Food Places: J & J Special Beef Noodles

As much as I love eating, I surprise myself with the fact that I've yet to write about food places yet, so here's my first entry. My inspiration came from our usual post dragonboat training early dinner, and last weekend, it was at the Old Airport Road hawker centre. For those of you who are not familiar with the Singapore scene (if you ARE from Singapore but don't know the hawker centre.. which rock have you been living under?!), the hawker centre is located just a 10 minutes' drive away from Suntec City, and for dragonboaters, a mere 5 minutes' drive away from the Kallang Water Sport Centre (where we train). The place is literally chock full of delightful eats, so if you want a place where you can try some nice local food in a wholesome environment, cooked by hawkers who actually run their own foodstalls. 

We stumbled upon this stall purely by accident. It's located at the side closer to the Dakota train station, where it's quieter, and easier for us to find seats for our group. Most of us usually venture towards the famous stalls like the famous western food stall (known for its garlic sauce), rojak, soya beancurd, etc. The first time I'd ordered from J&J Special Beef Noodles, it was purely because I was too damned lazy to walk too far after training, even if I was starving. I tried the "Beef Muscle" while Kat had the beef tendon, and both were really tender. The tendon was really soft and gelatinous, and it just melts in your mouth. A friend of ours reckoned that it's full of collagen, something that the ladies would be interested to know. 

We were back there again after training last weekend and some of our team mates who actually had no intention of eating because they were heading off to a gathering after that, tried what we ordered and decided that it was too yummy to resist. This time, Kathy ordered the beef ball noodle (it comes with only kway teow, or flat rice noodle) soup, with slices of onion and spring onion in the stock, and it reminded us very much of the lovely bakso that we had in Manado, Indonesia. The soup was kinda brothy without being too salty, and had a hint of sweetness which I reckon comes from the onion. Being the very boring person that I was, I wanted something without the carbs, I'd ordered the same "beef muscle" again. The beef and the tendon are cooked in soy sauce, and dipped in the chilli that comes with it, provides a great combination of flavour with just enough bite in your mouth without being too much heat. In fact, the soy sauce based gravy reminded our friend Kheng of "kong bak pau" or braised pork belly slices wrapped in steamed bun. And J&J does sell that combination of "beef muscle" with steamed bun. Our group ordered quite a number of items from the menu because they enjoyed what they'd sampled, and so we had a bit of a J&J buffet spread on our table.

If you're in the neighbourhood and wanna try something different or not willing to queue at the usual stalls, do give this shop a try! It's located at #01-162. And do check out our friend's food blog, this guy's a huge foodie and his pictures are lovely! The blog just started started, so do keep going back if you want some ideas of where to go for your gastronomical fix.

My lousy picture does little justice to the braised beef muscle, pictured here with the steamed bun

The beefball noodle soup

Living By "The Paradoxical Commandments"

While I was on my way home after my evening gym workout one day, I swung into the supermarket to pick up some groceries to prepare dinner. While I was queuing at the checkout counter, I couldn't help but notice the glum faces in the queue, and customers were ignoring the politeness of the cashier to the point of being rude. Understandably, with each glum customer, her energy level just got lower and lower, until it came to a point when her Ps and Qs seemed so contrived and tired. 

Just before I came down to the supermarket, I had the lift door slam in my face just as I was rushing to get into the lift but the lady in the lift just couldn't be bothered to hold it although I'd called out to her to hold the lift.

The book by Kent Keith

The whole evening made me wonder why should I bother being polite and nice to people when chances are, I'll be met with indifference and even rudeness. I know that kindness begets kindness.. but only occasionally, it seems. I've even felt that people would just think that I'm weak to give way to them. Then one day, I was attending the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" workshop, and I came across "The Paradoxical Commandments", written by Kent Keith (when he was 19 years old!). The poem had hung on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for the children in Calcutta (India), and had been wrongly attributed to her, although the version below was rewritten by her in a more spiritual way. Anyway, I find great meaning in the poem, and I hope that you find the strength in the words, just as I had:

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.