taste bland.

As it turned out, to my surprise, nope, not at all. 

Not only was the skin marinated (with a rather unique flavor, don't ask me what it was), the fish cake, or something, inside the skin, had its own taste too. 

That wasn't the only food that tasted unique.

The brinjal- huge piece that it was- I had also at first thought it would be heavily soaked with chili and oil (as most brinjal dishes at these stalls do) but even though the center was sleek and mushy with a slight bit of chew, even though it was savory, there was hardly any oil, and there wasn't much chili at all. 

The tofu had a special QQ to it that I liked.

And the sweet sour pork, whilst a wee bit hard (I thought) wasn't overladen with synthetic sweet, nor were it bluff-you pieces of fat masquerading as meat. 

I wish I knew just how they prepare their dishes. 

There was must be something that keeps people coming day after day, time after time. 

Really, I think it's just their zichar flavors, and their hearts. 

The Happy Lamb Buffet

A friend of mine is always on the lookout for good deals, and a couple of months ago told me he had found one. 

At first I had thought it were an ala carte meal with 30%, 50% off etc. 

But it turned out to be a buffet.

A hotpot buffet.

Which I can never say no to. 

It has been a while since we've come to Happy Lamb Hotpot at Pacific Plaza on Scotts Road, and, to my surprise, there had been a bit of change. 

Quite a good move, actually, because now instead of having to order your hotpot favorites dish by dish, you can go straight up to their self-help counters and take whatever you want, however much you want. 

You don't have to worry about finishing an entire bowl of mushrooms if you don't feel like you want to. 

You also don't need to worry that you've wasted food should you order a whole bowl of something only to find that you don't like it at all. 

Now you can pick a single piece, eat it, go back take more, or go for other foods after. 

To my great delight, I didn't have to think how many bowls of lettuce I wanted to have. 

I could have as much as I wanted. 

And I did. 

Three bowls all.

I love vegetables in soup, and although I'm good with all the bai cai and cabbage and all the other kinds of vegetables, my favorite is lettuce- the big leaf green green ones.

There's something fun about dunking fresh green lettuce into your pot of soup and watching it boil into a soft, mushy, slurpy piece of vegetable. 

There's something comforting about feeling the soft crunch of lettuce in your mouth mixed with the hearty, delicious flavors of soup and feel it burst into your mouth as you chew. 

So in I am with these fresh big green lettuce leaves that I can go through the entire buffet eating nothing else but them all.

But that wouldn't do much justice to the selection of meats, which not only does Happy Lamb have a lot of, they're all served fresh, served, perfectly sliced, and good. 

There's never been a time when the meat here is served up looking like someone just dunked a whole chonk of frozen slices onto the plate.

Neither has there ever been a time when the meat here is so frozen you still see the ice on the top of the meat when they bring it out.

Nope, everything slides off easily as you dunk it into the soup, which, by the way, out of several flavors, including tomato, hot and sour, and mala, we chose the herbal Yangsheng Original Flavor.

I like seeing the red dates and the other herbs bobbing about inside.  

I am someone who prefers her meats thin and quick to cook, so it were plates of shabu-shabu styled meat that we  got today.

I love how some of them came so neatly and prettily rolled up on their rectangular platter whilst others came served in this huge a** glass of a round plate laid out like they were petals of a flower. 

What made it even more charming was how symmetrical the pieces had been laid out. Whoever did it had made sure they were carefully laid out with all the narrow parts of marbling in the center and the wider parts at the end. 

This wasn't some haphazard slipshod way of serving food.

This was aesthetic whetting your appetite even before your soup got boiled. 

I'm trying to remember just what we had though.

Might have been pork belly, might have been a bit of lamb. 

Or was it beef.... 

The meat was tender, and the soup coated it so full of strong taste that it was a joy eating slice after slice- as it were- without needing any dipping sauce at all. 

This is one great thing about the hotpot of Happy Lamb by the way.

So full of taste is their soup base that they proudly tell you you don't need any dipping sauce at all.

Today though we got ourselves some little prawns. 

