Life sometimes throws you surprises which you don't expect, and you don't realize.
We weren't planning to come here that Sunday evening for dinner.
What we'd planned, actually, was to have a waffle-burger (or waffle something) at this joint near Sembawang Hills Food Center along Upper Thomson Road.
But somehow we were still hungry (and slightly dissatisfied) after our burger of Angus beef and melty, gooey cheese.
So we hopped across the road to the Casuarina side.
Casuarina Road is home to a couple of eateries that are quite popular with the viral crowd. It's one of those locations that you either know, or don't. There aren't many shops, but whatever's here pretty well known, like the biscuit shop smack right between the zichar seafood places, the Western-food cafe, and the prata eatery.
Famous for its old-school biscuits, wafers, snacks and the like, it's the place to drop in for cotton candy, satay fish sticks, chocolate wafers or those biscuits which your parents and grandparents say they used to eat but complain that they can no longer find at NTUC anymore.
Two (or is it three) zichar seafood places lie along this single stretch.
At one corner is Ban Leong Wah Hoe.
In the middle is Chui Xiang Kitchen- another seafood zichar place where we had our meal, and which I think, despite being less famous than their corner counterpart, is just as good.
Chui Xiang has no lack of diners, nor of fans either.
The place was quite full when we arrived around 8pm but the staff managed to squeeze us into a section right near the glass window before handing us their very thick menu.
There's a lot in the menu to look at.
There's also a lot to choose.
Being a full sized zichar place, Chui Xiang's got a range of seafood (fish, prawns, crab, sotong, the like), meat, poultry, vegetables, rice, noodles, and of course, the appetizers that I usually look at (and quietly hope to try).
It would have been lovely had we had the space for something like hotplate tofu or salted egg sotong.
But we didn't.
So we ordered a plate of beef fried rice, and a hotplate oyster omelet (because my companion loves the dish and won't ever pass up the opportunity to enjoy one).
One thing I soon came to appreciate was their uncompromised standards here.
Maybe it had something to do with their presence and their heritage.
Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that their ambience reminded me of charming coffee houses in the small towns up in the country north.
I've already said that their menu was extensive.
I soon realized that their portions were huge too.
Trust me, I was genuinely surprised by the mountain of rice when it arrived on my plate.
I was also genuinely surprised by its taste.
Seldom is it that I have had a fried rice so rich with the flavors of the stock that I'm happy to pass the meat over to my dining partner and eat just the rice alone.
Chui Xiang's beef fried rice made me want to do so.
You could literally taste the roundedness of the beef in the rice grains alone.
It was so good.
We were similarly impressed by the hotplate oyster omelet.
Sure, it was a bit more expensive compared to some of the other places we've been to, but who cares, when the quality- and quantity- of the orh luak was this good?
In my hotplate there wasn't a trace of starch I could see.
I did not have to deal with a tasteless, dry, 'crispy' egg.
And better yet, their oysters- dropped so casually in the center of the egg- were plentiful, huge, plump and juicy.
We had a great time eating the oyster omelet in our own way, with one having it with the egg, and the other deciding to have them with the parsley, keeping the egg to go with the beef and the rice instead.
I probably won't be back to the area around Chui Xiang for a while.
But then again, who knows, I might be able to get back there sooner than I think.
Perhaps this time I'll have enough space for sweet sour pork, hotplate tofu, oyster omelet, and salted egg sotong.
Perhaps I might have a noodle even. .
I think that would make for a lovely, satisfying dinner.
And a memorable one too.