Fort Canning-Clarke Quay

Most of my pictures of the walk this afternoon are of Clemenceau Avenue. 

Why it is I didn't take any of the route before this walk, well, I suppose I were too busy chatting with my friend to actually take note of the surroundings, and the view. 

Thinking back, it is a bit of a pity to have missed out on the scenes from the stroll that began at SOTA. I might have taken a picture of Hotel Rendezvous. I might have taken a picture of SMU- the Singapore Management University. I might also have taken a picture of the Orchard Road Presbytarian Church or the YMCA Building next to it. 

There is much to see along this stretch before you hit into Clemenceau Road. 

There is the Istana Park. 

There is also the Tan Yeok Nee House. 

And Singapore Shopping Center, with the hotel of Citadines now in the vicinity right behind it. 

Perhaps I had been too busy talking about the meal which I'd just had earlier.

But Chonkycam came out only after I'd started walking right by Fort Canning Hill, and realized I was missing out on these slopes, and these trees.

Don't laugh. 

These pictures are important to me. 

Last couple of months haven't made me able to go around taking pictures of places with trees. 

Not as much as I like, anyway. 

Hardly has it been that I've been able to go to, say, East Coast Park, or Lower Peirce Reservoir, for an urban hike and some pictures. Hardly too has it been for me to be able to go to Pearl's Hill, much less the further places like Changi Village or Pulau Ubin. 

I didn't want to miss out on these here. 

This side of Fort Canning Hill looks the same as I've always remembered. 

One actually feels kind of small standing at the foot of the hill gazing up. 

From here, it doesn't look as high, but get up there to the summit near where the reservoir is, and the view- let me tell you- is completely, utterly breathtaking. 

Not only will you get a view of the Singapore River, you also get a view of Chinatown, Outram, Bukit Merah, and a bit of open sea on the southern front after the CBD and the port harbor. 

Looking up at the bulge of the slope now I wonder if the bunker side is here, or if it is on the other side, but this slope looks steep enough to house a WWII concrete bunker beneath- supposedly 9 floors down. 

It is the gradual slope after the bulge that gets to me. 

That doesn't appear everywhere.

Somewhere around this spot too I took pictures of Clemenceau Avenue, and the landmarks on the opposite side. 

It would've been nice if I had taken pictures of the church- the Church of the Sacred Heart- but all I managed to get was a bit of a blurred glimpse of the Ngee Ann Kongsi Teochew Building- at the back of them trees lined along the middle of the road. 

Ironically, the nice picture I took from this very spot turned out to be the still Under Construction property that locals born and bred often refer to as Daimaru, or Liang Court. If I'm not wrong, it's now called Canninghill Rise. 

How far the construction of this property has come, I don't know, but it looks like it's close. 

In this picture too- the first one- at the back- was the glistening white grid exterior of the State Courts as it seemingly looked around from the back. 

Perhaps what made this walk pleasant- despite the heat and the light- were the shadows. 

I loved how they stretched over the pedestrian path, and the ground. 

It were the shadows that attracted me to the owners themselves- the big trees- on the sprawling beautiful slopes of Fort Canning Park. They created a song in themselves, these trees, and their shadows, making me feel like I were not along a road in 2026, but another time before. 

Had they been there all this while, I wonder? 

Or had the necessity of horticulture taken over?

There'd be much more to write if I knew what the names of these trees were, but I don't. 

Perhaps one day I should visit this Jubilee Park. 

Anyway, I haven't gone to Fort Canning in the longest time. 

This afternoon we were heading towards the river and Clarke Quay, so too, I only managed to stroll past. 

We didn't go up, we didn't go in.

The only thing we did was to stop long enough to admire the huge space of field and her meadow-like energy. 

It isn't just the space that intrigues me. 

It is that there are not that many large open spaces in Singapore which do not feel like abandoned land, or unused empty space awaiting new owners. 

This one felt like it had been deliberately kept there. 

Like it had been there a long time, maybe during colonial times, maybe during Japanese Occupation times, maybe during pre-independence times. 

We won't know. 

We won't know why this space is now this way.

Or whether this space awaits something else. 

The answers, I presume, we'll know in time to come. 

This afternoon however, we just went on. first turning left onto River Valley Road, then crossing it, then going into Clarke Quay via Tan Tye Place where some of the newest haunts on the block included the supermarket of NTUC. 

