WingStop's Buffalo Wings

One of the best blessings in life is to be able to have Fried Chicken as a celebration on the last day of the 2025 year. 

So some of us might find it commonplace, like what's the big deal when there're plenty of fast food joints that specialize in fried chicken, and you can get a deep fried spring chicken in nearly every hawker center and coffee shop and every Old Chang Kee all around the island. 

But fried chicken is one of those foods that you don't think you want to have until you really crave for it, or until you actually sit down at the table with the chicken steaming right in front of you and you realize you wanted it all along.

I hadn't thought I missed eating Fried Chicken. 

I mean, it wasn't a craving stuck consistently in the head. 

Even if I might have made a comment here and there.

But, yes, a blessing, overall. 

We had made a deliberate trip down here to Funan for the sake of these buffalo wings. Why it is that we came specifically down to this outlet, I don't know, especially since there are outlets at Bedok Mall, City Square Mall, even Singpost, the Cathay and Clementi Mall, but hey, last day of the year and all. 

Now, for us who don't know Wingstop, well, it is- in short, an American fast food chain that specializes in one thing, and one thing only- Buffalo Wings. How they manage to stretch what is- really- a wing of a chicken- is amazing, but they manage to do it, and now, after having their food off their menu, I finally understand why. 

The highlight of their menu has to be their flavors. 

That doesn't mean that they don't have food to offer. 

They do- in the manner of Classic Wings, Boneless Wings, Tenders, and Sides. There is not much to be said about the wings and the tenders. As in, I don't quite know how to describe it, but they do have sides that are worth a look and a try. 

Perhaps one day I might try their in-house Coleslaw or their Louisiana Voodoo Fries with cheese sauce, ranch and cajun seasoning or even their Mushroom Fritters (which today I had wanted to try but somehow didn't get to).

But this afternoon we were very much impressed by their Seasoned Fries. 

 

At first glance they seemed ordinary, no different from any other fries you got at other fast food joints. The difference however was that here they were served hot, crisp and so balanced with their seasoning that not a single fry was left tasteless or overly salty. 

But it were the wings that made this meal memorable. 

We'd taken the boneless. 

With flavors of Hot Honey Rub and Garlic Parmesan. 

I was a little surprised.

I had expected my friend to order our wings in the flavors of Texas Buffalo, Louisiana Rub or Hickory Smoked BBQ. These are, after all, flavors that he fancies, where the Texas Buffalo has cayenne pepper and vinegar, the Louisiana Rub has Cajun, and the BBQ is, well, BBQ. 

I too had thought he would have the Lemon Pepper, which, zesty and peppery at the same time, is interesting a combination seldom seen in chicken seasonings. 

But I wasn't complaining. 

I mean, he could have chosen the spicier flavors of Inferno or Kicap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce with chili flakes). He could also have gone Teriyaki

The Hot Honey Rub was pleasantly more sweet than spicy (it reminded me of Korea's gochujang) and the Garlic Parmesan was garlicky buttery- a favorite combination of mine.

So thankful am I for this meal that gave me uber strong Korean restaurant fried chicken vibes. 

Let's just say it was a very pleasant, and fun, surprise. 

Perhaps the next time I come to WingStop I'll make it a combo with 6 pieces, 1 side, and 1 drink. 

Just for me. 

After all, as fried chicken tastes great with beer, it goes just as great with Coke (or Sprite) too. 

Last Selfies of 2025

You know, there are still a good number of posts that I have to write for the year of 2025- I am not yet done with them- but I recently just transferred the last of the 2025 selfies over from the phone to here, so, hey, might as well. 

It is with a bit of a strange feeling that I look at the following pictures. 

Not so much of being what they are, but of the stories that make them. 

I usually tend to go light with my makeup. 

Doesn't matter if I have a meeting, I don't go bare faced once I head towards downtown. 

So that's how it was for the first few selfies, that's how it was for the selfies with me in the big Platinum-Pratunam T-shirt, and that's how it was for me in the last red sweatshirt piece that I had bought from Bugis Street almost 7 years ago and had finally dug it up now. 

