The Hawker of Toa Payoh Lorong 5

First time here at the hawker center of Lorong 5 in Toa Payoh, and can I say, I'm surprised, delighted, and absolutely glad. 

See, I don't know my way around Toa Payoh.

As in, I don't know what good food there is, I don't know where those good food are, and I don't know what exactly is considered good and what exactly is considered not good. 

So eating at Toa Payoh is very much a trial and error. 

Sometimes it's a hit.

Other times it can be a better hit. 

Thus far I've had the food from the Central, and from the Lorong 7 side. 

Maybe because I've no idea just what's good at the hawker center of Lorong 7, or maybe I haven't had much of a chance to explore the rest of the stalls, but I seem to have had more of the coffee shop zichar rather than the food of the hawker stalls.

We were intending to have Thai food this particular evening.

But life be such that the place wasn't open when we headed there, so off it was to the hawker center behind instead. 

What makes this side of Toa Payoh so interesting is that the Lorongs are all so intersected, so let's say you're presently at Lorong 5, but whilst Lorong 5 is a single stretch of road, you're actually a short walk away through the blocks from Lorong 6, and Lorong 4.

Maybe Toa Payoh is such an estate that the roads are the circumference or the semi-circumference, or the loop. 

I never knew how short the route was from the Central to Lorong 7, but it's completely walkable, and on a comfortable windy day, thirty minutes tops cutting through the blocks via Lorong 4, 5, and 6.

But I digress. 

The food of the hawker center here at Lorong 5 was lovely. 

It's not a very huge hawker, mind, literally just two rows, but what they lack in size, they supply in variety. I didn't have enough time to explore all the stalls- my friend and I were much too occupied in getting ourselves a table- but from where I sat there was a char kuay teow stall, a cooked food stall, a stall offering a variety of noodles- wanton noodles, dumpling noodles, laksa etc, and then another stall offering the dishes of double-boiled soups, and, surprisingly, chicken curry. 

We'd tried the chicken curry and one of their soups before, so this late afternoon we decided on some other foods that we hadn't had before. 

Actually my friend had come here for the chicken rice. 

But the stall owner happened to be away (always a hit and miss when it comes to the good food, it seems) so we hunted about a bit. 

As an alternative I had thought of trying the Ban Mian and the Mian Fen Guo- these seemed to be really popular- but three or four stalls away on the other side my friend discovered the nasi lemak stall, so decided we'd eat that instead. 

Will it surprise you if I tell you that this plate here cost not more than $5? 

It wasn't just the food nor the ingredients of the nasi lemak itself that made one feel warm and stuffed and happily satisfied. 

There was also the presentation, the plating, the colors, the way the stall owner had had everything arranged on the medium sized plate. 

Just the sight of this nasi lemak alone with all chosen ingredients laid atop the bed of white coconut rice was enough to whet the appetite. 

It didn't matter that the rice didn't release whiffs of fragrant coconut. 

It didn't matter also that the sambal tucked underneath one corner of the heap had the peanuts and ikan bilis swimming inside it. 

Everything was packed in such a way that it just made you hungry, ready to eat. 

Which I did, beginning with a scoop of plain rice first, then a roasted peanut for crunch, then the orange-colored, mildly spicy, slightly chonky otah mushed together with the rice. 

I loved how the spice of the otah gave the fragrant rice that wee bit of oomph. 

And then there was, of course, the chicken wing. 

Hardly a nasi lemak (to me) is complete without the presence of the fried chicken wing, and what made this one particularly special was the marination of the chicken, inside and out. I had wondered if the meat would be a little dry- sometimes they are- sometimes they aren't- but this turned out to be a mix. Some parts of this little chicken wing were drier, but the batter of the chicken skin was good overall, leaving one with the taste of fried chicken wings sold ayam goreng style way back in school canteen days. 

I had thought this plate be enough for dinner, but then my friend thought we should try out the satay- it had seemed popular amongst the other diners last time we came here- so off he went hunting for the stall and came back armed with a plate of satay, onions, and cucumber. 

There was a little bit of smoke, a little bit of burn, but the burn sat at all the right places, it gave the meat the kind of charcoal-grilled feels, and we had a lovely time pulling the meat off the stick. 

The onions I ate dipped inside the peanut sauce, which, by the way, was good, save for that slight sheen of oil that to this day I can never get used to. 