It's gotten quite popular, this supermarket. 

More than the rest of the clubs and pubs, it seems. 

Maybe it speaks to a market that doesn't need the ambience of the pub to boost interaction. Maybe it speaks to a market that knows what goes into their drinks, what they are happy with, what it is they are willing to pay for, and what it is the actual amount they actually open their wallet for.

No one ever thought a supermarket in a clubbing area would have the boost it enjoys now, but it has, and a growing influence it has, too. 

We didn't stop to take a look at the cocktail menus of the places now just opening in the late afternoon. 

Instead we simply went on, first crossing the Read Street Bridge, then walked along the bank of Clarke Quay where Paradox Singapore Merchant Court is, heading towards Clarke Quay Central. 

Duku Road's Food

When I first came here, I had thought that I would only be writing about the Mutton Briyani. 

But as it stands, I have come back here a couple more times and so now, not only do I have a Mutton Briyani to write about, I also have a bowl of soup, two Murtabaks and a special dessert in a very small, cute bowl. 

It is a blessing. 

It is a blessing that I have this place not too far from where I am that I can have a meal so substantial, and so filling. 

It is also a blessing that the food here is cheerful, bright, full of flavor, and cheers me up almost instantly every time it arrives at the table. 

The first dish here that made me smile was the Mutton Briyani.

It wasn't because I hadn't had it before.

But because I like my basmati rice to be more on the dry side and this one plate here definitely met the mark. 

I liked the portion.

I also liked that the grains didn't look like they had been soaked in oil. 

How the rice is made here I don't know. 

Different places do it differently, but briyani rice in general requires spices like cloves, cardamom, star anise, cinnamon and bay leaf. Some places put onions or garam masala or ginger-garlic paste. 

I can't tell what it is that goes into this plate but there's definitely a bay leaf- I found it at the side of the plate- there're definitely onions- they were in the achar- and maybe there're cloves hidden amongst the rice grains as well. 

But it wasn't just that the rice that I liked. 

There was also the sour pickled vegetables achar that served as a palate opener. This one had cucumbers, carrots and onions, all of which gave a special crunch and a sour, tangy taste that made the briyani rice taste lovelier. 

Of course there was also the chunk of mutton. 

There have been place where there's more bone than meat. 

Not this one. 

This one not only had more meat than bone; the meat was also tender enough that it fell off the bone when I cut it through with my fork and spoon.

My meal this afternoon came with a special surprise- a bowl of complimentary dessert that the staff gave to me. 

Maybe I looked like I needed the sugar.

But it was good, and I loved it. 

Problem is, I don't know for sure it is. 

I asked, but didn't quite get the word. 

So I've Googled, and the Internet tells me that the closest description might be a pudding made from semolina called Rava Kesari. A South Indian dessert often eaten at breakfast, it is made from semolina, ghee, saffron, nuts and sugar. 

This one had the sticky texture of semolina, the sweetness of sugar, the color of saffron, and both raisins and nuts stirred into the mix. 

It might be it. 

Perhaps one day I might work up the courage to ask the staff again just what this was. 

Perhaps my poor ear too might be more inclined to get the word correct at that time. 

Thing is, I have been looking out for this dessert the last couple of times I were back at the coffee shop, but I haven't seen it. 

I haven't ordered the briyani either. 

Instead we've gone for the Murtabak. 

Two times. 

First time we wanted mutton but they had run out of mutton so we agreed on the chicken.

Second time we wanted mutton and got the mutton. 

Does it make a difference?

Technically, no, but the mutton is nicer than the chicken. 

Softer, with more flavor, and more appetizing than some places that I have been to. 

What I like about the Murtabak here is the portion, the way it's done, and the crepe itself. 

Yes, they do take a bit longer to make it as compared to prata, but it is one very big a** rectangular piece, the filling inside every square is chock full of meat bits, and every bite I take has more taste of meat than that of crepe. 

I certainly don't mind. 

It's kind of interesting that they don't serve the Murtabak with chili sauce or mayonnaise or any other condiments. 

What they do bring you is a dish of fish curry and a dish of mutton curry.

My friend prefers the mutton.

I prefer the fish. 

The slightly sour, slightly spicy taste of the curry goes well with the crepe and the mutton bits inside. 

