A friend told me about this place on East Coast Road that served really great BBQ skewers, and since I'm always interested in foods that have a bit of burnt burnt taste, I was more than happy to go.
BBQ Box is a franchise with outlets dotted here and there all over our island, including one at Clarke Quay, and one at Geylang.
First thing about this place that struck me when we walked in was the decor.
I don't know about their other outlets, but the one here at East Cost Road had on their walls some of the most fun decor compared to other Chuan Chuan Xiang places that I've seen.
I had half been expecting to see the usual beer posters on the wall.
But there weren't any.
Instead, on little shelves mounted high on the walls, there were model trucks and transport-themed decorations that made me think of little toys.
What's more, if I hadn't been already surprised by the sight of the model of MAERSK container truck in front of me above my head, I was even more surprised by their earnest Christmastime decor.
Perhaps I would have appreciated the warm feels and the cozy Christmas decor more had I had been planning to have a couple bottles of beer.
But, alas, I was there for lunch.
On a weekday.
And as with a typical weekday lunch style, for drinks I had to forgo literally everything there was on the menu, and stick to a single bottle of self-brought cold green tea.
The absence of alcohol stopped me not from enjoying the skewers that we'd ordered, however.
It's a great thing to come here for the meats, and on this occasion, there were several kinds of meat that we ordered, amongst which, if I'm not wrong, there were lamb, beef, chicken, and maybe pork.
Don't ask me which meat belongs to which skewer, however.
I can't remember, really, and most of the time, I'm so hungry that I just begin eating whatever it is the server has placed in front of me.
I'm not that bad with the perspective, however, and I've got the feeling that on the metal skewers were beef and chicken (with varied marination), and on the wooden skewers were lamb.
We were advised to eat the lamb skewers first, and rightfully so, one should, because lamb tastes best when it's warm where the juices all burst out and you can taste a wee bit of the lamb's delicious fat.
What I remember most about these skewers were just how tender all of the meats were.
You know how some places do their Chuan Chuan Xiang really tasty but then the meats are hard, dry and difficult to chew?
Nope, none of that here.
Yes, there were a couple pieces which seemed a little hard (at first) but then after a while they became really easy to chew.
Out of all the meats we had that afternoon, let me say that I liked the lamb and the beef best.
The texture was done right, the taste (especially the lamb) wasn't gamey, and the spices were just enough that I could feel them blend with the juice of the meat without being overwhelmed.
Best part about these skewers were that they were really fun to eat.
Unlike my friend who likes tugging his meats off the skewers onto the plate to pick up with chopsticks, I go the more barbaric route and munch them straight off the skewer instead.
It's more fun!
Except that from time to time, I end up not knowing just how many skewers I've eaten, and I rely on my dining companion to tell me whether I've taken one too many.
That hardly happens, however- it's usually an equal count- and more often than not, I find myself able to enjoy not just the grilled beef, grilled lamb and grilled chicken, I'm also able to savor the distinctive flavors of their other dishes too.
Some of them are really good, like this popcorn chicken, or was it chicken skin, that we ordered and which came with a most delish yellow-colored sauce that we think is some sort of mayonnaise but aren't really sure.
But perhaps we might reconsider ordering this stew/soup the next time we go there.
It isn't that we didn't like pumpkin or that the flavor wasn't good.
On the contrary, we really enjoyed the meats that had been cooked shabu shabu style in the soup, and the heap of slippery, smooth tang hoon that I happily discovered at the bottom of it.
But that, together with the skewers (which is what we actually prefer), might be a tad too much for us to make in one afternoon, and we have to decide between one, or the other.
Maybe one day I'll just have less of the skewers and an entire dish of soup.
Or I might just order the pumpkin soup to go.