Penang Char Kuay Teows

It might be too premature a time to write about this. 

There are, after all, only two pictures of the same dish that I've had at Nanyang Dao. 

But, thinking about it, honestly, it doesn't really matter. 

Not when these two plates are one of my all-time favorites, and I won't hesitate to have them when I am at a place that I know will serve them great at good a price. 

There'll be some amongst us who will say that $12 a plate be too much for what is essentially a plate of fried kuay teow, but cultural is not cheap when it comes to this country- especially if your place is located in an airconditioned mall- so, besides the coffee shops and the hawkers t hat strive to keep their prices competitive, there'll be normal expectation that a standard plate be at least $10, or more. 

It is a great thing to be able to come here for lunch at outlet Parkway Parade when they have a fantastic lunchtime deal that I love. 

Because how do you hold back on a deal that gives you not just a plate of noodles, but also a drink and/or dessert, all for the gorgeous lunchtime price of $9.90? 

I can't. 

So there are times when my friend and I share the water chestnut drink, and there are times when we share a bowl of very cold Chendol. 

I don't have a picture of the Chendol in recent times, but it looks like this, lots of red bean, lots of gula melaka, lots of the green green worms that make up Chendol. 

To be frank, Penang Char Kuay Teow isn't the only dish that catches my eye when I'm here at Nanyang Dao- there're others too- but this is the one that I find myself getting attracted to, time after time. 

Maybe it's because I have a natural love for kuay teow, whether soup or fried or stir-fried. Better yet if it's fried in the char kuay teow style or the dry hor fun style, and why not, I say, if it be done in the Penang style. 

I've no idea what the difference between a regular CKT or a Penang CKT is, actually but I think the Penang version uses a lighter version of soy sauce but spends more time in the wok, so the color of the noodles is lighter, less oily, but full of the intense smoky flavor that defines this particular dish. 

What I like is how rounded the taste is. 

I could take one noodle- just one noodle- and it would have the same rounded, smoky, full flavor no different had I taken an entire spoon. 

That's how skillful the entire plate of noodles had been fried.

No strand left unturned. 

Of course, it would not be Penang CKT without the all-important ingredients of lap cheong Chinese sausage, egg, chives, bean sprouts and one big prawn. 

I can't remember whether or not they have the hum cockles. 

I don't think they have.

Or even if they do, it be just at most one, or two. 

January's Toa Payoh Hawker Food

I had thought I would write about these hawker food of Toa Payoh in my last post. 

As it turned out, Marine Parade Hawker Center had much more to offer and talk about and so here's the Toa Payoh post instead. 

There're two hawker centers that we have begun to frequent when at Toa Payoh. One's the hawker at Lorong 7 Kim Keat Palm. The other's the hawker at Lorong 5 Blk 75. 

Truth be told, offhand I don't know what the block number of the Lorong 5 one is. I only know it as the evening hawker center, whilst Lorong 7 I know of it as the morning/afternoon one. 

I have gradually come to relish the food here at Lorong 5. 

First time we came here we didn't know what was good, what was suitable to eat. Now, we know. 

There're a couple of stalls here that are very popular. By that, it also means that one has to wait, and wait. 

I'm always greeted by what I call the soybean curd chin chow stall. It's the first two stalls one sees when coming through the blocks of the Lorong 6 side. Along this row the popular stalls include the noodle soup stall selling ban mian and fish soup. I haven't had chance to try the ban mian though- the queue is always very long- and I'm not one with plenty of patience to wait, especially when by that time I'm usually hungry. 

What I have tried along this row, however, is the herbal soup with rice. 

Except that I don't have a picture. 

It isn't because the food isn't good. 

It is that I was too hungry, I wanted to quickly finish dinner, and well, I didn't think the chicken- in the cool dim hues of the hawker center- would look particularly appetizing with shreds looking like they had been hacked off here and there. 

The pictures of the food at this Lorong 5 hawker come from the stalls behind. 

This year thus far we've gone for their chicken, and their chicken wings. 

We discovered this stall quite by accident. 

I had actually hoped to have nasi lemak but my friend thought it better to try something new. 

We weren't sure what to have, but then there was this uber long line at the stall- a literal L shape- so off he went to queue, and after almost twenty or thirty minutes, came back bearing two plates of chicken prepared two very different ways. 

There was a plate of rice.

There was also a plate of steamed chicken.

Plus a plate of the fried. 

The fried chicken wings were remarkably popular, it seems. 

After biting into my first piece, I realized why. 

