If there is something that I'm really thankful for, especially in the months past, it is that I have had the opportunity to try out different buffets at a somewhat lower-than-RRP price.
I don't know if this price comes from an app or if it's advertised elsewhere.
All I know is that I come about an hour before the buffet's close and I get it for a price that is apt for my wallet, and for me.
I've had it at a couple of places now- most of them in town- but this one in particular was at The Orchard Cafe in Orchard Hotel on Orchard Road.
Now the pictures don't look much, I know, but that's because I decided to spend more time eating than on taking pictures of the food.
I only had an hour half.
And I was going to have to make the best use out of it.
One thing great about these buffets is that even though it's just about half price, it don't mean that there's no more food.
On the contrary, they continue to bring out as many dishes as there are offered in the full price, and you don't have to worry that you're being served leftovers, or stuff that they've taken back into the kitchen from the serving counter and brought out 'specially' for you half-priced peasants (patrons).
Everything's the same as it be had you come for dinner one and a half hours earlier.
It wasn't a very expansive seafood buffet this time at The Orchard Cafe though.
That didn't mean that there wasn't any seafood.
It simply meant that there weren't any freshly shucked oysters for the taking.
And that you could have other kinds of seafood instead.
I can't remember just what there were, but if I'm not wrong, there were prawns and mussels and maybe crayfish somewhere.
Except that for one reason or another I didn't help myself to those, and instead began my meal with cooked food.
Okay I'd like to think that I can remember just what it was I ate, but I don't, and so if I'm not wrong it is this plate of fried kuay teow, cherry tomatoes, and a bit of what is either mushroom, or duck.
It's probably mushroom.
Then again it might have been beef rendang.
Definitely something local.
The one thing I'm pretty sure of is that I went for a full plate of fried kuay teow.
Char kuay teow, or "stir-fried flat rice noodles with soya sauce" is one of my favorite dishes ever- I don't need to think twice about ordering it when I happen to be at a hawker center that has a stall or two famous for frying up oily, greasy, delicious plates.
Obviously I'm not going to miss out on the char kuay teow here either.
Yes, there's less sauce, the noodles are less oily, and there's no hum, but the feels- the dry, dry feels of the kuay teow as I cram them into my mouth- are there.
I wasn't going to skip on as much of local food as possible, of course- it all seemed so good- so after wandering about and around the buffet counter, I got myself a plate of chicken satay, a couple chunks of what I think is fried chicken with salted egg sauce, and a bowl of sayur lodeh.
The satay, to my surprise, was actually pretty good.
Not hard, not dry, not tasteless, not cold.
It might not have been burnt at the edges or dripping with oil as some say excellent satay should be, but the meat wasn't stringy and dry, nor was it unappetizing, and the chunks were all of the right size.
I liked them.
I liked them enough to go for a second serving after the sticks on this plate were finished.
It would have been lovely were I able to have a second bowl of sayur lodeh as well.
I mean, I do love me a dish of cabbage, long beans, carrots and other vegetables boiled in a rich concoction of spices, and coconut milk, but by then I was starting to feel full, and there were still this other plate of cooked seafood... and dessert.
So I finished up this one bowl and simply stopped there.
It's never good to have food on a full stomach, and I didn't want to not be able to appreciate the baked oysters and the tiger prawns.
It's not every day that I get prawns this big.
Neither is it every day that I get to have scallops (raw!) and oysters- still in their shells- baked with a thick layer of cheese.
You can say that I lean towards the raw.
But I too like seafood when it's prepared in any other way, even if they be grilled so good their shell looks a bit chao tar.
Got me a bit scared to remove the heads of the prawns- I'm timid like that- so my friend helped me, I buried the prawn head underneath the shell of the scallop, and munched through the juicy prawn all the way. The meat was thick, and chonky, and juicy, and although it didn't have those semi-marinated, salty, salty, umami umami taste, I liked the clean flavor of the prawn, and the thick chew of it.
You really could chew through all the meat.
What surprised me a little were the oysters.
I had half been expecting smallish oysters- I mean, you can't tell their size when they're all covered in a rich thick layer of cheese- but they were actually regular sized, they weren't hard (as I thought cooked oysters might be) and together with the cheese they made for a burst of (oyster juice) that blended with gooey cheese.
Would've been better if they were warm, but oy, it was my bad, and they were just as good slightly coldish anyway.
Mains being over, I now wanted dessert.
And, something that I'm thankful for is that even though I hadn't been able to hang around at the dessert counter to choose what I wanted, my friend had, in my (necessary) absence, gone ahead and got me a plateful one of each of everything.
So happy was I that I began eating the cakes and the tarts and the warm desserts as soon as I sat down.
So this picture of all the different cakes is all I have.
I don't have a picture of the iced chendol with little chewy green strips and the gula melaka.
I don't have a picture of the chocolate ice creams two scoops I took.
I also don't have a picture of the other coconut milk-based warm dessert which I've since forgotten what exactly it is but my friend had happily gotten for me.
A pity I don't have these pictures.
I really should have taken them.
I should have taken pictures of the warm desserts no matter how white on the surface they seemed.
I also should have taken pictures of the ice creams which had been reserved for me.
But perhaps at that time I might have been relieved enough at the sight of these oblong-shaped cakes, one of which I'm sure was matcha, one of which I think was Red Velvet cheesecake, one of which was Earl Grey something something, and then there was probably a fruit-type of Swiss Roll.
I'll be more conscious of my pictures next time.
Especially those of meals where nothing is too small, nothing is too commonplace, or even too unimportant.
I miss the times when I had the spirit to take pictures of my (mundane) day.
There might still be too much on my plate.
I might, no, am, still feeling overwhelmed.
But I must not forget what's important.
Whether it be at a plate of rice, whether it be a buffet, whether it be anything else I'm doing, I shouldn't simply forget, and leave it behind.