We finished off the meal with a plate of BBQ chicken wings that, if I may say, we bought on impulse. 

I don't know, maybe we missed the wings over at East Coast Lagoon, maybe we missed our suppers at Fengshan 85, or maybe we so happened to be sitting right in front of the stall. 

But the fragrance got to us, so we got a plate. 

It was so good. 

Not only did they make me think of BBQ nights down at my grandfather's house during Mid-Autumn and Christmas, these here were so perfectly roasted, the marination so evenly spread. 

I loved the tender meat of the chicken, the glistening sheen of the oil, the smokiness of the BBQ over the smooth, crispy skin.

A wonderful way to end the meal, I really wished I could have had more. 

Chap Cai Pngs

There are only two pictures of chap cai pngs in my collection for the year 2025. 

It's not because I took only two pictures.

It's because I ate only two times. 

Yes, chap cai png, or mixed economy rice, is a popular go-to meal amongst local Singaporeans and generally just about anyone who has been to a coffee shop or hawker center.  

Perchance there might be those who have it three times a week or maybe four. 

But I run around a lot, I vary my meals a lot, and so rare does it become that I get to have a plate of chap cai png for lunch, or dinner. 

What's interesting about these two meals here is that I'd had them at the same place only one week apart.

Had I expected it? 

No, of course not.

I might have ordered different dishes otherwise. 

But that's life.

That's how life with chap cai png is. 

You never know what it is you want until you're in front of the stall, eyes skimming quickly through the dishes on display whilst the uncle or aunty stands there impatiently armed with plate and tongs as you frantically try to make up your mind. 

First box at the Kangkar Mall Kopitiam food court I'd gotten stewed lettuce- or is it cabbage- and then unsure me had dawdled a bit trying to decide if I should get meat or eggs and whether it should be fried or stir fried or steamed. Eventually I decided on brinjals and omelet.

Meat is expensive these days. 

Having mostly vegetables however didn't mean that the meal was compromised. 

On the contrary, the food was easy to eat, there was great taste, and because it had been prepared with the diner in mind, there was even a good chew. 

You know how some places like to make their food really small, or slice their pieces really thin? 

Not so here. 

The lettuce (I think it's cabbage) was cooked perfectly well with a little bit of bean curd skin and some black fungus hidden amongst the vegetable. I liked how they had the vegetables all chopped up to small little bite size pieces so it was easy to pick up. And the lettuce/cabbage wasn't hard either. 

When it came to the brinjals they were sliced thick, and slant, making them pieces soak up the gravy and again very easy to pick up and chew. I loved that I didn't get mushy brinjal pieces but the thick, soft, slightly chewy ones. 

Perhaps the only dish that was familiar was the omelet. 

Tell the truth, I actually had no idea what kind of omelet I was getting. 

I didn't get to ask the uncle. 

Sometimes one gets spring onions, sometimes one gets onions, sometimes one gets long beans. 

I had thought I would be getting the long bean kind. 

As it turned out, it was more of an onion and spring onion kind. 

But I don't mind.

Onions and eggs are one of the most fragrant dishes ever, not to mention tomatoes, but you don't get tomatoes in omelet very much. They mush up the whole egg, making it so hard to fry. 

Onions are easier.

It was a very comfortable, comforting meal, one that really spoke and appealed to me. 

Perhaps the best decision I made for this meal was to have all my food in the dabao styrofoam box instead of having it on a plate. 

The sight of everything piled up squished and squashed inside the box made me feel so much fuller than had they been spread out on a plate. 

The impressions of this meal stayed with me so much that the following week when I found myself back at the same food court again I went back for the same stall. 

What's funny is that I could have gone on to have other foods, like YTF Laksa, Ban Mian, or even dumpling noodles, but $7 for YTF Laksa seemed a little high. (Perhaps I still remember a time when it was just $5) 

Moreover, I felt like having the joy of having all that variety of food in my dabao styrofoam box again, so back to the same stall I went. 

The great thing about chap cai png is that you can order whatever you want depending on your mood, so it were different dishes for me this time, save for the cabbage/lettuce that I really, really like, and which I saw glistening so prettily at the counter. 

So first things first, I got back the lettuce/cabbage, ignored the uncle looking over willing me to make my decision, chose the sweet-savory stir-fried hot dogs with potatoes, a portion of soft bouncy steamed egg, and then had the cashier uncle ladle curry all over the rice in my box. 

I had a need for something spicy.

