Bus Ride Sights: Kallang-Sembawang

This was another long, long, long, long ride.

And it delighted me.

You know, it's one thing to have to take a long ride because you've got a purpose, a destination, a place to go, a task to do. 

But it's another thing altogether when you're on a long ride simply because you want to, simply because you wish to. 

There was no purpose for us to go to Sembawang this afternoon. 

Except that it was a special season for me, I love long bus rides, and The Hedgehog suggested we should go. 

Lunch first, of course, at the briyani place along Geylang Lorong 1, and then it was to the bus station across the road. 

Something quaint about the bus station here is its reminiscence to old days where there were no bus interchanges and all (if not most) buses stopped at little shelters like these where drivers stretched, clocked their shifts, went to the restroom, had strong coffee and caught up with their fellow colleagues. 

I don't know what goes on inside this little room these days, but I imagine it must more or less be the same. 

From here the bus turned out towards Merdeka Bridge, passing by a very scenic scene of the Kallang River, before heading towards what was once the site of British Petroleum and which is now long gone. 

The bus took a left, turning into Crawford Lane and then into North Bridge Road. Here came a couple of public housing blocks (including one-room rental ones) in an estate known simply as North Bridge Road.

A left and a right followed after and then the bus came onto Beach Road. 

Here it passed by ParkRoyal Hotel and then, after the junction of what I think is Ophir Road, a very new property that's got the word 'Midtown'. 

Somewhere around here the bus did a sort of turn- along Middle Road, maybe- and then on Victoria Street right in front of Bugis Street I was. 

The bus made a left again, and then she was on Rochor Road. 

Here she trundled straight on past Sim Lm Square, past the road near the KKH Children's Hospital, and then it was onto Thomson Road.

I took a couple of pictures on this road, first of Goldhill Plaza (with the Starbucks Coffee sign very dominant from the road), then the open space of Old Police Academy, following which were the well known plant nurseries of Far East Flora at the foot of Caldecott. 

Here the bus made another turn, going past one of the entrances into MacRitchie, then up along Upper Thomson Road. 

One might think that there isn't much of a landmark to be seen here, and in a way it's true, except that perhaps I've come to recognize the lay of the land a little bit and I can recognize the trees of Windsor Nature Park that are right behind here. 

After this the bus went on, passing by the stretch that I usually refer to either as Sembawang Hills, or the Casuarina Curry side. Indeed they're landmarks no less, but in particular one has to notice especially if you're going to the Lower Peirce Reservoir that side. 

We came onto the junction that turns into Seletar Expressway, and then after that there was the entire stretch along Sembawang Road. 

Honestly I don't really know what it is that lies along this route.

From the pictures it looks like there's a golf course of sorts- the Sembawang Golf Course as Google Maps tells me- then a row of shops in a row of shop houses, more shops, then the junction that turns into Gambas Avenue. 

I've never been on Gambas Avenue before. 

So I don't know how it looks like. 

This bus didn't go into that route either. 

So I still don't know. 

What, however, I do know now, is that there's a Sir Manasseh Meyer International School somewhere in that region, and that Sembawang Shopping Center is along there. 

I also know that there're a good number of terrace houses, a couple of housing board flats, new developments, and condominiums here and there. 

It's times like these that I wonder what it's like staying in a place up north. 

Or what it is like staying at a place so close to quiet and rustic Sembawang Park.

But Sun Plaza's interesting- it's got a wide range of F&B and a range of shops- and it's convenient- the bus took me to the bus interchange where the shopping center was just next door.

Better yet, I now know where Old Admiralty House (Canberra House today) is, and how surprised I am that, unlike what I had imagined, it was right in the center of everything, not somewhere in the distance by the sea. 

Steppyhouse Meals

I happen to be writing this whilst the Chef is away, and even though The Hedgehog has just texted me only about an hour ago, please do excuse me if whatever I write here suddenly seems to sound jumbled, scrambled or even unhinged. 

That's because I'm trying not to cry.

I miss these meals very much. 

It isn't just the food that I miss, it's the anticipation of it, the preparation of it, the cooking of it, the eating of it. 

In the freezer right now are bags of minced beef, minced chicken, salmon, chicken skin, chicken breast, mushrooms and potatoes, kept for whenever we want to cook, and whenever we want to eat. 

Thing is, however, I don't plan the diet. 

I just eat whatever's made for the day, and so all these meals here are just resplendent, and representative of the Chef and what it is that he makes. 

What makes it hard to write about them is that one actually begins to miss the things you used to do once you pause doing them. 

I didn't think I would miss helping to prepare and cook these foods until the season came where we took more bye bye lunch and had to eat outside. 

But I think I'm being too melancholic, aren't I?

