ria ayam penyet at joo chiat



today, soon after the workplan session ended, we made a quick trip to joo chiat to eat at ria ayam penyet. because of the heavy downpour, i managed to find a space near the restaurant to park my car. opposite 350 joo chiat is this other place called farmland steamboat porridge which hailed from jalan pudu, k.l. further down the road is another eating place named my mom's place. looks like joo chiat road is a cluster of good food joints.

we were the only three customers in the shop. each of us ordered an ayam penyet and for the common pool, we had a plate of gado-gado. according to jameela who has eaten other version of the same dish, this one was better than the one at changi and geylang serai. the meat was softer and the sambal was tastier.

ria ayam penyet is an indonesian franchised restaurant. they have another outlet at the 4th level of lucky plaza. in indonesia, ria ayam penyet outlets are found in surabaya, medan, batam and jakarta. this one at joo chiat is open from 12 noon to 9.00 p.m. the lucky plaza opens one hour earlier, at 11.00 a.m.

at $5.50, the ayam penyet dish came with white rice. together with the chicken drumstick, you get tahu, tempeh, kangkong, cabbage and some crispy bits of batter. the ladies liked the gado-gado; i ate only the crackers as i am not a gado-gado man.

shidah was the one who got us all excited about the food. she raved so much about it that we could not wait to rush down to joo chiat to devour the smashed chicken. we actually suggested to her to split her class so that she could join us on this learning journey to geylang/joo chiat.

matilda house in ponggol




today, we had a pot-luck deeparaya lunch at mdm chia's work station. sabiah provided the bulk of the food which was prepared by her maid. masnie and rashida contributed one dish each. chan joo brought meiji yogurt, wee kiat bought some chocolates and bernice bought drinks from linda's stall. i only came to know about it at about 7.15 a.m.

wee kiat talked about his experience at siling primary school recording centre. he was regaling us with 'stories' about this very yakkity man from wellington primary. sabiah said that they told ghost stories at their centre . that was when someone mentioned this house in punggol which stood out like a sore thumb in punggol 21. i was so intrigued by the tales that they told that i decided to find out more about this place.

[if you have been to punggol by mrt, you would have noticed something really strange. a deserted bungalow standing all alone in an open field in a modern place where you can see lrt and lots of hdb flats. rumour has it that those who try to pull the house down would die. i heard rumours saying that two persons had died so far. one died of a heart attack, the other died of an unatural death in a freak car accident. both of them were contractors, and so no one dared to disturb the building.]

matilda house is a fine example of an early style tropical bungalow. the tropical style of the building is accentuated through its architectural features such as open verandahs, raised floors and the use of timber framed lattice and louvres to permit cross breezes. as the only remaining historical bungalow in punggol, the conservation of matilda house will serve as a significant landmark for the future punggol new town and as a reminder of "old punggol".

in the early 1970s, the government under the land acquisition act acquired maltida house aka punggol kampong house from mr howard cashin. mr cashin, an eminent lawyer and a epitome on the singapore rugby scene for decades, spent many happy holidays in and around it.

it is called matilda house, named after his paternal grandmother and built by his father, mr alexander cashin, as a present for his wife. the punggol seaside bungalow, built as a weekend retreat for the cashin family, will be restored and conserved as a landmark and put to community use in punggol new town.

where, in singapore, can you find the lotus plant growing?

the lotus flowers have colours from red, pink, pale yellow to creamy white. each flower has 15 or more oval petals and a flat seedcase at its centre.

seeded in muddy water, the lotus rises above the mud and produces beautiful and fragrant flowers. the big showy bloom may be 20 - 30cm in diameter. the flowers open for just three days. then each petal falls silently into the water, one by one, during a short period.

the lotus grows in muddy waters, emerging from them unblemished and untouched by pollution.
"the white lotus, born in the water and grown in the water, rises above the water and remained unsoiled by the water."

so, where in singapore, can you go to appreciate these beautiful flowers. the best time to view them is in the morning.

there are some in one of the ponds at the botanic gardens. one of the biggest ponds where you find lotuses is at halifax road, just outside the kandang kerbau hospital. the pond at bishan park i, the smaller of the two parks in bishan, are growing very well. lotuses are also found in the pond at the entrance to the sungei buloh wetlands. at the mandai orchid garden, the lotus plants can be found growing in the pond.

the only place where lotus grows in the wild is this secluded spot in kranji.