I am always left feeling very full every time I finish a Murtabak. 

Not just on the palate, but also the tummy, and the heart. 

I'd like to try their dessert pratas next time I go there. 

Dessert pratas are a charm of coffee shops like these, especially in the late evening hour when the body feels it is the right time to have something sweet. They've got banana, strawberry, chocolate, and the regular condensed milk. 

I might have the banana and the regular condensed milk. 

But I don't know if it's smarter to make it a meal, or a post-meal.

If I make it a post-meal, then the meal will have to be light.

For that, their sup kambing is good. 

It has the signature bright orange color that seems to define much of this meal. 

Sure, it does make you feel like you're sipping on a curry soup, but it has a thickness, and the richness of taste that can only come with the effort of boiling the meat of goat inside a pot together with a bunch of spices that altogether work well to make the soup aromatic. 

The Reds of Mi Bibimbap

I might have said this before but I don't mind saying it again.

This place has become one of my favorite post-caregiving meals in recent days. 

It may not be everyone who understands the impact of what unlimited rice, unlimited kimchi, and unlimited seaweed soup is, but for someone who has spent several caregiving hours doing physical chores, with nerves and heart on high alert, it is important, critical, almost a life-saver. 

It has come to a phase where I can actually have just the kimchi and rice alone. 

Which, before our orders come, I do. 

There is a pattern we've established every time my friend and I come here.

I tell him what I wish to have, he makes the orders, I go get the soup. 

Two bowls of seaweed soup I bring to the table, then I go get a small dish of kimchi. The rice I wait until the dishes come, if not it gets cold. 

There are a couple of dishes that I like to have whenever I come here. 

One is the dish I call Sliced Angus Beef which comes served in this charming bronze, golden color pot and has a huge portion of tang hoon vermicelli underneath all that meat inside a lovely, tasty sauce. 

The other is this dish of braised chicken pieces and braised potatoes that are soft and mushy and tasty and come with more potatoes than pieces of chicken. 

Most of the time we come here for the Angus beef. 

The portion is large enough to share.

But in recent times when my friend and I decide that we want two dishes instead of one, we go for the chicken and potatoes, then get an additional order of mapo tofu, which portion, and size of tofu is more than enough for two. 

If there's one thing about the food here at Mi Bibimbap, it is that their portions are large. 

I don't mean the size of the plate.

I mean the size of the food itself.

When it comes to the chicken, the pieces are of the perfect size. Small enough to pick up with the chopsticks, big enough for the bite. Same goes too for the potatoes. They're soft, cut into thick sliced rectangular shapes, so not only is it easy for the chopstick to pick it up, it's easy to bite, let it mush around on your tongue, and have together with the rice.

I have tried squishing the potatoes to eat together with the rice.

I have tried eating the potatoes on their own. 

Either way it is the sauce that gets to me. 

Honestly the gravy of all their dishes here are great on their own.

Even if it be a common one like the mapo tofu. 

Generally I am quite selective of the tofu I eat- there are certain kinds I prefer, there are certain kinds which I try not to have, if possible- but this one is of the silky type which texture I don't mind. The tofu is cooked so soft that it crumbles right away, and the tofu, together with the bright red, slightly spicy, slightly tasty sauce goes perfectly well with each spoonful of rice as well. 

Perhaps what I like most about the food here is the balance I get out from one single meal. 

The seaweed soup provides a warm, palate-cleansing start to the meal.

The kimchi gives me the spark and kick I (genuinely) need. 

And the food, whichever I order, however it is prepared, grants me the much-anticipated warmth and comfort that settles down wonderfully in my tummy. 

I like how I can alternate the warm rice and warm food together with a little bit of chew from the spicy kimchi. 

I also like how I can still go and get another dish of the kimchi on its own after the dish is finished. 

If I do, I eat it without rice, without anything else, just plain cabbage kimchi on its own. 

There's no contrast of taste. 

It doesn't wipe out the lingering flavors of my meal. 

There have been times when I've gone for two bowls of rice.

There have been times when I've gone for three servings of kimchi and three bowls of soup.

Doesn't usually happen, I tell you, but the food here is such a charm for those days when my senses need both the stimulation and the comfort that I wish I could have this every week just so long as there are them caregiving hours to attend to. 