And I wanted something warm. 

Lunch @ Changi Airport

A month or so ago I found myself alone at Changi Airport.  

At other times it might have been a pleasant experience.

I, after all, do have a thing for Changi Airport, her shopping mall of a JEWEL, and all her terminals. 

But today was a day that I wish I didn't need to be alone, and whilst that's how life is, still I wish I too could have gone along, or better yet, that Hedgehog didn't need to go. 

Me being me however, I tried to make the best use of it, and so, after waving him off at the Immigration, headed straight to the staff canteen of Terminal 2 for a long-awaited lunch. 

Now you might find it surprising that I wanted in particular to eat at this one staff canteen, but let's just say that we all have our memories, we all have images in our head that even years later we haven't let go, and sometimes we try to recreate. 

Coming to the Terminal 2 staff canteen however was a real reminder that life doesn't wait, that things change, and whilst you might hope to have back the same thing as you once did, well, it's not like that anymore. 

The canteen has changed. 

No more is the place a white fluorescent canteen-looking kind of place, today the canteen has transformed itself to look more like a food court for just about everybody and anybody to have their meal in. 

The selections of stalls too have become different. 

Yes, you have the usual plethora of mixed economy rice, chicken rice, wanton noodles, nasi padang, briyani and a host of other foods, no question about that, but there're more these days in the nature of specific foods rather than generic ones, so whilst you will still get the favorites of fishball noodles and chai tow kuay, there'll also be malatang and other specialties. 

I had come here for char kuay teow this afternoon. 

A memory I had hoped to recreate. 

But things don't always happen your way, and I don't know how it is but even though I had really wanted the white version, somehow the staff at counter convinced me that the black version would be nicer, and I said ok to that. 

It was nice, make no mistake, but to be honest, I really ought to have stood my ground. 

Like, if white char kuay teow was what I wanted, why didn't I just stick to my balls and insist on white kuay teow? Not as if they would charge me different anyway. 

But I guess maybe some memories are not meant to be recreated- you can't go back to what it had been last time- so here I was, at the table nearest the stall, armed with my bottle, my book that I'd found from one of the drawers, and my plate of noodles. 

So huge the plate was that I couldn't finish. 

But I guess I can tell myself that it had been done. 

All these years, all this time, with the memory of The Parents and I at this particular canteen, I'd come back. 

Alone. 

BBRC Cafe @ Cineleisure

A friend introduced me to this place at Cineleisure Orchard, said that they had an interesting menu, an interesting ambience, and would I be keen to try. 

At first I wondered if prices would be expensive, because, you know, Orchard, Somerset, everything. 

But the menu showed regular brunch prices, plus, they had a most fantastic lunch offer, so, yep, we went. 

What first caught my eye wasn't the food of the lunch menu, but that of their regular menu, which, amongst others, had very interesting mains. 

There was something called a Prawn Quinoa Bowl, which in and of itself was already interesting, since there aren't many places that serve quinoa. Theirs had butternut squash, sundried tomato, pomegranate, prawn and kale. 

There was also this dish called Pulled Beef Rigatoni which featured rigatoni (pasta), cherry tomatoes, something they called grana padano (I've no idea what it is) and pink sauce. 

If I were going to eat it, it would be just to find out what grana padano was and what exactly went into the pink sauce. 

There were more familiar dishes on the menu, some of which I might come for next time during the dinner hour, but for today the 3-course set lunch menu consisted of three mains for you to choose from. 

There was a Chargrilled Sirloin Steak with Fries, a Bulgogi Pork Ribs Pasta, and a Fried Chicken with Japanese Curry. 

All mains came with a salad and a small little dish of gyoza. 

May not look like much, these little babies, but the skin was soft, smooth, and the meat inside juicy and tasty like what a proper gyoza should be. 

For the mains, my friend chose the Sirloin Steak with Fries.

Me, I was in a dilemma. 

On one hand I wanted the Fried Chicken with Japanese Curry. 

On the other, however, I wasn't quite in the mood for anything fried, nor for mild, creamy curry.

So, pork ribs it was instead.

It was a good choice, if not a startling, stimulating one. 

I had not expected the spaghetti to be spicy. 

The menu didn't say. 

But there it was- a very stimulating, surprising first taste that at once awakened my palate, my taste buds, my senses and my spirits, putting me in a bit of an unexpected, if not, alert mood. 

