The afternoon tea we had here at Hotel Jen Tanglin had in fact taken place a couple of months ago.
Yes, (what with everything and anything) it has taken me this long.
Perhaps a part of me didn't want to be reminded of this lovely meal, and how things had evolved since then.
Perhaps a part of me didn't want to be reminded of how I tried to not think about things and yet, they were still there.
Having a meal here at this hotel is a comforting, cozy experience.
Not merely because I love the vibes of the hotel, but also for the fact that their afternoon tea offerings are so delicious, and so carefully calibrated, that there is something for everyone at every age.
We began this afternoon with a plate of crab.
This humongous plate of crab claws was precisely what Hedgehog had come here for, and that was what we were going to have.
I'm neutral to crab.
What that means is that I don't have particular cravings for it, but neither will I push the dish away when I get to eat them.
I am scared of the shell though.
Like, I have heard horror stories of people having unknowingly broken their teeth on bits of shell whilst working their way through parts of flesh they thought were clear.
Thankfully the way Hedgehog likes his crab is a wee bit different, and by the time we came to eating the meat itself, it had all been hand-shredded, and dropped into this big bowl of delicious laksa soup.
It's a painstaking process, mind, but totally worth the effort, and whilst I'm pretty useless at getting the flesh out, never mind hammering the shell, I help in the stirring, and eating, the stirring, and eating.
Of course I go get the bowls of laksa gravy from the counters too.
You don't see it, but there're no noodles inside this bowl. We decided to go without them, choosing the quail eggs (For me) and tau pok (for Hedgehog) instead.
I liked this combination.
It didn't diminish the fragrance of the laksa. Neither did it take away any of the spice, the taste or the creaminess of the gravy steeped in rich coconut milk. In fact I wonder if the shredded crab enhanced the taste a little. It might have, it might not, but additional texture was definitely there.
Thinking back now, I'm starting to wonder whether I really do like eating my crabs fresh, clean, unadulterated this way, or whether I still will go for the traditional gravies of chili crab, salted egg and black pepper.
I don't know.
I haven't had the other forms of crab for a long time.
But if otherwise, well, I certainly love this one, specifically, this one here at Jen65 where for the afternoon tea I have varieties of cooked food so much more.
In between us hammering, peeling, stirring, and eating from the laksa bowl, I went to the counter for more food.
There's a lot to be had here, by the way.
At one end, right close to the noodle and laksa station, there is the Indian food area where one can get briyani or try out a piece of vadai if one should want it. There're a couple of curries here too, except I can't remember now what they are.
Next to it there's the mee goreng station and the satay station. They usually have something more, but right now I also can't quite recall what it is they have now. Maybe it's sayur lodeh. Maybe it's something else.
This afternoon I helped myself to a very little bit of mee goreng, a couple sticks satay, some fresh vegetables in the form of corn kernels and cherry tomatoes and what I think is a tiny little dollop of mashed potato.
Small portions they might look, but I've since learnt not to take too much at one go.
Given my appetite these days, I fill up fast and if I take too much I won't be able to try anything else, so small portions of my favorites it is.
I like the mee goreng and satay here at Jen65.
Not only are the noodles tasty and the satay with that hint of smoky grill, there's a cleanliness of taste about them both that I don't always get to have elsewhere.
One doesn't feel the smoke from the satay linger on the palate. Even the satay sauce, where at other places might have plenty of oil, here there's more peanut than oil and every dip of the meat inside the sauce lets me have more of the chopped peanut than the actual sauce. So thick is the chopped peanut that I almost feel like it is a dip rather than a sauce.
Then there's the mee goreng.
Sure, it's pretty commonplace, one might say, like you might it at any stall in any coffee shop or hawker center, but the ones here have a smooth texture where I find myself tasting more of the dark soy sauce than the oil.
What's more, it's the dry type, which I absolutely love.
Of course, the mashed potato on this plate might seem a little out of place but oy, I walked past the serving tray and the bright yellow smoothness made it impossible not to grab the serving spoon and carve out a small bite.
Food with fresh vegetables too make a whole lot of difference when you're having cooked, stir-fried stuff.