(the two pictures show the lotus plants at bishan park i)

red whiskered bulbul at bishan park

was at bishan park ii, near the inline skating rink, when i saw this bird on the ground. recognise this species as one which bird lovers in the kampong liked to keep. a well-trained one can whistle or sing very melodiously.

the bird is a red whiskered bulbul, the one that appears on the singapore $5 note of the bird series. the bird gets its name from the red whisker patch located below its eye.

this bird feeds on fruit, nectar and small insects. the loud and evocative call is a sharp kink-a-joo, and the song is a scolding chatter. its voice is similar to a cheerful human whistling.

this one appears to be a young bird that is still not very adept at flying. i tried shooing it to fly away but it just hopped or flew a short distance. i could have captured it but i would not know how to look after it properly. eventually i chased it into the shrub so that it would be seen and taken away to become a prisoner in a cage .

bak chor mee @ crawford lane


i seem to be re-visiting places. tai wah minced pork noodles is at blk 46 crawford lane. i used to drive ivy and, some years later, ida to this block for their chinese tuition. across the canal from this place is the ica building.

to get to crawford lane, if you are driving, you have to approach from either lavendar street, geylang road or beach road, depending on which direction you are coming from. if you take the train, there is a bridge across the canal.

this bak chor mee stall was featured in the programme ' makan places - lost and found'. in the same coffee shop is another well-rated stall - the happy chef western food. i have not tried the western food but have eaten the dried noodles from tai wah twice.

i am convinced that the bak chor mee must be really nice because well-known local chefs, foreign visitors, including actors and singers, and confectioners have testified to the goodness of the food. each time i visit the place, there is a queue. last sunday, there were twelve people ahead of me and i had to wait about forty minutes for my turn to be served.

everything about the food is nice - the ingredients, the soup and the noodles. however, i feel that the first time i ate there, the food was nicer because it was prepared by the owner himself. on the second visit, it was prepared by one of his assistants and it did not come up to his standard.

the place is open from 9.30 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. it is closed on every 1st and 3rd mondays of the month.

television and the kampong days





today in singapore, the vast majority of all families have two or more television sets, and a large number of children have a television set in their own bedrooms. we have three sets in the flat, one in the dining area, one in the living area and one in my bedroom.

back in the 60s not many households could boast of a television set in the house. it was a luxury item which not many families could afford. we did not have one. neither did most of our neighbours. whenever i wanted to watch television - in black and white, in those days - i would visit one of my better-off neighbours. but it was not so convenient because sometimes the show would end way past their bedtime.

i remember this kind malay neighbour - not exactly a neighbour because he lived on the other side of the kampong - who had a set and who made it a point to leave his door wide open so that the disadavantaged ones like us could enjoy a free show, standing there outside his house. his family did not go to bed till the end of the last programme of the day and the national anthem was played.

i am still able to list some of the programmes that i watched, standing outside the threshold of his house: bonanza, have gun will travel, what's my line?, jack benny show, 77 sunset strip and candid camera. yes, candid camera went back more than 45 years.

cathay beef noodles in johor bahru


this very popular and well-known beef noodles stall is found in a coffee shop at 149 jalan lumba kuda, near the lorry customs and immigration complex. the name of the coffee shop is ang kim chwee. there are two other stalls sharing space in this shop. they are a braised 'lor arh' duck stall and a laksa stall.

i think the name cathay is attached to it because, in the 60s, there was a cathay cinema across the road. i remember, as a student, i watched a japanese adult movie in the cinema with some of my pre-university classmates.