Will I say I didn't like the spaghetti?

No.

It took a bit of getting used to, yes- I'm not usually comfortable with this amount of spice in my mouth, but once I adjusted, the taste was really good. The spaghetti (al dente they call it, I think?) had been done well, so clean was the pasta, and there was no sauce on the plate that would have made the noodles soggy. 

What amazed me most about this dish was the texture and taste. 

I have had ribs before where the meat is tough and dry and difficult to eat. 

Not so here.

The meat on the ribs was soft, almost melt-in-the-mouth, yet, at the same time, not so soft that I couldn't feel the meat at all. 

You know how shredded chicken sometimes feels like when it's cooked well? Yes, something like that. That's how the texture was, soft, tender, yet present at the same time. 

It wasn't hard to cut the meat into bite size pieces with spoon and fork. 

It wasn't hard to chew through the meat too. 

Favorite part of the dish, however, had to be the flavors. I don't know how it's done. Maybe they dipped the rib into the sauce and then pan-fried it. Maybe they fried the rib first then dipped it on the sauce and then quickly fried it again. 

Whichever method they used, it came out perfect. There was the sweet, savory flavors of the marination together with the meat, especially the skin, if I may say, and it made for a very wholesome, satisfying bite. 

I loved the sweetness of the marination.

I loved the tender pork meat that I could slather some of the sauce over it with.

And best part, it made for a great contrast with the little bowl of salad that had come earlier. 

Sure, the vegetables might not be the kind that I would choose had I seen them at the salad bar- I don't know what they are- and I still don't know what that little pink slice is, but the dressing was light, refreshing, sufficient, and the vegetables had that hint of a crunch. 

I'll be wanting their fish and chips the next time I come.

Maybe for dinner.

Their fish is battered the way I like, and if their lunch selections are already this good, I'm sure the fish won't be any different either. 

The Salmons of Don Q

If there's one thing I've come to appreciate about Don Don Donki, or Don Q as I like to call it these days, it is that there always is a ready supply of ready-to-eat foods that you can pick off their well-stocked shelves, and you don't have to worry that your favorites will not be there. 

Sometimes the outlets run out of the cooked food bentos, but no surprise, and nothing to complain about, because hey, the faster the better when it comes to a bento of fried udon with takoyaki, or a bento of Japanese curry pork katsu rice, or a bento of rice with unagi, tamago and takoyaki. 

It's a different story when it comes to the sushi, however. 

Not that they don't move fast, they just have more variety on the shelves, and so there's more to choose. 

It goes without saying that salmon's my first choice. 

Actually it is my only choice. 

With that being said, however, that doesn't mean I don't look at other foods. It simply means I look at salmons first before looking at anything else. 

What's so wonderful about their sushi is that it makes for a great meal when you have to eat something but don't want anything too expensive or too heavy on the stomach. 

As in, you don't have to wonder whether or not there'll be sushi there. 

All you need is to find the Don Q. 

In the past couple of months I've come to feel very much for the sushis of Don Q. It might have been that I altered my diet a couple of months ago. It might have been that there were situations which needed bursts of color and sparks of taste to spike me up. It might also have been that I just wanted to have something special to get through the day. 

The colors of salmon sushi are magnificent. 

Vibrant, bright, delightful to the eyes. 

Just the sight of them is more than enough to lift one's spirits. 

I don't know whether it is the symmetrical neatness of the sushi that gets to me, or if it is the colors and shine that appeal to my eyes, but the sight of these on the table really do speak to me, and I always find myself wager to pick up my chopsticks, and dig in. 

There have been times that the sushi's not ice-cold chilled, but that doesn't matter. 

What's important is that the fish is chilled, cold, fresh, and is appetizing throughout. 

There are times when I take salmon belly. 

There are times when I take the regular salmon. 

Salmon belly is, of course, by nature, softer, more melt-in-the-mouth, but I'm a lover of both, and whether I have one or the other doesn't matter to me. 

If it not be the raw salmon sushi that I want that day, there is also the Aburi salmon, where from Don Q I have had more than once, from different Don Qs, and which have all tasted just as good. 

So the colors and angles of all three might look different, but perhaps it might be because I've taken pictures of them at different places. 

There's one I took when at the Don Q in Clarke Quay.

There's one I took when at the Don Q in Orchard Central. 

Then there's one I took when at their newly opened outlet in PLQ. 

