Closer to Home, my neighborhood in the North

Although riding to the city brings all the perks of good food and coffee to my ride, there will be times where I bring myself up and motivated enough for a "sloppy" ride.. This took me along the Mandai Park connectors,  ULu Sembawang and finally Woodlands HDB heartlands before back home to Yishun. 

Below is my route of all PCN ride along the Northern Loop which takes around 18-19 km. The "mini" loop you see in the map is yours truly trying to find some breakfast. :) More about that later..

The north of Singapore has much greenery to offer, if nature is your cup of tea. 

Water catchment area along Mandai road.

This reminded me of a meaningful event two months ago, a joint event between Our National Parks and Singapore's biggest cycling group "LCSG" (Love Cycling Singapore),  helping to "scrub" the Mandai Park connectors off the algae and moss growing along the sides of the path. This is especially hazardous to cyclists and joggers alike as I had witnessed a cycle mate fall right on the slippery path after the typical tropical shower rain in Singapore. We definitely had fun putting some maintenance on the PCNs which served us well, although it was hard work scrubbing those stubborn algae off! 

Team 2D "Scrub" and pose. 

"Wefie' for all

A Happy ME.Photo credit : Eugene Wee

Back to my ride, which ended up with me searching for a nearby place for morning breakfast. Wanted to go back to Holy Cow Creamery, yes! finally a Cafe cum Ice Cream parlor in the HDB Heartlands of Yishun, unfortunately they are open only by 11am. Check out this nice review on Holy Cow on another blog, by Jiak Simi Png. 

I had this "Elvis' ice cream the last time I was there, salted caramel, bananas and peanuts. It was really rich and creamy. 

Another place which recently caught my taste buds is by an enterprising young man who reached out through social media for his "Oil town Sarawak noodles". This is turning to be quite a hit within the cycling kakis and friends who know about it through word of mouth..on social media. Opened within the last couple of months, it is popular with its well textured noodles and nicely "fragrant" oil taste of Sawarak's Miri town. 

This is the "add on" version, with abalone.

With his name card having all major forms of social media contact, e.g. Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, LINE and What's app, Mr Yip certainly is going with the times as an enterprising hawker! 

Do note though, Mr Yip is resting on Sundays like we all do

As if the adventure in my town is coming to a close, I met this dude staying in Yishun having 4 very tame parrots and he was "training" them next to the Yishun MRT. I asked for a "pose" with one of them together with my Brommie and he gamely agreed. 

Here is one pic with his trusty little Red, and my trusty little Red. I think they make an awesome pair eh? 

When the Red Meets a Red

The owner of this Pretty Little Red also owns a fairly chic vintage looking bike. I am glad this town is full of heartland characters. So who says HDB heartlands are boring? 

Till the next ride... ~~

Holy Cow Creamery

Blk 292 Yishun St 22

#01-291

Singapore 760292

Open from 11am onwards

Oil Town Sarawak Noodles

Blk 285, Yishun Avenue 6, 

#01-02, Tel: 91390089

Mon - Sat: 6:30 am - 2:00 pm

A trip down memory lane for Yong Tau Fu and tea...

So... I had started on another food/ride journey.. after receiving encouraging feedback from friends and fellow cyclists who cannot be bothered with a cycling man who loves to eat and drink his way to the city. This sudden craving for "Yong Tau Fu" all started with an innocent food post in Facebook by a friend, which got me piqued as earlier the week before I had visited the same location but it was selling pizzas and beer. How can this be?? Ah ha, there is a catch..so this place at Tiong Bahru is a "Two Face"<-- (a link by another blogger who has great food posts) selling good old Yong Tau Fu koptiam style in the day and turning into a Pizza and beer place in the afternoons till night time.  I just had to visit this place in the day and get my curiosity and stomach fulfilled.

Got on a great morning ride with another Northern dwelling friend, Liu. It was a wonderful day with no extreme sun, no rain and plenty of cloud cover. It was a nice slow ride with plenty of historical discovery as you can see later, but here is our complete ride map at 24.7km.

Talking about historical...ever wondered how many bridges do we have along the Singapore river? Starting from the Kallang basin towards Nicoll Highway and the Singapore Flyer, I guessed we must had passed around at least 7-8 bridges. 

 I found a pretty good blog here about all the bridges along Singapore river,here.

The ride took us along one of the most iconic bridges of all , Anderson bridge. "Anderson Bridge is also the only bridge other than the Esplanade Bridge to be featured as part of the Singapore Grand Prix route. Similar to the Esplanade Bridge, it was also built to ease the traffic of another bridge". 

Cutting the story short, we rode northwards along the Singapore river, from its mouth into the Boat Quay area, then Clarke Quay and finally Robertson Quay before reaching the turn into Havelock Road, then Outram Road and our destination of Tiong Bahru, one of Singapore's oldest town. 

What greeted us was great weather, some available seats and very prompt auntie , presumably related to the owner of the Yong Tau Fu stall. She took our orders of a $4 rice vermicelli with assorted "yong tau fu". This dish supposedly originated from one of the minor Chinese dialect group of "Hakka" , and this is a simple dish, yet increasingly important for health savvy peeps who love a hot soup base with lots of fish paste based chunks of food items.

Note that they only open till 2pm on Saturdays and not on Sundays

 The chilli paste that came with it was very heartening, and the light soup base was not oily at all and the ingredients were fresh. The vegetarian and mee pok stalls which used to share this shop space had since moved out, and so now it is just this stall keeping the "Two Face" persona with the Pizzeria operating in the afternoons. I found the portion a little smaller than what I would had expected, probably because I was starving, but I can see the residents of Tiong Bahru frequenting this stall often.  

