the Food of Mookata

Lovers of Mookata will know that there is one singular ingredient that distinguishes it from the likes of Japanese Yakiniku, Korean barbecue and Chinese steamboat.

It is an ingredient commonly found in South East Asian cooking.

It reveals a distinctive fragrance especially when tossed about with other ingredients in a Chinese wok.

And if you follow the halal or kosher diet, very sorry, this ingredient is completely out of bounds for you.

Unless (ahem) you *happen* to be one of those who doesn't really care about the ingredients and/or you choose not to recognize what those chunks of white stuff on top of the grille are.

I can't say whether or not it is the right thing to do- different people live their lives by different rules.

What I can say, however, is that those chunks of white stuff make up the foundation of Thai Mookata, and it is a primary ingredient for your entire meal. Whether it be for the grilled foods on top of the dome, or the boiled foods in the moat below, lard is central to your entire meal.

Thai Mookata became a genuine hipster thing in Singapore about two years or so ago, and whilst there are a good number of places around the country that serve up this ubiquitous Thai experience, it is this place on the second floor of Golden Mile Complex that frequently catches my eye.


Called Y Cube, it sits right next to the upriding  escalator, and is unmistakably the only place in the building that carries a millennial vibe, contrasting strongly with the others which have more of a street food vibe.

It really doesn't matter which Mookata place you go to, honestly, they have their little differences (like cheese!) but I'd think they are more or less the same.

Just follow your heart.

Or your stomach.

Whichever works.

We have an established pattern that we seem to adhere to each time we are at Y Cube.

I start with grabbing the utensils and a couple of empty plates to do up the table setting. Yes, order is important to me. Next, I place a couple of those white chunks on top of the grille. It takes some time for the grille to heat up and for those white chunks to start melting, so off I go to get the drinks and the vegetables.
 Meanwhile, my companion would have been traipising back and forth with platters of beef, chicken, pork and crayfish, and so whilst I head off to get the corn, the mushrooms, the lettuce and the seaweed, my companion works the half melted white chunks around the dome of the grille.

The grille won't be hot enough yet for a couple of minutes, so whilst more chunks get smothered over the grille, I go get the prawns, the cuttlefish balls, the fish balls and the cheese tofu.

Yes, they're all for the soup- lettuce included.

I dunk some of them in, never mind whether the fat from the white chunks is already flowing down- I can taste it afterwards.

Now is the time for the meats.

So in a round robin of beef, pork and chicken, we eat whatever catches our fancy, or whatever gets cooked first. Sometimes it is the pork, sometimes it is the beef. It depends. My companion does the cooking. I do the eating.

In between I go to top up our drinks. There're soft drinks on tap, but in recent times there's also been Thai milk tea, so with us being sticklers for a full and complete experience, we skip the Sprite and get glasses of iced Thai milk tea.

More food tends to appear on my plate in the time that I am gone, including rings of fresh cuttlefish, so I spend the rest of my time dividing up my meal between bites of meat, perfectly grilled crayfish, and spoonfuls of (lard-flavored) soup filled with lettuce and seaweed.

Vegetables are wonderful during buffets- not so much for feeling healthier- but their fiber aids in digestion and I've found I feel less stuffed at the end of a meal when I take lettuce compared to the times when I don't.

For the same reason at Mookata I usually eschew the carbs for protein. Fried samosas and instant noodles are not that hard to find elsewhere compared to good marinated meats that I get to grill with the oil of pork fat.

What charms us about this place is that they do have a fair bit of variety. I cannot recall what their offerings are- the food blogs would have the pictures- but I know I've had two different kinds of lettuce, fresh tofu, seaweed-wrapped fish cakes, Fuzhou fish balls and pieces of fresh fish. I don't take seafood so much, but I've seen crabs and other kinds of shellfish (mussels?) for those who do.

We usually finish off the meal with bowls of ice cream two scoops each (because there are four flavors and we are kiasu kiasee like that). I take strawberry and paddle pop, or cookies and cream. My companion takes chocolate and cookies and cream.

in the (Setting) Sun

I'm not sure how this Mystery Thought will sit with people, but have y'all realized that there are some structures that look best in the glow of Singapore's setting sun?


Not that they don't look impressive at other times of the day- just that they seem to look more glorious when the soft light of the early evening sun shimmers upon their walls.