What charms me most about this sushi is the Mentaiko sauce. It's not always consistent, mind, but it doesn't make a difference. Sometimes too there's a lot of fish roe, sometimes it's scattered all around so you don't see the heap at all. 

Then, depending on how chilled it is, there're sometimes different textures. 

I have had Aburi salmons that are softer. 

I have also had Aburi salmons that aren't as soft as I'd like them to be.

But that too doesn't really matter.

Not when I'm a fan of the slightly burnt burnt taste, not when I like the taste of the soft salmon itself, and the huge, wholesome, chonk of rice underneath. 

You know, come to think of it, today is a day that I could do with some of these. I had not thought I would want to have salmon sushi or Aburi salmon sushi when I woke up this morning, but things happen, disappointments do come in, and a bit of cheering up would do me good. 

Dinner @ Irodori

I don't know how it happened, I don't know how it is, but the pictures from my dinner here at Irodori this evening don't look as good as I wish they did. 

For some reason, they've turned out all to have a hint of glow, a wash of orange, and odd shadows here and there.

Might it have been that we were seated in a slightly different area this time?

Might it have been that the lights above were tilted to a different angle compared to last time? 

Or might it have been the heart?

Nevertheless, I'm glad for this dinner. 

In fact, I'm thankful for it. 

At the same time, though, I wished- in my heart of hearts- that I were in the right frame of mind to relish it a little bit more. 

Still, a chance to have good food at good prices is not a time to be wasted, so no sooner that we sat down that we began our orders. 

The evening began with one of our all-time favorites: salmon.

No question that salmon is one of the favorites that we always go for when we come to buffets like these.

It doesn't matter how it's prepared, whether it comes in the form of a sashimi, in the form of a salmon belly deep fried, or just deep fried with teriyaki sauce. It all tastes good to me. 

One thing I like about coming here to Irodori is how well the food is prepared.

Even if it be an ala carte sort of buffet, the kitchen makes no shortcuts to the freshness, the quality, the preparation. 

The sashimi here had thick cuts, the pieces were warm and soft and the skin still retained that bit of crisp crunch, and the salmon belly (with fin) was fried to perfection- no aftertaste of oil and none of it hot oil bursting out when you least expected it. 

I didn't even need to squeeze the lemon onto the fish.

Rather, I dunked it into the hot green tea.

A few plates of specially selected deep fried foods came after. 

There was ebi tempura, then there was what I think sweet potato. 

You know what's funny? 

Which vegetable it was, I might not remember- it could have been eggplant, it could have been sweet potato, it could have been something else even- but one thing I can certainly remember is the taste, the crunch and the lightness of the batter. 

That's the significant part.

Especially since theirs was the kind of batter that felt doughy, yet not limp, and whilst crunchy, didn't have so hard the bits that the batter hurt the teeth. 

It was a conscious decision not to have too much fried food this time, even though, I must say, there was a lot to be had and anyone who likes fried food Japanese style would appreciate having more. 

After the tempuras came a special dish courtesy of the restaurant. 

Okay, so maybe the picture might not look very appetizing (I really ought to have turned the plate) but this one piece of a grilled (baked?) baby lobster cut into half had its flesh soft and tasty with a nice chew, there was enough meat, and they were generous with the Mentaiko. 

There was a bit of a hard time trying my chopsticks to get the flesh out from the shell- not skilled at that- so I simply gave up and, so, lobster eye or no eye, just peeled the whole thing off using my hands instead. 

On hindsight, I ought to have saved some of the Mentaiko for other dishes; they would have made an interesting dip to some of the sushi that I ordered after (it looked like I'd ordered scotch eggs and some salmon California maki), and it would have tasted fantastic even with the grilled salmon belly that we ordered a second round.

You know, now that I think about it, this meal was really all about the salmons.

At least that's how it was to me.

It might have been a meal where there was soft shell crab handroll on the table, or a pot of very nice, warm, tasty, heartwarming soup, or even ice cream lollies for dessert, but these kind of slip away into the vague parts of memory and all I can remember now= months later- is the smooth, ice-cold salmon sashimi, the distinct taste of the tuna, and the lovely bite of the fish. 

First Time @ Koggii

Okay, so I love K-BBQ, specifically, I love the atmosphere. 

But (if you've noticed) in recent years I have not had much of a chance to have K-BBQ. No specific reason, other than the fact that some of my go-to places aren't around anymore, and the one that I did want to go (on Nankin Row closer to the Chinatown/Hong Lim side) I chose to have fried chicken instead of BBQ the last time I was there. 

