The joy of tucking in
to a hot, delicious meal. but also into bed.
Hello!
I hope you’ve been well. If you noticed my absence, that’s nice :’)
If you were wondering when my next post was going to get published, I apologise for leaving you hanging.
The truth is, I have 11 drafts saved. One of them was an impassioned piece about consumerism and capitalism that I haven’t got the guts to post yet. I am often opinionated but I always try to debate my opinions in my head to make sure that I’m educated about the subject enough, so I don’t look too ignorant. I also want to make sure I’m not lashing out in an unreasonable manner, publicly in the digital sphere. Not that that even matters in the greater scheme of things (aka living real life, in the great outdoors (or indoors, as John Mayer romanticises it)). But it is the internet. And what you put out on the internet can never be erased. (Do we all remember Chrissy Teigen getting cancelled? Lol jk, I think cancel culture should be cancelled.)
ANYHOO. I feel like I’ve been chasing my tail in the past few months, so I’m kinda really tired and sorta uninspired and this and that and yeah.. Well ok this isn’t aunt agony so let’s get on with it!
If you’re at all keen about what I’ve been up to..
I went on a 2.5 week trip to spain in june and it was just pure joy. A little bit of exhaustion, but spain is tremendous. We started in madrid, headed a little up north before we set foot in san sebastian pre-madrid again, for our friends’ wedding. I’m still thinking about that trip. I can’t get over the beauty I experienced. (I can’t believe I actively decided to just continue staying in Singapore. Sorry, but I don’t think me and this country are a good fit; I’ve never really felt like I fit in.) I am hoping to write a little about it before the year ends. Just like how I am still hoping to share about some LDN places that I loved HA HA. It’s been almost a year since the UK and my memory is starting to fade. I’m sorry. I will try to get to it.
Post-spain, I was trying to play catch up and recover financially a little. Hit a little bump in the road that was really just an itch on that fucking spot on your back that you can’t get to. That didn’t get ironed out - or maybe it did, depending on how you look at it. But in retrospect it I’m glad things panned out the way they did.
Ok and then we’re in august. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S STILL AUGUST? Is it the longest month in the year or what? I’m really trying to pick out something mildly interesting that happened but there I’m coming up short. Recently my short term memory has been horrific too. It almost feels like a problem waiting to be diagnosed by a professional. Sometimes I find myself standing in the middle of the grocery store blanking out. More often than not I’m recounting a conversation I had with someone, but who?? It takes me a few minutes to recall. Apparently I also say things that I don’t remember saying? (All in a matter of seconds. I’m starting to get worried.)
The most exciting times/days these days are usually sundays, where i feel like i get to really breathe and live life, or when i get the luxury to have a meal outside at the start of the week. Which made me realise..
food heals all.
I get to really enjoy food on sundays. Lunch is followed by coffee of some sorts - usually I like to go to town with my coffee order on (some) sundays. Either an unnecessary large iced kopi, or a dirty chai latte. Or if I were really upping the ante, I’d get a gula jawa/melaka iced coffee, or some fancy coffee like a mont blanc from Glasshouse that costs $10. Anyway the point is, on sundays, the price of the coffee has to shock me. If not I’m not living my best life. “What? I can’t believe I’m spending $8 on this cup of coffee?! Is this the time we are living in?!” Rinse and repeat weekly. Cuz, you know, on weekdays what my body and mind can only really take are a dark-roasted black coffee. It almost feels soothing and helps to set the tone for the harshness of life.
Speaking of coffee, I discovered Round Boy Roasters a couple of weeks back when I happened to be in the area and good golly, their coffee is GOOD. The iced white I had with their Nutty Nutty Bang Bang roast was particularly delicious - I thought I tasted macadamias and was astounded, so duh I had to go check their tasting notes. So I got off my seat and went to the counter to look, only to find that their tasting notes included practically every kind of nut other than the macadamia.
I don’t consider myself a coffee person. In fact, I’m still confused and in disbelief that I’m not. I don’t fancy all the new-age filter pourover V60 aeropress washed process, single origin etc etc stuff. 99.999% of the time, I can barely grasp whatever notes I’m supposed to taste. And I want my coffee to taste DARK and DEEP. Not like a tea. (Yeah yeah, off I go to jail.) I detest any sort of acidity and fruitiness in my coffee; maybe I’m not drinking it right. Although I desperately want to get on this train with all the cool kids. I want to drink a rare coffee and have my mind blown. Maybe I’m supposed to make that slurping sound and let the air oxidise the coffee and bring out the flavours. I don’t know. Nobody has taught me the proper art of drinking coffee. Will I learn one day? Maybe. Do I want to learn? Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is, I like an iced mocha once a year. And will continue to have a toffee nut latte every year.
Sorry. It turns out I can really ramble. Imagine if the part of my brain that reined me in didn’t exist.
