Toa Payoh Lorong 5, Lorong 4

You know, if there be something that I have only recently come to realize, it is that I actually become more observant of my surroundings whenever Chonkycam is around. 

The difference had not occurred to me before.

That is, not until one weekend afternoon when we were walking from Toa Payoh Lorong 6 to Toa Payoh Central did I realize there was much around me which I hadn't been seeing, hadn't been paying attention to. 

Tis a pity. 

I should be more curious of what I do and where I am, even if it be routine, even if it be something that I've done plenty a time. 

This early evening we headed out from Toa Payoh Lorong 6, first passing by the SPC petrol station, then turning into the common open air area in front of what I think is Blk 38. At other places, the common open air space might be just a pathway and nothing more, but the residents here seemed to have turned it into some sort of a community garden of which I know not what plants they have, but are very well watered, very well kept, neat in their little plots, and which attract flocks of adorable looking little sparrows.

It had not occurred to me that there would be sparrows here at Lorong 6, but there they were, plenty of them! 

Not just one or two (like how crows mostly are) but flocks of them, all flying together from one spot to another. 

From this community garden, up a little flight of stairs I went, crossed a car park, and out onto Toa Payoh East. 

Along the way I took a picture of the playground. 

Now this might seem common to some people, like what's the big deal, it is just a playground.

But, see, a playground is a communal place. 

At least in a country like ours where most of us are flat dwellers and where common spaces become the one place where everyone, more or less, will pass by. 

The playground is a place where kids gather, where caregivers- be it parents or helpers or elders- sit around and watch them play, or play with them. This is a spot normally full of giggles and chuckles and happy screams. 

But in the early dawn or in the dark night, a quiet spell falls. 

Residents out for early morning walks might have a seat at one of the benches by the playground before the sun fully rises. 

Residents out of their flats in the evenings or late nights might also find themselves a seat here. 

At times there are couples chatting. 

At times too small groups of friends hang out at the playground, sitting underneath the shelter chilling and chatting with each other.

The playground is, generally, a convivial place. Whether or not you're born and bred, whether or not you're here from elsewhere, this space is one you will surely recognize, and pass by. 

From here, I headed out and found myself on Toa Payoh East.

Now, this is one road that surprises me.

Rather, this is one stretch that surprises me. 

Because, how is it that this side of the road can be Toa Payoh East when just further up it is Toa Payoh Lorong 5?

I mean, did this road not exist during the time when they were doing up all them Lorongs?

How is it that this road of a stretch transformed from a Toa Payoh Lorong 5 to a Toa Payoh East immediately after the junction of Toa Payoh Lorong 7? 

But here it was I stood- and here be the blocks of Toa Payoh East looking towards the direction of Lorong 7. 

What's more interesting is that on the other side of this short Toa Payoh East stretch- my left, actually- there are these yellow and orange blocks of a completely different architecture. 

The corridors of Blk 46 don't look out onto the main road. 

The corridors of this block Blk 34 do. 

It's a pity I didn't take a picture of the big field opposite the road. 

Especially since it didn't always use to be a field. 

See, what looks like now a big space of grass- with one marker tree- used to be an estate housing blocks of flats ranging from one-room to three. I don't know when it was the three room flats got demolished, but the last one standing was the one-room, and it held space there for a very long time until one day it disappeared too. 

Perhaps one day I might just take a detour there for the sake of the picture. 

But not today. 

Today I crossed this road that is Toa Payoh East on one side, Lorong 5 Toa Payoh on the other, opposite which, of course, is the single-story, low-lying Blk 75 Toa Payoh Food Center behind them trees. 

I wasn't going that direction this evening, so all you see are the blocks that make for a landmark of the food center.

I think they're Blk 61 or 59, or they might well have been Blk 64 and 61, with 64 in front and 61 behind.

Blk 64 is L-shaped after all. 

Whilst crossing the road I managed to take a picture of Blk 68, from where I were, half hidden behind the trees of the Toa Payoh Sensory Park. 

It was a most unusual place- this park. 

I don't know what a sensory park actually is, but this one, definitely, was atmospheric, and immersive. 

It didn't matter that the flats behind were so close to the shrubs and trees and plants. Here the presence of concrete didn't make a difference (although the park being so near to the flats made me think of this particular housing estate in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong) 

What struck me most was the immersive, different-world atmosphere. 

It might have been the fact that it had earlier rained. 

But still, it is not often that a park brings to you feels of a wet, damp tropical jungle after the rains.  Neither is it often that a park as small as this makes you think of shadows, shelter and dark, wet, misty green after you've stepped in. 