K-BBQ is, however, one of those foods that stick with you regardless how long you haven't eaten there, so when a friend recommended this new place that had (just) popped up in town, I was quite interested to go there. 

We'd agreed to do a weekend afternoon instead of a weekday evening.

I like my heavier meals to be in the daytime, and you know the level of onz I have for the meal when I still go- for a grill- whilst still recovering from a bout of stomach flu. 

The most attractive thing about Koggii here at Suntec City is the quality- and the price. 

Tell the truth, for $19.95++ pax, I had been expecting poorly-prepared banchan and meats served in a 'grab and go' style. 

But I'd underestimated the soft power skill and calculation skill and costing skill of the restaurant, and so everything served came out perfect to one's choice, with a carefully calibrated range of offerings that were designed to suit every type of diner. 

One of the things I really liked about Koggi was their banchan. 

They didn't scrimp on quality, nor on quantity. 

Up on one side of the restaurant were the lettuce leaves, the raw onions, the garlic, the seaweed, some other vegetables that included (I think) corn, and best of all, several types of kimchi.

My memory only recollects three, unfortunately. 

The seaweed one (it had chili, I think), the radish one cube one cube one, and the lettuce one. 

I helped myself to the lettuce. 

That's the one I always go for whenever at restaurants and the one I never miss out on when it's up for the taking. 

It helps with the digestion. 

There were just as many selections for the cooked side, with one offering being French fries and chicken nuggets, another offering being macaroni salad, and another offering being what I think was beef stew. That, however, wasn't all. There was tteokbokki in a rich, spicy gochujang sauce, and there was japchae. 

No surprise that the japchae, and tteokbokki became my favorite choice of banchan for this meal. 

I love japchae.

One of the memories I have about having K-BBQ at a place near Tiong Bahru was scooping a whole lot of japchae from the tray they'd placed at one side of the restaurant. 

So, yes, besides the macaroni salad (that was surprisingly light and refreshing), I helped myself to a full bowl. 

Alongside with four little pieces of tteokbokki that I deliberately chose kept small because, oy, these little rice cake babies really do fill you up and I had come here for the meats. 

This afternoon, if I'm not wrong, we ordered four different kinds. 

What exactly they were, I now can't remember, but there was pork belly, then what looks like pork collar, beef bulgogi, paprika chicken, and, perhaps, rib eye. 

I liked all the meats. 

I liked how they brought them out to us. 

The pork belly slices were nicely rolled up, the paprika chicken, whilst coming out like a chunk, had been carefully arranged and laid down on the plate properly. Same too for the rib eye (if it is rib eye) and the bulgogi, which had been put about in a way that made it easy to pick up with tongs and put on the grill. 

There are no favorites amongst the meats here but I do like the thinner, lighter types of meat, and so I shall say that the pork belly samgyeopsal was one of the meats I liked. 

If you thought I had the meats plain, well, no, of course not. 

You don't eat meats kosong when at K-BBQ. 

It doesn't feel right. 

So I had mine dipped with sesame oil, and salt. 

There were some other sauces to dip your meats in, too. A chili sauce, I think, and another unusual one that I now cannot remember what, but I was more than keen to keep mine simple with just the salt, and was glad enough for that. 

The Dorsett Hotpot

Several months ago a friend introduced me to this restaurant in a hotel called Dorsett located on New Bridge Road. 

I was a bit surprised. 

My friend is not the kind to go to hotel buffets without making sure he has the appetite to do so. He too isn't the kind to go to a buffet on weekdays, whether it be lunch or dinner, and Lucent, on the lobby floor of the hotel, sounded just like what they might have. 

As it turned out, well, it was a buffet. 

But it wasn't the buffet in that sense where you got the typical spread of a European, Continental, American or Japanese buffet. 

Instead what they offered was that of a seafood combined with a bit of roast. 

Now, that sounded like a meal my friend would on a weekday evening go for. 

First thing I noticed about the restaurant was just how naturally-lit the whole place was. It didn't make a difference whether you sat near the entrance or right at the back or in the middle. So much light filled the place it made you feel as if you were having your meal on a terrace, as if you were having it alfresco. 

I don't have a lot of pictures from the dinner this evening. 

Either I were too busy eating, or I were too busy trying to figure out what to eat. 