the man who owns this stall is mr ngo. he is assisted by his wife and a hired help. he has done so well that he could afford to send all his children overseas for their tertiary education. the second of three brothers, he is the only one who struck out to johor bahru from kluang. his younger brother and a sister-in-law continue to operate their own beef noodles stalls in kluang. they have been in this business for more than a quarter of a century.

at rm$5 for a small bowl, it is not cheap by malaysian or any standard. still, he manages to draw crowds of locals and singaporeans to his stall. the goo bak hoon is like the noodles used for bee thye bak. his stewed beef is soft and tasty, san the smell that you associate with beef. if you are lucky, sometimes you get the 'dry meat' in your noodles.

it used to be much easier getting to the coffee shop from the causeway when there was a fly-over at the end of jalan ibrahim. with the closure of the fly-over, now you have to go in a roundabout way via taman pelangi to get there.

prata shop @ blk 150 bishan, st 11

shamini in brisbane sent me this email:

hello mr ong,

was looking at your blog the other day and all those food reviews and pics jus make me wanna come home.... i dont know if i told you but there is a really good prata shop near my place. its bishan st 13. i am not sure of the blk but its just a short walk from my blk 153. there will be two coffeeshops facing each other. if u drive through the cte and take the toa payoh flyover and turn left into bishan, its on the first left turn before the 7-11. the best time to go is on sunday when they have really nice mutton curry. its sardine curry the rest of the week. the pratas are usually sold before lunchtime so try to go ard 9am if thats not too early. hope you like the prata as much as i do! take care of yourself and have a great weekend! love, shamini



today, at about 9.45 a.m. i went looking for the prata stall that shamini raved about. it is not in blk 153; it's in blk 150, street 11, bishan. the name of the stall is maya's prata. there were about eight people in the queue. i checked with the last person in the line to find out if i was going to wait for the right stuff. yes, they were all queueing for the prata and the mutton curry. there were three persons manning the stall, two of them making the pratas and one taking the orders.

finished the two kosong pratas. i do not quite like egg prata. the curry was really good stuff.

the buah cheri tree

in our kampong days, the buah cheri tree was a source of nourishment as well as a means to boyhood fun. the buah cheri tree is not as sturdy as the guava tree. the buah cheri is a small, evergreen spreading tree that seldom grows taller than 9m. its branches are rather feeble and we normally would not climb up the tree to pick the fruit.

the bark is stringy and the branches appear to be in layers; old twigs are reddish-brown and new ones are hairy. the round berries, about 1 cm across, are green ripening to red. they are fleshy and filled with many tiny, pale seeds and are quite sweet and pleasant to eat. they attract birds and fruit bats as well as children. growing rapidly, the buah cheri tree makes good temporary shade for new gardens.

the fruit, when unripe, is green and hard and it serves as very good ammunition for the wooden gun or rifle which we boys fashioned and made ourselves. the wooden gun has a clip to hold the stalk of the fruit. one end of a rubber band is hooked over the round berry. when the lever is triggered, it will release the rubber band and the berry will be propelled towards its target.

nowadays, you do not see the buah cheri tree grown in a man-made environment. however, you can still find them growing in the wild. when i walked through the kranji trail, i saw a couple of these trees at the edge of the secondary forest.

ultimate frisbee @ singapore polo club


had lunch at singapore polo club today. the other day when diana gave me a treat at the same restaurant, i had half a german pork knuckle. she had ox tail stew. today, i had fish and chips while lay bee had hainanese pork chops.

while having lunch, we were entertained by some of the youthful members playing a game of ultimate frisbee. there was also a side-show: a bull terrier on the field showing off its uncanny canine ability at catching the frisbee in its mouth.

for those of you who like to play this game, here are the basic rules:

each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of their respective endzone line. the defence throws the disc to the offence. a regulation game has seven players per team.

a point is scored when the offence completes a pass in the defence's endzone.

the disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. players may not run with the disc. the person with the disc has ten seconds to throw the disc. the defender guarding the thrower (marker) counts out the stall count.

when a pass is not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block, interception), the defence immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offence.

