Chicken Congee & White Wine!

L decided to do a pot of her famous chicken congee, and rounded us up for dinner. I love her chicken congee! It's almost like we need to taste it annually. Teeheheheh. We are so thankful that we get to taste comfort food done superbly. 

Our dearest friend shredded chicken breast for the protein. And only chicken breast, skipping the thigh meat altogether. Wow! It was so well marinated. And of course we associate her version with cuttlefish; can't not have that. 

The porridge pot belonged to L's grandmother and she totally did justice to it. It's well kept, and oft-used. It's a much loved pot that produces lovely soup and chok. Oh that congee is LOVE. The consistency. Didn't need additional salt or soy sauce. You could sprinkle pepper I suppose. I ate THREE BOWLS. No shame. I can't get this outside at the commercial food stalls — that's something lacking in the consistency of the porridge, or the flavors that tell me they use cheap soy and other ingredients. This home truly has a magic porridge pot, along with L's special touch. Wheeeeee.

The small godson was hilarious. He rejected having a bowl of his mom's chok at his dinner-time. But when we all sat down around the table, he kinda abandoned bed-time and asked for food. He FOMO, wanted to join us. And he really ate. NICE. After that, he knocked out. Yayyy.

J got tubs of ah-balling from this famous stall that his whole family has been buying from for years. We know it's in the east, but we refused to ask him details. We want to him supply us with peanut and sesame ah-balling forever! I'm not a fan of ah-balling/tangyuan or even muah chee, mochi or daifuku. But I will eat a ball with sesame filling. It also sits in a weird beancurd paste that I can't deal with. I don't like tau suan or those odd dessert soups either. What I do like from this stall, is its ginger soup (薑湯). Gosh, it's seriously good in its ratio of spicy ginger with bits of sugar. 

Beef Tongue & Pork Jowl Tacos!

I'm not the biggest fan of Mexican food. I'd be hard pressed to even pick one time I'd voluntarily eat at a somewhat Mexican joint in Singapore. Tex-Mex is a no-go. Chipotle and GyG aren’t exactly serving up Mexican food. I can just about eat quesadillas because of the cheese and salsa, but even then... I'm not the biggest fan of brisket or pulled pork. (The cooking method, not the meat.) You won't catch me at Mexican food joints or having tacos or even a burrito on my own volition. 

Anyway, Kizuna had a Sunday pop-up for tacos, starting at 1pm. Brought many fans to have moving air surround us. It was mad-humid and hot out there. I went because I was very sure that they wouldn't be using too earthy Mexican flavor profiles. They kept it simple — hamachi ceviche with tortilla chips, and two choices of tacos — beef tongue and pork jowl. Drinks were easy yuzu margaritas, pina coladas, and Corona beer. Teeheheheh. 

I was right about the flavor profiles used. Purists of Mexican food definitely wouldn't like these tacos. The husband and the friends were simply there for beef tongue. LOL Kizuna's beef tongue tacos were brilliant with the zucchini and wasabi puree, and pickled red onions. The zucchini and wasabi puree really lent a different flavor as opposed to them using the standard guacamole. The pork jowl tacos came topped with grilled pineapple yuzu kosho salsa. I loved it. It was delicious! 

We ate so many tacos! They were bite-sized lah. So we each had about three tacos and two drinks. The rainstorm rolled in and poured down. Nobody could walk home or drive in this pelting sheet of rain. So we ordered a third round of drinks and waited it out. Once the rain lightened, we toddled off. I wanted a lie-down before plunging into the heat of Baybeats later in the evening. 

Baybeats 2025

That was the Baybeats weekend wrapped up. This 2025 is the 24th edition of the festival, and it's amazing that Esplanade is still offering all shows free for the audience, and bulk of the costs for staging, and accommodation for the overseas bands. I didn't take Choya along this time because with the addition of the stage at the Forecourt, it was wayyy too loud for the Smol Girl. And this year's bands are a lot heavier. 

There were FOUR NIGHTS of Baybeats this year, but we missed the first. So we went for Day 1, and Day 3. I would have liked to catch A Vacant Affair (AVA) on a full stage and rocking it out, but I had things to do, so skipped Esplanade. So I caught AVA on an acoustic set. 

I would have loved to catch Bellied Star, but I didn't put heart into checking out tickets (the indoor shows are free, but you'd need to register via SISTIC) for their set at the Annexe. What a pity. But I did catch plenty of these outdoor shows. I didn't realize that Carsick Cars (晕车车) from Beijing have been around for decades! Their debut album was released in 2007 and this was my first time catching them. N.Y.P.D. 南洋派对 (HK) were really quite good.

Aggressive Raisin Cat was so fun. The mosh circle too. I never liked mosh pits, so I assiduously avoid them even as a teenager. Tonight, I thought we left a wide space for the kids, but apparently the circle got bigger and bigger. Their balance isn't very good huh, or they aren't all dancers. Many kids fell down. And I swear, two were high on something. Okay lah, outdoors. Y'all play.  

That was a similar mosh pit for Battlesnake too. They played at the same LiveWire stage at the Forecourt Garden. The Australian band closed off Baybeats on Sunday night. They were hilarious. Those furry outfits had to come off before halfway through the show. It was too damn hot. And one of them climbed the light stand. OMG. I mean it made for great visuals, but I guess he didn't really consider that if he fell, he could be maimed, or accidentally topple the scaffolding and kill his own audience. 

The weather was insane. Blistering hot even in the nights, and then rainy till the evening for Day 3, but it stopped in time for the 7.30pm outdoor shows. I didn't bother take many photos or clips of the shows. I was standing too far from the stages. I thought I'd be too old for this, but I saw so many familiar faces. Had a drink some and said hi to many more. It felt like people came to check out this year's Baybeats again after skipping it for a few years.