One of the first pictures I took was of this plate of vegetables. 

They may not look like much but Lucent had a shabu shabu hotpot and I was determined to put in as many vegetables as I liked. 

What made the experience interesting was how you could pick out as much as you liked, and they did have a lot of variety, like how a buffet would be, but they kept the portions small so everyone only got to take a little bit of this and that and this and that. 

Not a bad thing.

There was a lot to choose from, actually. 

If I'm not wrong there was bean curd skin, tofu pieces, all kinds of green leafy vegetables, black fungus, various kinds of lettuce, seaweed, various kinds of mushrooms, and eggs. 

Mushrooms there were enoki, shiitake and some others that had been chopped into pieces like what you see up there. 

I took a couple pieces of the shiitake, plenty of the chopped mushrooms, heaps of lettuce- one whole plate- and even more of the quail eggs. 

Quail eggs are, and have always been a favorite of mine. 

There was a time when I'd eat it only during birthdays. 

Now I eat it whenever. 

For this dinner alone I probably had at least six, or seven. 

The highlight of this place was, of course, the seafood, so to the counter I went for more. 

By this time my friend had brought back to our table various plates of seafood, amongst which there were oysters, scallops and plates of freshly sliced sashimi. 

It didn't take me long to realize he had come here specifically for the oysters, and the sashimi. 

I don't know how many plates of chilled oysters he ordered- I lost count- but there was a stack of those pretty, heavy duty aquamarine-colored dishes on the table by the time I finished my own plate of sashimi and first portion of quail eggs. 

Afterwards I helped myself to a whole plate of sashimi as well, choosing a few slices of salmon belly that I had to ask the chef to cut, a bit of tuna, and more salmon, which I then dipped with wasabi and soy sauce. 

Would've been nicer had I remembered the sesame oil but I guess I've been too used to the wasabi combination that I forgot to grab a dish from the condiments row. 

By this time the pot was getting full- I'd finally figured out what best to go into the shabu shabu collagen rich soup, and instead of meats, or other ingredients like snow crabs (that I saw fellow diners take), I chose prawns, carrots, heaps of seaweed and a single piece of sweet corn. 

Prawns make for one of the best ingredients when it comes to hotpot. 

There're diners who will cook the prawns in the soup and then eat them all. But then there're also those who, like me, prefer to have the prawns cook long and slow in the broth to make the soup tastier, and sweeter. 

Except that I don't eat the prawns after that. 

I just.. leave them there. 

Not because I don't like prawns or I don't eat them. 

Just that they fill you up very quickly, and I like to leave stomach space for more varieties of food. 

My friend had a fine time with the seaweed though. 

As did I.

This evening on my third round I went for a serving of bean curd skin, more of those quail eggs, even more seaweed, some black fungus (good for one's health), more variations of lettuce, and a couple of cuttlefish sotong balls. 

My friend took the bean curd skin.

I, of course, worked through leaf after leaf of the lettuce.

So much of those veggies did I take, I tell you, that the best impressions I have of this meal are really all these leaves that I soaked in the soup and munched my way through. 

We were starting to feel full by the time darkness fell, but there were still desserts to be had, and of course, no way was I going to miss them out.  

So off to the square counter we went, where in bowls over ice there were apples and oranges and grapes and cantaloupes and watermelon and jellies, a small chiller of ice creams and on little plates by the side, small, carefully- cubed cakes that you could take as many as you liked. 

I helped myself to a slice of watermelon, plus a couple of cakes that had, if I'm not wrong, based on the picture, ondeh-ondeh, and cheesecake with a topping of mango. 

Selfies of 2024, 2025

Would you believe it that I have not posted a single article of me and my selfies for the whole entirety of this year and last? 

That for the year of 2024 and (now ending) 2025 I have not written a single piece compiling all the selfies that I took during the course of the year? 

Goodness.

I cannot believe it myself.

That has never happened before. 

But, better late than never, I suppose (since it's already happened).

So, here goes. 

What makes this series of pictures interesting that whilst I can remember at where I took some of them, there are those that I don't seem to remember. 

Its like, I can recall myself taking the first selfie at MBS, the second selfie at the Coffee Bean on Sentosa Island near the Beach Station, the third selfie on the staircase of Steppyhouse near the patio upstairs, I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I was when I snapped the picture of me in the white hoodie jacket. 

One of the nicer pictures to boot, some more. 