Why, I don't know, we just felt like it be great fun fishing them small little pieces out from the huge, gigantic pot. 

It was much easier to find the heart-shaped cheese tofus and the cone-shaped fish cakes that I'd dropped inside. 

Of course I really ought to have had them arranged prettily on a plate.

But I didn't think I was going to take a picture, so I simply chucked them all in and left them there.

I think we ate a lot of these cheese tofu.

We also ate a lot of these stringy-looking green strips that seemed to have some sort of seasoning on them.

They're clean-tasting, with a feel of the vegetable, and very crunchy. 

But I still don't know what they are.

All in all, as to be expected of Happy Lamb's standards, it was a good meal.

I had a fine time with the soup, the meat that got cooked in the soup, my heaps of lettuce vegetables and all the little small side dishes that I'd seen before, heard of, but had never had the chance to try.

We ended off the meal with a serving of free flow soft serve ice cream.

My friend had matcha. 

I took the strawberry. 

Hedgehog's Birthday Rostis

It was a bit of a quieter celebration that we had for Hedgehog's birthday celebration this year.

Not to mean that we didn't have any,

Just that there were days when we wondered from where we could get the best deal.

And there were days where I wished we could have gone for some of his favorite foods instead of having to wait till another time. 

I like to do birthdays before the actual day, not after. 

But no harm to adjust and no harm to wait, and plan, I suppose, since life is about living- and living in the day and now. 

If there's one thing I'm really glad for, it is that we got to have some of his favorite foods at places new and old, and a new experience it was going to eat at them. 

One of Hedgehog's favorite foods is Rosti. 

It's one of those foods that he will not hesitate to go for whenever he finds a new brunch place that offers it, and he doesn't mind even if the place is far off our usual hangout places. 

He just wants to try.

We went for two different rostis at two different places this time.

One of these we'd actually had had a few times beore, but this time we wanted to try some of their other offerings, so we did. 

6 Letter Brunch has three locations in total. 

Which of these three- Crawford Lane, Frankel Avenue and Tanjong Katong- is the most popular, I have no idea, but we like the one at Frankel Avenue, and so to this outlet we went to this time. 

Some of the most popular dishes here at 6 Letter are their All-Day Brunch, their Rostis and some of their mains. 

I might be keen to try their Smoked Duck Carbonara, but amongst their Rostis they have Baked Salmon, Grilled Chicken, and the 6 Letter Brunch Rosti which is a platter of rosti, Norwegian Smoked Salmon, sunny side up egg, edamame, salad, mashed avocado, and fresh fruits. 

So we went for this one. 

I don't mind sharing crispy fried potatoes done in a pan.

Neither do I mind having the potato with smoked salmon and a dip of mashed avocado. 

But what I really like, however- and don't laugh- is the edamame, and the fruits. 

Edamame is something I like to go for when the opportunity presents itself. 

Which, unless I'm at a Japanese place, doesn't swing by often. 

So in no way will I forgo a serving of edamame whenever I can. 

They make for good munchies. 

And because I am someone who has fruits with her scrambled eggs at hotel buffet breakfasts, having a piece of dragonfruit with a forkful of fried potatoes is not weird to me. 

Same thing goes for a grape with a sliver of smoked salmon. 

But this being a birthday, we didn't want to stop at just one plate, so there was an extra side of bacon, and an order of brunch tacos that, instead of scrambled egg and bacon, had grilled salmon belly inside.

It takes a bit of skill to eat tacos without the filling dropping out of the shell, I realize.

In my case, fortunately, other than a bit of sauce that dripped, nothing fell out otherwise. 

6 Letter Brunch isn't the only place where we had rostis. 

The other place we went to was Tolido's Espresso Nook at Crawford Lane on the ground floor of a HDB block bordering the junction of Jalan Sultan and North Bridge Road.

It is a popular place, this one, it seems, not merely for the coffees that they serve, but also the mains, which, more than once, I have seen fellow diners enjoy. 

At another time I might order their Prawn Laksa Pasta, or their Roasted Eggplant Pesto Sandwich. I might also order their Stout Glazed Bacon French Toast, or their Pandan Pancakes. 