I didn't think I'd like fresh tomato juice with mee goreng or buttery mashed potato but it was pleasantly refreshing, and it gave the dry fried foods that burst of extra zing.
Onwards it was to the other stations of Jen65's afternoon tea now.
One area had been dedicated to the salads- they had corn, lettuce, tomatoes, green olives, black olives, onions, even couscous.
One area had what I call the sushis and sobas, which, if I may add, were a particular hit with some of the diners especially since it isn't frequent here that sushi has the halal stamp, or that Indian families bring their kids to casual sushi joints.
Then there was the area around which I walked three rounds over.
It was very hard to not take the halal dim sum- especially since they had a favorite of mine the crystal pau. Then there were the soups- today, if I'm not wrong, they had pumpkin, or it might have been something else, I'm not sure.
I looked for a while at the pasta that had dozens of mussels sitting snugly amidst the delicious-looking thick sauce of cream.
But in the end went back for another dollop of the mashed potato.
Too hard for me to resist the buttery smooth.
I took more from the other section close by the potato and the pasta.
This one had what I call the dry foods, where on one side stood the kueh pie tee station, the other side had the sandwiches, and then at the corner there were the quiche.
This afternoon on my plate there was one piece of sushi maki- I got attracted by the pinch dollop of crab on top- then a second heap of salad from which I chose more corn, and a couple more cherry tomatoes. From the dry (pastry) side of the buffet I helped myself to a single slice of spinach quiche, and a whole grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
Trust me when I say I took great joy in cutting up the spinach quiche into smaller pieces, and when I saw the cheese stretch from the toast of the sandwich.
The taste, of course, was just as good.
Think of it as a ham and cheese toast with veggies of corn and tomato in between.
By this time, what with two full plates of food, plus the crab in the laksa and a copious number of quail eggs, I was, no doubt starting to feel full.
But there was the kueh pie tee.
And that is something one must never ever miss- not when you're here at this afternoon tea- for the very simple reason that you can customize your own kueh pie tee- and that it won't come out meagre on the fillings or even soggy on the pastry.
So I took three.
I didn't put all the ingredients- this afternoon I didn't want the turnip nor the tiny little prawns- so my pastry cups only had chopped hard boiled egg, heaps of parsley, and a wee drizzle of the sweet sauce.
The parsley made a huge difference; I don't know if it is the texture of them cute looking leaves or how the taste balances out the flavors of hard boiled egg so well.
So much did I like these that I went back for another three, so yes, I had six, altogether.
I'm just so surprised that one doesn't need the entire gamut of turnip and sesame seeds and prawn and everything else to make this kueh pie tee taste so good.
It was time for dessert after that.
My appetite this afternoon leaned towards the cakes.
Why, I don't know.
On hindsight it feels rather silly that I only went for the cakes and not the self-customized ice kachang, the jelly that they had in the chiller, not even the scones or the ice cream.
Perhaps I had thought the cakes were great enough.
And they were.
I think I took two variations of cheesecakes. One was the New York style cheesecake without anything else on it, just the cheese and the cake alone. The other cheesecake I took however had a raspberry on it. Then again it might have been another cake altogether (but which I now don't quite remember).
There was an Earl Grey cake.
This I know because I'm a fan of Earl Grey cakes and I like it when they serve it with a thin layer of blueberry jam. It adds just a hint of sweetness to the cake, a bit of moisture even, but without overwhelming the palate or making one feel like they can't taste the light flavor of Earl Grey sponge.
I had a slice of kueh lapis.
Whether it was considered good quality or not didn't matter.
I have a thing for kueh lapis (always have had) and with the freedom to take as much as I wanted, I wasn't going to drop the chance.
So I took one slice for starters, and another slice afterwards.
By right I should have been full and not able to eat anymore, but there were these two bright-looking matcha-raspberry mousse slices on my plate and no way was I going to do them away.
There's something very special about having a sip of black coffee with a spoonful of cake on a pleasant weekend afternoon in a nice, cozy space.
Perhaps next time I'll make sure to make room for the ice cream and the scones.
It feels super silly to not appreciate a nice baked scone with fresh cream and jam.