At Dorsett's Lucent (Again)

Rewriting this again because I have only just realized- after writing almost the entire post, mind- that the visit I had been writing of (and posting pictures about) was not the most recent one, but the one that I had made a couple of months ago. 

How is it that I could have written the entire post, and posted a whole bunch of pictures without realizing it wasn't the one I wanted to write about? 

Perhaps then that is something to be thankful about.

Because it means that memories are still fresh, it means that I have had a deep impression of the first time I was there, and that I have had experiences so pleasant they got meshed up together. 

I forgot to bring Chonkycam this time. 

So Samsung came to the rescue.

And in case I blur myself and get everything all mixed up, I'll just plonk them pictures all here and then go along.

One thing I can say though. 

I wasn't very impressed with the pictures that I took the previous time, so this round I was determined to do better. 

I wanted my plate to have more color. 

I wanted my pot to look more full.

So early on in the buffet I went to the counter and filled up my plate with what I wanted. 

Just like how I usually am at hotpots these days, one of the things I will go for is the lettuce, or cabbage, or green leafy vegetables. There wasn't any lettuce here at the counter, and this evening, for some reason, I didn't feel like cabbage, so bai cai it was for me instead. 

I tend to not take these vegetables because of the stems, but today I needed the color, I wanted to have a bit of chew, and so decided I'd go for them vegetables which I normally would not have. 

I had worried the stems would be hard, but to my surprise, no, they weren't. They turned out softer than I thought they would be. 

What's more, the leaves absorbed plenty of the soup too.

I filled up my plates with more of these vegetables after that. 

Although, really, I had to cut back on the lobster balls and the squid balls and the cheese tofu, because, as nice as they are, they fill you up really, really easily and I didn't want to occupy stomach space on too many cheese tofus. 

I did go for more prawns, more quail eggs and more bean curd skin though. 

I like my quail eggs- especially when I can have as many as I want- and for some reason the bean curd skin adds further oomph and texture that I didn't know before but do now. 

What's cool is that the bean of the bean curd actually goes so well with this particular soup that it becomes almost like a different dish altogether. 

My hotpot- in the end- looked like this. 

Which, let me tell you, I absolutely absolutely loved. 

It wasn't just the bright, fresh, cheerful colors. 

It was the warmth. 

The kind of warmth that can only come with a hotpot meal. 

I was determined to not miss out on the cooked food section this evening. 

Now, I generally don't- I will not miss out on what I have paid for- but I don't always pay attention to the cooked food, too distracted I am with whatever it is I am here for and what I am interested to have. 

But today I made my calculations and my calibrations. 

At the buffet counter there were servings of pasta (those ribbon ribbon type), there was butterfly pea rice, there was also spaghetti. I saw a couple of braised meat dishes, or maybe they were vegetable- I now can't remember- and there were some little bites at the end of the counter that I know I wanted to have. 

For some reason though my eye was drawn to the spaghetti. 

What precisely it was about this pasta this evening that attracted me, I don't know. It wasn't the ingredients- I didn't take any- so it might have been the sauce. My memory is a little blurred now but I think it had salted egg, or something. I just know that it was lighter than I thought it would be. The sauce didn't overwhelm, didn't make one feel jialat, nor did it drown the spaghetti. 

The taste was just right. 

The texture of the noodles also caught my fancy. 

I had thought the noodles might be all soggied up in the sauce but no, it was as dry as it could be, and one might be mistaken for thinking there was no sauce or taste at all. 

Is this what they call al dente, by the way? 

I've never been able to figure out what the significance of this cooking method means. I just know it means quality. 

Along with the spaghetti I had three pieces of aburi salmon sushi.

These three had been deliberately chosen. 

If I already had a liking for salmon sushi and salmon sashimi- which, by the way, this evening I did have, although I don't have a picture- salmon sushi done aburi style is my next favorite. 

I like how the taste is lightly burnt, how the texture of the sushi is firm, yet soft at the same time, and how you get to have the balance of both cooked and uncooked at the same time. It's not uncomfortable, by the way. On the contrary, one gets to relish in the flavors of the in-between where you get to embrace both textures, and tastes, at the same time. 

