This afternoon we were hunting for new places to lunch.
And because we weren't so keen on the cuisines nearest to us, to the Grab app we went, where amongst all the varied restaurants and coffee shop stalls within a 5km radius, one- at East Coast Road- stood out.
What the name of this coffee shop is, I don't know.
I just know it's near the junction of Telok Kurau Road and East Coast Road, opposite The Snooze Hotel.
What will surprise you, however, is the fact that it's not a small-type, unknown, random coffee shop, but in fact quite a well-known, famous one.
What stalls they're famous for, what cuisine they're famous for, I can't tell- it might well be the Happy Hour Beers that I saw some patrons go for- but there's a chicken rice stall, there's a stall offering Indian food, there's a stall offering Taiwanese, Kim's Fried Hokkien mee (the famous one) is there, and then there's a dim sum stall.
We were here for two things.
Dim sum, and the Taiwanese.
It was the Taiwanese food that I in particular wanted to try.
Perhaps there is a difference between eating at home and eating it at the place itself.
We ordered a bowl of Lu Rou Fan.
The sauce, in particular, was our thing and really what we had come here for.
But besides the Lu Rou Fan, on the menu too was the pancake, and so we ordered one.
The Lu Rou Fan had these really huge chunks of meat all nicely chopped up easy to eat with chopsticks and spoon, and although I'm not sure how best to describe the crepe pancake. there was a thickness to it, there was a chew to the piece of crepe itself, the fillings were more than enough, and there was a lot of pork floss all scattered on top as well.
Surprisingly it was this crepe that really made me feel full.
I had thought it might be the dim sum, out of which this afternoon we'd chosen quite a few, but no, it was this crepe that gave the feeling.
Maybe it were the texture of the flour which is, shall I say, significantly different from that of cheong fun where again we were surprised by the size of the plate.
I had thought that the cheong funs be just two little rolls (as some dim sum places tend to be) but no, this was like four rolls altogether, huge ones they were, all perfectly rolled up, chopped neatly, arranged prettily.
It was lovely feeling the cheong funs slide so smoothly and silkily down my throat.
It was also lovely getting to chew them a little bit so I could taste the sauce well.
There was a basket of what I think- if I'm not wrong- siew mai, underneath the scattering of bonito flakes.
Then there was also a plate of yam puffs.
Which I'm not really sure just how to describe them.
It wasn't that they weren't nice.
But there was a wee bit of oil lingering around on my tongue after I'd finished.
And I'd forgotten how the yam tasted like.
Maybe because they weren't as hot as I would have liked by the time I got to them.
Maybe they would have tasted better had I eaten them first (instead of finishing everything else)
But I'll order this again next time.
I'm sure it will be good.
Yam puffs, after all, do make for a great snack, and are one of the best dishes to order when having dim sum.
It is the kind of snack where one gets the best of both worlds. There's a softness, a light sweetness, even a smoothness about them that make you want to have it again and again.