Ah Ma Chi Mian @ Serangoon

A friend brought me to this particular coffee shop at Serangoon Central, eager to show me where the stall selling his weekly pig trotter rice was, and how it looked like. 

Now, I am not a very huge fan of the ter ka pig trotter.

What that means is that I don't mind eating it, I don't mind the rich, herbal flavors of the gravy that the trotter is usually served in, and I do happily eat it, but the dish will not be first up in my mind whenever I want to go downstairs coffee shop for a meal. 

It's a different thing for my friend though.

He likes bak kut tehs and pig trotters.

He likes the herbal flavors of the soups and the gravy that they come in. 

And as long as the meat is tender, the gravy is nice, and the price is right, he'll go for it.

Me, I like my variety. 

At this coffee shop there were a couple of stalls that had a variety of food that I did look at. There was a zichar stall, a prawn noodle stall, a fish soup stall, some other stalls on the other side, but there was only one that really caught my eye. 

Ah Ma Chi Mian. 

Ah Ma Chi Mian is a franchise of nine outlets all over Singapore. When it was they started, which is their first stall, I don't know- I haven't paid much attention- but only one time a few years ago had I ever had their noodles, and it was at a coffee shop at Hougang Avenue 8.

Mr. Radioman had recommended it to me, said he had seen the queues at the stall whether evening or late night, and since the picture of bak chor mee showed like it was worth a try, that late evening we ordered. 

I have not ordered it since. 

Today seemed like a good day to have the noodles. 

Not so much for the fact that I was already here at Serangoon Central, but because I was truly me right here, right now, wearing what I wanted to wear, eating what I wanted to eat, in the middle of an afternoon waiting to go for a meeting at NEX after. 

Fishball noodles isn't always my identity, but it is one that I can choose to go for, and so this afternoon I did. 

I'm glad I made the choice. 

It isn't always that I get to have firm, springy QQ noodles that come stirred in a sauce that is more than just tomato sauce and vinegar. What's more, I had thought that the noodles would be dry and sticky, hard to chew, hard to swallow, with a distinctive yellow noodle taste. 

But, no.

They were smooth, mixed well with the sauce, and every spoonful had a wholesome, shiok kind of feel that brought out not just the texture of the noodles but also the flavors all at one go. 

I don't know if I were supposed to mix the fishballs with the sauce or were I supposed to eat them separately. Different people have different ways of mixing their ingredients, I guess. Some people eat their fishballs plain on its own. Some people roll the ball around in the sauce, take a bite out of it, roll it around some more. 

I know of people who have their balls with just the soy sauce and the chili. 

Then there are those who are expert enough with their spoon and chopsticks that they manage to carve up the whole ball into pieces and swirl it around with the sauce. 

I don't know how to do that.

So this afternoon I did what I always do- take a bite out of the ball, take a couple strands of noodles, take another bite of the ball again.

In between all of that I swooped around the soup looking for the bits of bak chor minced meat swimming around inside. 

The white, clean-looking balls were springy, by the way. 

Simple they might appear to be but they're like a go-to comfort food when one wants something soupy and light but doesn't want fish soup or porridge or ban mian.  

The fishball soup was tastier than I thought it would be. 

Some are really clean-tasting and light.

Not this one.

I've no idea what went in, but there was that bit of rounded flavor- you tasted that distinctive warmth that comes only when soup is boiled with meat as a base- and then a small piece of salted fish at the bottom, and there was that clear, clean taste which, honestly, I dont' know what makes it so, but leaves one feeling cozy and comfortable.

Maybe that's why some people just go for the soup, nothing else. 

Me, I liked the combination of everything- the presence of minced meat, the fishballs, the really good sauce beneath the noodles, and that big piece of lettuce which is one of my favorite vegetables when it comes to soup. 

Toa Payoh Lorong 5, Lorong 4

You know, if there be something that I have only recently come to realize, it is that I actually become more observant of my surroundings whenever Chonkycam is around. 

The difference had not occurred to me before.

That is, not until one weekend afternoon when we were walking from Toa Payoh Lorong 6 to Toa Payoh Central did I realize there was much around me which I hadn't been seeing, hadn't been paying attention to. 

Tis a pity. 

I should be more curious of what I do and where I am, even if it be routine, even if it be something that I've done plenty a time. 