I wish I knew how to describe it. 

But how does one describe the taste of salmon? 

How does one describe the taste of salmon that has been lightly seared such that the top is booked, the middle is medium-rare soft, and the bottom is soft? 

So this aburi salmon sushi might be a little hard- not as soft as some that I've eaten elsewhere- but the hint of these textures were there, and so good were they I wish I could have had more. 

One must not fill up on rice at a buffet, however. 

Especially when there is a single serving of crayfish served with roe and a huge slather of Mentaiko. 

What's funny is that I didn't even know about it until my friend got it for me. 

The meat was fresh, tender but firm, and the chew was absolutely delightful. 

The rest of the meal was all about the hotpot after.

More vegetables, yes, more bean curd skin, yes, more quail eggs, yes. 

Then it was time for dessert.

Again I was very careful this evening. 

I didn't want to fill up only on ice cream. 

Not when there were cakes and fruit and jellies at the dessert counter to be had as well. 

I got myself two different kinds of cakes. 

Tonight felt like a night for red velvet- I had been thinking about it since a conversation with a friend not too long ago- and since there were them little slices for the taking, I took two. It were the cheese on top that I wanted more than anything, actually, so carefully I cut the slices into quarters, and ate them slowly. 

I can't remember what the other cake was. 

It might well have been carrot cake or maybe even gula melaka cake. 

No surprise if it were, honestly. The color seems to be so. 

Hopefully this cake will be on the dessert counter if there be another time I get to eat here. 

I'll make sure to remember it better at that time. 

Kembangan-Senang

This walk that I'm going to write about here, I actually took a couple of months ago. 

When, exactly, I cannot remember.

It might have been August.

It might have been September.

In any case I had taken it at a time when I thought I would be (soon) moving out, and so wanted some pictures to hold over for one's memory. Circumstances are sometimes effected by persons, not by places, and should a place turn out to have lousier memories, not happier ones, one must define whether it is the place, or the person, who is at fault. 

I had come to Kembangan with excitement. 

I hope to leave the same. 

Not with bitterness, not with anger, just with a calm spirit knowing that the stint is over and it is now my time. 

But this post is not about what is happening or what was happening.

This post is about the walk I took from Jalan Daud to the park at Lengkong Empat and Jalan Selamat onwards to Jalan Senang. 

I began by crossing Lorong Melayu and walking along the last and final stretch of Jalan Daud towards the canal and Leogkong Tiga. 

Here I took picture of the PCN cycling path, the blocks of 104 and 103 next to it, and the trees on the tiny teeny weeny gentle slopes. 

The first thing I noticed about this stretch was just how huge the trees were. How long these trees had been there I don't know but they weren't recent, and some of them, especially those at the junctions, looked like they had been there a fair bit of time. 

I got to the end of Jalan Daud, looking over the canal. 

The last picture I took here I had been facing the bus stop, and the curve of Lengkong Tiga towards the MRT station. 

This time I looked the other direction- towards the overhead bridge, towards the Bedok Reservoir housing estate, towards the PIE expressway. 

It's interesting just how many people actually do traverse up and down this route any day. One might think it quiet, with nary a person going up and down, but it is actually a major thoroughfare, not just for the food delivery rider on his transport, but also the walker who has decided to cross over to the blocks of Bedok Reservoir and take the longish route instead of circling round and round the interim parks of Kembangan. 

From here I turned onto Lengkong Empat, but not before taking a picture of Lengkong Tiga, because why not? 

Lengkong Empat is probably one of the longest roads this side of Kembangan. It isn't a very heavily populated road, but it meets the north(?) end of Lengkong Tiga, Lengkong Dua, Lengkong Satu, Lengkong Lima and Lengkong Enam. 

This afternoon I kept my walk solely along this uphill road, passing by the condominiums of Starville, Grosvenor View and Escada View on my left, and the private homes on my right, before reaching the west corner tip point of Lengkong Enam Park. 

It was a steep stretch of road, by the way, with the peak hitting the junction of Lengkong Enam before going downslope all the way on all sides, one towards Jalan Selamat, the other towards Taman Selamat, and Lorong Kembangan.

I decided to stop a little at this park. 