Back on track. The past few weeks, I’ve derived such joy from my sunday lunches that I’ve felt the need to yell at the 50 people who bother to watch my instagram stories that “FOOD HEALS ALL” in caps. It’s all a very exciting process.
Leslie and i go to church at 10am. Sometimes, before mass starts, we giddily ask the other with excitement “what do you feel like having for lunch?”. More often than not, the monstrosity of a growling tummy rears its head around 1047am, which is when the question is asked, accompanied with stifled giggles. (it’s funny because why are we both so excited for lunch?!) The only thing that staves our hunger for a little is the coin of a wafer that represents the body of christ. (i have to say, it is delightfully fresh at the church we attend. For reals, it sometimes makes me sad when it’s kinda stale. Is it the recipe? the improper storage? I must find out.) And then once mass ends, we almost skip out of church for lunch.
There is nothing better than having the time to sit down with company you enjoy, and to eat a DELICIOUS plate/bowl of food. It’s a treasured time of the week that always makes me feel like the everyday grind is worth it. And I feel so, so grateful that there are people who are cooking this food and putting it out and sacrificing their sundays for a mere mortal like me. It’s even more moving when the food is fkin delicious, because it’s really hella difficult to proactively make a commitment to making good quality, above average-tasting food and selling it at a decent price in the current landscape, instead of compromising quality. (FYI, I don’t spend more than $20-30 on a meal that much at all, unless it’s an occasion. Also, i really want to be talking about the F&B industry and its struggles here, but I know it may come off bitter and rant-y so.. i will sadly refrain. )
My brain is kinda fried now, so I’ll just move on to some delicious things we’ve had recently. The places I find myself at these days are unfussy, unpretentious places. I almost never eat at restaurants, save for SPECIAL occasions. Even then, I almost only willingly go to five or so restaurants in total.
Jjampong and spicy beef soup at Yogiyo Restaurant in Beauty World Centre. The banchan was excellent, especially the cucumbers. From background clues (lol), I gathered that it’s run by a korean ajumma who used to work at Regent Hotel. I dwell in the east, so I almost never find myself in this area these days. It was really, really nice to set foot into beauty world centre because it feels like it’s stuck in time, like a small little REAL mall that is supported by the community. Unlike most malls these days that are owned by one of the major developers with a copy & paste shop directory, BWC feels cosy and nostalgic. I sound like a country bumpkin but I can’t wait to be back and I kind of envy the residents around here!
How a piping hot bowl of spicy beef soup heals.. I have no words.
Jumi’s Chili La Bouse from The Cheese Ark. This was a totally unexpected find, because I LOVED Jumi when I discovered it in london, and I didn’t even know what we bought from the cheese ark lol. I usually just say “yes sure”. This cheese is incredible and so moreish. I’m embarrassed to say we finished it in a sitting. It’s a buttery, mild, creamy cheese with a most delicious spicy chili layer (paste? cheese paste? cheese?) in the middle. We enjoyed this while sipping on some wine/stout at one of our favourite hidden gems, Deviate Wine Bar. Fairly inconvenient to get to but worth a visit (and several revisits).
Look. At. That. Dry soba at Liu Lang Mian Noodle Bar. I love these guys. Always tasty, super affordable for what they do. I’ve tried their soup soba and their dry soba, and I prefer the dry soba because it’s punchier. Their soba texture is on point. The karaage is great. They’re open almost all the time and you can just tell they work really hard, so hats off to them. Please support them.
Teochew porridge at White Restaurant. I think everyone loves teochew porridge; this needs no introduction. Their steamed fish is fresh and bomb. We also love Ye Lai Xiang at Bukit Merah.
Xiang Xiang for hunan cuisine. This is new to me but probably not to you. The stir-fried bamboo shoot is soo ace, as is their sour and spicy fish (celtuce in it!). The claypot tofu is so bomb, the texture is a lot “bouncier” or “QQ” than regular tofu; I love the braised yuba too. Pictured is some beef dish, but I fancy non-meat dishes much more these days. Their rice is awesome. (Yup, plain rice.) We did, however, experience inconsistently seasoned dishes at different outlets.
Okay, that’s it folks! Where do you go for soul-nourishing food?
I’m hoping to write a loose adaptation of a recipe for Clams and Rice real soon, which I made last saturday and am still thinking of. Impressively low-effort, high-reward.
(Ok, so I didn’t touch on the joy of tucking into bed. But I think that’s pretty universal. Unless you’re an insomniac and the dark and silence bring out intrusive thoughts and you have a hard time sleeping. I, on the other hand, have been trying to get in 8 hours the past week and I must say - the sleep debt doesn’t wear so badly on sleep-deprived days.)
Thanks for reading, stay hydrated, get your 8 hours.
xx
M