Had a long overdue, anticipated, much desired home cooked dinner. Needless to say, it was healthy and YUMMILICIOUS! Vege & toufu soup with thick slabs of steamed cod. What else can KJ asks for ? The green bean soup dessert makes me a happier gal. :D
Woke up feeling happy because I've been thinking about having breakfast at Ghim Moh for the longest time and I finally got my wish after this long. Walked to the market with mom and found the food centre thronged with people. Many of the stalls were doing a roaring business and I had difficulty deciding what to buy. Not so much due to the vast variety of food but it was just tough to find a decent stall that doesn't have a long queue! There even was a shop selling chee cheong fun with this LCD screen playing some advert of their CCF! win lor ... CCF only leh -__-"
Finally settled for some homemade bao which are yummy (the chicken bao was oh-so-YUMMY with the chunks of juicy chicken - so unlike those disgusting ball of minced meat of unknown origin in those mass produced buns. The red bean bao - which was oh-so-tiny but oh-so-delish! the paste just ooozes out when you break it into two ... HEAVEN!) Only bought 1 each as I wanted to try other stuff from other stalls. Unfortunately, it was way too crowded for comfort so ended up just buying prawn noodles for mom and mjk for myself. The MJK no longer tastes as good as before. Its smaller in size *tsk tsk* and the loose peanuts filling just doesn't stick to the kueh and they just sort of made a big mess when you try to bite into it ... u taste more of the kueh then the peanuts, which have either been dropped back into the plastic bag, or onto the table. There was also way too much sugar in the peanuts mix making it taste more like sugar than peanuts and hence it lacks the crunchy peanuts taste. The kueh however is still as nice and soft. Next time can I just ask the uncle for MJK kosong ? :P We ended our breakfast with a bowl of ah balling. The green tea tang yuan was overpowering and taste too much of artificial flavouring. Mental note never to order that flavour again (auntie said is a new flavour). I still like the sesame and peanuts paste best. Shall stick to those in future.
While buying some groceries in the nearby supermart, we met my uncle & auntie. Wow, what a coincidence! They actually called my mom out for breakfast but she was already out with me, so they came over to our place after their shopping to chit chat.
The rest of the day passed by peacefully, just eating, sleeping, watching tv (its a long time since I watch ch 8 and u and cna!!! I have to say they really have boring shows!!! CNA saved the day with Japan Hour and I Do! Let's eat ... where I enjoyed some good tv time with mommy haha)
Next morning, a last minute decision brought us to Commonwealth. The place has changed a lot. It is now buzzing with activities what with the newly opend Sheng Shiong and a food court right beside it. But no, mom and I were not there to eat at the food court. We wanted to reminisce by having our brekkie in the old food centre. But alas, when we got there, realised that the food centre is really quiet. There were only a few stalls open and the yummy fried fritters stall wasn't open for business yet. We finally decided on having porridge only to have the owner exclaimed that they were all sold out -__-". No choice, we ended up at the newer food centre for some laksa, yam cake and chee cheong fun. The laksa was quite nice. Best of all it had the makansutra certificate and yet there wasn't a very long queue and the service was damn fast! Sometimes i wonder whether the stall owners deliberately slow down their pace so that the queue gets longer to form this fake impression that they are very popular hence making more people queue up for their food -_-"
Anyway, while we were about done, an older lady joined us at our table. Mom easily struck up a conversation with her (that's typical of my amicable, friendly mom) who happens to be teochew too and we happily chatted for the duration of her meal of porridge. She is a spritely old lady of 70 plus, full of wisdom and positivity. It was a good chat with her telling us many of the life's simple yet important lessons. Lessons which I think my mom really need to learn and remember. In a way, meeting this old lady was almost a God-sent. Almost like heaven planned this for us because just that morning, we were having a rather serious talk about some stuff and I could tell mom was troubled and worried. But after hearing from the old lady, she sort of relaxed and agreed that she had to learn to let go. Let's hope she remembers that!
While walking about the area, realised that the place, like us, have aged. We went to this traditional bakery which we used to frequent many years back and chatted with the owner a bit. The business has deterioriated ever since some of the blocks were vacated and the residents shifted to the newer flats. The newly opened Sheng Shiong and food court didn't help and kept most of the crowd away from them, which was older and further in from the main road. They used to get some business from the church goers in the weekends but with the newer establishments, that was gone too. Kinda sad to see this old neighbourhood slowly wasting away ..... just like how some older people feel .... well, the shop owner was hoping that few months later the crowd would return after the novelty of the new establishments wear off ...let's hope so :) I sure do not wish for the authorities to tear down these old neighbourhood. We need some of these to keep our heritage ... our memories ...The picture above - newer blocks form a backdrop against the older structures ...
The old food centre - now losing its shine and popularity but still retaining its old charm ...
Dinner was at this other food court, again surrounded by all these aged two-storey buildings. This is more like a senior citizens neighbourhood ... I wonder how long these buildings will stand before they are demolished ...
Its a weekend full of eats ... and rest ... and also lots of thinking .... actually feeling very heavy hearted over some of the stuff I have to think about ... kinda stressed out. I'm worried but yes, I know worrying doesn't help the situation ... Deep breath KJ, deep breath ...
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