If there be one thing I'm very thankful for in the last couple of months, it is that I've been able to have quite a fair bit of weekend breathers at places here, there, and everywhere.
Sometimes we go to places one weekend after another.
Sometimes we don't.
But altogether there's been a fair bit.
And I appreciate it.
Very much.
It doesn't matter to me that we return to some of the places we go.
Because no view out the windows is the same.
And even if it were, no moment out to the same view of the same window is the same.
There're times where we go to a place we're familiar with, but the view's different.
Like this time when we went back to Yotel (again) but instead of looking out over Orchard Road and Voco opposite, we were granted a different side, with a view that I don't think at Yotel I've ever had before.
Let me just say this.
It's not every day I get to gaze out to Scotts Road and Far East Plaza from the upper floors of a (fairly) new hotel.
All of a sudden, the once familiar Scotts Road and the even more familiar Cairnhill Road looked somewhat different in a way that I had never seen before.
I don't think I'd ever seen Far East Plaza from this height before.
I don't think I'd ever seen Elizabeth Hotel from the same angle and the same height before either.
It was interesting- as if I were seeing Orchard Road and Scotts Road for the first time with brand new eyes.
What charmed me most, however, wasn't these buildings, but the sight of Goodwood Park Hotel in all her property glory stretched out below.
For the first time ever I could look beyond the roof of the iconic front entrance- usually seen only from the road- and appreciate the property as she were, beautifully laid out in a quadrangle just as she had been all those years ago.
It was admittedly a bit surreal.
Especially since I was standing on the concrete of an upper floor in a much newer property built- from scratch- less than a decade ago.
And if the view out the window fascinated me, the room herself fascinated me all the same.
There's something about the color, and ambience of Yotel that speaks to (usually) structured people like me.
Maybe it's how they've arranged the room.
Maybe it's the colors of the room and how everything has its own space, and place.
I'm always amused by the way they've fixed the shelves and holders for the hand soap and body lotion on the wall right next to the sink.
And the way that the place below the hangers can actually double up as a desk and dining- if you're okay sitting cross-legged on the floor looking at an angle towards the bathroom, the glass window, and the view beyond.
If you feel squeamish about having your meal just in front of the bathroom, well, the open door blocks one's view of the bidet, and it's not so bad if you've got a clean, dry floor.
One of the things I particularly loved during this weekend breather was the food.
For some reason- we didn't plan it this way- but we seemed to eat rather well.
No, it wasn't a hotel buffet or hotpot buffet, anything like that.
But we did have a hotpot, and a very good one it was, over at Ngee Ann City.
I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but I think it was one of those chains that have huge solid-feel type of tables, heavy hardcover menus that you can easily flip left and right, big pictures printed on the pages of those menus, and lots of variety.
I know we ordered a lot of chicken.
We also ordered a lot of beef.
I had thought all those meats would be enough for the both of us, but no, I soon found out there was an extra order of homemade cuttlefish balls, some tofu wrapped thingy and a plate of lettuce- because, just like how cuttlefish balls in hotpot are my thing, vegetables in soup for hotpot are also my thing.
I took a special liking to the homemade cuttlefish balls.
They had an unusual texture, and unusual flavor.
And of course I took a tremendous fancy to the pork bone broth soup too.
If this late afternoon lunch of hotpot was attractive enough, there was also the dinner- from the previous night- that I happily contended with too.
See, my friend had wanted to try this new place at Palais Renaissance, said that the menu looked interesting enough to try, so we went, and yes, this place, intimate and cozy, was really good.
It's the kind of place that you can forget its name but can remember that they had a signature dish of bread on their menu which you didn't manage to order.
I would've loved to, but then we were there for steak, and so steak it was we ate.
We liked it.
Skillfully sliced into pieces easy to pick up with just a fork, the beef was soft, yet so juicy that there was no issue chewing it up slowly, or nibbling on it at all.
The steak came served with condiments on the side, including sea salt, and some sort of mustard, which we ended up eating with our additional order of sweet potato fries.
Again I wish I could remember just what it was they served for the vegetable side, but hey, there were the leeks, there were the mushrooms, and let me just say that the slightly burnt burnt taste did the vegetables a whole lot of delicious good.
It wasn't just the dinner at Palais Renaissance that I felt was good.
I had a fine time with the dessert/supper over at Cafe De Muse too.
Except that we didn't have it the same night as we did the steak dinner (we were already full), nor did we have it the afternoon we had the hotpot, but we had it on the first night, right after we checked in.
Cafe De Muse at Lido Shaw has become one of my favorite late night dessert and supper places whenever I'm in town. From where it comes I don't know, but there's a special charm to the place that I like, and it's one of those places that you won't feel shiok if you go there at, say, 8pm, because they're open 24 hours and one gets a younger vibe when you're there after 10.
For this reason I like to do supper, and dessert there when I can.
Which, in any case, their menu runs pretty late and no matter the time, their dishes come out very well.
We decided to do nachos as an appetizer, one small pizza as a main, and for dessert, a slice of cake.
Their nachos deserve special mention.
Whether it be the way they serve them, whether it be the size and portion, they appeal to us so much that we try to order them every time we are there.
Maybe because they're so similar to what Dan Ryan's down the road used to serve, somehow we always have a great time with the crispy corn nachos- served warm!- the sliced olives, the chopped peppers, the guacamole and the big dollop of sour cream.
This place serves up very good bingsu too, which I'm sure I will want to have at another time.
After all, there's always space for a bingsu at this place, never mind the day, never mind the time.
If there's one thing however that our stay this time didn't have, well, it was breakfast at their restaurant downstairs.
Still, no matter.
Because there's Starbucks around the corner and across the road.
There's a McDonalds further down at Forum The Shopping Mall.
And over at Tangs Plaza, right close to the underpass, you get a Ya Kun Kaya Toast, and on the other side of the building, above ground, Tiong Bahru Bakery.