This early evening we headed out from Toa Payoh Lorong 6, first passing by the SPC petrol station, then turning into the common open air area in front of what I think is Blk 38. At other places, the common open air space might be just a pathway and nothing more, but the residents here seemed to have turned it into some sort of a community garden of which I know not what plants they have, but are very well watered, very well kept, neat in their little plots, and which attract flocks of adorable looking little sparrows.

It had not occurred to me that there would be sparrows here at Lorong 6, but there they were, plenty of them! 

Not just one or two (like how crows mostly are) but flocks of them, all flying together from one spot to another. 

From this community garden, up a little flight of stairs I went, crossed a car park, and out onto Toa Payoh East. 

Along the way I took a picture of the playground. 

Now this might seem common to some people, like what's the big deal, it is just a playground.

But, see, a playground is a communal place. 

At least in a country like ours where most of us are flat dwellers and where common spaces become the one place where everyone, more or less, will pass by. 

The playground is a place where kids gather, where caregivers- be it parents or helpers or elders- sit around and watch them play, or play with them. This is a spot normally full of giggles and chuckles and happy screams. 

But in the early dawn or in the dark night, a quiet spell falls. 

Residents out for early morning walks might have a seat at one of the benches by the playground before the sun fully rises. 

Residents out of their flats in the evenings or late nights might also find themselves a seat here. 

At times there are couples chatting. 

At times too small groups of friends hang out at the playground, sitting underneath the shelter chilling and chatting with each other.

The playground is, generally, a convivial place. Whether or not you're born and bred, whether or not you're here from elsewhere, this space is one you will surely recognize, and pass by. 

From here, I headed out and found myself on Toa Payoh East.

Now, this is one road that surprises me.

Rather, this is one stretch that surprises me. 

Because, how is it that this side of the road can be Toa Payoh East when just further up it is Toa Payoh Lorong 5?

I mean, did this road not exist during the time when they were doing up all them Lorongs?

How is it that this road of a stretch transformed from a Toa Payoh Lorong 5 to a Toa Payoh East immediately after the junction of Toa Payoh Lorong 7? 

But here it was I stood- and here be the blocks of Toa Payoh East looking towards the direction of Lorong 7. 

What's more interesting is that on the other side of this short Toa Payoh East stretch- my left, actually- there are these yellow and orange blocks of a completely different architecture. 

The corridors of Blk 46 don't look out onto the main road. 

The corridors of this block Blk 34 do. 

It's a pity I didn't take a picture of the big field opposite the road. 

Especially since it didn't always use to be a field. 

See, what looks like now a big space of grass- with one marker tree- used to be an estate housing blocks of flats ranging from one-room to three. I don't know when it was the three room flats got demolished, but the last one standing was the one-room, and it held space there for a very long time until one day it disappeared too. 

Perhaps one day I might just take a detour there for the sake of the picture. 

But not today. 

Today I crossed this road that is Toa Payoh East on one side, Lorong 5 Toa Payoh on the other, opposite which, of course, is the single-story, low-lying Blk 75 Toa Payoh Food Center behind them trees. 

I wasn't going that direction this evening, so all you see are the blocks that make for a landmark of the food center.

I think they're Blk 61 or 59, or they might well have been Blk 64 and 61, with 64 in front and 61 behind.

Blk 64 is L-shaped after all. 

Whilst crossing the road I managed to take a picture of Blk 68, from where I were, half hidden behind the trees of the Toa Payoh Sensory Park. 

It was a most unusual place- this park. 

I don't know what a sensory park actually is, but this one, definitely, was atmospheric, and immersive. 

It didn't matter that the flats behind were so close to the shrubs and trees and plants. Here the presence of concrete didn't make a difference (although the park being so near to the flats made me think of this particular housing estate in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong) 

What struck me most was the immersive, different-world atmosphere. 

It might have been the fact that it had earlier rained. 

But still, it is not often that a park brings to you feels of a wet, damp tropical jungle after the rains.  Neither is it often that a park as small as this makes you think of shadows, shelter and dark, wet, misty green after you've stepped in. 

Entering the park from the Blk 68 side I thought I was stepping into another world- a piece of natural history that our country's development has somewhat- over the course of decades- has gradually erased. 

I found myself gazing, mesmerized, at the trees with their narrow trunks and huge canopies. 

I also found myself looking at the well-worn bark, the green, wet, refreshing moss on the trunks, and the grass, different from the regular roadside cow grass we normally see. 

