Bus Ride Sights: Woodlands- Yishun

The pictures here are but a mere third of the entire bus journey I took from Woodlands to Changi Airport. 

It's not because there was no scenery to take.

Nor was it because Chonkycam had run out of battery. 

But I have a habit of not taking pictures when there're people sitting beside me- I have the feeling they might get uncomfortable- and that's how it was for this bus ride today. 

The crowds started boarding somewhere around Yishun, and it didn't take long before the bus became almost completely full. 

Of course, then again, Bus 858 is no short route. 

If the distance from an estate near the northernmost point to an area near the easternmost point isn't near, the bus route isn't going to be express-style short either. 

The journey begins from Woodlands Interchange where from it passes through a couple of Avenues (7, 4,9) before it turns into Gambas Avenue, then back out it comes to Avenue 7. 

Now, I can't tell if these pictures are accurate of the Woodlands side, but if I'm not wrong, Gambas Avenue is a sort of industrial place and these last few above are the only industrial-looking ones on the route this afternoon. 

What exactly the road is, however, I don't know. 

All I know is that from here it turns into Sembawang Road, out onto Canberra Road, back onto Sembawang Road, and then into Yishun. 

Here in Yishun it passes Avenue 5, Avenue 2, Yishun Central, back to Yishun Avenue 2 and then onto Lentor Avenue. 

The route becomes notably quicker on Lentor Avenue, where with the last bus stop named LP94, Bus 858 then turns onto the SLE, and then the TPE.

There is a quick round in Jln Kayu after that near the (former?) Seletar Camp, and then back out it is onto the TPE. 

After this, the bus turns onto the PIE, the ECP and finally, onto Airport Boulevard, and terminating at Basement 3 of Changi Airport.  

It's a fascinating route, honestly, where the scenery changes so rapidly in a manner of minutes that you sometimes wonder just how it happens and what it is you're looking at. 

I don't mean that one shifts instantly from the rural to the urban or from the crowded to the spacious, but there is a certain type of scenery in the northern parts of the country that you won't find along, for instance, the ECP. 

They belong distinctively to the north. 

Somewhere along the way however the foliage begins to change. 

Somewhere along the way the scenery becomes less forested, more spaced out, less of a land chill, more of a sea breeze. 

Maybe the turn's at Lentor Avenue- it is, after all- one of the connectors that separate the northern (forest feel) parts with the central and the east. 

Or maybe the turn's at the PIE where, after Jln Kayu (still of former Seletar Air Base forested feels) and the TPE (slightly less forested feels), one gets onto the ECP where, with her proximity to the sea, makes for a much airier feeling, a much more spacious vibe. 

Bus Ride Sights: Along The Drain

Couple of months ago on the eve of Lunar New Year I decided to go on a very long bus ride.

First, I love long bus rides.

And second, I had time. 

It is a blessing that from the bus stop on the opposite side of Jalan Eunos not too far from Steppyhouse there are a couple of bus routes that can bring me to out-of-routine places on other parts of the island. 

Today I decided to take 966, which, by the way, second to 51 and 93, has to hold one of the longest routes this part of town. 

Beginning from Woodlands, it comes down southwards the entire way towards what we call the Eastern part of Singapore.

The journey, if I'm not wrong, starts by the bus first weaving through Woodlands before it gets onto the BKE. After that the bus enters the area we call Choa Chu Kang, going into Pending, Petir and Dairy Farm Road. After that, back onto the BKE it goes, after which it switches onto the PIE, stopping opposite Catholic JC, then onto Jln Toa Payoh and Jln Kolam Ayer. Back onto the PIE the bus goes after, before turning into Jln Eunos, Still Road and Marine Parade Road.  

Right after its 'final' stop at Parkway Parade, the bus makes a loop at the junction of Marine Parade Road and Haig Road before it finally turns back on the exact same return route where it had just come from. 

This afternoon my route had in fact been the return one.

And by right I should have had a whole bunch of pictures to show for it. 

But for some reason Chonkycam came out only after the bus had passed Jln Kolam Ayer and near Jln Toa Payoh.

Best part, sheets of rain had begun to fall, so these shots- along the canal drain of Jln Toa Payoh- are all I have, and maybe when there's another free day I might take a complete series all over again.