I know, I've been at this very spot, seeing this very same view, for many a day, but none have been as beautiful as this that I saw on this early evening as I walked down South Bridge Road towards City Hall.


This isn't the only place that throws forth such a view, by the way.


There's also the hexagonal structure at the junction of Orchard Road, and Scotts, and if you know where I'm talking about, yes, it is what used to be Dynasty Hotel, then Marriott Hotel, and now Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel.


Dont' believe me?


Go there around 6pm on a hot, clear day, stop just outside the main entrance, and look at the floor. You'll see what I mean.


Such a view, and such a Thought, is not limited by country, space, place, or time as well.


Because the very first time I had such a view, and such a thought, was when I was a good distance away from Singapore, in a palace, in downtown Seoul, in South Korea.


I remember that moment well.


Back then I had been (nonchalantly) wandering about the palace grounds when I made a turn, and suddenly right in front of me, was this wall of plain brick, that at other times might have just been a wall, but right now, today, on this winter's day, was illuminated magically by the soft slanting rays of a glorious late afternoon sun.


It was so beautiful it (literally) took my breath away- and I stopped.


Which marked the precise moment that the Mystery Thought came. :)


There're other places in the world, I'm sure too, that will throw forth such a view. Where they are, I don't know- the world is a big place- it might be in Manhattan, it might be in New Zealand, it might even be in the southern hemisphere- but one thing I do know.


We have to find it.


Or at least, we have to allow it to find us.


Because there's more to life than just the daily grind, and if we living beings communicate, why would not the earth- a large, living mass of energies and matter- communicate with us too?

O'er at Carlton City

Would it be hard to believe if I told you that on the day I stayed over at Carlton City here in Tonjong Pagar I was in fact rather unsettled in mind and heart?

And that I had come here because it had been deemed necessary for me to have a change of environment, and it was hoped that the time here would serve as a (short) distraction from the things that had been happening in my life?  

Can't say that it didn't work.

Even though there were still the annoying, distressing phone calls which I *had* to pick up.

They spoilt my mood, honestly, because in life there are just  some people whom you don't wish to interact with.

But I was determined not to let the conversation get to me- why spoil the stay, ruin the day, and waste the money that's already been paid at the front counter downstairs?

Of course, having a great view helped.

From the window there was the view of Amara Hotel just in front, there was the view of the housing board flats opposite, the Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the harbour, the dockside, the ships out at anchor, the ships at anchor by the dock, the giraffes, and all the shipping containers that come with the business of logistics, international shipping and port operations.

There was also the view of Pulau Brani, her distinctive hill, and all the foilage on top of it.

It was refreshing to see the little sliver of water by the dock. It was encouraging to see the container ship anchored by the dock. And better yet it was that I could see all the dark jungle green along with the sliver of water (on this day) so blue.

Sitting there on the armchair, staring out the window, I had an epiphany.

And although I won't share it in detail here, let's just say that I came to a more definite conclusion of what it was I wanted to be, where it was I wanted to be, and what it was i didn't want to be.

Having the epiphany was strangely comforting.

It also gave me a renewed sense of hope. 

And the rest of the day passed better after that.

I wish I could say that I did a lot more during the time I was there, but truth is I spent much more time slacking in the room- reading, watching cable, munching snacks and drinking up all the instant coffee- instead of wandering about the neighborhood like a tourist (even a staycay one) is supposed to do.

I'll do that next time.

Because the 'hood of Tanjong Pagar is quite a fascinating one.

On one side you have International Plaza, which leads you to the CBD streets of Anson Road and Robinson Road and which you'll find are literally empty and silent on a Saturday evening. On the other side past the Guocoland building, you have Maxwell Chambers, Maxwell Road and Amoy Street Food Center, which then leads you to Amoy Street and  theThian Hock Keng Chinese Temple.

Nearer to Carlton City there is Tras Street, Tanjong Pagar Road and Duxton Road. The weekend vibe here is great, and I might have hung out had I been in a better frame of mind. After all, this is a place where the shop houses have their own interesting stories, there are the Korean BBQ restaurants, the millennial style cafes and the one thing that Tanjong Pagar Road is famous for- the bridal shops.

There're nuggets of history in the 'hood too.