The first two selfies I had taken from this dining place somewhere at Capitol Theater. I can't remember what it was we had gone there for. Maybe we had been hanging around the area to file something at the High Court. Maybe we had been around the area because my friend had something to do or someone to meet and I was there killing time. 

In any case, it was a Mainland-style place that we found ourselves at for our dinner, and whilst I won't be posting the pictures of the food here, I know we had a dish of smooth, silky dumplings, a deep fried battered pork fillet, and a bowl of soup that was simple in name (mushroom) but incredibly clear in texture, rich in flavor, and refreshing on the palate. 

There is me here in the large T-shirt that I bought from Platinum Mall in Pratunam and which I wear whenever I need to be comfortable. 

Like today where I was on the bus heading down to Aperia Mall, and which, if I'm not wrong, was Bus 31, although, really, I should have taken Bus 12 on the East Coast side rather than this one here the Marine Parade side. 

Nevertheless, the light was good, and so, from the back row of the bus, these shots I got. 

What's funny, though, is that I can't remember where the last picture was taken. 

I know I took it on 31st December, I know I was clad in the red sweatshirt that I had found in the cupboard (whilst doing the move) and track pants, but I don't remember where I'd gone or where I'd snapped this shot. 

What's more, the floor, and the furniture behind don't seem to leave much of a clue! 

Oh well, doesn't matter. 

However it was- despite the months of what it had been leading up to the 31st- I still looked enough. 

And that was good for me. 

Of course, the most memorable selfies here have to be of me clad in the blue-grey linen top that I'd purposely worn for the early-morning BNI meeting at Chui Huay Lim Club on River Valley Road. 

So rare is it for me to be able to pay a visit to a place of heritage and culture like this that I just had to grab a selfie.

But adrenaline was running high that morning, my hair for some reason didn't look too smooth, and the lighting where I sat needed a bit of creative angling on my part before I could look presentably well. 

Skewers @ Oriental Food Bedok

I thought I'd posted the picture of the skewers. 

Apparently not. 

I had been so enthusiastic writing about the Mapo Tofu and the Salted Egg Pumpkin here at Oriental Food the other time that I decided I'd keep the skewers for another time.

So, here we are.

I don't know if I'll be writing more and more about the same dishes that I've had at this place here in Bedok, but chances are I might. 

I have been coming here for meals more often than I realized.

But this was the first time we had skewers here. 

What's funny is that I don't actually remember what meat they were. 

I, umm, don't pay attention. 

Most of the time I am just there to eat, so whilst I do look through the menu to see if there is anything that catches my fancy, more often than not, I just stick to what's familiar, and let it be. 

My guess is that they're either beef, or lamb. 

It don't matter which is which; either meat I like, either meat I love. 

There is no gamey feel to the skewers served here at Oriental Food. At first we had been concerned that their skewers might be too oily, too greasy, or not prepared in the way we liked. 

As it turned out, they were grilled to perfection the way we liked. 

Hot, warm, little bit oily, lightly spiced with the pepper and the cumin and some other spices which I don't know what they are, the skewers were the exact kind we'd eaten at elsewhere and which we loved. 

There's something comforting about having beef and lamb skewers as these to go with a bowl of rice. Yes, they might not be the recommended way (you're supposed to have them with beer) but these are good as they are, and since there's this bowl of rice sitting in front of me.... 

It is very special how tender the meat is, especially since somehow they have managed to balance each skewer out with a mix of meat, and fat so that you get one cube of meat, one cube of fat, one cube of meat, one cube of fat, or sometimes, five cubes of meat, and one cube of fat. If it doesn't sound very healthy, well, it is just random, and you never know how much of the fat you're getting anyway. 

This afternoon we ordered a plate of what we have come to describe as their signature dish. 

The Salted Egg Pumpkin, or rather the Golden Fried Pumpkin with Salted Egg Sauce. 

As always, it was good. 