Entering the park from the Blk 68 side I thought I was stepping into another world- a piece of natural history that our country's development has somewhat- over the course of decades- has gradually erased. 

I found myself gazing, mesmerized, at the trees with their narrow trunks and huge canopies. 

I also found myself looking at the well-worn bark, the green, wet, refreshing moss on the trunks, and the grass, different from the regular roadside cow grass we normally see. 

This sensory park seemed... so different.

Maybe it was meant to evoke some sort of a memory. 

Maybe it was meant to make you think of another place, another time.

It is no secret that Toa Payoh was once an agricultural sort of place with mud and swamps and plenty of rain. 

It is no secret too that the place remains very heartlander after all these years, and one can only imagine just how this side of Toa Payoh once used to look like before all these blocks got built, and flats came in.

Do the residents here wonder? 

Do they remember? 

Will they think of the jungle they left when the estate got built, and people began moving in? 

There are not many of the generation that still remember. 

But this one will make new memory for those who now still dwell there, or maybe those that move in. 

More Zichar from 80

You know, I had not thought I would grow to like the food from this zichar stall when we first started eating here. 

I mean, eating food at hawker centers and coffee shops is sometimes a sort of gamble. You think the stall might be good, the food turns out to be otherwise. Or, you think the food from this stall is good, but it turns out that only (some) dishes are good, and the rest are mediocre. 

The latter had been my expectation when coming here to the zichar stall of Blk 80 Marine Parade Central. 

But, to my surprise, as so far as I've eaten, the food has been quite good. 

Now, I don't take pictures of every dish every time I eat there, but here be a few. 

You know what's funny?l

What's funny is that the cheapest item in particular collection is actually one of the best. 

it's not that they aren't good with the fried. 

But I think they're better with the stir fried. 

In any case, for a most pleasant price of $4.80 for (Sup Kum) Hor Fun, or Hor Fun with Gravy, I am not complaining. To being with, there aren't many places that will grant you such and such a dish at such a price. What's more, the quality is quite good. 

First time I had the dish I had worried that the sauce be too starchy, or the portion of hor fun be too small. I had also worried that the extras be either too hard or too discolored or not fresh at all.

To my surprise, it turned out otherwise. 

So there is a bit of starch inside the gravy but, really, it's not that bad. As in, I don't get the over stuffed feel after I eat the hor fun noodle with the gravy. On the other hand, it tastes just nice.

Is there wok hei?

Not alot. 

An occasional section or two, maybe, but not more. 

I don't mind. 

I mean, yes, I'd love it if there were more chewy chewy pieces stuck together but that's not something to be bargained for and, really, it isn't so high up on the criteria list anyway. 

The interesting part, I have to say, is probably the vegetables and the prawn and the meat. See, most of the time these are additional ingredients that no one really cares about, so more often than not, these are the ingredients that get hard, difficult to eat, and can literally be placed at the side. 

But the vegetable leaves are surprisingly soft (not chewy as I thought they would be), the stems are also soft, and whilst the pork slices are a wee bit ends and a wee bit small, they aren't dry nor inedible. The surprise is the prawn. Frozen, yes, but actually quite good. 

When it comes to the fried, their fried bee hoon is better than their fried hor fun. 

Why, exactly, I don't know. 

It's just that the fried bee hoon is drier and less oily as compared to the fried hor fun, and so my stomach takes it better. I've had more fun eating the bee hoon than the flat rice noodle, and I don't think it's because the hor fun has more sauce. I think it's because the nature of the noodle absorbs more sauce or oil compared to how the bee hoon does, and so the threshold is narrow.

In any case I'm glad for the bee hoon. 

It doesn't have a lot of ingredients, but they've got little tiny bits of char siew and prawn and shredded fried omelet egg and taugey. I like the way it feels in my mouth, slightly savory, but not greasy nor oily. 

Better yet I get to ask them for more limes these days which they generously do give. 

As of date, I haven't tried the rice dishes. 

I will- I've got my eye on the salted egg one- but not yet. 

The only rice dish in this collection had been chosen by my friend, and according to him, his choice of lemon chicken- a well fried fillet, a generous serving of sour-sweet sauce, was pretty satisfying too. 

Mookata @ Shun Li Industrial Park

A friend of mine had a bit of craving for Mookata, said he had found a place that served it up buffet style at a (very) affordable price, asked me if I was interested to go. 

Of course, why not?

My friend had kept it mysteriously vague as to where the location was, so a bit of a surprise to me it was when we alighted at the bus stop (on a very hot afternoon) and found ourselves right at the main gate of Shun Li Industrial Park in Kaki Bukit Avenue 1.

