It is so very seldom, I tell you, that I'm not able to find the name of the cafe or diner that I have patronized.
Most of the time I manage to put the name to the place.
But with this place, I don't, and that, despite looking about on Google Maps and on Google itself.
Maybe I should try Grab, but really, there's no need to, not when I know where the place is, I know how to get there and I know roughly where to find it.
We've been coming to this place a couple of times, and for almost all times the food has been good.
Now, I'm not a good judge of Mainland Chinese food.
As in, I don't quite know what's good and what's not.
But this place- located somewhere between Marshall Road and Ceylon Road- sitting somewhere between the spaces of Cheeky Bee Hoon and Steak & Pho- has thus far served up dishes that are suited for my Singaporean palate at a quantity and quality happy to the purse.
One of the first few dishes we had from this place was the Mapo Tofu.
I don't have a picture. but it was one of those dishes that came served as really huge cube shaped pieces of tofu. When I say they were huge, I mean that they were of the size that you could cut with your spoon. Firm also were they in terms of texture, not the soft mushy kind that I've grown accustomed to.
Did we like it?
Well, yes, and no.
We liked the spice.
But I think I'm more used to the mushy type that I can crush into my rice and eat it as a whole spoonful.
Of course that's just one of the dishes that we have had thus far and it isn't the same as some of the others we've had.
Like the Salted Egg Chicken which to date remains one of our most memorable dishes and one which we'll definitely order if we've got a craving for something sweet and salty there.
The main thing that surprised us about this dish was the texture and the way it had been done.
We had expected it to come served like how zichar places make theirs- huge chicken pieces slathered (drowned) with a thick gravy of salted egg covering the entire plate.
But no, this plate was dry, no gravy, not one bit at all.
What's funny is that we had begun eating immediately when the plate arrived at the table, and so it took us a while to realize that this were literally the non-spicy, for-kids version of the ubiquitous spicy La Zi Ji so common in Mainland Chinese cuisine.
And right away we fell in love.
So it might be that we haven't ordered it since the last time we had it here but it's not because we don't like the dish anymore.
We just happened to have found new love for other dishes.
Like their skewers, which we order about 8-10 every time we come, mostly alternating between lamb and beef but the other day my friend ordered for me a quail egg stick.
I love quail eggs.
I also love the way they grill their meat, with thick chonks of meat balanced with a single piece of fat (in the lamb)
Their skewers are ordinary enough for the taste that we prefer, but if there be something unique about this place, it is the vibe.
This is not the kind of place where I will want to have three or four big dishes and sit for 3 hours. Instead this is the kind of place where I want to have 15 skewer sticks, one or two bottles of Wang Lao Ji drink, and if they have, some sort of dessert to close off the meal.
Fingers crossed I'll get to have it soon.
Tomorrow, maybe.
Maybe I might even take beer.