I don't know what kind of batter they use, or how they make their batter, but it is crunchy, crispy, with a hint of sweetness (maybe it comes from the sweet potato) and that distinctive flavor that one recognizes as with anything that gets coated with salted egg sauce, or seasoning, whatsoever. 

This pumpkin dish has become one of our new favorites whenever we eat here at Oriental Food, by the way, and if it be the day that we decide to have vegetarian (or something light) this dish will be it. 

Gu Zao Ren's Beef Hor Fun

To be honest I'm not really sure whether this post should be in the December of 2025, or the January of 2026. 

Technically it ought to be 2025, because I had it on the 27th of December last year, but I guess the end of last year has somewhat blurred into this year and so I am sometimes not really sure whether whatever happened was last year or this. 

That being said, I actually do remember this meal quite well. 

We were moving out from Steppyhouse that day. 

And because Steppyhouse is one of those places where the nearby 'hood doesn't offer much that's worth the tummy, we decided to make our way down to Gu Zao Ren on the Changi Road side. 

It had, actually, been a very, very long time since we went to Gu Zao Ren. 

Not that the food wasn't good or that we didn't like the food. 

Just that there was so much we wanted to have and we tended to (accidentally) order all the fried stuff which we were not supposed to have.

During one of our early times here we had a plate of fried chicken wings, then a plate of fried something else, with two bowls of porridge between us. Only when the dishes had come to our table that evening did we realize just how much of the Fried we'd had had. 

After that we didn't come here that much anymore.

But today we were leaving this zone, and chances were, unless we biked down this road, we very likely would not be coming back. 

A little too out of the way. 

The choice was between meat and rice, or noodles. 

I had felt we might be ordering meat and rice, you know, like Venison with Rice, or Salted Egg Chicken with Rice (I think that's something they had) but my friend didn't want a whole plate of rice, so instead we ordered a plate of noodles to share. 

The choice was between Yi Mian or Hor Fun, but with me being Hor Fun Queen that I am, that's what we got. 

The dish came rather fast, something I liked. 

Today was not a day I wanted to sit and chit chat and wait. 

But was the hor fun good?  

Frankly, I don't know.

I don't know how to tell. 

How does one define a good plate of noodles? 

Is it by how smooth the noodles are?

Is it by the wok hei? 

Or the amount of oil? 

Is there a benchmark one must adhere to when it comes to determining if a plate is good, or otherwise? 

I never can tell. 

To me it is a good plate of noodles just so long as the noodles are huge and smooth and well fried with just a hint of wok hei but not so much that everything ends up looking blackened and burnt. 

The one thing this plate had a lot of was egg. 

The picture here might only show one strand, but underneath, hidden beneath the small mound hill of noodles there were much more. Surprisingly these little fried bits of egg actually gave a bit more of oomph to the noodles than I thought they would. 

There was also a lot of tougay, which, to my surprise, was less crunchy than I thought it was supposed to be. 

Guess I'm not completely familiar with how accessory vegetables in such zichar dishes are supposed to be. 

Nevertheless it was a great meal. 

It was nice, being there in the afternoon, having a plate of fried hor fun- with beef- may I add- that satisfied a quiet craving with even a little hint of burnt wok hei taste 

It didn't matter if the noodles had a bit more oil than what I these days have been accustomed to or that there were a tiny little bit of grease aftertaste. 

Different chefs have different ways of cooking, different customers have different tastes, and maybe this distinctive vibe, made complete with big round tables, kitchen in the back, practical furnishings on the wall, and bright dine-in ceiling light, created them deep feels of a 'small-town coffee shop in a shophouse' feel that in HDB Singapore we don't always so easily get anymore.  

The Bugis Claypots

A friend thought it would be fun to go try this place at the Bugis area on the Liang Seah Street side.  

It had been featured on Tiktok and IG, he said, and the videos made the food look extra nice. 

I was partial. 

It isn't that I don't like claypot. 

It is that I don't know which claypot to like. 