I like Roasted Eggplant, and those Pandan Pancakes looked so good. 

But today we were here for the Rosti, and we chose the one with Cheesy Sausage. 

I don't know how we managed to add scrambled eggs, but that was something I really appreciated. 

Soft, creamy, slightly fluffy and tasty- that's what those eggs were. 

Their rosti was perfectly crisp and well fried too. 

You could feel the crunch, the taste of the well-fried potato with every bite, and you didn't have to think about whether the rosti would turn soggy if you ate it slow, or how you still had to dispose the potato peelings left haphazard in the sink. 

You just relished every mouthful.

What I liked, too, from this meal here this time, were the drinks.

My friend had ordered me a Babyccino. 

Next time, however, I'll want to try their Signature Sea Salt Caramel Latte, their Sea Salt Caramel Mocha, their Orange Mocha, or their Pumpkin Spice Latte. 

Maybe I just might go for some of their teas as well. 

Like their Earl Grey Lavender Tea or their Osmanthus Sencha Tea. 

This Side of Kembangan

You know, there was a time in my life when I didn't know anything about Kembangan.

What I did know of was its name, and of it as a space that you went past as you traveled your way to either Bedok or Paya Lebar westwards the other side. 

But that was it.

I knew nothing else.

I knew nothing more.

Then came a day when I moved into the estate.

Best part, not just at the fringe of the estate near the MRT, not even at the heart of it, but right at the back, not too far away from the expressway. 

It's been a while, and whilst I wish I can say I know the estate very well, I'm afraid I can't. 

But glad I am to know it a little more. 

And glad I am to explore it a little deep. 

One of the first things that surprised me the first time I came here were the HDB public housing blocks. 

I had not known. 

To me the area seemed to be all terraced houses and condominiums and standalone homes. 

But no, there is this housing estate of what I think is 10, 15 blocks, and not a very small one it is either. 

One side of the estate runs along Lengkong Tiga (hence the name). 

The other side runs along Lorong Melayu. 

I tend to stick to the Lorong Melayu side way more, so, yes, what lies on the other side of Lengkong Tiga, what lies beyond the back doors of these houses, and beyond, I can't say for sure.

But the soul of the estate has to be, I think, this canal. 

At first glance she seems like an ordinary canal, no different from the ones you see at various housing estates all over the island, but this is a canal that begins from somewhere near the PIE (maybe even beyond- I don't know) and goes all the way all through to East Coast Park out to the open sea. 

Here's the cute part.

You don't really think of the beach and the open sea when you're here walking along the canal to the bus stop, but this place- this part here at the junction of Jln Daud and Lengkong Tiga actually marks the very first stretch. 

From this very spot the canal runs all along Lengkong Tiga before it tilts right at the roundabout, and then heads straight down towards the MRT station. 

Under the MRT station the canal then runs, before coming out on the opposite side of Sims Avenue East where the park connector then goes along the stretch which, in all honesty, I find hard to define, but ends at Changi Road with Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup on the right hand side.

Across Changi Road the canal then goes (under, of course), then pops back out where it is Telok Kurau on one side, Frankel estate on the other, and on it goes until it gets to East Coast Road. 

The canal is pretty near to the sea by this point.

But then there is East Coast Road to cross, after which the canal runs along the stretch where St. Patrick's School is on the right.

All the way it goes until it hits Marine Parade Road. 

The canal is even closer to the sea by this point.

But there's still a final stretch.

Victoria Junior College, that is, that runs on the left side of this stretch, after which the canal then enters what I call the vegetation zone, goes under the ECP expressway, cuts through the space and scenery of East Coast Park and then finally ends at the Lookout Point near Campsite Area D. 

That's the charm of this canal. 

It might be divided into four, five different sections, but each section has its own vibe. 

It's like the vibe of Lengkong Tiga is different from the vibe along Telok Kurau and Frankel Drive. 

The vibe of Victoria Junior College and even St. Patrick's School- despite being diagonally across each other- feels different as well. 