when a player initiates contact on another player, a foul occurs. when a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if possession was retained. if the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.

players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. players resolve their own disputes. in other words, there is no referee or umpire on the field.

feng shui - eight red and one black goldfish


i was at my sister's place in tampines when i came across this book on feng shui by lillian too. somewhere in the book there was mention that keeping goldfish in the house is a good feng shui practice.

feng shui literally means 'wind and water'. it is steeped in philosophy based on the benefits to be derived from creating harmony and balance in our environment.

i have a big, round bowl into which i placed about twenty small goldfish. the population eventually decreased to nine and has stabilised at that. now i am left with eight red and one black goldfish. coincidentally, i have the right number and right combination of gold fish. eight gold and one black is considered an auspicious combination.

the black one absorbs all that is negative and undesirable. i suppose that red or gold ones attract all that is positive and desirable to the occupants of the house.

you should not keep the goldfish in the bedroom, bathroom or kitchen. they will create material loss. the best location is in the part of your house facing the north.

eggs of the apple snail



each time i visited this pond at kranji i would be somewhat put off by the sight of these pink clumps clinging to the stalks of the lotus leaves. some of them stick to the sides of the nearby monsoon drains. i have often wondered what they were. i thought they were some kind of caterpillars that gave the colour to the lotus flowers.

today, i found out what they were when i was browsing for more information on bollywood. i saw pictures of this pink stuff on the wild singapore website. the pink clumps are actually the eggs of the apple snails which are found in tropical and sub-tropical countries.

apple snails deposit their eggs above the waterline in a calcareous clutch. this remarkable strategy of these aquatic snails protect their eggs against predation by fish and other inhabitants of the water.

apple snails inhabit various ecosystems: ponds, swamps and rivers. although they occasionally leave the water, they remain submerged most of the time.

the snails are most active at night. in the dark, they come out to forage for food. they are voracious feeders on natural vegetation. they will eat most aquatic plants. surprisingly, they will not eat water hyacinth.

i used to keep two of these snails with my goldfish. bought them from an aquarium at 50 cents each. they did not survive long because there was no algae or plants to sustain them.

organic farms in lim chu kang



after visiting kok fah technology farm at sungei tengah, i took lay bee and her friends to lim chu kang. the friends wanted to buy organic vegetables. told them i know of three farms that have organic produce and they are aero green, fire flies health farm and ivy singh's bollywood.

found out that aero green is not a true blue organic farm. aero green uses aeroponics specially adapted to the tropics. the farm grows about 500 kg of pesticide-free vegetables a day. (for information: organic farming is farming without synthetic fertilisers or pesticides.) aero green is just opposite the entrance to the sungei buloh wetland. it has a large compound and i have seen bus-load of visitors at the farm. bought some pak choy, chye sim and a pumpkin at aero green.

next, we visited the fire flies health farm at 75 lim chu kang lane 2. it is a large farm and you can see vegetables like spinach, cabbage, radish, long beans and ladies' fingers growing on the farm. this farm uses fermented compose and no pesticide. the compose consists of rock dust, seaweed, molasses, sawdust and beans. we bought vegetables and fruit at this farm. four organic oranges cost $10. the price of the vegetables is 2 or 3 times that of conventional vegetables.

took them to ivy singh's bollywood but we did not go in because it was lunch time and there was a crowd. there was no place to park the car. bollywood is at 100 neo tiew road. its restaurant is called poison ivy. they do not sell a lot of vegetables.

aloe vera - its uses & benefits



this morning, i acted as a tourist guide of sort. took lay bee's friend arthur and his wife ann to kok fah technology farm to buy freshly cut aloe vera. they were so fascinated by the gourds and other plants they saw on the farm and they ended up buying more than aloe vera.

aloe vera is a plant that looks like a cactus, but is actually a member of the lily family. the particular kind of aloe vera used for natural remedies has the latin name aloe barbadensis and its leaves contain a gel that is rich in therapeutic properties.

the benefits of aloe vera include:

* healing small cuts, insect stings, grazes and wounds.