Many people tell me that there's nothing more comforting than a steaming hot dish simmering in a solid claypot, and to that, I definitely agree. Except that the dish inside the pot is of greater importance, and more often than not, I have no idea just what dish I ought to have. 

There're a lot of dishes to be had here at Fat Bird Chicken Hotpot, particularly their Signatures, which include Fragrant Chicken Hotpot, Mushroom Herbs Chicken Pot, Pork Rib Pot and Beef Brisket Pot. There was also a Bullfrog Pot, the likes of which are popular at many a claypot porridge place. 

These here are just the signatures.

Their list of ala carte, on the other hand, is tremendously long. 

There're dishes like Herbal Prawn Claypot, Lychee Pork, Pork Floss Eggplant, Egg Yolk Coated Corn, Sichuan Hand Shredded Cabbage, San Bei Chicken, and dishes like Sizzling Braised Fish Claypot. 

I don't really know what it was we ordered today, but pictures show that all three dishes we had were spicy.

There was, if I'm not wrong, a dish of tofu- the Sichuan Mala Tofu- where the cubes were big and soft and the gravy was a thick, spicy soup bright red to the eye and bright hot on the tongue. 

The tofu here belonged to the stewed style, so the texture was a little less pong pong and mushy than it were elsewhere, but the cubes were big, tasty, and it felt like I were having it with soup. 

The other dish, I think, was either beef or lamb. 

I don't know which was which. 

Might have been the Sichuan Double Cooked Pork Slices, or maybe the Xinjiang Lamb with Cumin and Chilies. 

This doesn't look like San Bei Chicken.

And I don't think we'd gone for any of the Signature Dishes this afternoon either. 

What's funny is that whilst I might not be able to remember which dish is which, or even which meat is which (I don't know how to differentiate between beef and lamb) but I can certainly remember how spicy each dish was, in particular the last one at the bottom. 

So spicy was it that whilst most meats don't have the spice adhered to them, this one, it did. The gravy stuck to the tender meat, went into the crevices, so much so that biting into each individual piece made you feel like you were eating a wee bit of chili at the same time. 

The parsley (or is it coriander) really helped though.

This is a bitter vegetable, mind, but a very different sensation one gets when eaten with spice this powerful. So rich was the sauce that I think I wrapped each slice of beef with one piece of coriander and ate it both together. 

My favorite dish was probably the second one you see here. 

It might well have been the lamb- I really cannot differentiate between one and the other- but I know the meat was tender and moist, full of flavor, and far from the dry, tasteless meat I had (quietly) thought it would be. 

There'll be more dishes that I'll want to try the next time I come. 

The Stout Flavored Pork, the Lychee Pork and the Deep Fried Sticky Rice Cake with Black Sesame sounded interesting. 

I've not tried lychee with pork before, I've not tried how stout tastes when cooked with meats, and I want to know how the sticky rice cake with sesame looks like, tastes like. 

Oriental Food @ Bedok

Life is such that some of the best meal surprises come when you least expect them at all. 

We had not thought of having  a meal here- not once- in the course of these two years. 

It wasn't that we didn't like Northern cuisine, or what we locals sometimes like to call Mainland food. 

Just that we always seemed to go for other options at Bedok Mall, and so never thought of dining here at Oriental Food located right outside the side entrance of the mall in between the town center and the atrium of the hawker center. 

But we have since placed Oriental Food as one of the places we want to eat at, not so much of a reason other than the fact that their food is, in fact, really good. 

There are a good number of attractive dishes here at this diner-restaurant.

Beef, pork, poultry, vegetables, small bites, skewers, you've got them all. 

We found ourselves drawn by the pictures of skewers in the menu this afternoon. Indeed, it was at the top of our head to try, but then whilst flipping through the menu we came upon the sight of Mapo Tofu, and since it being a favorite dish of my friend- who was dining with me today- we ordered one. 

Then I spotted a dish which at other Mainland restaurants I had never seen before. 

Golden fried pumpkin with Salted Egg Sauce. 