Peking Duck @ Mott 32

Okay, so, ummm, it has been four months since these pictures were taken, and yes, it has been that long. 

We were here at Marina Bay Sands Shoppes during the Lunar New Year season because my companion had gone on the annual Peking Duck hunt and had heard that the Duck here at Mott 32 was exceptionally good. 

No kidding, it was. 

So it might be that I don't have the culinary expertise to determine just what makes a good Peking Duck, but it's not everywhere that I get to have a duck that's been Apple Wood roasted, so I guess that makes for an unusual one? 

The website of Mott 32 says that their duck is carved using a technique that locks in all the juices "making it fit for royalty", which, I tell you, is absolutely true. 

How it's done- I don't know- hungry (and distracted) me I wasn't paying much attention to the gentleman working his knives over the duck- but the skin, crisp as it was, had all the flavors of roasted duck, plus the melty goodness of its fat, and more. 

You know how it is when you take your first bite of an oven-hot, crisp piece of roast duck skin and the distinctive taste of the duck fat underneath the skin just oozes out and into your mouth? 

There have been places where the duck was skinnier than we hoped it to be.

There also have been places where the skin, though with a layer of fat underneath it, turned out to be oilier and greasier than we expected classic style Peking Duck to be. 

Mott 32 here was none of these. 

I didn't have the icky aftertaste of oil lingering in the mouth even after the duck skin was cooled. 

Neither was there a piece of hard (and dry) skin on my chopsticks when the duck had almost been finished. 

Everything was good. 

Mention must be made of the very, very thin crepes (pancakes), the fresh, cold sliced cucumbers and the scallions that make up what defines the dish of Peking Duck.

But special mention must be made of the sauce, and the raw sugar.

The sauce is supposed to be some sort of a hoisin sauce (as their site says) but I think we got a taste of sesame, or something, that at once elevated the typical sweet (plum) sauce to that of savory, creamy yet still sweet. 

I loved how they'd done the swirls. 

It just added the slight element of fun to the otherwise regal meal. 

It wasn't just the duck that we had this evening. 

What with it being Lunar New Year, we also decided to go for Xiao Long Bao, a dish of Sweet Sour Pork, and the Szechuan style La Zi Ji.

The Xiao Long Bao came in the cutest form of bamboo holder I'd ever seen. 

And the taste- a blend of scallop and prawn in Suan La (hot and sour) soup was perfect. 

I've also always been a fan of Sweet Sour Pork. 

Whether it be at restaurants, whether it be at cafes or whether it be at the local chap cai png stall, this dish- with all its bulk, its shine and its anticipatory sweetness, is one of my favorites. 

There're varying standards, of course, as is to be expected, which is why I've become more discerning now, but oy, there's no question about quality here at Mott 32.

There was a bit of chew in each piece of sweet sour pork, yet not the chew that comes from (hard to swallow) tendons, but from fat that collapses once you have it on your mouth, and which disappears with the happy sense of taste and sweet on your tongue. 

Something pretty cool about their choice of fruit here was the dragon fruit. 

I've been too used to pineapple. 

The La Zi Ji, made out of peppercorns and dried chilies too didn't disappoint. 

We had been afraid that there might be an over-proportionate amount of dried chilies, but thankfully no, there was in fact more meat, with the right dose of numb to stimulate your nose and tongue and throat. 

I've been privileged to have also tried another Peking Duck at another Mott 32 in another country, but this one here at Marina Bay Sands remains special- not so much for the luxe, luxe feeling one gets at upscale restaurants like these, but for the fact that it embraces your yearning, reminds you that there can always be good food out there, and that, for a reasonable price, you can have what you crave for, you can have what you want. 

Lobsters @ EMBU

We haven't had a meal at the restaurant of Mandarin Oriental for a good many year, so yes, I was a little surprised when told that we'd be going for dinner at their newly-named international restaurant EMBU. 

What EMBU means, I don't know, but it's easy on the tongue, it's easy to pronounce and it's got a bit of lilt whenever you speak it. 