Now, mind, I'm not complaining about the place. 

On the contrary, I find it intriguing. 

I find it intriguing that some of the shiokest foods are actually not found in the shopping malls, or even the hawker centers and coffee shops, but in the canteens of industrial estates all around the island. 

Best part about industrial canteen food? 

They're not just delicious, they're also incredibly affordable. 

Most canteens these days are easily accessible- just walk along the main road and you'll be able to spot them. 

There are times, however, where Google Maps brings you on a merry-go-round and you find yourself wandering lost through a bit of factory corridor.

Which was how it was for us this afternoon. 

But when we did find it, phew, glad I was to see that not only was the place sunny and airy, there was also no crowd (weekend), and it made for an experience that went exceptionally well with the fun, lively, street-food vibe that Thai style Mookata completely is.

People have different tastes when it comes to Mookata. 

Some people go straight for the seafood and minimize little else. 

Others, however, like me, vary their meat between the vegetables and the meats. 

It isn't that I don't like seafood. 

It's just that I am not that huge a fan of crayfish or shellfish- I don't know how to grill them- and I am too lazy to peel the prawns with my hands.

So even when I do take seafood at Mookata, all I do is to dunk the prawns into the moat- and leave them to cook in the soup there. 

If you're not familiar with Mookata, the moat is a distinctive feature of the Mookata cooking apparatus where the grill is in the shape of a dome, and the moat around it is where you put your soup base. 

Most of us layer pieces of frozen pork fat lard at the top of the dome, or swipe all over it before laying down the meats and letting them grill. The technique is that oil from the cooking meats will slip down the sides of the dome into the moat below, flavoring the soup with its beef, pork, or chicken.  

This afternoon most of my food leaned towards the meats and vegetables. 

First up was beef. 

Lots of it.

Afterwards we took chicken and pork. 

Eventually we decided to stick to just the chicken. 

It wasn't because the beef didn't taste good. 

it's just that we have one of those dining patterns that prefer unmarinated meats over marinated ones, and the beef here came all marinated. 

They were good, actually, marinated with what I think is bulgogi sauce. 

But I have been too used to clean-tasting meats that won't overwhelm my dipping sauce of choice, which, even though Mookata has chili, chili sauce, soy sauce, and even fish sauce, we make our own using a small tub of Greek-style yogurt, some garlic powder, and a scoop of red miso. 

I like the homemade dipping sauce. 

Not only does it help with the digestives (so you can eat more), it gives the meat a light, slightly sourish, very creamy taste that is smooth and rounded at the same time too. Your tongue doesn't feel like it has been seasoned twice over, and because the digestives work just fine, you don't get jerlak from having all that meat.

Besides the meat, I also like my vegetables dunked in soup.

Visually they are bright and refreshing. 

They are also cleansing. 

Lettuce and cabbage are two of my favorites, but if they be having not enough of each, then I go for the green leafy ones. 

Today the cabbage from the chiller seemed to have mostly the heads- you know, the end part that cooks easily but is smallish- so I went for the green leaves instead. 

There were more than just these vegetables, actually. 

If I'm not wrong there were also carrots, mushrooms, and sweet corn. 

Somehow I might have missed those. 

Looking at these pictures now I wonder if I should have tried wrapping the meat inside some of these cooked leaves and eaten them together.

Maybe I will, next time. 

But today I made myself a small bowl of noodles with everything that I had in the grill, and the pot, throwing in a bit of grilled meat, some soft, mushy cabbage, one quail egg, and one cheese tofu that I could not resist taking, 

It makes for a nice, liberating experience getting to eat a bowl of noodles with ingredients that you yourself have chosen, you yourself have cooked, which you yourself eat. 

Besides the warm, homecooked feel, there is, also, the realization that it speaks of one's choice, one's identity. 

Maybe that is what the whole experience of Mookata and hotpot is about. 

We often hear of it being a shared experience, but beyond that, in a Mookata or a hotpot, based on the food you choose, you can still have your own perspective, your own identity, and your own presence, even if it be a shared meal. 

We ended off the meal with dessert. 

They had potong ice cream (I'm not sure if it were unlimited) and my choice today was Thai milk tea. Then they also offered you triangular shaped agar agar like those that you see in cut fruit stalls. 

I liked this Mookata. 

It made you feel full, and satisfied.

The Lu Rou Fan of Fong Sheng Hao

You know, this is one of the foods that I don't mind writing about, yet at the same time, I am not sure if I want to write about it at all. 