So no skewers it was this afternoon, and we got these two instead. 

In recent months we have had been trying a couple of Mapo Tofu dishes here and there- including this place on the ground floor of Bugis+ of which I don't know the diner's name. 

But none of it thus far come close to this one here at Oriental Food. 

I don't know whether it is their cooking method, whether it is the way they've handled their proportion of spice to gravy, whether it is the way they've prepared their tofu, such that not a single cube is overcooked or dry, and is just perfect to eat on its own, or with rice. 

It might have been that we were in need of some tongue-blasting, mouth-numbing food that day, but the very first spoon we took of this dish was the gravy, and it did not disappoint. 

So many places tend to serve up their food in gravies and sauces that are watery, unappetizing, and extreme on the tongue. Either they be too salty or too much of a distinctive flavor, or unbalanced in one way or another.

Not so this dish. 

So good was it that I ladled as much of the gravy as I wanted over my rice, ate it plain first, then scooped up three, four pieces of the tofu over my rice inside my bowl. My friend had suggested that I mash and mush them up to eat together with the rice, so I did just that. 

It felt the right thing to do. 

What made this Mapo Tofu so delightful was that it not only served as a main dish, it opened the palate, stimulated the senses, made one feel alive, and even added a spicy, slightly numbing zhng to that particular day. 

Yet it didn't take away one's desire for anything other, either.

Not only did I have enough stomach to eat up the other dish, it gave me an appetite to do so. 

The Golden Deep Fried Salted Pumpkin has to be one of the signature dishes when it comes to this place. 

Maybe there're variations of it elsewhere.

Maybe different people will prepare it different ways. 

For me, however, this dish here was good enough. 

They had cut the pumpkin into thick strips, a bit like fries, so even if you didn't want to use chopsticks, you could still pick it up with your hands. 

What's more, the dish didn't come slathered in salted egg sauce the way I had at first assumed- like many other dishes of the salted egg kind- it would. This one here felt more like seasoning that they scattered over the battered pumpkin and deep fried. 

This dish wasn't oily either. 

Yes, no doubt, you felt that little burst of oil coming out from the pumpkin when you first bit into it, but then it disappeared, and the natural sweetness of the vegetable itself took over. 

I took a liking to the crunch of the pumpkin batter.

I also took a liking as to how each bite was both crisp and crunchy at the same time yet not so dry that the dish became difficult to eat. 

Not to mention, of course, the presence of bright, cheerful color, and the pleasant contrast of taste, both sweet and salty, at the same time. 

Last (Few) SteppyYums

I think I have finally transferred them all pictures of SteppyYums from the phone to the computer. 

Shouldn't be anymore, I would think, save, maybe for one or two that I took on the last few days thereofs and didn't get to transfer them over. 

It is a little pensive seeing these pictures now.

Not so much for the reason that I won't get to eat these homecooked meals again, but for the fact that they won't be eaten, or have their picture snapped, in the same light again. 

There will be no more meals on the foldable stool nor the steps of the staircase. 

Neither will there be meals prepared in a dim, slightly cool corner with sunlight brightening up the place. 

Also, for some reason, the memory of these meals seems to be very far away.

Even if it be only more or less a month past since we left. 

I hope, one day, I'll be able to have the egg omelet with spinach and what I think very likely was frozen minced chicken shallow fried in the pan with some sort of dark sauce that bought from Redmart. 

I hope, too, that I'll be able to have the hamburger wagyu beef patty that we most of the time have it served with asparagus and fried egg and which is one of my favorites. I not only like the softness of the patty, I love the flavor of the meat (even though unseasoned) and the way the meat just melts away so easily with one bite. 

My favorite part of this meat patty isn't just the meat but also the tallow that  comes from it when fried.

Apparently that fat makes everything tasty. 

Most of the time the meat I had with egg and asparagus but once I had with handmade dumplings gifted to us by A Person, that, in the course of the year, I have come to especially love. Never thought I would come to love dumplings so much, but now, yes, I love how thick the skin is, how full the whole dumpling is, and how much filling of meat, chives, and water chestnut there is, inside. 