Not so much for a drink of water and a little rest on the bench, but also to relish in the quiet of a neighborhood park that I had seen once or twice- from the bus- but had never come to visit. 

The light from the late afternoon sun transformed the scene here quietly peaceful. 

I watched as the golden rays illuminated the trunks of trees large and small.

I watched as the glowing light filtered through the branches of them wide-canopied trees here and there all round the park.

And I kept my gaze on the ground as they cast intriguing shadows all over the grass. 

This afternoon there was a light breeze, a bit warmer than I hoped it would be, but equally reassuring, and I loved how the winds rustled the leaves of the tree above me. 

It wasn't so much that I was in this park.

It was the presence of the park alone that surprised me.

Up till now the only park of this sort- large trees, slopes and shrubs and grass- and in the middle of a residential neighborhood- I had only seen in the west, somewhere near Toh Tuck Road.

It had never occurred to me that there would be a park this huge, with such large canopied trees sitting so comfortably here this part of town, much less the squirrels that a few times I had seen popping about the trees here and there amongst the flats of Lengkong Tiga. 

I think I spent a fair bit of time at Lengkong Enam Park this afternoon.

Something about its presence fascinated me, made it difficult to leave.

Was it because I was trying to understand the space? Was it because I found myself caught up in the atmosphere of the space, that, looking back now, was a time of soft sun rays, warm breeze, and a quiet hope that, whether I left or whether I stayed, all would be well? 

A part of me felt like the park were an otherworldly space. 

A part of me felt like the park belonged here, yet, at the same time, as if it didn't. 

There was a hint of timelessness. 

A feeling, as if the trees and the shrubs and the grass had been there a very long time, in a different sort of environment, a different sort of world. 

But one must get back to reality.

One must get back to the surroundings that make the place what it is, today, right now, so off I went, heading down Jalan Selamat, passing by what I think is Taman Selamat, and Taman Kembangan.

The houses here were really neat, by the way. 

I don't mean that they were huge or big like some other neighborhoods, but they were well taken care of, they were loved, they were beautifully maintained. 

And the flowers, they were so pretty. 

Nearly every garden had some form of foliage and tree and plant and flower and shrub.

It was still too bright, and early to head back, plus I didn't want to go home so early, so I made a left, turning into the path that stretches along the canal.

I had no idea where this route was going to take me.  

Really. 

There're some days where you just don't bother with Google Maps and go where your feet take you. 

The route along this canal brought me strong kampong vibes, except I know not from where they came from- maybe it were the lovely terraced houses, maybe it were the plethora of beautifully planted trees, maybe it were the path so cleanly and neatly laid out. 

I took a picture of the pathway ahead of me. 

But I couldn't help looking back towards the familiar pink blocks of Lengkong Tiga too. 

Perhaps someone at some time had also done the same. 

It was a pleasant late afternoon stroll. 

I got to see the houses all on plots adjacent to the canal. 

I got to see little stone benches lining the path and little neat plots of land overlaid with grass. 

The path by the canal led all the way near the side entrance of an LTA property. What exactly it was, I don't know, it looked like to be a training academy of the Land Transport Authority. 

Somewhere around here I decided to turn back- not because I wasn't curious to go ahead and see where the path ended, but because I had passed by the end lanes of Jalan Paras and Jalan Senang, and the sight of them factory buildings had reignited my curiosity of what this place was, and used to be. 

In the span of my life I had known of Chai Chee Street and Chai Chee Drive.

What I hadn't known was that Chai Chee Drive connected to Chai Chee Street connected to Chai Chee Lane where, at present day, the Lock+Store, and self storage, and AMD buildings were. 

What I also hadn't known- until a year or so ago- was how connected Chai Chee Lane was to Senang Crescent, and Jalan Senang via the very steep hill that literally, brought you from one part of the (private) residential area of Senang to the (public) flats of Chai Chee. 

I had cycled here before. 

I hadn't walked around though.

And today I wanted to. 

I ended up going around this area three, four times. 

A bit embarrassingly, because the first two times I wasn't really paying attention, and only until the third time I began to realize just how unique this place was. 

There were a couple of seafood suppliers.