Fortunately my memory isn't that bad, thank God. 

There's a shot of me in my pink T-shirt with a window (and hints of greenery) in the background. From the picture it looks like I'm comfortable. What you don't know, however, is how many angles I attempted before getting this perfect one. This picture too doesn't show me sitting on the carpeted floor of the hotel room in BKK, concealed behind the sheer curtain shade so that I don't get any odd shadows falling on me. 

Why so determined to get the picture, you ask. 

I'd just bought a new liquid foundation from Eve & Boy. 

Meetings and occasions are perfect reasons to take selfies, by the way, and although I don't always find myself in the frame of mind to do it, here in the year of 2024, there are at least two.  

There's the one in my grey top. 

There's also the one in my red top. 

The grey top was taken at Centrepoint in Orchard Road an hour or so before going up to Clementi where my colleague was doing a press interview. 

The red top, on the other hand, was taken at a Starbucks in BKK's Ploenchit Center where I was meeting an Englishman who had been made Thailand his decades-long home. 

There are other pretty pictures from 2024 too. 

I don't know where I took the one with me in my big Pratunam T-shirt. It might have been shot in BKK. It might also have been shot at the Dalkomm Coffee outlet in Marina Square where I'd gone for a late afternoon snack with a friend. 

I also don't know where I took the orange tinted me in my pink T-shirt. From the looks of it, with the flowers at the back, it might have been the lobby of Conrad Centennial Hotel in Marina Bay where I sometimes went for a sit and make a phone call. 

These are some of the pictures I have vague memories of.

But some pretty pictures I can recollect very well.

Like the one of me in my white doggy T-shirt looking so beautifully at the camera. 

I had been at the lobby of Hotel Jen Orchard Gateway where sunlight is 360, the tint (depending on the clouds) is occasionally soft, and where you can take pictures in one of the most naturally-lit places around town. 

After this comes the selfies of 2025, up to today November, that is. 

Someone commented recently that I seem to look a tad fiercer this year. 

Guess what, seeing these now, I have to agree.

We're already in November- and whilst I hold on to hope things will get better very, very soon- in some ways, 2025 could have been happier. 

That being said, I am the sort who will take pictures as and when life happens, whatever life might be.

To me it doesn't matter whether or not I smile. 

It does matter that I tried; that I gave it a shot, and I hope it will all be well. 

So right on top- at the beginning of this year, actually- there's a picture of me in a big lilac-colored waffle T-shirt which I took sitting at MOS Burger in NEX Shopping Mall, and given that outfit, given that day, I was probably feeling tired, drained, and waiting to go for dinner. 

After that, somewhere further down, there's another picture of me, this time in a green hiking camo T-shirt bought from Decathlon just after finishing a morning phone call out on the patio. 

Other pictures have me wearing one of my new favorite T-shirts bought from Pratunam last year wearing a earring that I evidently wanted to show in the picture, and of me wearing a grey top. 

I don't remember where I was when I wore the Pratunam T-shirt. It might have been Vivocity. It might have been elsewhere. 

But the one of me in the grey top I know I had snapped at the Starbucks in Bugis+ an hour or two before bringing a bag of lavender-scented face mists up to an entertainment karaoke place on the 7th floor as part of a collaboration between our company, and theirs. 

That made for one of the business selfies to be had this year, with the other seeing me in a dove-blue linen suit (also bought from Pratunam) quickly taking a picture whilst seated at a coffee place in Thomson Plaza just moments before the prospect client came. 

I'm glad for some of these pictures, really.

They remind me how beautiful I am, how beautiful I can be. 

Just so long as the light is good, doesn't matter whether I'm seated somewhere, or on a bus, like one of the pictures that has my skin looking surprisingly soft and my orange glitter eyeshadow perfectly blended and put on. 

Don't laugh. 

It's not always that we get surprised by how we look. 

Especially mine is sometimes a hit and miss and I don't always look this way. 

But I try- even if the hair's not obedient, and even if I haven5't gotten enough sleep as a result of a flu-bugged cough that kept me the whole night awake. 

I'm at a special place- a steak place down at Capitol Theater- and I want to make sure I have a selfie to remember myself there. 

Perhaps that's what life is. 

Taking pictures of ourselves at all moments, whether we be at home, whether we be on a bus, at a restaurant, at a Starbucks, or at another Starbucks with the wind blowing our hair right across our face.