Right at the back of Carlton City  on Peck Seah Street is a 195 year old Chinese temple that goes by the name of Seng Wong Beo and which is quietly known for the practice of marriages between the non-living. And then somewhere behind the housing board flats there is little Yan Kit Road with the still-standing structure of Yan Kit Swimming Pool that marked one of the first few public swimming pools in the country. You could venture further out, of course, towards Keppel Road, and take a peek at the old Sin Chew Jit Poh Building (now a co-working space, I think) and the Customs House (which I don't know if it is still in operation)

One thing about this place though- there isn't much shopping to be done. 

In fact there's hardly any shopping at all.

On a weekday you might have something at International Plaza, or you might have something at Tanjong Pagar Center. But weekends are notoriously quiet in this area, and other than 100AM which has a supermarket, a Daiso, a Don Don Donki, and a few other shops, there isn't anything much.

Opposite there is another supermarket, a couple of bakeries... and that's about it.

The only shopping I did was at Don Don Donki and Daiso, and which I'm glad I did, because both stores are bright, the jingle at DDK is cute, there were no crowds, I could take my time to appreciate all the merchandise in the stores, and I got to do what I had wanted to do for a very long time- buy salmon sushi, salmon belly sushi, prepackaged meals, snacks, bottled drinks, and then tapao them back upstairs for dinner.

But I didn't eat in the room.

I ate at the picnic tables out by the pool.

street Cats of the 'Hood

There are many cats in the 'hood where our officetel is.

They're community cats, meaning that they've been checked, clipped, and are allowed to freely roam.

It also means that there is a group of dedicated feeders who come by nearly every evening with little dishes of cat food, watch them eat, clear the dishes after they're done, and then leave behind only little bowls of water so the cats can have a drink as and when they want.


They're a welcome sight in the 'hood.


Over the last couple of years, these cats have become more than just street cats. They have become friends. They're also friends with a good many people. We've seen the cats run over to individuals whom they recognize, and a charming sight it is.


Not that you'll find them there all the time, though.


Afternoons, especially, are pretty challenging if you want to see the black and orange cat. More often than not, we've found ourselves wandering up and down in circles around her usual space, meowing unabashedly, calling her name loudly- only to be met with no cat.


Not that she isn't around, you know.


She is.


Just that she is under some parked car in the driveways of the houses, or under some parked car right out there on the road, and she doesn't see the need to come out from her shady hideout just to see two humans whom she knows have not brought any snacks for her.


Very practical, this cat, with strong survival instincts.


The other cat that hangs out in the area is the grey-black one.


We dont' know if the cat is male or female- we assume that it is a male. It doesn't matter, of course, but it is just funny, because their behaviors are so different.


Whilst the orange and black one hides under cars to avoid the hot afternoon sun, the black one stretches himself out comfortably on the wall of the terrace houses and goes to sleep.


That's how we found him on this particular Saturday afternoon.


On top of the wall of the house, snoozing, with his long tail hanging down.


So, being the mischievous ones that we are, we went to tap his tail.


But this cat recognizes us and knows that we mean no harm, so all we got was a startled leap and a squinty GLARE before promptly going back to sleep.


The other cat, however, heard the commotion (if you can call a soundless event a commotion), popped out from wherever she was, did a jaunty turn around our legs, and then settled down on the ground- facing the other way.


Yes, she is one jealous cat.


Looking at the last picture, you can well tell.

NDP (tanks) on Our Streets

The country held her Bicentennial celebrations in the summer of this year. Well, technically it wasn't a summer, because there aren't seasons in this little red dot of ours, and where once we used to have at least June monsoons and December monsoons, climate change has made it such that we don't know when it will rain, when it won't, from where the winds will blow, and from where they won't.

Still, weird weather patterns or no, life goes on, and so starting from June, there were activities and celebrations all around the island- with the singular intention of kicking us all into high patriotic gear.


Can't say that their efforts didn't succeed.


There was quite a bit of excitement with the AR thing going on at Fort Canning, and although I don't know how theirs works, utilizing technology to reveal nuggets of history right on-site where it actually happened is remarkably fascinating. It must have been quite a success- they've extended it to December.


I didn't do the AR thing.


There was no time- and okay, it was because I didn't fancy prancing about Fort Canning Hill by day or *gasp* in the dark of the night armed with a phone to see history come alive for the sake of seeing history come alive. Yeah, I'm a bit dull like that.


