It has been close to four months since we celebrated Hedgehog's birthday in July. Honestly I can't believe that it has been that long; that four months have already passed in this manner, and that time is just carrying on in a somewhat day on day pattern which can feel like a tremendous blur.
But I have finally managed to consolidate all of his birthday (food) pictures.
You know, it is with a heart of thankfulness that I look at these now. Life is such that you may not always enjoy celebrating a person's birthday- even though you are obligated to.
But Hedgehog and I have been friends for 28 years.
And for the last 20 years there has never been a birthday which I don't enjoy celebrating with him.
The celebration this year included a hotpot, a Mookata, a burger, a Tom Yum Fried Rice, a Butterfly Pea Rice and a Roasted Meat rice.
We began this year's celebration with a hotpot at Paradise Hotpot. Gentleman wanted meat, and because he knew I had a love for hotpot with vegetables and noodles and all the other foods- cooked, included- it made for a good choice. I can't remember whether he brought his own concoction of yogurt dip this time, but I think he did.
Greek style yogurt.
Of course I took a picture of my own bowl, noodles, meat, vegetables all.
Plus the cooked food, which at Paradise Hotpot is a must.
The next buffet we took was a Mookata at a coffee shop in Bedok North.
I don't quite remember the address but it was a reputed mookata franchise and he had been wanting to try it out for quite a while.
We got a fair bit of beef slices here, as well as a good portion of pork belly. The meat here was relatively good. Chilled, nicely cut, fresh, and with plenty of variety, all their meats made excellent ingredients to the mookata grill.
Same too were the rest of their ingredients for the moat at the bottom of the domed mookata grill. Here I helped myself to a fair bit of vegetables, including Chinese cabbage. I also added a packet of sweet potato noodles, a couple of quail eggs, and cheese tofu pieces, which have, in recent times, become a favorite hotpot ingredient of mine whenever I see it in the trays.
I liked seeing the purple of the sweet potato noodles in the moat.
Thought it looked pretty.
His birthday itself we headed out to Bras Basah Complex for a burger meal at this cafe which I had seen on the site sometime earlier. Original plan had been to go for the waffles, or some other item on the menu which I'd thought he might like. But he chose a burger. A pork katsu burger with Mentaiko sauce. It was pretty good, especially the brioche bun, pleasantly toasted, and soft.
Dinner on the same day we went to Orchard Towers for Thai food.
Walked all the way there from Bras Basah with a few air-conditioning stops in the shopping malls along the route.
We ordered an egg omelet and a plate of Tom Yum Fried Rice, both of which were prepared to the same style as we'd eaten in Thailand at some of the downtown cafes.
Flavors that we liked and remembered.
Even the atmosphere of this place here in Orchard Towers was reminiscent of the basement diner in Ploenchit where I'd had a Pad See Ew for lunch once, and which warm lights and rectangular tables I still can remember.
The celebration did not end here.
Next day we decided to have roast chicken rice and roast pork rice from one of his favorite stalls along Tanjong Katong Road.
Hot weekend afternoon, but we walked there, had our meal, and left.
This place holds a bit of special memory for Hedgehog, and in a tiny way, for me too- although, if you ask me, I can't quite place it for certain when. Might have been a few years ago, might have been more than a few years ago.
Our last celebration meal for his birthday this year turned out to be back at Bedok, but on the Kaki Bukit side this time. Peranakan food, we had, for the beef rendang and the butterfly pea rice.
And the cafe, a very homely cafe at the void deck of a public housing HDB block, gave him two slices of kueh lapis to celebrate his birthday.