Different places may choose to prepare their chicken wings with different flavors and different techniques, but this stall here marinate theirs in a way that makes one reminisce of those school tuckshop chicken wings that we used to buy for 30c in the 80s era of primary schools. 

I don't know if it is the seasoning or the way it's fried, but it's done in such a way that the crunch of the skin is perfect- not too hard nor too soggy with the oil spilling out. The skin has the most delicious, perfect crunch, if one might say, and the meat beneath is tender enough that it falls right off the bone. 

When I first began eating this chicken, I used a fork and knife. 

Halfway through my first piece of chicken drumstick, I gave up and used my hands instead.

More fun that way.

We've had this chicken at least twice now, and by the looks of it, I think we might be having it even more. 

The food of Toa Payoh hawker we've had in January isn't only those that come from here at Lorong 5.

There' was also the food at the Lorong 7 hawker which one afternoon we got to go. 

To be honest I was glad for the opportunity. 

This hawker center seems to be one of those daytime types where there're more stalls open in the day than at night. How or why it is, I don't know, but residents who come down for dinner in the evenings might find more delicious options at the two coffee shops close by rather than at the hawker center itself. 

I don't know which the popular stalls here are at Kim Keat Palm, but if there be one, it would be the dessert stall called Dove (or something). It had come recommended by a friend, and I had been eager to try the Chendol and Ice Kachang. 

Past few times when I had come in the late evening the stall had been closed.

Thankfully it was open this time.

So I got ourselves a bowl of Chendol, which, I was later delighted to find, had as much gula melaka as I hoped it be possible. 

But one can't have only dessert for lunch, can they, so we had wanton noodles dry for mains, with char siew and siew yok all atop.

January's Marine Parade Hawker Food

We ate a lot at the hawker during the month of January. 

It wasn't planned. 

But life is such that when you get brought to a place where there is opportunity for hawker food and good coffee shop food, you take. It might be that we gravitated naturally to it, it might also be that the hearts of born and bred us had missed hawker food without us realizing it. 

But that's how we were.

Two, no, three, hawker centers we actually went throughout the month of January, but the first was the Marine Parade Hawker Center where breakfast became the first order of the season. 

Tired me didn't get to take pictures of the bread nor the eggs- we were hungry- but there was the coffee, or the kopi-o kosong which, incredibly bitter as it was, made for a great stimulation to the busy day ahead.

Over the next couple of days  we ate at the hawker random times here and there- I didn't take any pictures- then came one afternoon where I decided I wanted to go for the economic bee hoon, or mifenmian, as it's often known. 

Perhaps if you wonder why this economic bee hoon entices me, well, you must know that this is not any unknown name stall. This stall in fact, has been around for at least twenty years, has a couple of outlets here, there, everywhere, and I used to have their fried kuay teow dabaoed from the Ghim Moh Hawker Center when I worked at a housing block in Ghim Moh. 

This one here at Marine Parade, I had seen the stall a while back, and the sight of the noodle heaps, together with all the deep fried finger food had made me keen, so today I got myself a plate of fried kuay teow, a single fried egg, and some cabbage. 

Why no chicken wing or hot dog or fish fillet or fish cake?

I didn't feel like having the fried. 

The noodles were pretty good though. 

Even if a little clean. 

Maybe now the trend at hawkers is to eat clean or something- I don't know- but this was exceptionally light, not as oily as I remembered it to be, and so vague on the soy sauce that I actually considered adding some chili. 

But I enjoyed them, and pretty sure I'll be having the same order of noodles, whacking more of the other ingredients next time. 

Couple of days after the noodles, my friend and I shared a plate of braised duck with rice. A popular stall this turned out to be, as we soon found, when my friend had to join a long queue at the stall, and came back telling me that people ordered packets and plates three or four. 

We soon discovered just what the buzz was, and trust me, I'm not being biased here. 

Especially since I am the type who doesn't do braised duck rice often- I'm more of the roasted kind- but I found myself enjoying this one. 

Not only was the gravy thick, it had a strong pleasant herbal taste, making it very appetizing, and which also went well with the rice. The meat of the duck too was sliced skillfully, making it easy to eat, and what's more, there was hardly any bone, with the meat was so tender that it didn't feel dry even when eating each slice alone.

Best part, I liked the skin. 

It didn't give me the odd odd gamey taste. 

Instead it was smooth, silky, full of flavor, and I liked eating each slice of braised duck skin with a spoonful of rice. 

Breakfast @ McDonalds!