Yet it is the same waterway that moves in a single direction from Bedok Reservoir Road all the way down.

Is it fascinating how the water runs?

Is it fascinating how this side of the canal is so different from the other sides?

Absolutely. 

If the other sides were more spacious, more spread out, more urban, this side in the Kembangan somehow still holds on to its shade, its huge canopied trees, its rich, deep sense of the earth and its sense of Land. 

I always get kampong vibes when at Lorong Melayu, Lengkong Satu, Lorong Marzuki and Lengkong Tiga.

Which, by the way, feel a little different from the vibes across the road at the Seng Kee side. 

But that's not all. 

Apparently, as what Google Maps shows me, these 10, 15 blocks that make up the Lengkong Tiga HDB estate are in fact the only public housing blocks that are sitting right by the water next to this canal.

There aren't any others. 

From here- all along Lengkong Tiga all the way down to East Coast Park- there're no more other HDBs. They're all either houses, condominiums, shop houses, or schools.

I suppose that must mean something, mustn't it?

SteppyYums!

I actually have more pictures of SteppyYums than these few here. 

But they're in my phones- and I haven't gotten around to transfer them.

There's something very lovely about taking pictures of all the meals we have at Steppyhouse. I don't know how to describe it. To some people these may be just simple, uncomplicated dishes that don't deserve pomp, grandeur and horn, but they're special, homely, and meaningful to me. 

Most of the meals here are stove cooked, but there's one here from Little Blue Pot, and one which I love very much. 

It was one of those evenings where I could go for either a box of fried kuay teow- bought from the shop near the MRT station, a slice of bread, or a packet of instant noodles. 

I remember hesitating a bit, but noodles won. 

There's something comforting about having a bowl of my favorite food in my hand, and there's something reassuring about seeing it all for myself, cooked the way I like with the ingredients, and the seasoning that I like. 

I have had noodles where instead of seasoning I've put butter and sesame oil and mixed herbs. 

This evening, however, I decided to go all the way with a full box of luncheon meat, and the shrimp seasoning from the packet, plus many dashes of sesame oil.  So lazy was I that I didn't even bother to cut up the luncheon meat. Just twisted it apart with the fork and dumped the whole lot into Little Blue Pot. 

Hence the hacked out appearance of the meat. 

Myojo really is one of my favorite brands when it comes to instant noodles. 

I love the texture, the way the noodle absorbs the flavor of the seasoning, and how it gives just that feel of chew when you have a spoon of it at one go. 

But one cannot have instant noodles every day, yes?

So here the rest of the meals are. 

One thing you'll see about all these dishes are the eggs.

Cooked in different styles, all done in a way that I like, done in a way that I appreciate very much, and done in a way that means something to me. 

I like my eggs scrambled.

I like my eggs fried.

I also like them done omelet style with frozen prawns thrown inside. 

Of course, one can have more than just eggs alone, so there are times when we have the eggs with shabu shabu sliced chicken. There are times when we have the eggs with them little frozen prawns and a heap of (specially kept) basmati rice. 

I wish I knew exactly what sauces the chef mixes when cooking the meat or rice shallow-fried, but I know there's organic fish sauce, organic oyster sauce, sesame oil, black bean sauce, and some other bottles that i now cannot remember, and very likely also cannot recognize. 

It isn't just meat that we have.

Some days we have potatoes. 

Fresh ones, not frozen, that we buy from the supermarket downstairs, that we wash, peel, Ninja-chop, and fry.

I like how crisp and fresh tasting they are.

Especially when I eat them plain with just pink salt, no sauce. 

But they taste good however they're made. 

I'm never particular with homecooked meals.

I love all them as they are, however they're prepared.

On occasion though there're some foods I like more than the others. 

Like salmon belly, which we cut into bite-sized pieces and shallow fry. 

Done well, the salmon belly is hot, it has a melt-in-your-mouth texture, and a skin so crisp it contrasts sharp with the fish. 

Sometimes I pop the whole piece inside my mouth. 

Other times I eat the skin first, then the fish, so I get to savor the belly piece in its entirety.