Not one, but at least two, or three, and not small ones they were too. 

There was a noodle supplier somewhere amongst the lanes. 

Don't ask me the name. 

I didn't pay attention. 

Somewhere in the middle there was a sound acoustics system supplier. 

Then there was a florist- with what I think were bunches and bunches of flowers all wrapped up in plastic and kept under chill (I felt the chill from the room when someone opened the door). 

I passed by a print production company, you know, a company that prints banners and stickers and posters and the like. I'm almost sure they do print other stuff, pamphlets and papers and signage. I just didn't see them. 

There were a couple of engineering firms with their own buildings. 

And even an office design production house that I presume doubled up as a retail store for the B2B more than the B2C. 

I don't know where else or how else I walked after that. 

But I passed by a building that I think used to be an umbrella factory.

And then there was what I would say a Home Karaoke System supplier (and store).

TenTen @ Kitchener's Kimly

A friend of mine, having in recent days found out that I held special love for all things salmon, recommended me this place close to Lavender MRT station. 

It was not difficult to find, she emphasized. 

All I had to do was to get to Lavender MRT, get out on the V Hotel side, walk past the booth outlets of McDonalds, Luckin Coffee and a few other food stores, past the building behind- with the Burger King and Subway- and then get to the coffee shop next to the mom and pop store selling biscuits, snacks, little stuff, and the like. 

I followed her instructions, and found myself in what I soon realized was the Kimly Coffee Shop next to Kitchener Complex on what was essentially French Road. 

I was a little surprised. 

This coffee shop I had passed by before.

Just that I hadn't looked at the stalls inside, and so hadn't known of Ten Ten Otoko (Sashimi). 

I might have come to try their donburi had I known of it earlier. 

But that's life. 

There are times where you don't pay attention to places, or things, until they pop right up at you. 

Ten Ten has a good range of dishes.

What exactly they are, I don't know, but all of it involves rice- they are a donburi stall after all. 

One of the more popular dishes here was the Chirashi Don, where over a bowl of rice was heaped perfectly cubed and well-chopped pieces of salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi, scallop, and probably some other varieties of seafood that offhand I cannot remember now. 

Chirashi Don is one of those bowls that leave you with a myriad of flavors and textures in every mouthful. Almost at once you get the chapalang flavors of scallop, tuna, salmon with a homemade sauce when you take your first bite. 

It was a dish to be considered- the picture on the wall looked tempting- but today we decided we'd order something else. 

My friend chose what I call the Salmon & Avocado Bowl. 

I'm not sure what the proper name of this bowl is as per their menu, but in essence that's what his dinner was. 

Atop a bed of rice there were several slices of cold, chilled salmon sashimi. Next to all those slices, a skillfully sliced avocado. There was a bit of fish roe, and if I'm not wrong, a dollop of mayonnaise as well. 

The whole bowl had been arranged in a way that the sight of it alone lifted your spirits and whetted your appetite. 

I was drawn to the salmon.

But I was drawn even more to the avocado.

So refreshing on my eyes did I find this fruit that I helped myself to two slices without asking. The avocado was cold, and I relished in its distinctive creamy texture that only a fruit like avo can bring. 

Whilst I liked the avocado, my friend liked the chill of the salmon. 

They were sliced perfectly well- not to thin, not too thick- just enough that you could taste the firm of the fish but not have to chew too much or too hard. 

His only gripe was that there were too few.

Would've been nice, he said had there been more. 

My friend' didn't leave hungry though. 

Not when I shared my bowl of Katsudon because it was huge. 

Yes, in spite being attracted by all the delicious, colorful, chilled, fresh-looking sashimi on the menu board, this evening I had a crave for something warm, fluffy and crispy, crunchy at the same time. 

So it was this bowl of Katsudon that I decided to have. 

From the picture it is a bit difficult to tell, buried underneath the fluffy egg as it is, but the piece of deep-fried pork cutlet was actually quite big, so much so that it stretched almost the whole diameter of the bowl. 

I liked how the batter of the cutlet was crunchy, tasty, with a hint of saltiness that left a delightful, fun taste on the palate but yet at the same time, didn't overwhelm. 