Oh, special mention must be made of the white sauce as well. 

It's not really a sauce, more like a dip, made with Greek yogurt and garlic powder (or miso).

I can't remember now what some of the other dishes are- or where we got the meats- but I definitely remember the last plate. 

It was very special to me. 

See, I am a lover of kuay teow and hor fun and all things flat rice noodles. But, I haven't been able to have them at home because, well, we don't buy the fresh ones and there aren't any belonging to the instant type. 

But the chef discovered on Youtube that you could take dried rice paper sheets, cut them into strips, soak them in water, then fry them with whatever sauce you wanted. 

We had those Vietnamese rice paper sheets at home. 

So that's what he did- cut one sheet up with scissors, dipped it in water, then stir-fried it together with frozen minced chicken, using no oil except the beef tallow left over from the beef patty. 

Mixed together, the dish tasted so, so good. 

Frozen minced chicken tastes best with the tallow, I tell you, better than green curry paste, and way, way better than a very mild version of green curry soup. 

Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken

I am, unabashedly, a fan of the chicken here. 

Hailing from Thailand, there are two outlets here in Singapore that I know of- one at Plaza Singapura, one at NEX. 

I haven't been to the one at Plaza Singapura for a long time, thanks, of course, to the (privileged) two, three times that I have been to their OG of an OG outlet up at Ratchadamri Road near Pratunam in Bangkok.

But NEX, this one I have come several times before, and which, this late afternoon, being hungry as we were, thought it a good idea to have. 

There is a reason why, to me, Go-Ang Pratunam's chicken rice holds as one of my favorites. 

It isn't just the chicken itself that delights me whenever the plate arrives at the table. 

It is the rice.

To me, their rice is the star of the show. It is the rice that gets to me, which keeps me coming back over and over again, whether it be here in Singapore, or in Thailand. 

And it is the rice that first comes to mind whenever the thought of Go-Ang comes to mind. 

Why exactly I love it, I don't know. 

There's just something about it that speaks to me. 

Maybe it is the stock of the chicken that they cook the rice in, and which gives the rice its fragrant, aromatic flavor. 

Maybe it is the oil (of the chicken) that gives the rice grains its distinctive texture where it spreads smooth over your tongue yet doesn't feel greasy nor oily on your tongue. 

Whatever it is, their rice is incredibly moreish. 

Where with other plates I have found myself more than happy to drop half a plate, not so with this one. 

Go-Ang's rice is one that I refuse to split haff, refuse to share, and it don't matter whether I am hungry or filled, I want to finish it all. 

Of course, what is rice without the chicken?

Go-Ang's chicken is not to go unmentioned as well. 

Never once, whether here or in Thailand, have I found the chicken to be cold, dry, unappetizing, or without flavor. 

Perhaps it is the way they steam the chicken, or the broth, or the other ingredients that they have in their recipe. 

It always tastes good. 

Always has the chicken come to the table in nicely cut chunks, juicy, tender, full of flavor, with just the right amount of chew. 

Doesn't matter whether it is the breast or the thigh or whichever parts of the chicken it might be, every piece is wholesome, filling, and satisfying. There is no worry that the chicken be coarse and dry. There is also no worry that it will be tasteless and difficult to eat. 

I have never had to wonder whether the meat be hard. 

It never has been. 

Seeing these pictures now make me think of those that I have had in Thailand. 

Sometimes- in a city like ours- we don't put much thought towards global expansion and its impact on the individual, but when faced with a time where you don't get to go to Ratchadamri Road or Central World, it is a plate like this at NEX that reminds you that you- having gone there more than once- will be back there again. 

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. 

Networking Morning @ River Valley

Always a blessing it is, I tell you, to be able to go for networking meetings, especially if- and when- they come as a surprise. 

I am not a social butterfly. 

But if there be meetings, in particular, at places that are interesting, I make the best effort to be there. 

For this one meeting, honestly, I had not thought I would attend a gathering under the BNI network. 

