Life Note 1: An Asian Weekend of Food
I decided to post something a bit more casual, just to document happenings in a low-stakes way - I'm going to call this series Life Notes. Let's see how this goes :)
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This weekend, I managed to eat food from Japan, Philippines, Korea and Singapore! Italy too - but I didn't document it (I was too hungry).
Friday evening started with an event by Ethos Books that I attended with Hubs and a couple of friends. I could not resist buying a couple more books. I am now the unexpected owner of Unease by Teo You Yenn and The Albatross Files Unredacted by PJ Thum :)
The event ended much later than I thought it would. Hubs and I hadn't eaten anything since abt 6 that evening, and by that time it was almost 11. I wasn't super hungry but I did have to eat something. We tried Shake Shack, but a kind tourist told us not to bother because the burgers were taking an hour to be prepared... Then Overeasy was only serving drinks. So we ended up at Mos Burger. The recommendation from Hubs and my friend P was the yakiniku burger. Apparently, you are meant to eat the burger and the beef together... But the rice was way too hot! So I ate the beef first, which was a mistake because the rice had no flavour (it's all in the filling). Oops. I enjoyed the chips and the OJ. The night was cool, and the crowd around the Merlion was dying down already. So it was an enjoyable meal with a good ambience.
I confess that I do not know how to make this image smaller XD
On Saturday evening, I found myself headed to Orchard Road to run an errand. I remembered one of our friends from the Philippines recommended JT's Manukan Grille. There was one at Lucky Plaza and I was right there, so I decided to give it a try.
It took a second or two to convince myself to give something new a go! I was this close to reverting to the classic that is Ayam Penyet on Level 3 of Lucky Plaza. But I decided to commit. I ordered the set with chicken thigh/drumstick, along with garlic rice. The set also came with a soup.
I realized that I am not really familiar with the flavour profile of Pinoy food, felt surprised by what I tasted. I was expecting something like rendang, but the chicken flavouring was a bit milder, tangy, herbaceous. I was expecting the chicken to be grilled, but I couldn't really taste any char.
On its own, the soup had a taste that I couldn't recognize and did not necessarily like... BUT, I realized that the rice, chicken and soup taken together created a complete flavour profile. That was very interesting to me.
Sunday afternoon found Hubs and I wandering around looking for a place to sit down for awhile. I found Cafe On:Do on Google Maps. It is a Korean-style cafe - or maybe I should say that it IS a Korean cafe, since it's run by Koreans... But this was very exciting to me because I'd only ever seen such joints on YouTube!
I had the Korean Retro Latte (sweet, smooth with a hint of nuttiness - injeolmi??). Hubs had a Hot Chocolate, which he enjoyed. I tried the Butter Teok Madeleine, which I suspect is Tteok that is cooked into the shape of a madeleine. It is a bit hard to bite into (crispy?? Haha) but otherwise, it was delicious.
We ended the day with an early dinner at SanDai Yong Tau Foo. It's very reasonably priced for shopping mall fare - $7.50 for each of us, with 6 pieces of yong tau foo + a carb. I ordered yellow mee and thin white vermicelli (mixed) - originally wanted it dry, but they accidentally gave it to me in soup. I still enjoyed it very much. They had a classic ngoh hiang, which I thought was average. But their fishballs (I had 2) were excellent. Their chilli is also really spicy and flavourful.
There was a video playing at the joint that explained the background behind the business, which I found very enjoyable to watch while waiting. Made me feel a bit more connected to the food too.
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Living in Singapore, I wonder if I take this diversity for granted. This is my first time writing about the food that I eat on a "regular" basis - not some special event. So maybe this is a normal occurrence, and I just don't notice it. Haha. Perhaps this is a sign for me to post more about daily life. It's a nice little creative exercise too, not too high pressure. It's also a reminder for me to be grateful about all the good food that I get to eat!!
Till next time.
N
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