Two years it has been since I last ate breakfast here at a McDonalds outlet, and can I tell you just how strange it was that I didn't realize how much I actually missed having a morning meal at this fast food place until the moment I sat at a table looking at my plate of hotcakes in front of me?

It's so strange; McDonalds can have a lot of different foods and a lot of different options, including new ones that I would also like to try- like the bagels, or something- but somehow the heart keeps going back to the cozy and the familiar. 

I've always had a soft spot for hotcakes. 

Well, actually, Big Breakfasts also, not so much for any reason, other than I had this thing for scrambled eggs and English muffins when I was young, and up till now, I fancy a thickly buttered English muffin with little drizzles of jam between the crevices. 

Between one and the other though, I missed the hotcakes more. 

Which is a little surprising, really. 

I had not thought I missed these simple little round flat cakes of flour so much but apparently, I do. 

Perhaps I think of these hotcakes of McDonalds as happy food. 

And perhaps I actually like eating them with my hands instead of fork and knife, although now as grown-up adults we are technically required to have them the proper way.

There's something genuinely fun about eating this little round cake of flour that I cannot define, but I like it, and I hope to keep it that way.

Today we had brought our own butter down. 

Next time we'll bring more. 

This little cup of French butter ended up not being enough for two waffles and three hotcakes. 

Good thing then McDonalds provided the syrup, which, cornstarch, sugar, everything and all, I usually try not to take, but I hadn't had this for two years, so it obviously didn't matter. 

Anyway only when we came to the third hotcake did I start dipping (drowning) it in. 

All at once it brought back familiar flavors of childhood- of McDonalds at Bras Basah, of McDonalds at East Coast Park, of McDonalds, even, at elsewhere. 

But not just that, there was that sense of quiet joy knowing that these three little flat cakes was what I really wanted- not what others wanted- this was what I really liked- not what others liked- and most important of all, I didn't have to share. 

I could choose to have it all to myself. 

But, of course, I didn't. 

We split our meals. 

I took a bit of my friend's scrambled eggs and half of sausage. 

He took one and a half of my hotcakes. 

The Cat At The Childcare

It is seldom- very very seldom- that this 'hood of a housing estate in Hougang gets her share of cats, community or otherwise. 

The last time cats popped up in this particular zone was at least three years ago. 

There was a black and white cat.

And there was a ginger cat. 

Both cats had their own quirks. The black and white cat came out mostly in the daytime. I mostly saw it lounging around the playhouse of the playground in the afternoons when I walked to the lift. The ginger cat, on the other hand, either hung about at the benches of the void deck, or stretched itself lazily out in the same playhouse of the same playground.

The ginger cat disappeared three years or so ago. 

I think the community feeders had it brought to the vet for some treatment, and afterwards away to a fosterer for it to be prepared for adoption.

There have been no sightings of cats in the area ever since. 

Not that I know of, anyway. 

But weekday this afternoon out came a surprise. 

There I was, walking along the void deck corridor just past the Coke vending machine towards the bus stop, when all of a sudden this little fella popped up at the wheelchair ramp leading from the lift to the adjacent block in front. 

You know how in life you turn your head towards a single direction expecting it to be as empty as it has always been times and times before but instead get greeted by a welcome anomaly? 

That's what this was. 

A most adorable of a kitty cat sitting on the ramp staring at my direction. 

Of course, I HAD to say hiiiii to it.

I had half expected it go off in the opposite direction and run on its own merry way like some cats do, but no, it meowed back at me, and came right over, scrambling prettily through the metal bars of the ramp's railing to where I was.

No need to say, I of course, had to guide it back to the ramp where it originally had come from. 

It followed me a while, and when I saw it didn't look like it was going to go away anytime soon, I gave it a stroke and pat, feeling its soft fur run silkily through my fingers. 

It has been said that ragdoll kitty cats are exceptionally affectionate. 

I have to agree. 

Where I had expected the cat to run off home, it not only lingered around my feet, it even peeked into my carrier bag that I had by then put down on the ground so I could pat it better. 

After a bit of curious browsing, it sat down right by my feet, by my shoes, its tail resting lightly on the side of my carrier bag. 

I don't know who was more comforted- the cat, or I. 

I should say both of us, because definitely I was delighted and warmed by the sight of that gorgeous, sweet-looking fluffed up kitty sitting right by my bag. The tail, especially, was so fluffy and it was obvious it had been so perfectly groomed. 

Sad to say I wasn't able to hang around the area for long, so gently I stepped back and picked up my carrier bag. 