This sensory park seemed... so different.

Maybe it was meant to evoke some sort of a memory. 

Maybe it was meant to make you think of another place, another time.

It is no secret that Toa Payoh was once an agricultural sort of place with mud and swamps and plenty of rain. 

It is no secret too that the place remains very heartlander after all these years, and one can only imagine just how this side of Toa Payoh once used to look like before all these blocks got built, and flats came in.

Do the residents here wonder? 

Do they remember? 

Will they think of the jungle they left when the estate got built, and people began moving in? 

There are not many of the generation that still remember. 

But this one will make new memory for those who now still dwell there, or maybe those that move in. 

More Zichar from 80

You know, I had not thought I would grow to like the food from this zichar stall when we first started eating here. 

I mean, eating food at hawker centers and coffee shops is sometimes a sort of gamble. You think the stall might be good, the food turns out to be otherwise. Or, you think the food from this stall is good, but it turns out that only (some) dishes are good, and the rest are mediocre. 

The latter had been my expectation when coming here to the zichar stall of Blk 80 Marine Parade Central. 

But, to my surprise, as so far as I've eaten, the food has been quite good. 

Now, I don't take pictures of every dish every time I eat there, but here be a few. 

You know what's funny?l

What's funny is that the cheapest item in particular collection is actually one of the best. 

it's not that they aren't good with the fried. 

But I think they're better with the stir fried. 

In any case, for a most pleasant price of $4.80 for (Sup Kum) Hor Fun, or Hor Fun with Gravy, I am not complaining. To being with, there aren't many places that will grant you such and such a dish at such a price. What's more, the quality is quite good. 

First time I had the dish I had worried that the sauce be too starchy, or the portion of hor fun be too small. I had also worried that the extras be either too hard or too discolored or not fresh at all.

To my surprise, it turned out otherwise. 

So there is a bit of starch inside the gravy but, really, it's not that bad. As in, I don't get the over stuffed feel after I eat the hor fun noodle with the gravy. On the other hand, it tastes just nice.

Is there wok hei?

Not alot. 

An occasional section or two, maybe, but not more. 

I don't mind. 

I mean, yes, I'd love it if there were more chewy chewy pieces stuck together but that's not something to be bargained for and, really, it isn't so high up on the criteria list anyway. 

The interesting part, I have to say, is probably the vegetables and the prawn and the meat. See, most of the time these are additional ingredients that no one really cares about, so more often than not, these are the ingredients that get hard, difficult to eat, and can literally be placed at the side. 

But the vegetable leaves are surprisingly soft (not chewy as I thought they would be), the stems are also soft, and whilst the pork slices are a wee bit ends and a wee bit small, they aren't dry nor inedible. The surprise is the prawn. Frozen, yes, but actually quite good. 

When it comes to the fried, their fried bee hoon is better than their fried hor fun. 

Why, exactly, I don't know. 

It's just that the fried bee hoon is drier and less oily as compared to the fried hor fun, and so my stomach takes it better. I've had more fun eating the bee hoon than the flat rice noodle, and I don't think it's because the hor fun has more sauce. I think it's because the nature of the noodle absorbs more sauce or oil compared to how the bee hoon does, and so the threshold is narrow.

In any case I'm glad for the bee hoon. 

It doesn't have a lot of ingredients, but they've got little tiny bits of char siew and prawn and shredded fried omelet egg and taugey. I like the way it feels in my mouth, slightly savory, but not greasy nor oily. 

Better yet I get to ask them for more limes these days which they generously do give. 

As of date, I haven't tried the rice dishes. 

I will- I've got my eye on the salted egg one- but not yet. 

The only rice dish in this collection had been chosen by my friend, and according to him, his choice of lemon chicken- a well fried fillet, a generous serving of sour-sweet sauce, was pretty satisfying too. 

The Lu Rou Fan of Fong Sheng Hao

You know, this is one of the foods that I don't mind writing about, yet at the same time, I am not sure if I want to write about it at all. 

It isn't because of the food itself but more so of the circumstances that surround the meal and the reason I'm eating it at this place at this time on this day. 

See, for the longest time the only Fong Sheng Hao I preferred to eat at was the one at PLQ's basement. Sometimes I rode a bike there. Sometimes I walked there. All through the years from Ceylon to Kembangan, it was the PLQ place that I preferred having a meal there.