* healing and repairing skin tissue after burns, including sunburn.

* healing skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, acne, general itching.

* cosmetic uses such as moisturising and improving the elasticity of the skin.

the best source of aloe vera is a live potted plant - you can buy it from kok fah farm. using the gel straight from the plant ensures that it is fresh and its active ingredients are at their full strength. it is best to use it within four hours from the moment you harvest the leaf.

the man who sold us the aloe vera at $2 a piece also showed us how to get the gel out of an aloe vera leaf. first, cut off a plump lower leaf near the central stalk. next, cut off any spines along the edges. after that, slit the leaf lengthwise. finally, squeeze out the gel from the centre of the leaf (you can use the tip of a butter knife to do this.)

kelantan lane khaik sng kio food centre - less known fc (3)



soo chin, my former colleague at monk's hill, was the one who introduced me to the sungei road laksa stall that is found in this food centre at 31 kelantan lane. at that time, a bowl of laksa cost $1.50. today, it is $2 a bowl.

the word 'laksa' is said to have come from the sanskrit word meaning 'many', referring to the many ingredients that go into the making of this dish.

the many ingredients include fresh cockles, slices of fish cake, beehoon noodles in coconut milk and seasoned with garlic, chillies, belacan, lemongrass, galangal root and tumeric.

the unique thing about this laksa stall is that they serve the laksa in a porcelain bowl - which is the traditional way of serving laksa - and provide you with a porcelain spoon only. that's the unique thing. no chopsticks or fork to go with the spoon. the gravy is brewed over a charcoal fire.

the other stall here that is supposed to be good is the one selling ngor hiang - '5 spices'. ngor hiang is deep fried stuffed marinated 5 spice meat with beancurd skin.

the kelantan lane food centre is just behind the jalan berseh food centre.

botak jones @ clementi

the other day, when i gave daniel a lift home, he mentioned that there was a botak jones outlet near his place, at block 325 clementi avenue 5. he gave the location as somewhere near pei tong primary school.

botak jones started at tuas, at sungei kadut eating house located at the junction of pioneer sector 1 and sector 2. it catered to the workers in the pioneer road area but soon attracted foodies from all over the island. it is closed on sundays. to avoid the crowd, visit the place on a saturday. the supervisor of the place is a former monk's hill student.

the other outlet is at ang mo kio. both the ang mo kio and clementi outlets are closed on mondays. the ang mo kio's botak jones is at yue hua food place, block 605 ang mo kio avenue 5. the clementi's one is in a kopitiam. both outlets are open from 12 noon to 10 p.m. the original botak jones at tuas closes at 8 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on saturdays.

tried the lamb chop. it comes with sliced button mushrooms, lots of fries, coleslaw and cabbage and mint. still prefer the one i had at werner's oven.

buying property is not a sure money making investment


my wife, together with her two brothers, shared a condominium unit at anjung seri. the eldest brother was the initial owner but when he found himself cash-strapped, he roped in his two siblings to help manage the payment.

i think the cost of the unit was in excess of rm$300 000. the monthly conservancy charge was about rm$140. they paid these charges for a few years. it was a nice, two-room unit that overlooked the greens of the octville golf and country club. it was about an hour's drive from singapore. it was after johor jaya and was near to the giant hypermarket.

as it served as a weekend getaway, the furnishing was rather spartan. there were a fridge, a stove, a dining set, a single bed and some mattresses.

i remember going to the place twice and both times we did not stay overnight.

sometime last year they found out that they had no more condo unit to go back to. the whole resort had been stripped of practically everything. all their belongings and furnishings had been removed and taken away. the air conditioners, doors, windows and grills had been stripped. the whole unit was bare. it seemed that all these lootings were carried out in broad daylight.

i still have the label on car windscreen. it serves as a reminder and a souvenir.

the osim uzap - the belt massager




i have four osim products in the house - a thermometer - this was a gift, a blood pressure meter, a belt massager and a vaccum cleaner.