Now that we had our tummies filled, I guess a ride through the Tiong Bahru area would be just great, riding through the colonial or rather post colonial "HDB" estate, Singapore's first public housing location turned hipster suburb now. Took a few shots of my Brompton "posing" with the "white houses" as a backdrop.

Check out this CNN Travel article about Tiong Bahru here. 

Lots of artisan cafes, bakeries and Bistros are found along the lanes within this compound, as well as bookstores, specialty shops and even uncommonly found art decorative pieces.

I found this "slope" here which reminded me of the San Francisco city landscape, where cyclists were often challenged with shops and houses built on very steep slopes.  Of course, this is nothing compared to theirs but this certainly made a great backdrop for my B. Somehow I feel my Brommie is just right at home in Tiong Bahru.

We could not get seats at the ever popular 40 Hands for a cup of coffee, and settled for earl grey tea at "Poteato",  along this hip Yong Siak Street. Teas and potato food products are supposedly their forte. This is another emerging place to chill over a cuppa, in this case, tea. I would say this made a perfect way to end an afternoon with food and tea, some exercise and good company.

                                                                              ~~~

Tiong Bahru Yong Tau Fu

56 Eng Hoon Street #01-46 Singapore 160056 

Tel:+65 6536 0024

Hours: In the mornings to noon- Mon-Fri

Till 2pm on Saturdays and closed on Sundays

Two Face Pizza (afternoon onwards)
http://www.twoface.sg/

PoTeaTo

78 Yong Siak Street #01-018 Singapore, 

Tel: +65 6221 2488

Opening Hours: 11am – 10 pm Tue to Sun (closed Mon)

Re-discovery of my favorite playground Arab Street...

        Since after leaving my previous job working for a software company, I had always missed the neighborhood around Arab Street and Beach Road. Chanced upon this "Choo Choo" chicken on another guy's blog, it seems the Koren culture has invaded our taste buds too. This Korean Fried Chicken joint is new, just opened for around 2 months after I left my previous company. It is time to re-visit my "playground", where beer, coffee, great food are in abundance. 

      Decided to bring my trusty little partner along, my red Brompton, which has brought me places all over Singapore to discover the nooks and crannies, searching for "kopi" and "makan" places.
     Of course, this is best carried out with some great cycling company, and we have a few friends with the same passion of riding, enjoying coffee over chats and just simply discussing the topics of interests for the day while the world goes by.

      We had a good ride down from North of Singapore, and if you know, we are a bunch of middle aged guys who do not fancy getting on the roads of Singapore as much as possible, where the cycling culture is still much at its infancy. The city ride can very much be accomplished along the Park Connectors or (PCN)s. My favorite route can be seen below, from Yishun to Lentor Avenue, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan park , Bishan-Kallang PCN and finally reaching Lavender and Nicoll Highway.

Get the route on Map my ride imported or view on the browser:http://mapmyride.com/workout/557405033

     All in all, it is less than 20km and on a leisurely pace, to smell the flowers along the way. We were early for lunch, and the morning ride had deprived us of a coffee. Sat down in one of this recently very popular old style "Nanyang" cafe, called Dong Po Colonial Cafe. Eugene, the budding photographer in our group, started taking some very tasteful photos of this place, really suitable "feel" for this retro place. They have a pretty good collection of items of yester-year, and even the reliable old Flying Pigeon bicycle. So it was an East Meets West for our bicycles, as my Brommie gets acquainted with the Pigeon. We were amazed at the different apps and gadgets Eugene deployed for taking his shots, which really gave fresh new insights as the "new age" mobile photographer. The portable camera he used which is similar to Go Pro, is the I-Saw Extreme. I am impressed at the very well taken wide angled shots, but of course credits must be given to the man behind the shutter. The "processing" of these photos were also very much enhanced with the applications available via mobile now such as "Aviary" and "Photogrid". We had a good lesson on photography that morning.

See below for what has been achieved with a combination of technology and an artist's vision.

Photos Credit of Eugene Wee

 And my own dabble of "Aviary" app.

        Time flies and after exploring the lanes of Arab Street for more photographic inspiration, we are all whipped up with good appetite for some Korean fried chicken.

     We got onto the next lane, Bali Lane, where Choo Choo Chicken is located. We happened to be the first customers of the day, and things got more rowdy as other cycling kakis reached the same check point for food. There were 4 main kinds of Fried chicken flavors, the Original, Spicy Crispy, Soy (presumably with Soy sauce) and another which I had not tried yet. The Spicy one got my vote for being not overly spicy and with a sweetness from the sauce. The batter had been nicely fried,  and wrapping the very juicy chicken meat. The Soy version which I traded a few pieces with a pal tasted good too. Overall, they are not your usual KFC style fried chicken, and leaves you wanting more. My side, a salad,  with the chicken was not filling enough for me (it was supposed to be rice), but for some reason was not available on the set menu for that day.

      Feeling somewhat happy with my food hunt accomplished, and knowing I will be back for more. Arab street and Beach Road area will remain very much as my foodie choice locations, not just for the food, but the old world charm and feeling away from the maddening crowds.

Till the next Food.Ride adventure....

Food locations:

Choo Choo Chicken

33 Bali LaneArab Street
62990980
Opening: 11.30am-11pm

Dong  Po Colonial Cafe

56 Kandahar Street

Singapore 198904

Phone number6298 1318

*PS- This is my first attempt at a blog, I guess I just need some mindful balance and attaining "peace" from the vagaries of life. I am never good with diaries, and somewhat surprised reaching 40 made me interested in this.

 May 4th 2014