I had also wondered if the meat itself be tough or dry, or if the breaded skin would separate from the meat (as had happened to me elsewhere) but nope, not at all, 

My chopsticks picked up well the skin and the meat together very well. 

And the meat, whilst it might not have been very tender, it wasn't dry or hard either. 

I loved this bowl. 

It made me feel full, satisfied, comforted. 

Something tells me that I will be coming back here again. 

It's not so much of the donburi or the rest of the menu itself. 

It is the atmosphere. 

Very rare is it that in a coffee shop one gets to have food as healthy and appetizing as this, especially if you be in an housing estate that comprises a mix of the local heartlander as much as the expatriate working in some of the (tech) and (event) companies a five minute walk away. 

It makes for a lovely contrast.

Also for a pleasant surprise. 

Bus Ride Sights: Ubi-Toa Payoh

It was, i think, several months ago that I took this route. 

Where I was going, now all of a sudden I can't be really sure, but if I were going from Ubi to Toa Payoh, and if the views out the window were all these, very likely it was that I had been heading to the district of Toa Payoh Lorong 6 to visit an elderly person who resided there.

Going to the Toa Payoh area from where I am isn't complicated. 

It just means a bit of a walk, as the bus stop for Bus 59 lies on the opposite side of the PIE expressway, and to get there means I have to walk the route of Jln Daud, cross the zebra crossing, cross a traffic light, walk under the PIE expressway, cross another traffic light, then go a distance until I get to the bus stop that sits outside a small plant nursery. 

It's always a bit of a mad rush to get to the bus stop because I'm the sort of person who would rather run for the bus than wait 20 minutes for the next bus. 

So hardly is it that I have Chonkycam with me whenever I go on this route.

But today was an exception. 

Maybe I had been having the heart to take more pictures. 

The route of 59 from this bus stop first involves a right turn at the traffic light from Eunos Link to the west-bound side of the PIE expressway. There's not much of a view at this point, save for a fair bit of green that ranges from green patches to shrubs to trees that are clustered together near the turns. 

After this the bus passes by, on the right hand side, blocks of flats from the housing estate that I think belongs to the Ubi housing estate. Somewhere around here there is a overhead bridge with some of the prettiest bougainvillea flowers one will see. 

It's interesting how there're also bougainvillea shrubs lining the middle break separating the east-bound lanes and the west-bound lanes. 

They do make a nice visual break for the eyes. 

A couple of factory buildings come up right next. From which industrial estate I don't really know, but Google Maps tells me they're from the Paya Ubi Industrial Park, and then some buildings that the bus passes include those of notable companies in Singapore, like the OSIM HQ, and the Starhub Green.

The housing estate of Paya Lebar Way and Circuit Road came up next. 

Quite notable these blocks were with their bright, cheery colors of red and yellow, and this long block that I know is Blk 91 of Paya Lebar Way.

Another overhead bridge with bougainvillea shrubs (of different color) comes up right after this long-corridor block, and then the view becomes that of NEXUS International School. 

Around here, apparently, too, is the St. Andrew's Nursing Home (Aljunied) and then the bus on the PIE crosses the Kallang River.

The industrial estate of Kallang comes up right after where one is first greeted by the buildings of Mapletree, followed by a building called The EGIS, and then there was Infineon Technologies. 

I got pretty intrigued by the sight of them trees and the bougainvillea shrubs of the intersecting lanes from the PIE (above me) so made sure I got a couple of pictures. 

After Infineon came the building of SP with its wavy exterior, and then, finally, Siemens, a towering building standing independently and confidently on its own.

 You know, up until I started going more onto the PIE and onto MacPherson road did I realize that the Siemens Building was such a landmark. 

The bus on the PIE passed by the roads of MacPherson, Upper Serangoon and Woodleigh Tunnel here, before passing by the distinctive structure of what I think is Chapel of the Resurrection.

From here, I went past a tributary of the Kallang River, then the Central Expressway, and then the housing blocks of Kim Keat Estate.

Here I kept Chonkycam back into my bag and prepared to get down. 

Because once the bus crossed into Kim Keat Link, we were officially in Toa Payoh, and two bus stops later I'd be getting down.