Loving Cheetos!

A quick post here just to introduce my new favorite snack.

Cheetos.

Cheetos Crunchy. 

Honestly, never thought I would fall in love with this cheese-flavored snack as much as I do now, but it has now become such that it be the one snack I will now look out for when I am at the supermarket, and it be the one snack that I will want to buy, more so irresistibly when the price falls below the RRP of $5.35. 

Actually, come to think of it, new also not so new. 

At least three, four months already. 

First time I actually paid special attention to this snack was when I was at the shops in Kembangan looking for something to buy for myself. At that time I was trying to decide between the Lays Salted Egg or the Super Ring or the Ruffles. 

But then I spotted this at $4.70.

So pragmatic me bought it.

And guess what...? 

Fell in love at first bite.

Have not changed my mind since. 

Cheetos Crunchy is dangerously addictive. 

Why, exactly, I don't know. 

They might have the puffs, the Hot Cheetos, even the Jalapeno Cheetos, but to date I seem to favor only this one. 

It might be the cheese, the coloring, the additives, the cheese powder, the firmness of the corn crunch- just something that makes it exactly what it is- junk. 

But then so are potato chips, and to be honest, whilst I do appreciate a good flavor of potato chip now and then, I have since bought myself some Lays and some Ruffles and some other brands of potato chips, but I find myself drifting back to Cheetos Crunchy. 

Thomson's Basil King

We were in the Thomson area, my colleague and I, and what with it being evening after having finished a meeting, decided we'd have our dinner close by. 

There is a lot of food to be had here in the Thomson area. 

Whether it be you're going for Asian cuisine, Indian cuisine, Teochew porridge, brunch-like meals, pastries, or whatever it is you might feel like having that day, the Thomson area is no short of choice. 

But us still being a bit of a noob to the place- despite having come here quite often over the last few months- weren't sure this evening what we ought to have. 

We could have had the wanton noodles or the curry rice Thai style, but this evening I didn't feel like having a big bowl of curry with a pork cutlet soaked inside out. Neither did I feel like having dishes to go with smooth rice porridge. 

So there we were, wondering what else we could have this evening when my friend- through the Grab app- discovered that there was a Basil King nearby. 

So we went to try. 

At first I wasn't very sure- there have been a fair bit of mixed reviews about it- some say it's good, some say it's not, some say it's not that big a deal to be getting such good reviews, others however say that there's enough of spice and enough of the meat to make one feel the meal is enough. 

Much more however has been raved about the egg, or eggs. 

And, after trying it, I have to say, yeah it's true. 

Okay, I can't say whether or not it brought me back to the smooth, familiar vibes of BKK, or whether it made me think of the one place I went to almost a year or so ago, but it was comforting to see Thai characters on the circumference of the plate, it was nice seeing the bright colors of the customized plate, and the food looking full and shiok right in the center of it. 

Honestly, the plate made me think of a tattoo. 

Food wise, well, it might not seem that fantastic for those who know how to wield the wok and the spatula and control the fire and the time, but if you be anyone like me who is clumsy in the kitchen and has zero estimate of sauce portion and heat portion etc etc, to get fried eggs with whites all fluffed up and yolks so big and orangey, well, that be a blessing. 

I can't remember how exactly it was I ate my Pad Krapow basil beef rice this late afternoon. 

Did I eat the minced beef all by itself? 

Did I scoop up the beef to eat with the rice by the spoon? 

And the egg; did I have the fluffy fried whites together with the rice, or did I eat it all on its own by itself? 

All this, I now can't remember.

What I can, and do recall, is me breaking the yolk to eat it together with the rice. That was something I had always wanted to do. It always fascinates me just how something simple like egg yolk eaten with rice can be made so appetizing and delicious. 

This plate, the bright big orange yolk had been skillfully kept runny- despite it being fried- and I remember the quiet joy in my heart as I watched the orange yolk flow all over the heap of soft rice grains, giving them a color so appetizing and cheerful it enhanced the meal.

As much as I rave about the egg, of course, I wasn't there for them both themselves.

The basil beef was just as well-fried too. 

I had worried it might be too dry, or too oily- two extremes that some places make their Pad Krapow to be- but no, this one was moist, only slightly oily, yet full of flavor and very rounded in the taste. 

I'm glad my friend chose the non-spicy.

Think that is how I'm also going to make it be. 

Heng Long Cooked Food

A bit hard to imagine but I had this only very recently, literally, on the 1st day of February, only about three weeks ago. 

Today was one of those weekend evenings where we wanted to take a bit of walk but didn't want to go anywhere else other than nearby, so, between the enclave of Joo Chiat, and the enclave of Tanjong Katong, we chose the latter. 

There wasn't much in the Joo Chiat zone we wanted for dinner this evening anyway. 

I can't say that I know offhand what it was we wanted to eat over there at Tanjong Katong, but to the very least there was a Punggol Nasi Lemak, a wanton noodle place, and this Heng Long Cooked Food that we had in years prior come many times before. 

There're many dishes to be had when one comes here for Teochew porridge. 

There're people who go straight for the steamed fish- various kinds of it, prepared different ways. They're the customers who choose either the sliced fish, or the whole fish steamed with ginger, light soy sauce and garlic (maybe).

Us however we like the variety, and so today, to go with the smooth sweet potato porridge, we got ourselves dishes up to five. 

First up was a steamed egg- a dish familiar to me and my friend, a dish warm and mushy and soft and great to eat either on its own, or with the soft rice grains. Today's egg came with a single portion of otah. 

What's interesting is that my friend didn't use to take the otah- he wasn't very keen with the spice- but this is one solid piece of (what I think is) Nyonya style otah, and he's since begun to appreciate this piece of mushed paste of a chili fish more. 

After that came a plate of steamed pork patty. I'm not a very huge fan of the salted fish on top- tried it once and it didn't taste too good on its own- but I fancied it with the porridge when eaten together, or when dipped inside the water. 

There was a plate of stewed, or braised chicken. 

This is a familiar dish- I used to have it when my grandparents cooked it for our family dinner- and I continue to like the dish still, although, like always I'm nervous of the small bones that sometimes get chopped up in between. 

And then finally there was the stewed brinjal. 

Actually I've no idea whether this brinjal is shallow fried or stewed, but it comes nicely oiled with a sweet, savory kind of gravy that is thick and smooth both at the same time. 

What I like best about this brinjal (or is it eggplant) is that it comes with a most lovely chew that doesn't collapse in your mouth, yet is not so hard that it makes eating the vegetable uncomfortable. 

That's quality.

Some places I've been to either give me a brinjal that is so soft I'm literally eating only the skin, or not otherwise, so hard that I wonder if it has been cooked at all. 

There're many more dishes here at Heng Long that one will find attractive, never mind whether you eat it with porridge or rice. 

In a very odd way, it makes me think of other places too, like Thomson Road near Thomson Plaza, like Kovan near the Teochew enclave, and like North Bridge Road right at the junction of Jalan Sultan. 

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.