In recent days we have been frequenting this place quite a bit.
Not just at dinner, or supper time (which was how it was when we first began patronizing the place) but now at lunch as well.
What's funny is that we had not thought we would be coming this oft to Thumbs Up during lunch, but that's life, where your wallet brings you new discoveries and you get to mix and match menu items until you find the combination you- and your wallet- like.
See, not every mainland place offers plates of food for just $6.
This one does.
It's worked perfectly for us.
Not only are the dishes suitable for a lunchtime appetite, they give us a bit of room to work our tummy around.
Here there are a couple of dishes that appeal much to my (lighter) lunchtime appetite.
One's a stir-fried tomato egg dish that, whilst I have heard of it being usually homecooked and very, very easy to prepare, have never- not once- in my life- ever eaten it before.
The other- I don't know its name- has stir-fried meat slices, several kinds of chopped chilis, one big fried egg, plus a mountain of rice ladled with chili oil with little black beans scattered all over.
The thing about this dish is that it's fun to eat.
And whilst different people have different definitions of fun, what appeals to me is that I find myself working through this plate in a neater, slower, more disciplined kind of way.
It's not possible to gobble down this dish.
Not only do I pick out the chilies one by one- I place them all along the edge of the plate- I find myself picking out the little black beans, the chopped onions, the chopped tomatoes, and eating them on their own separate from the meat and rice.
It is the mix of flavors in this one plate that I really like.
The meat is savory, the tomatoes are savory, the onions too are savory. The beans tend to be a little salty but I like putting a single bean on top a spoonful of rice and eating it together. This is not a sweet dish, so to speak, but no matter. The chili oil (is it Lao Gan Ma) makes it a fantastic meal altogether.
The most unusual part about this plate is how it has changed the way I eat. Me being me I sometimes tend to work through my meal at speed.
With this plate, however, I've found myself eating in a far slower, more patient way than I do with other foods.
Might be the influence of C-drama (they taught me to work through a plate of rice using chopsticks).
Might also be how the dish is arranged that I find myself trying to appreciate the dish better and take more time.
It has been a couple of times since we started doing our lunchtime meals here.
Safe to say we have since found our sweet spot, and no doubt, it is an arrangement ideal and good. One plate of rice, four skewers, which, between my friend and I, we happily split.
There's nothing more pleasant than to have a plate that has meal, vegetables, egg, chili oil, beans, and an addition of skewered fried chicken skin, plus skewered chunks of cumin-marinated grilled lamb.