It isn't because of the food itself but more so of the circumstances that surround the meal and the reason I'm eating it at this place at this time on this day. 

See, for the longest time the only Fong Sheng Hao I preferred to eat at was the one at PLQ's basement. Sometimes I rode a bike there. Sometimes I walked there. All through the years from Ceylon to Kembangan, it was the PLQ place that I preferred having a meal there.

But we haven't been back to PLQ in a while. 

And whilst I don't mind eating at the NEX outlet, I wish, in a way, I felt less tired, less drained, and less achy whenever I ate there. 

Coming here this evening was no different from the week before. 

It was one of those situations where I couldn't find myself really enjoying the food as much as I wished to, no less because all I wanted to do was go home, take a bath, cleanse off the work from chores, and sleep. 

But it wouldn't do justice to what is a very good bowl of Lu Rou Fan, or Braised Pork Belly Rice, so here we are. 

Fong Sheng Hao serves up their rice bowl in the typical Taiwanese HSR bento box style. The Taiwanese boxes are always packed to the brim- you can detect the fragrance of them braised meats a mile away- and although I can't be sure if they're the same size as the one here in Fong Sheng Hao, the ingredients, I'm guessing, will be more or less the same. 

Fong Sheng Hao does their bowl with rice (of course), braised pork belly (of course), plus an addition of a whole hard boiled egg, and pickled cucumbers. 

I like the pickled cucumbers. 

At one time I used to keep them to the end of the meal but ever since I restarted eating here, I've been going for them first. They refresh the palate, whet the appetite and give me a gentle crunch that I have in recent days begun to appreciate. 

Better yet, I've now realized that the cucumber actually does go very well with the braised pork belly where the tart, sourish, pickled taste of the cucumber balances out the savory rich of the braised sauce. Each bite now becomes a combination of sour and savory and fresh and earthy all at the same time. 

The egg, however, I still eat on its own, except for the white, which I have slightly mushed up with the rice.

Coming here we like to order more than one dish. 

At one time we would have had the toast sandwich or the crepe pancake, but we've since found we like their popcorn chicken better and so that be what we order. It isn't really huge, the portion, but each piece is quite substantial.

What's more, they do marinate it enough- a bit of pepper spice going on there- it is well fried enough (crisp outside, soft inside) and I like how the gentle crunch of the chicken goes down well whether eaten on its own or with a spoonful of rice. 

Chin Chin's Sam Lor

I'm so glad to have the opportunity to come here.

In my mind I think that has been far too long. 

You know, there was a time in my life when coming to Chin Chin was a near everyday decision. It was one of the options that always came up whenever we were trying to make a decision about lunch, and more often than not, we always came. 

These days however the calculator works different, and I don't come downtown as often as I would like to. 

Which then, makes dinner at this place a much treasured opportunity. 

One thing about Chin Chin that I appreciate very much is their consistency. 

How they do it, I don't know- it must take some effort- but whether it be a meal that I had seven years ago or whether it be a meal that I had just last week, my plate of Sam Lor Hor Fun is still the same. 

It might be a world with this war and that war, and this economic situation and that economic situation, but they haven't reduced the portion of the hor fun, nor the quality of the fish, nor the quantity of the tau gey. 

My plate of Sam Lor still, more or less, remains the same.

And it is precisely because of that which keeps me coming back time after time for this dish, and I don't (normally) order anything else. 

I have heard of places where the chef changes, the quality drops, and the food standards fall. 

Not here.

Everything remains the same. 

What has changed, however, is the crowd. 

When I first started coming to Chin Chin, the crowd was mostly local. Office workers, a random resident coming down to buy lunch, that sort. On occasion you might have had the rare ang mo coming in for a plate of chicken rice but that was usually either because he worked close by, or he was here with a bunch of colleagues all of whom were local. 

These days however there are tourists. 

Not the groups- Chin Chin doesn't seem to cater to them- but the indie tourists from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and even South Korea. It's lovely seeing them pretty ladies all dolled up for the IG or the Xiaohongshu digging heartily into plates of chicken, cereal prawns, vegetables, or appetizer bites like hae zou the prawn rolls. 

Of course there're still the office workers, but they are a more diverse bunch now. In the last few times I've been there I've noticed Indians (or maybe Sri Lankans), then Filipinos, then Indonesians, and even a couple of Thais.

The ang mos still come. 

But they're not like the shirt and tie dude working at an office housed in a beautifully restored shophouse next door. 

They're visitors. 

Digging into a plate of roast chicken rice, a huge plate of fried rice, and two bottles of ice cold Tiger Beer. 