i bought the uzap for s$268. although the feedback i get is that the oto is more popular, i still go for the uzap because i hold osim shares.

bought the uzap for my wife but these days i am the one who is making sure that the money spent does not go to waste. i use it at least once a day, zapping away at my waist for the regulated ten minutes. the sensation you get is like when you have been riding a rattling bus for a long time and when it stops (at the end of ten minutes) suddenly, you feel like something has been taken away from you.

this oscillating belt is now sold in the usa for us$200. when used regularly, it helps to tone the areas around the tummy, buttocks and thigh areas. according to a colleague of mine, it helps to loosen the content in your intestines, so you do not end up with constipation.

the manufacturer claims that it loosens muscles, releases tension and improves circulation.

jambu mawar - rose apple

my former neighbour who lived in a grand old house had a jambu mawar in her garden. it was a tall tree growing at the fringe of her sprawling garden. the grand old lady would inspect the garden at about eight every morning. i would time my fruit gathering session before her inspection time. if the ripened fruit was hanging low, i would pluck it. those that were beyond my arm's reach, i would use a projectile and tried to bring them down. sometimes the noise would bring the old lady out of the house. then i would disappear hastily.

rose apple or jambu mawar may be a shrub but generally a tree reaching 7.5m to 12m in height, and has a dense crown of slender, wide-spreading branches.

the fruit is nearly round, oval or slightly pear-shaped, 4-5cm long with smooth, thin, pale yellow or whitish skin, covering a crisp, mealy, dry to juicy layer of yellowish flesh, sweet and resembling the scent of rose in flavour.

rose apples bruise easily and are highly perishable. they have to be freshly picked to be crisp. the birds will usually get to them before humans.

rose apples are eaten out-of-hand by children. they are seldom marketed.

geylang - where i don't feel out of place

today, after dropping hartini at the darul aman mosque at jalan eunos, i drove to geylang. parked my car somewhere near lorong 35 and walked up the road to the lesser lorongs. i crossed aljunied road and tried to look out for gosen restaurant at lorong 32. i was told that its closure was only temporary but there was no sign of its revival.

i somehow feel that i blend in nicely with the crowd at geylang. i do not feel out of place; the feeling i get when i am at orchard road or holland village. in fact, i feel quite at home at geylang. here you are with the ah peks, the retirees and the people who appear to have a lot of time at hand. every man there seems to be looking for something to perk up his life.

if orchard road and holland village are the young upper courses of a river, geylang is like the aging lower course of a river. here you get some riff raff, drifting along and making their way to the mouth of the river which empties into the open sea. i may not be the same kind as some of them but i am in the same age group.

at geylang, you get the feeling that you are still 'wanted' or even 'desired' (for your cpf money or whatever) when the china women looked your way. at least, you are still being treated as a prospect. not at orchard road or holland village. at these two places, the women treat you as a non-existent thing.

anyway, i went to the tanjong rhu pau shop at 351 geylang road, near lorong 21, and bought some meat pau and some char siew pau. this well-known pau shop started at jalan batu at tanjong rhu. with development and changes to the traffic flow in the tanjong rhu area, i had difficulty locating the original shop at blk 7 jalan batu some weeks ago.

chewing betel leaf and nut

was at bangkit this morning when i saw one stall selling betel leaves and nuts. was intrigued enough to find out more.

long ago, betel chewing was quite prevalent in singapore, especially among the indians. i was, therefore, surprised when i visited taiwan and saw many taiwanese train workers chewing the same stuff.

heard that betel was chewed by indonesian truck drivers to keep themselves alert on long hauls.

it is misleading to say that betel is "chewed;" more properly, it is sucked. like chewing tobacco, betel is inserted "between the cheek and gum" and left there to soak, sometimes for hours. the generic term "betel nut" is technically a misnomer. what betel chewers put in their mouths is primarily areca nut, sometimes wrapped in betel leaf, with mineral lime usually added as a catalyst. it's the nut-leaf-lime mixture that delivers the magic.