The hotel might have gone through a fair bit of renovation- the lobby is much brighter now- but if there be one consistency, it is that the restaurant's layout has more or less stayed the same. The wallpaper's a little different- it reminds me of their Bangkok property somehow- and they've added more potted plants at corners everywhere.

Another thing that hasn't changed are the variety of offerings they have. 

Aplenty they are, and even though I can't remember what it is that they used to serve before they became EMBU, today they've got more than enough to satisfy whatever palate you might have.

There're the crowd favorites, of course, like the seafood station, which this evening saw a line form by the station as quickly as most of the guests were settling down. 

I'm no exception when it comes to beginning my meal with fresh, ice-cold seafood, and whilst I wish I could have had a little bit of everything- there were mussels, scallops, prawns, lobsters and oysters- one must be strategic when it comes to eating at buffets, and so for starters there was just a single plate of oysters. 

Not to say that I stuck with just five of them.

Afterwards, and in between everything else, I took more.

Freshly shucked oysters are for me one of the main draws when it comes to any hotel buffet- I like them large, creamy and smooth, I like mine with a dash of vinegar and a squeeze of lemon, and I never miss out.

At another time I might have gone for a couple of prawns- I like them with Thousand Island, in particular- but then for some reason they tend to fill you up rather quick and so I went for the lobsters instead.

To be honest I've never been able to tell the difference between the flesh of the lobster versus the flesh of the crayfish. The texture might be different- lobsters are smoother- but to me, once dipped with the Thousand Island they kind of taste the same. 

It was great fun pulling out the flesh of the lobster with my hands though. Somehow one gets a more joyful vibe. 

Would've been great too had I gone for more of those lobsters- not every buffet has them on the menu- but I switched my meal to the cooked foods, so after a bit of a wander around the tables, on a single plate I piled some of the foods I wanted to try.

Now, here's the funny thing.

I don't remember exactly just what it was I took. 

But from the picture there seemed to be roast beef (with mint jelly or some other kind of sauce), some other food which I can't remember, and then I had one of the simplest dishes available.

But it so happened that I had walked past the 'zichar' station and between several varieties of fried rice and the fried noodles, I decided that noodles were what I wanted to try.

I guess it's always been difficult for me to resist fried noodles so glad I am to say that they were good.

It wasn't too oily, there was a hint of the soy sauce taste, and there was a good mix between the noodles and the kuay teow.

After this plate I switched over to the Japanese, and although I think I took more of the sashimi and the sushi than what's pictured here, let me just say that I was as cautious with the portioning of the sashimi as I was with the cooked food, because whilst I love the texture and flavor of the carefully prepared, carefully sliced raw fish, it fills you up, and I was afraid that I'd have no room for dessert.

So it were just these couple slices of salmon belly sashimi, a piece (or two) of the tuna, one more piece of the salmon, and a piece of maki- which unfortunately right now I cannot remember just what kind of maki it was. 

It might have been soft shell crab. 

It might have been something else.

Thank goodness then that I have a better memory of the laksa. 

It might not look much here, but that's because all that's left- after the kuay teow, the quail eggs, the tougay and the tau pok- is the gravy, which by the way, was rich with the flavors of coconut milk that I absolutely loved. 

I don't think I took much of the other foods after that. 

If there be, it was probably something I picked off from my companion's plate. 

But I saved room for desserts.  

And fruit.

It's really unfortunate that I didn't take pictures of their dessert spread, especially since it being Chinese New Year they had a most fantastic array of cute little desserts that you wouldn't find rest of the year.

So since we don't have pictures, we shall have to make do with the somewhat blurry ones we have here. 

Pretty as they are, these desserts weren't just aesthetics. 

They tasted just as good too.

Like the super rich, super creamy Hazelnut Rocher cake slice that had me wondering just how I was going to finish all the cream. 

Like the little mousse cake that was shaped like a cute kumquat tangerine  and which had no sponge inside. 

And like the little red ball that I think was some sort of a red velvet, shiny on the outside, smooth and melty on the inside. 

I wish I'd taken the ice cream waffle- the waffle itself looked thick and fluffy and there were interesting flavors in the ice cream selection. 

But at that time I was starting to feel rather full and was lazy to queue. 