(After all it's just only going to be a couple of days before we meet, I'm right now able to chat with the Chef and I've just seen a video of all the stuff he's brought over- which reminds me of him even more) 

We started cooking quite intensely in the latter part of last year. 

Earlier this year, for the first two months at least, it intensified even more. 

And whilst there're some foods which are harder to cook, and harder to prepare, there're some which are easier, nicer, and which I now miss and love.

Amongst some of my most memorable meals are these.

Some of them may look simple, but in actual fact all of them are do take quite a bit of effort to prepare. 

Like the rosti. 

Sure, it's really just a potato pancake frying away happily in the pan on the stove, but oy, it takes effort to wash the potatoes, peel the potatoes, strain the potatoes, throw them into the food processor, then scoop them all out and into the pan. 

Not just that, one has to know when to leave it there, and when to flip it over.

I wouldn't know. 

There's a plate of rice fried with what I think is minced chicken, but I don't quite know either- it's been a while since we've had that- and I will have to ask.

What I do remember very well, however, are the next couple of dishes. 

Like the pair of popiah-looking things which are actually rice rolls made with Vietnamese rice roll paper. We'd attempted to stuff minced (something) inside. Either it were minced chicken or it were minced beef, I can't recall. Looks like chicken, in any case, and which tasted really good when stuffed with all the other ingredients together. The Chef was a bit bleah because the skin got stuck to the pan and tore a little but it held all the ingredients together and even though aesthetically it looked a wee bit odd, I didn't mind. 

In fact I wouldn't even have minded had it come apart.

Because that's how cooking is like. 

You never know what it takes. 

Other dishes that meant something to the Chef (and I) included this plate of duck meat, this plate of potatoes, and these few strips of hard crust focaccia bread with a thick slice of foie gras on top. 

Because they were CNY ones. 

Not the focaccia bread- that loaf we bought at random from Cold Storage because it was on offer- and we have had that foie gras lying frozen in the freezer for the longest time. 

What the CNY ones were those that we'd made with ingredients from our meals on the Eve and the Eve of the Eve. 

Am thankful to say that we'd enjoyed a couple of great meals this CNY past, and having been able to bring home whatever food we couldn't finish, we decided to use them for lunches and dinners over the next few days. 

Duck meat carved out from the Peking Duck which we'd ate from a place in MBS, we fried over the pan and added a tad of soy sauce to make it tastier.

It was a relief to find the meat extraordinarily tender. 

Most places that serve duck meat from the Peking Duck (especially overnight ones) tend to have meats that are tough and dry.

This one, from Motts, wasn't. 

Then of course there were the potatoes, which I'm going to say, were a resounding hit for both of us where the sauce- taken from the braised duck and sea cucumber dish at Beng Hiang- brought to the Chef (and me) memories of homecooked food. 

Bus Ride Sights: Jln Eunos-Kallang

How is it that I ended up taking so many pictures on what is a relatively short bus ride, I don't know.

Perhaps I hadn't been very pleased with the pictures of this same route which I'd taken some time earlier, so this time out came Chonkycam (again) and she got busy snapping away. 

The route today began from the bus stop along Jalan Eunos between Jalan Awang and Jalan Ismail. 

From there the bus went straight, passing by the building that held the now renovated Veganburg, the junction near the (new) polyclinic, then made a right into Geylang Road. 

Here the bus passed by a well-known Management Training Institute, another building that I know held a couple of offices, a petrol station, and finally the bus stop that I know marks roughly the starting point of the enclave we call Geylang Serai. 

It is at this bus stop you get down if you want to go to Joo Chiat Complex and the shops on Joo Chiat Road. 

It is also here that you usually will get down if you want to go to the wet market right opposite the road. 

But the bus stop for the Haig Road Market and Hawker Center is the next one, and that's where you get down if you want to have putu piring or go to KINEX, the shopping mall next door. 

The shops at this Haig Road side are somewhat interesting.

Let's just say that they've got a bit of heartland vibe, and so you can expect a Cheers, a 24 hour fruit stall, a couple of household shops and Swee Heng Confectionary with a selection of the most delish breads and cakes on sale there. 

There's now a (new) coffee shop here as well.

From here the bus went on towards the precinct that we commonly refer to as Geylang, passing by some shops which I've since come to recognize.

There was the (old) Sian Chay Medical Institution where they offer free water from the water cooler outside their clinic so thirsty passersby can fill up their bottles. 

There was also the JB Restaurant that I went to once and which I know is famous for their (very Malaysian-style) Sam Lor Bee Hoon. 

After that came a host of random shops, including a laundry shop, then a couple of hair salons, then after that, several coffee shops that sometimes double up as restaurants. 

There're a lot of hair salons along this stretch, one must note, but they're all at random spots here and there, so you don't really notice until you come upon one. 