areca nut is the seed of the tall, slender areca palm, native to the fringes of the indian and west pacific oceans. with its husk off, the nut is a little smaller than a walnut. it is solid throughout, has a marbleised grain, and is as hard as a knot in a pine board.

the areca's sister in crime, betel leaf, comes from a tree-climbing vine of the pepper family. the shiny green leaf is heart-shaped, and about the size of the palm of your hand. its essential oil contains a phenol (betel-phenol) similar to the aromatic eugenol found in the oil of cloves.

betel users somehow discovered that the addition of lime helps to extract the vital essence of the plants into the saliva. the catalytic lime is either powder or paste. in either case, it is typically made from kiln-baked seashells.

what is it like to chew betel? enthusiasts recognise three delightful aspects of the experience: the exhilarating lift; the mysterious flavor; and the cleansing, compelling salivation.

betel makes you feel strong. your chest feels broader, your inhalations deeper, your back straighter; and an almost electric invigoration seems to run through your bones. this is a good, healthful, and positive sensation.

the most unusual and visible aspect of betel chewing is its effect on the salivary glands. you don't just salivate, you pour; and the saliva emerges from your mouth tinted a deep brick red. it is not at all uncommon to spit four fluid ounces of "betel juice" in a single session. and spit it you must; swallowing is not recommended, since it may cause an undesirable sensation of heartburn.

travellers to india are frequently shocked by the red splotches that cover the streets and sidewalks; clearly this secretory excess strikes many westerners as not just unaesthetic, but downright filthy.

block 155a bukit batok - lesser known fc (2)

this small food centre at ave 8 bukit batok houses at least three well-rated food stalls. these days if you are not sure of the quality of the food or the tastefulness of it when you visit a food centre new to you, you can always rely on the awards that the stall has received. they will display the award/s prominently as a way of advertising the standard and quality of their food.

one of the stalls here has as many as seven awards, given by different agencies.

i tried fatty weng's sliced fish porridge. this stall insists on collecting payment first before they serve you the food. the fish porridge is delicious and the fish is fresh but i still prefer the fish porridge at cambridge road market.

the stall that attracts the most number of customers in the morning is the lor mee stall. it does not operate in the afternoon. in the afternoon it is replaced by a ngoh hiang stall. the lor mee stall was featured in the programme "our makan places - lost and found". i understand it was originally from tiong bahru and there is another stall operated by the same family at bukit purmei.

another stall that is well-rated here is the soon kee hokkien fried prawn noodle.

the malay stall that sells malay food and kueh-kueh is also popular with those who frequent this food centre. it offers a great variety of kueh kueh.

five essential items to have in every home

aside from the fan, torch/candle, first aid kit, rubber band, i will consider the tool box, together with the power drill, as one of the most practical and useful tools to have in the house. every household would have the first four items but not all households have the last one.

you can do without the air-con (yes, we survived without the air-con for decades.) but you cannot do without the fan. even in our kampong days, we had the fan to keep us cool and to help circulate the air.

you must have torches or candles and matches in case there is a black-out. though such ocurrences are rare nowadays, they may still happen. it is always good to be prepared.

every household should have a first aid kit stocked with the basic items like antiseptic - either in cream or lotion form, guaze pads, adhesive tape, bandage, instant cold pack, latex glove, band-aids, poh chai pills and a pair of tweezers.

the tool box should contain screw drivers, spanners, hammer, raw plugs, nails, screws, electrician tape and plumber tape. these are handy for fixing minor repairs in the house. the power drill is needed whenever you put up fixtures on the wall.

greenwood avenue




i had mistakenly thought that greenwood avenue was in the holland road area. one day, in april this year, i had walked the whole length of 6th avenue, turned into ming teck park to look for the many restaurants that had been attracting crowds. i ended up at greenleaf avenue and found only two shops. thinking that it could be at another part of greenleaf avenue, i walked further in, only to find rows and rows of terrace houses. i think i walked more than 5 km that morning.