Lunches @ Thumbs Up

In recent days we have been frequenting this place quite a bit. 

Not just at dinner, or supper time (which was how it was when we first began patronizing the place) but now at lunch as well. 

What's funny is that we had not thought we would be coming this oft to Thumbs Up during lunch, but that's life, where your wallet brings you new discoveries and you get to mix and match menu items until you find the combination you- and your wallet- like. 

See, not every mainland place offers plates of food for just $6. 

This one does. 

It's worked perfectly for us. 

Not only are the dishes suitable for a lunchtime appetite, they give us a bit of room to work our tummy around. 

Here there are a couple of dishes that appeal much to my (lighter) lunchtime appetite. 

One's a stir-fried tomato egg dish that, whilst I have heard of it being usually homecooked and very, very easy to prepare, have never- not once- in my life- ever eaten it before. 

The other- I don't know its name- has stir-fried meat slices, several kinds of chopped chilis, one big fried egg, plus a mountain of rice ladled with chili oil with little black beans scattered all over. 

The thing about this dish is that it's fun to eat. 

And whilst different people have different definitions of fun, what appeals to me is that I find myself working through this plate in a neater, slower, more disciplined kind of way.

It's not possible to gobble down this dish.

Not only do I pick out the chilies one by one- I place them all along the edge of the plate- I find myself picking out the little black beans, the chopped onions, the chopped tomatoes, and eating them on their own separate from the meat and rice. 

It is the mix of flavors in this one plate that I really like. 

The meat is savory, the tomatoes are savory, the onions too are savory. The beans tend to be a little salty but I like putting a single bean on top a spoonful of rice and eating it together. This is not a sweet dish, so to speak, but no matter. The chili oil (is it Lao Gan Ma) makes it a fantastic meal altogether.

The most unusual part about this plate is how it has changed the way I eat. Me being me I sometimes tend to work through my meal at speed. 

With this plate, however, I've found myself eating in a far slower, more patient way than I do with other foods.

Might be the influence of C-drama (they taught me to work through a plate of rice using chopsticks).

Might also be how the dish is arranged that I find myself trying to appreciate the dish better and take more time. 

It has been a couple of times since we started doing our lunchtime meals here. 

Safe to say we have since found our sweet spot, and no doubt, it is an arrangement ideal and good. One plate of rice, four skewers, which, between my friend and I, we happily split. 

There's nothing more pleasant than to have a plate that has meal, vegetables, egg, chili oil, beans, and an addition of skewered fried chicken skin, plus skewered chunks of cumin-marinated grilled lamb.

Zha Jiang Mian & Chili Dumplings

Over the course of last few months we have had meals from this stall about, shall I say, five or six times.  

Discovery of this stall came as quite a surprise. 

We had not known how the food of this stall here at Marine Parade Central was, if it be tasty, if it be good, if it be worth our dollar, so, imagine, how, to our surprise, the first time we tried the food, we found it to be incredibly tasty, appetizing, worth the palate, worth the dollar.

These days there aren't many places where one can have a sufficiently shiok meal at a reasonable single-digit price. 

Thankfully here at this stall, I can. 

When we first started coming here we ordered just the chili mala dumplings. 

Afterwards I realized that they had some dishes that I'd always been wanting to try, so I tried. 

One of the very first bowls I ordered for myself was the Black Bean Noodle, or the Zha Jiang Mian. It was something I had learnt from the Korean side a very long time ago but somehow had never had the opportunity to try. 

First time I had the noodle I didn't take the picture nice. 

So the second (or third or fourth) time I had the noodle, I made sure to sweep all them shredded cucumbers to the side, lay aside the noodles, and then shovel out the minced meat and sauce until it were all on the top. 

Much better. 

Actually it didn't matter how it looked. 

The taste all were as delicious the same. 

I'm not sure how to describe the taste. There's not much of the individual black beans, honestly, but the taste of it rests entirely in the sauce, and which, given the way they do it, gets mixed thoroughly with the minced meats. 

I got more of the sauce taste when eating the little balls of meat compared to when I was eating the noodles, but that being said, it didn't take me long to discover that the best way was really to mix everything up with chopsticks- cucumber, noodles, meat, all- and have them one mouthful together. 

That way you got the fermented taste of the sauce, the rough grainy texture of the meat, the fresh green of the shredded cucumber and the smooth of the noodle all at once same time.

You know, it has been a while since we've gone back there. 

Perhaps next time I decide to eat at this stall, I'll order the tomato egg noodles, and try, see if this time I can get the uncle to give me the flat noodles instead of them typical round ones.