There're some iconic buildings this stretch of Geylang Road however.

Like the Lai Ming Hotel, which the more I look at it, the more I think it has a history and a story that goes beyond the street-style perspective of present-day Geylang. 

Then there's the Eastern Aerated Water Company which I am pretty sure too has a story of its own to share. 

It's buildings like these that often make me wonder just what Geylang used to be like. 

Surely the Aerated Water building here was meant to quicken supply to their customers.

What sort of business was it that used to be carried out? 

Who were the people that patronized this area often?

Where did they come from? 

Perhaps there's a reason why parts of Geylang have been quietly preserved this way. 

No doubt, there'll be some who think of this area as seedy and dangerous, but if you look hard enough- parts of Geylang actually do give off a small-South East Asian-town vibe. 

There was no time for me to be thinking about these things today.

The bus trundled on, first passing by a couple of handphone shops, then a condo apartment with really long balconies overlooking the main road, then a coffee shop selling what I think is claypot frog porridge of some sort, and finally what I think is a nightclub/pub with a really huge synthwave (neon) signboard. 

Like every other place that has a neon signboard, whether they be a salon, a handphone shop, a massage parlor, or a club, this spot would stand out at night, for sure. 

I haven't had much of a chance to drop by this area at night when twilight has fallen and dusk has come. 

Maybe one day I might do one of those late afternoon series just to watch where the rays of the evening sun shine. 

But today I was on the bus, and the bus carried me on, taking me past the last row of shop houses somewhere along Geylang Lorong 1, past the open field that once used to be part of Kallang Airport and finally the junction leading towards Kallang MRT. 

The EUNOS Bak Chor Mee

Okay, so I don't really understand how it is, but out of all the foods that I've eaten, and written about, for some reason- for some complicated reason- I've never written about bak chor mee.

It's not that I don't eat it.

Neither is it that I don't like it.

It's just one of those dishes that doesn't come to mind straightaway when I'm at a hawker center or coffee shop, and even though I don't mind a good bowl of dumpling noodles or wanton mee (like the one at Joo Chiat), it's very, very seldom that I go order a bowl of bak chor mee and take a picture to write about it.

Maybe it's because I don't know what makes a good bak chor mee, and worse still, I also don't know where the good ones are. 

But then one day the office moved to a place near Eunos.

And right behind the bus stop outside Eunos MRT was Hong Li Coffee Shop whose bright lights not only signal her presence, but also hosts a variety of stalls that include a Western food stall, a Roasted Meats stall, a Cai Fan stall, a Bak Kut Teh stall, an Economical Noodle stall, and also an (apparently) well known stall selling Bak Chor Mee.

Oblivious me did not know how popular it was until one weekday evening where, instead of herbal bak kut teh, rice and youtiao, I hopped over to try.

And now I've fallen in love.

Oy, don't raise a sceptic eyebrow at this seemingly simple bowl of noodles. 

It might look ordinary, maybe even not so big a deal, but gawd it packs a punch in portion and flavor and really (to date at least) is the only stall whose bak chor mee I will eat. 

Yes, yes, I know that there're other (maybe) better stalls out there.

But this one- with a 100 year old history- doesn't lose out in terms of heritage either. 

One thing I like about this bak chor mee is, I'd say, the sauce, which although I don't know what exactly it is that the guy at the stall ladles into my bowl when I order it dry (tomato sauce, no chili), it's got a roundedness that embraces my tongue and with each pull of noodles, I find myself savoring the taste of savory, vinegary sour and a faint hint of tomato sweet. 

It's a great blend.

Nothing about the sauce overwhelms. 

And I don't find the noodles or the minced meat oily or greasy in any way either. 

That's not to say that the portion is small.

On the contrary (compared to some other stalls I've patronized) they give a rather generous heap of minced pork on top of the noodles, and accompanying that, a fair bit of pork lard along with it as well. 

Come to think of it, I don't know whether I like the minced meat or the pork lard better. 

On one hand I like how they've done the minced meat- it's been ground to an itty bitty size that makes it easy to swallow together with the noodles- but the lard adds that much coveted taste of fried pork whilst tossing out to you the fun of crunch when you take a spoonful of noodles.

It won't surprise me if the portion's been calibrated enough that you can put on your spoon a swirl of noodles, some minced meat, some sauce, and a single piece of lard every time.

There's much to like about this bowl of bak chor mee. 

Like how I get to choose the noodles. 

Where, even though the dish is called bak chor mee, finicky person that I am prefers kuay teow over mee or bee hoon or all the other options, and this stall allows me to choose kuay teow here. 

And then there's the soup, which, again, I don't know what goes into it or how long it takes to boil it, but you're filled with a sense of warmth when you drink it and which, because it's relatively clear, refreshes your palate both at the same time.