Never underestimate the power of social media, and the strength of a lively, enthusiastic, exuberant dinner crowd.
Because how is it that a place that's tucked away at the corner on the second floor of a (usually) quiet strata mall can attract such a strong weekend crowd?
You'd think- with it being at such an out-and-away place- no one would know, but try turning up on a Saturday evening with no reservation, and see whether a table can be yours.
We were fortunate- a group had just left, the next group allocated to the table would not be coming in till more than an hour's time- so they welcomed us in.
Ninety minutes only, however, we were told, and so instead of having as much beef and pork and chicken as we might have had to put for the BBQ, we decided to be a little more strategic and have just the beef and pork for the BBQ, with the seafood and vegetables for the soups.
There being not much time to waste, we made our selections quickly and went to the display shelves for the vegetables, the lok lok and the seafood.
It is a curious way they do it here.
Where at other places the staff will bring you the platters of everything you've ordered, here they bring you only the meats. Everything else you have to go to the display shelves, have the staff portion it out for you, and carry it back to the table yourself.
It isn't a huge problem- every place has its own system- but there's no tray, I have only two hands, and no way do I have the skill to balance a couple of square-shaped bowls on my arms and hands.
Thus it was that for the first trip I only managed to get a bit of lettuce, a bit of clams, some mushrooms, the lok lok skewers, and a few pieces of sweet corn.
There would be four trips in all.
Not because there was a need to have the variety of ingredients on there, but because I could do with more lettuce, we wanted the cheese tofu and I was trying to make a pot of delicious, umami-tasting clam soup with the clams and the seaweed.
I'd seen a friend do it- buy a load of clams, dunk them into the wok, and do up a big fry with an additional ingredient of bee hoon.
I had wanted to replicate the same sans bee hoon.
But I guess it takes more than just throwing in a bunch of clams to make clam soup, because, guess what, at the end of ninety minutes, all I had was a lot of seaweed in the pot, a lot of clams in the pot, but a bowl of soup rich with the flavors of the sea?
Nope.
Not at all.
It might have been that I should have thrown in more clams.
It might have been that I shouldn't have put in only the clams.
But that I should have tossed in the mussels, the prawns and all the other kinds of shellfish I had seen on the shelves.
But in between laying the meats on the grill, eating them up, nibbling on the lok lok, and having ice cream, the idea of putting in all those ingredients just didn't occur to me. :P
I'll know better next time- whenever that will be- and this round I'll make sure to put in the prawns, the mussels, more of the seaweed, whatever shellfish they have on their shelves, and more- much more- of the clams.