So I went for slices of watermelon, slices of papaya, slices of honeydew and slices of dragonfruit instead. 

The Omakase @ Keong Saik Road

I've been putting off writing this post for quite some time.

Not because I want to.

Not because there's nothing to write.

I had wanted to wait a little while first before writing about this (debut) omakase experience of mine but as life goes, the (little) while turned into a  (long) while and now we're midway into the new year with me not having yet written a single word.

Maybe that makes the post a tad more meaningful.

I don't know.

It might have been a good thing if I were a foodie who knows her cuisine and knows what she's talking about. 

It might also have been a good thing if I were a connoisseur with the ability to remember and dissect (expertly) what it were I were putting inside my mouth.

As it stands I'm neither.

I just know how to eat. 

Unfortunately, not just only know how to eat, but eat already also can forget.

And so it is that, in all embarrassed honesty, looking at these pictures now I have no idea what the names of these dishes were, and I can't even remember what most of them are. 

However I'll try. 

First thing you'll notice about these dishes is just how pretty they are. 

Nothing about the plating was slapdash put together in a haphazard manner. 

Whether it were served on a spoon, a bowl or a plate, no tiniest detail was overlooked. 

It didn't matter if it were seaweed or tuna or scallop or salmon.

If it were sliced, it was sliced skilfully. 

If it were rolled, it was rolled beautifully. 

Aesthetics played a very important role in the presentation of each dish. From the tiny, adorable little flowers to the cute, charming miniature of a serving board, every dish here was made to the degree that you felt like you were seated there at its natural source, enjoying the freshness the food had to offer. 

It's a humungous pity that I cannot remember just what these dishes were.

I just know they were very, very good. 

Right on top in the first picture were a series of dishes that, for the life of me, I cannot recall their names. 

Neither, to my embarrassment, can I even remember just what dishes they were.

All I know is that every single dish there was prepared with a lot of effort, and a lot of heart. Nothing there seemed to be factory made, and even if there were, it were minute, tiny portions that (to the noob me) made no difference anyway. 

Something I appreciated was just how they took every ingredient and made it special.

Like the edamame. 

Now it might be just regular good ol' edamame, no big deal, but somehow, the way they arranged it made me think of a spring garden full of fresh blossoms and freshest of fresh produce (in a miniature form) brought to my table. 

I'm now starting to recall (vaguely) what the dishes were.

One dish was, I believe, a seared scallop amongst one of the first dishes that were brought. I don't know if it were served with anything else but if I'm not wrong there was a bit of sauce (or pureed something) and then there was seaweed. 

Then another dish had slices of pork in dashi soup, and this I remember a bit better because even though they had only one big leaf as a sort of decoration, the soup was so rich and so full of flavor that I decided I would not have dashi soup in any other place anymore. 

There was, perhaps, something that was pureed- either it was a chestnut puree or some other ingredient which was pureed- but I know it was unusual because I know it was a food which needed a whole lot of effort and I was impressed by the time and heart taken to prepare this simple, cute, tiny little bowl of puree. 

Other more obvious dishes include the sushi, which, by the way, instead the usual and very familiar salmon, had rare, not oft served fishes atop skilfully rolled rice. Again it's an annoying irritation that I can't recall just exactly what these fishes were. Was it monkfish? Yellowtail? They really slip my mind- entirely.  

A good thing therefore that I remember the ikura. 

It's actually one of the most difficult dishes to forget. 

Not because the ikura is a special kind of ikura but because over here the chef comes over to you with a gigantic bowl of it and he'll keep filling your little bowl until you announce a word- in Japanese- for him to stop. 

My dining companion (who loves ikura) had at least five or six ladles of it overflowing his little bowl before he said the word. 

I, on the other hand, got paisei by the third ladle and decided my portion was enough. 

Would have been nice if I could remember the word, but alas, no. 

Maybe I'll be able to find it somewhere, but that's for another time.

There can be no great meal without a sweet at the end, and this evening we ended this amazing, pretty, delicious, elegant dinner with a wonderful dessert- a scoop of ice cream between two very delicate crackers which the chor lor us decided we'd just separate out the crackers and eat them on its own instead of it being like a burger with the ice cream clamped together.