Guess what?

The kitty wouldn't let me go. 

It followed me. 

Walked beside me.

And here I was in a quandary.  

Happy as I was, I had to go off, I wouldn't be able to stay and take care of it for too long, and so I asked the kitty cat to go on home. 

I don't know whether he or she understood but cute little fella sashayed beautifully along on the corridor a bit, stopped, looked around its surroundings a while, then stopped right outside the main entrance of the childcare center. 

Sadly I couldn't stay to see where else the cat would go.

I had to go.

Tha Chang's Boat Noodles

So I discovered these boat noodles a couple of months ago when I was at Bugis Junction and looking for something to eat. 

I think the plan had been to have sushi, but then the queue was long and I was lazy and since there was this (then) new Thai restaurant, thought we'd give it a try. 

What I didn't know at that time was that Tha Chang wasn't just a restaurant. 

It was in fact a drinking place, a pub, a club, however you want to describe it, and it had both food and beer and drinks and alcohol. 

If there's one thing I have come to understand about pub grub, it is that the food is usually good. Kitchens at these places don't normally screw up their foods, and so, whilst you might not get them dishes at wallet-friendly prices, you can be sure it will be as fulfilling, and authentic as one's dinner can get. 

Boat Noodles here was not going to be a dollar a bowl- that much I was certain. 

But I didn't think it very expensive either. 

I mean, look at the bowl! 

Never mind the fact that I was hungry and needed soup at that time, this is not the small kind of a bowl that merely gives you a taste of what boat noodles is, and nothing more.

Now, whilst that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the small ones (an outlet at the National Library serves up some really good and satisfying cute little bowls) it is the full-sized solid ones like those served here that brings me straight back to Thailand, to the place where for the first time I had one of the best Boat Noodles which taste I have never forgotten. 

The magic lies in the soup. 

It is the soup of this bowl here at Tha Chang that brings me to this place at Ploenchit near Mediva Clinic right next to Ploenchit BTS station. Theirs is somewhat thicker compared to here but the taste is memorable, nearly the same, and leaves me with a very pleasant smile. 

It is because of this taste, I tell you, that I refuse to have boat noodles at anywhere else on this island (thus far) except for here. 

I'm stubborn like that. 

What's funny is that I don't really know what goes inside the broth. 

Google tells me that the soup is made with stock of either pork or beef, has herbs- galangal, cinnamon, lemongrass, dark soy sauce, fermented soybean paste, and thickened (usually) with a bit of animal blood. 

That will probably be what's in the bowl over in Thailand. 

Here, gahmen regulations and all, I'm presuming the blood is what's absent at Tha Chang, but on the whole, it has, generally, everything else.  

I'm not sure if they have bean sprouts in the bowl- I can't really remember now, goodness me- but coriander (parsley?) and a bunch of other vegetables- spinach, maybe, yes, they have. 

Of course, it will not be boat noodles for me if there is no protein. 

My bowl today had plenty of pork slices, pork meatballs, and pork liver mixed amidst my choice of egg noodles, all of which were done in a way that made me think of ramen, but which wasn't really ramen at all. 

What I loved was how tender the pork slices were. 

At first sight one might have thought they would be on the tougher, drier, chewy side, but to my surprise, no, they were incredibly tender, full of flavor from the soup, and pleasantly nice to chew. 

I'll have rice vermicelli when I come here next time though. 

Egg noodles might go well with certain flavors of soup of different thickness, but the broth of Thai boat noodles goes best with rice. The taste of egg noodles seems to get lost in the savory soup of the cinnamon and galangal and everything else. 

It was a nice, fulfilling, satisfactory bowl I had this particular afternoon, one which- after Havelock- I actually needed, and I'm pretty sure I'll be back here at Tha Chang in future. 

After all, Ploenchit's never far from my mind, and I'm just so glad that on days where I can't be there, I can be here. 

JIANGHU The Grilled at Somerset

I'll be honest. 

We had not intended to come here for this meal. 

Perhaps because in recent times we had been going to the K-BBQs and the Thai Mookatas and the hotpots here and there, and what with me being someone who likes to go for the familiar, had not considered this grill-hotpot place. 

But then the hotpot upstairs on the 8th floor of Orchard Central, was closed- Dinner and Dance Night- so being hungry enough for two meals, off it was to the next best alternative of this BBQ on the ground floor of Orchard Gateway the mall next door.

It isn't that I hadn't noticed it. 

We had passed by the entrance of JIANGHU Buffet a couple of times, seen the diners at their meal inside the same number of times, but had somehow gone past.