Our business is, after all, a little bit versatile from the regular ones networks like BNI tend to prefer. 

But our work does have one of the most varied, and versatile applications in all kinds of industries big and small, and so it was that I found myself at a location somewhere here in River Valley on an early morning to support a business associate doing his marketing presentation that day. 

If the presence of the networking breakfast interested me, the place interested me further.

It is not every day, nor every occasion that I have the opportunity to visit a place like the Chui Huay Lim Club. 

Perhaps this might sound a little arrogant, like why should I- not being Teochew- want to have the chance to visit there, but I've always found clan houses interesting, and as much as I of this generation doesn't have opportunity to (casually) drop into the clan houses of my own dialect, I'm thoroughly fascinated by the heritage and history, what they used to stand for, what they stand for now. 

Fascination, however, is not enough, and it would be presumptuous if I were to tell my Teochew friends that Chui Huay Lim Club is a place I would love to visit. 

I wont' be going into the history and heritage of this place right now in this post. 

But let's just say that I was entranced by their huge, grand, towering entrance as much as I was entranced by the sight of a wooden junk ship model placed neatly by the side near the wheelchair ramp. 

If the exterior looked traditional, the interior, may I say, looked bright and cheery. 

I'm not sure the facilities of the place- I've been told that there is a swimming pool- but there was a restaurant on the ground floor, and a huge ballroom up on the second floor. 

Outside the ballroom was a foyer where this morning breakfast was served, and can I say, never have I been more thankful for the Nanyang Coffee in the huge coffee canister on self-service free flow. Of course, glad I was too for the breakfast foods, that, to my surprise, were actually quite substantial. 

Not only did they have century egg and pork congee, there were sandwiches, pastries, a bit of fried stuff, and a variety of dim sum-style kuehs too. 

I (obviously) helped myself to a cup of strong black sugarless coffee, but I got myself some of the chye tow kuays and sandwiches too. 

The size of the ballroom was comparable to just about any ballroom in a hotel, with a full-sized stage, full-sized curtains, a high ceiling, and tables enough for a hundred, at least, or more. 

Now I'm also not going to be talking about the BNI meeting itself- people have told me that every chapter, every week, is more or less the same- but let's just say I had a chance to estimate how many groups there were, how many individuals there were, what sort of businesses there were, and can I say I was thoroughly impressed by the level of enthusiasm they had at so early an hour, and the conviction of principles and values that this particular network did hold.  

They have such discipline, I tell you. 

Something that left a huge impact on me however was the varied number of businesses that exist in this country. 

I don't mean huge industries or conglomerates. 

I mean businesses that trade on a somewhat B2B kind of level where you can have a particular expertise and a range of tasks and a whole gamut of trade related to it. 

They made sure you knew it- the BNI- for everyone got a minute, or so, to do their elevator pitch and some of them got creative, I tell you, introducing themselves with a song, a poem, or a quote that they had written by themselves and memorized by heart. 

The gamut of businesses and trades was interesting. 

One might be in education, for instance, and get to know someone with an expertise in vehicle tooling. 

Another might be in insurance, and be in a group with someone who did professional cleaning. 

There was just this entire extension of trades from all parts of the industry. 

It made me wonder just how many businesses there were in this country, and how many were inter-related, if they were inter-related at all. 

What's more, there was this huge sense of accountability. 

Never mind that some of the presentations were actually done by volunteers- however assigned or otherwise- who sat through everything clicking away, there were also one or two who gave accounts of how their fellow members had offered assistance to each other during a time of necessity. 

This morning I listened to our business associate make his presentation. 

Then I introduced myself- in Mandarin!- and afterwards managed to slip downstairs just as the section of the pitch came round. 

I don't mind listening to a pitch or strong suggestions to join a network. 

But this was not the morning for me.

10am is not sales mode for me, introvert that I am, down I went the carpeted staircase back to the brightly lit, cheerful lobby where I waited for my colleague, and said business associate, to bounce back down.