What I did do, however, was to get myself (on foot) from Bugis to Suntec City just so that I could capture these pictures you see above. It isn't every day I get to see them (thank God) and neither is it so that I can simply waltz into Sungei Gedong or wherever it is they are housed to see them up close and take pictures, can I? The original plan had been to go to this particular bridge on Nicoll Highway- that's where I'd been when they made their last appearance in 2015- but that height grants me only a top-down view, and someone had told me that you could get a closer look at these military machines if you stood outside Suntec City where the Duck Tours were.


True enough, the intel- I got close enough to get a great look at the barrels- less than two meters away they were- and had I not been so self conscious, might have whipped out my phone and done a selfie the same way the others around me had done.


But I was content to take a picture. Even if the picture was one of those one-shot things that you do, hope you got it right, decide to edit the heck out of it later, and move on. No time (and no permission) to ask the personnel to please sir move aside, you're in the frame, you'e blocking the barrel, so yeah, I'll just have to take it that the uniformed dude photobombed.


The rest of the pictures I took randomly as I moved down the  pavement right outside the Mall. I've no idea what these machines are, actually, and neither do I know what they do. I'm just glad that no one stopped me. :D Frankly I had no idea whether my camera was permitted, or not, but after three clicks and two deletes, no one approached me, so I continued. Then again, even if they had tried, well, whilst as a good citizen I would have politely complied, it would have been pretty hard to tell the same thing to the bunch of excited Duck Tour tourists who came up right behind me snapping away happily with their phones. There were quite a few of them, mind, not just one or two, male, female, children, adults, all hailing from countries large, very large, small, and very small.


I guess it is an opportunity for them as much as it is for me.

Just one thing: As a civilian, and a female to boot, I would have loved to get even closer to these tanks, but hey, this isn't Army Day, only ten minutes before they roll, and I didn't want to be breaking any rules, so yep, we've all to be content with seeing these shiny, polished, olive green machines camouflaged amidst the citified structures of LTA road fence and NParks-planted ferns. :)


A fact which, when I think carefully about it, I don't really mind, for is not being able to take my own sweet time snapping pictures of these quietly parked tanks outside Suntec City Mall in the Downtown Core, the essence of Singapore's National Day after all?

a dinner Escape to One Farrer

This place at One Farrer Hotel just off Serangoon Road has become one of my (new) favorite places for a dinner buffet, and long, I hope, may it stay that way.

Escape might not be one of those dining places with heavy plates, elaborate decor and formal service, and (frankly) it may not be the likes of what you will find at Marriott, Sands, Swissotel or Hilton, but it has a homely, cosy, quiet, out-of-the-way, nook-in-the-corner sort of vibe that at once makes you feel comfortable,  relaxed, and at ease.


The colors in the restaurant are inspired by nature, in earthy shades of brown, orange, mustard yellow, blue and green.


And their buffet offerings are a wonderful combination that invite you to partake of the Earth and the Sea.


On one side you have the Asian cuisine that includes roast duck, roast pork and roast chicken, as well as (on occasion) cute little paus with fillings of coffee and yam, and little dumplings filled with either prawn, or chopped chives.


Then you have zichar-like dishes on the other side, where one gets stuff like fried rice, fried noodles, steamed pieces of fish (really large ones) along with other stuff like sweet and sour pork ribs and steamed vegetables.  


A staple offering that they have are the Indian dishes, particularly South Indian, where tucked at the corner are pots and pots of chutney and curry, a platter of naan, a platter of briyani, lots of vegetables, yogurt, and on occasion, some sort of kebabs on a skewer.


What I like are their seasonal offerings.


We went there at Christmas, and they had brussels sprouts sauteed with honey, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted pumpkin, chestnuts, sauteed onions, and an entire serving platter of shepherd's pie. I remember the brussels sprouts particularly well, because even though I'm not a huge fan, they tasted so good I took an entire plateful, accompanied by chestnuts and two spoonfuls of shepherd's pie.


Good idea I did, too, because I've been back there twice since then and there have been no brussels sprouts on the menu, much less those sauteed with honey.


And yet, disappointed I am not, because what keeps me coming back here for dinner are their salads, their sashimi, their desserts, and their selection of fresh seafood.


