We ate a lot at the hawker during the month of January.
It wasn't planned.
But life is such that when you get brought to a place where there is opportunity for hawker food and good coffee shop food, you take. It might be that we gravitated naturally to it, it might also be that the hearts of born and bred us had missed hawker food without us realizing it.
But that's how we were.
Two, no, three, hawker centers we actually went throughout the month of January, but the first was the Marine Parade Hawker Center where breakfast became the first order of the season.
Tired me didn't get to take pictures of the bread nor the eggs- we were hungry- but there was the coffee, or the kopi-o kosong which, incredibly bitter as it was, made for a great stimulation to the busy day ahead.
Over the next couple of days we ate at the hawker random times here and there- I didn't take any pictures- then came one afternoon where I decided I wanted to go for the economic bee hoon, or mifenmian, as it's often known.
Perhaps if you wonder why this economic bee hoon entices me, well, you must know that this is not any unknown name stall. This stall in fact, has been around for at least twenty years, has a couple of outlets here, there, everywhere, and I used to have their fried kuay teow dabaoed from the Ghim Moh Hawker Center when I worked at a housing block in Ghim Moh.
This one here at Marine Parade, I had seen the stall a while back, and the sight of the noodle heaps, together with all the deep fried finger food had made me keen, so today I got myself a plate of fried kuay teow, a single fried egg, and some cabbage.
Why no chicken wing or hot dog or fish fillet or fish cake?
I didn't feel like having the fried.
The noodles were pretty good though.
Even if a little clean.
Maybe now the trend at hawkers is to eat clean or something- I don't know- but this was exceptionally light, not as oily as I remembered it to be, and so vague on the soy sauce that I actually considered adding some chili.
But I enjoyed them, and pretty sure I'll be having the same order of noodles, whacking more of the other ingredients next time.
Couple of days after the noodles, my friend and I shared a plate of braised duck with rice. A popular stall this turned out to be, as we soon found, when my friend had to join a long queue at the stall, and came back telling me that people ordered packets and plates three or four.
We soon discovered just what the buzz was, and trust me, I'm not being biased here.
Especially since I am the type who doesn't do braised duck rice often- I'm more of the roasted kind- but I found myself enjoying this one.
Not only was the gravy thick, it had a strong pleasant herbal taste, making it very appetizing, and which also went well with the rice. The meat of the duck too was sliced skillfully, making it easy to eat, and what's more, there was hardly any bone, with the meat was so tender that it didn't feel dry even when eating each slice alone.
Best part, I liked the skin.
It didn't give me the odd odd gamey taste.
Instead it was smooth, silky, full of flavor, and I liked eating each slice of braised duck skin with a spoonful of rice.