today, i finally located the place and realised that i had been there many times in the past. i did not realise i was at greenword avenue until i saw the wagon wheel, a pub that freddie had mentioned the day before when i met him at ricky's daughter's wedding. i recognise lana cakes because i have been there several years ago to buy chocolate cakes. i also remember that i used to drive past that place when ivy had mathematics tuition with mrs ganapathy.

so much has changed. the whole row has been taken over by either pubs or food outlets. starting at no: 2 is cog n bull, 4 is l'estaminet, 6 is pepperoni, 8 is 8 on greenwood, 10 is raku, 12 is sebastian bistrot, 14 is ponggol choon seng seafood, 16 is the king's arms, 18 is sala thai restaurant, 22 is the wagon wheel, 24 is an exclusive restaurant, shiro japanese haute cuisine, 26 is estivo gelateria, 30/32 is swiss butchery, 34 is greenwood fishmarket and bistro and 36, lana cakes.

tried the gelato ice-cream at no: 26. nowhere near the heavenly gelato ice-cream we had in lugano, switzerland. lugano is near the italian border and we bought our ice-cream from a roadside stall.

werner's oven



this german restaurant along upper east coast road was established in 1988 by a german who married a singaporean chinese woman. the owner is also the head chef of the restaurant. the bakery is next to the restaurant. we came to know about this place when we visited someone who rented a residential unit in the same building. she has since returned to oklahoma, usa.

she was full of praise for the home-baked bread sold in the restaurant and also recommended the roast pork knuckles. however, she preferred chinese food and had most of her meals at the chinese restaurant located to the left of the ntuc supermarket.

the more popular varieties of bread sold at werner's are foccacia, farmer's grain and brezel. all the bread is fresh. their unsold breads are donated to welfare organisations. ramesh can tell you more because he used to buy his bread from this bakery.

i like the place for its friendly and relaxed atmosphere. if you are there, you must try the pork dishes and the sausages. also, ask for the mini brezels. if you are a beer drinker, they have a selection of german brew.

bangkit road market @ bukit panjang

on sundays, if i do not go for my morning walk, i sometimes visit the bangkit market. it reminds me of the roadside markets in thailand. it is really like thailand because on some days you may meet these saffron-clad buddhist monks begging for alms at the market place.

i like to go this market because it is like an adventure. each time you go, you may see a different vendor hawking something you have not seen the week before.

but this indonesian or malaysian woman - in the picture on the right - is there on most weekends selling indonesian/malaysian products like avacado, buah salat, salted fish and cincalok.

next to her on last sunday were two other hawkers selling chinese medicine or oilment. there was also an elderly lady selling herbal plants that were apparently harvested from her own farm or garden.

on weekends, you get these itinerant hawkers selling cheap apparel like jeans, tee shirts and lingerie. some of the products that i have come across include leather belts (from a shop in suntec city), cheap watches and clocks, kitchen utensils and cleaning equipment.

i am a weekend browser; i do not buy anything most of the time.

chinese wayang at lorong sinaran

chinese wayangs were much more popular then. today, at the wayang site, the number of performers easily outnumbers the number in the audience.

i always looked forward to wayangs when i was a boy. that was when our curfew would be extended - we could return home at around midnight. it was not the wayang performance that attracted us. it was the fringe events. there would be stalls lining the road to the wayang site and they would be selling a range of things, including food. there were also games stalls where you could indulge in tikam-tikam.

we did watch the wayang, not throughout but bits of it here and there. so, we know that the good soldiers wore red and the bad ones wore green. when someone was riding a horse, he would be waving a stick in his hand and he would be skipping along instead of walking. the evil ones usually had their faces painted black.

we liked going to the back of the wayang stage to look at the painted faces and to admire the pretty performers in their elaborate costumes. there was excitement in the loud noise created by the drums, the cymbals and the other musical instruments used in an opera.

the one that was staged at our neighbouring kampong, lorong sinaran, was a teochew opera. i have watched hokkien opera at dunlop street and hainanese opera at lincoln road, about 1.5km from my kampong.

come to think of it, i was an opera fan.