Now, some of us might say that these aren't that big a deal- most buffet spreads have them- but here at Escape they've been prepared with a lot of heart, and I love that.


In fact, their salads are one of the first things you see when you approach the buffet table. Served on ice next to the platters of cut fruit, everything is kept fresh and cold. Salad is a meal that you can eat alot of, and not worry about being filled up. It doubles up as an appetizer whilst you figure out the rest of your meal, and there is something refreshing about filling your plate with crispy, cold romaine lettuce, olives (I only like the black ones), kernels of corn, chickpeas, kidney beans, feta cheese, alfafa sprouts, dashed with a generous dose of olive oil. There is also something cleansing in having chunks of fresh rock melon, a forkful of chilled papaya salad, a bit of creamy pasta salad, bean salad, and a couple of potatoes tossed with some sort of salad cream.


Centrestage is their seafood- and quite a variety they have of it.


If you're someone who digs fresh prawns, mussels, cockles, snow crab legs and freshly shucked oysters amidst other varieties which I now suddenly can't remember, here's the place to be. I don't take everything- too lazy to crack the crab legs that's why- but oysters and prawns dipped with Thousand Island sauce are frequent favorites, and between me and my dining companion... let's just say that we can take a few plates. 


Same thing we do for sashimi- we always have salmon, we take by the plateful- and if there's salmon belly, straight to it we go. :)

Of course, impossible it is to leave a meal as great as this without dessert, and here they do have interesting selections that combine the palates of the east and west. There're cakes all nicely sliced- sometimes there's red velvet, sometimes there's cheesecake, sometimes there's matcha cream cheese, and very often there's chocolate. They have three flavors of ice cream that rotate from time to time.


If you miss the typical desserts from Chinese restaurant dinners, sometimes they might have a big pot of almond jelly with lychee that you can take as much as you like (no restriction to just one bowl!) There's mango pudding. There's pandan pudding. There's jelly for those who like it. During Christmas they had the additional selection of gingerbread cookies and M&M chocolates.


And then, to satisfy the sweet tooth of the South East Asian vibe, there's durian pengat, served in cute little one-shot glasses, decorated with a little leaf on top, and which I think is best savored bit by bit instead of slurping it up all at one go.

Celebrate a Birthday!

We had not planned to have Japanese.


In fact we had not made any special dinner plans at all.


Sure, there would be something- after all I am not the type to go past a birthday without a celebration however big or small- but what it was we were going to do, where it was we were going to eat etc etc, I didn't know.


Not that I didn't ask.


I did.


Several times, truth be told, but (with everything that was going on) we decided to keep the choices open, and play it by ear when the time came.


And so as it happened that we were in the Bugis area on the evening of the dude's birthday, we did a quick app runaround, and decided on this little Japanese place over at DUO.


Main attraction of the restaurant apparently was the beef, which was the only thing that the dude wanted for a special dinner, so yes, that's what we ordered.


Two dishes, one of which came served to us as little chunks on wooden skewers arranged neatly over a beautifully patterned blue plate a la elegant yakitori, and the other, a thinly sliced filet of sorts laid out invitingly on a little ebony platter.


The meat was (naturally) tender, perfectly grilled with that delicious hint of burnt fat on each cute little chunk, and the flavor of the beef sliding smoothly off the skewer.


The place called for decorum and elegance, and so whilst elsewhere I might have simply grabbed each stick and munched my way through it, here I found myself reaching for the chopsticks to slide each chunk off the skewer, and then picking it up it piece by piece up before savoring the flavors of the grilled beef.


We had fried rice with cute litte pieces of wagyu beef too, and can I tell you that even though it looked like it was just plain typical fried rice, it was in fact really quite good? It wasn't the Chinese wok kind we have at the zichar stall. Here each grain of rice had the roundedness of taste, there was a whole load of egg, and the whole dish felt like it had been delicately prepared over a carefully controlled flame.

There was one thing I was determined to do this year- get a cake. Because previous years we had done the cake together with dinner when we were at Marche, and the last year we got a block of Walls Vienetta ice cream chocolate flavor, but since this year it was "anything goes", I wanted to do a cake.


Which we did, a day or so later, at Cedele, where the dude made his choice of a chocolate and hazelnut something slice, and having heard lots about kombucha, got ourselves a bottle to share.


Very raspberry, very lemony, in short, very sour.


But very fun. :)