But we haven't been back to PLQ in a while. 

And whilst I don't mind eating at the NEX outlet, I wish, in a way, I felt less tired, less drained, and less achy whenever I ate there. 

Coming here this evening was no different from the week before. 

It was one of those situations where I couldn't find myself really enjoying the food as much as I wished to, no less because all I wanted to do was go home, take a bath, cleanse off the work from chores, and sleep. 

But it wouldn't do justice to what is a very good bowl of Lu Rou Fan, or Braised Pork Belly Rice, so here we are. 

Fong Sheng Hao serves up their rice bowl in the typical Taiwanese HSR bento box style. The Taiwanese boxes are always packed to the brim- you can detect the fragrance of them braised meats a mile away- and although I can't be sure if they're the same size as the one here in Fong Sheng Hao, the ingredients, I'm guessing, will be more or less the same. 

Fong Sheng Hao does their bowl with rice (of course), braised pork belly (of course), plus an addition of a whole hard boiled egg, and pickled cucumbers. 

I like the pickled cucumbers. 

At one time I used to keep them to the end of the meal but ever since I restarted eating here, I've been going for them first. They refresh the palate, whet the appetite and give me a gentle crunch that I have in recent days begun to appreciate. 

Better yet, I've now realized that the cucumber actually does go very well with the braised pork belly where the tart, sourish, pickled taste of the cucumber balances out the savory rich of the braised sauce. Each bite now becomes a combination of sour and savory and fresh and earthy all at the same time. 

The egg, however, I still eat on its own, except for the white, which I have slightly mushed up with the rice.

Coming here we like to order more than one dish. 

At one time we would have had the toast sandwich or the crepe pancake, but we've since found we like their popcorn chicken better and so that be what we order. It isn't really huge, the portion, but each piece is quite substantial.

What's more, they do marinate it enough- a bit of pepper spice going on there- it is well fried enough (crisp outside, soft inside) and I like how the gentle crunch of the chicken goes down well whether eaten on its own or with a spoonful of rice. 

Chin Chin's Sam Lor

I'm so glad to have the opportunity to come here.

In my mind I think that has been far too long. 

You know, there was a time in my life when coming to Chin Chin was a near everyday decision. It was one of the options that always came up whenever we were trying to make a decision about lunch, and more often than not, we always came. 

These days however the calculator works different, and I don't come downtown as often as I would like to. 

Which then, makes dinner at this place a much treasured opportunity. 

One thing about Chin Chin that I appreciate very much is their consistency. 

How they do it, I don't know- it must take some effort- but whether it be a meal that I had seven years ago or whether it be a meal that I had just last week, my plate of Sam Lor Hor Fun is still the same. 

It might be a world with this war and that war, and this economic situation and that economic situation, but they haven't reduced the portion of the hor fun, nor the quality of the fish, nor the quantity of the tau gey. 

My plate of Sam Lor still, more or less, remains the same.

And it is precisely because of that which keeps me coming back time after time for this dish, and I don't (normally) order anything else. 

I have heard of places where the chef changes, the quality drops, and the food standards fall. 

Not here.

Everything remains the same. 

What has changed, however, is the crowd. 

When I first started coming to Chin Chin, the crowd was mostly local. Office workers, a random resident coming down to buy lunch, that sort. On occasion you might have had the rare ang mo coming in for a plate of chicken rice but that was usually either because he worked close by, or he was here with a bunch of colleagues all of whom were local. 

These days however there are tourists. 

Not the groups- Chin Chin doesn't seem to cater to them- but the indie tourists from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and even South Korea. It's lovely seeing them pretty ladies all dolled up for the IG or the Xiaohongshu digging heartily into plates of chicken, cereal prawns, vegetables, or appetizer bites like hae zou the prawn rolls. 

Of course there're still the office workers, but they are a more diverse bunch now. In the last few times I've been there I've noticed Indians (or maybe Sri Lankans), then Filipinos, then Indonesians, and even a couple of Thais.

The ang mos still come. 

But they're not like the shirt and tie dude working at an office housed in a beautifully restored shophouse next door. 

They're visitors. 

Digging into a plate of roast chicken rice, a huge plate of fried rice, and two bottles of ice cold Tiger Beer.