Today we stopped and ate. 

First thing when we stepped in they got us to a table somewhere in the middle not too far away from the drinks. The wait staff gave us the code, told us what was available, what was not, and let us be. 

Whilst my friend decided on the meats, I went around looking at the sauces. 

We had brought our Greek-style yogurt and garlic powder, so we were certainly going to use that, but there was a sesame-peanut sauce mix and sesame oil so I made a bowl, threw in some cilantro and parsley and brought it back. 

By that time my friend had placed the orders. 

It didn't take too long before several plates of the meats we ordered were brought to the table. Most of the plates were beef, all beautifully rolled up, beautifully chilled, and arranged in rows. 

But some forms of pork belly there were too. 

The meal today varied between swirling the raw meat inside the pot of soup (I had chosen pork bone), grilling the meat on the small cute little grill in front of me, dipping the cooked meat into the yogurt that we'd brought, and eating it.

At least that's what I seemed to be doing most of the time. 

Come to think of it, it was rather fun. 

Maybe it is the quiet, organized, systematic way one has to have when having individual hotpots such as these. To have a hotpot this style is to be neat, structured and careful. It is not possible to be messy and have plates tossed here, there, everywhere when your table isn't large and everything is mostly square and you need to eat it like conveyor belt style.

Perhaps it was for this reason that I spent most of my time here alternating between swirling the meat in the pot, grilling the meat, stirring the soup looking for ingredients that I'd thrown inside the pot, and, of course, eating. 

You would almost say it robotic. 

Meat in, Meat out, Plate In, Plate Out. 

So occupied was I with everything that I didn't realize just how many portions of vegetables I had taken. 

See, there's no counter here that you go take vegetables from. You can either place an order on the app, or you have to wait by the conveyor belt for what you want to pass by and then you take them off to your table. 

I had gone to take an extra empty bowl when I saw two bowls of lettuces on the belt and so quickly grabbed them both. Only when I got to my table that I realized I had in fact a half-eaten bowl on the table with leaves yet uncooked, and so on the whole that afternoon I ended up with four. 

Two of cabbage, two of lettuce.

No doubt, vegetables are one of my favorite ingredients when it comes to hotpot- I always aim for the cabbages and the lettuces, but to have four bowls in a 90-minute time frame really takes the cake. 

No regrets though. 

I love how the leaves soak up the flavors of the soup without me really needing to drink the soup itself. 

I also love the sensation of the soup bursting out from the leaves whenever I take a bite. 

This afternoon not only did I get platters of meat and four bowls of vegetables, there were also some of the cooked food which my friend had ordered. 

What they were, precisely, I don't remember really, but there was a dish that you were supposed to put on the grill and then just let it simmer. I think it was supposed to be an egg cooked in garlic, something along those lines. I remember the garlic being cooked. I don't remember whether I waited for the whole egg yolk to turn solid or not. I might not have. 

I do remember the prawn, which, although kosong when it arrived at the table, we tossed in the cooked garlic from the little dish on the grill making it taste much better. 

One of my favorite cooked foods from this place had to be the three big balls you see in the first picture (together with the meats) above. 

Not that I didn't like the fried chicken (or was it chicken skin) but I thought those balls unique. 

Almost like a dessert they were- huge, pong pong round, delicately sweetened with condensed milk, and made out of glutinous rice so they were pretty fun to chew. 

I wish I had cut my portion of the ball up and put it aside to eat slowly piece by piece, and I'll probably do so next time, but this afternoon hungry me munched it all up at one go and then afterwards wished I had held back to go with dessert after. 

Dessert here didn't have an extensive menu but it was sufficient. Besides the self-serve ice cream cups of the Mingo brand, there were Chinese desserts of Osmanthus Flower Jelly, Mango Sago, a Fermented Rice dessert, and Mango Ice with Milk. 

It was between a Mango Sago and a Mango Ice, so I took the latter. 

It turned out to be less sweet than expected. 

Maybe you were supposed to mix it with the ice cream yourself or something. But perhaps it might have been that the bowl had an abundance of ice that made the whole dessert more balanced than the strong flavors of Chinese foods that I have come to expect. 

Maybe next time I'll go for the Mango Sago and then I'll try mixing it with Vanilla Ice Cream (if they have) just to see how it tastes. 

Mix and match is after all a distinctive pattern when it comes to hotpot and to BBQ, so yeah, glad I am to be granted the chance, and I'm definitely going to try it more when the time comes.