It's Definitely Gabapentin Season

It's damn sian to be woken up when I'm fast asleep because of a thunderstorm. Well, it isn't the crackle of the thunder or the rain pelting against the windows per se. I can easily sleep through those. But Choya can't and she's frightened to death of thunderstorms. So I have to be awake to sit with her. 

It's even more deplorable in this scenario — if I'm not asleep by 10.45pm and am awake to do chores and such, and when I'm ready for bed at midnight, the thunderstorm booms at 1am. WTF. It has been doing that for a few nights now. At least these 1am storms do mean that I can sleep by 2.45am or so. Not too bad.

I can't even like sleep in the living room when the thunderstorms roar. She needs me awake and moving. Music doesn't calm her down. Only Gabapentin does. But it doesn't work instantaneously. Sumatra squalls simply decide to form, rather unpredictably. I'm not awake to catch it. My voice seems to calm her down.

She vacillates between wanting to be carried, then put down, then be carried. It's rather exhausting. Reading a random essay seems to calm her down. She doesn't want me to talk to her; she wants to hear my reading voice. The academic tone. Okay. Can. That's my work voice.  

The Sumatra squalls are really annoying. They bring thunder that rumbles every 15 minutes or so as they pass. It takes about 1.5 hours for each squall to fully clear. We're still in inter-monsoon. Good lawwd. I can deal with the 1am storms. I might lack sleep but I'm not incapacitated the next day. These Sumatra squalls that come at 3am and 4am are the worst. Those are debilitating. Or when it stops raining, and I think the thunder has stopped, it happily rumbles again an hour later. wtf, truly.

I've eased off on Gabapentin for a few months, but it's the season to dose Choya again. I do need to keep her cortisol levels constant, and her body's immune system calm and not thinking that it has to fight inflammation (and anxiety) all the time.

It's not as if the thunderstorms will ease up when the Northeast Monsoon finally arrives in like 10 days. We're just going to get dunked with rain and thunder crackling again daily. Bringing out rain-gear and dealing with the wet ain't difficult. Dealing with a dog with true astraphobia in a full-blown anxiety attack is quite another. 

Nam Kee Chicken Rice

Our friends' dog went in a routine check at the clinic. We went to kaypoh and lend emotional support. It was a 7.30pm appointment. None of us minded figuring out dinner around the appointment. 

The best part about this vet clinic at Upper Thomson Road is that it's sited next to Ming's Pub. It was a rainy evening, so nobody wanted to traipse far and get soaked. The dogs wouldn't like it. At this venue, people who wanted to drink, simply stepped in next door to Ming's Pub to have a Guinness. 

After the vet appointment was concluded, it was dinner time. We didn't mind a pint of Guinness either. But we needed dinner. So Ming's has no issues with us ordering in food from the eateries along the stretch. Of course we opted for Nam Kee Chicken Rice! Hahaha. It has been a long time since any of us had it. And no, chicken rice doesn't all taste the same. 

The table sent me to order. They were hungry but I knew they wouldn't need that much food. A whole chicken plus two side dishes (including one veggie) would do it. I didn't even order two bowls of rice. I ordered one portion. These people aren't rice eaters, especially not at dinner. So one portion of tasty chicken rice fed us all nicely. 

Ordered a steamed chicken with skin, some sort of tofu, choi sum, and hae zhor (crispy prawn rolls). I only wanted the vegetables, a bit of tofu, a wee bit of meat and a lot of chicken skin. 

The kitchen was closing up and in a happy sort of mood. They fried up our liver and gizzard in sambal. Wahhh! So nice of them lah. It was so tasty, especially with the chilled Guinness. Kekekekekke. We couldn't finish a whole chicken, so the rest was packed home for the friends' meals the next day. 

Woody Family Peranakan Cafe

We stopped by Woody before we read any news about it. We were on literally our way there for a 11.30am lunch when the recent interview popped up on our feed, and on television. We've been going to Woody for many years; just that we can't go often because it's damn far lah. It's a 50-minute drive out from where we are. Each time we go, we make a morning out of it. 

The food is good, but service is extremely patchy, along with long waiting times for food. It's the typical issues that plague family-run businesses with insufficient manpower. Woody has an electronic ordering system, which is great for inventory and accounting, and it saves on manpower. But with one person in the kitchen cooking and one person making drinks and serving the food, it can take a while during peak hours. 

Social media is a double-edged sword. If it helps with stimulating the business, the couple and their one staff wouldn't be able to handle the influx of customers. It's not a happy problem because people won't come back. The cafe would get solid income for three months, then what? But I suppose they aren't in the position to think very long-term for now. And just grit and carry on doing what they know best. 

The cafe welcome dogs and Choya had plenty of space to lounge around in their shaded al fresco area. The mid-day heat and humidity was comfortable because of the many fans circulating. The eclectic decor took us right back to the 1970s.

We didn't have a dinner fixed with friends or reserved. We went big at lunch, knowing the dinner could simply be a bowl of soup. (That was what happened. Hahaha. No more stomach space.)

Woody's nasi ulam is superb. I must have that along with sambal petai and ikan bilis. Surprisingly, I'm not fond of the sambal belachan here. The buah keluak ayam bakwan with geram assam was pretty good. The man needed more protein, so he demolished a lamb shank rendang. I was pleased with the buah paya masak titek — it's not often seen on restaurants' menus. This iteration is lovely. It would have benefited from adding tofu too, but that's just me. Heh. 

This is homecooked goodness still. These are flavors that many people don't replicate anymore or they do a shortened version of the dishes. And that's the magic about Peranakan cooking. It's very hard to do it in a commercial setting, and bigger restaurants don't hold the flavors I'm looking for. Their dishes end up being pedestrian. Family cafes like this can't excel in every dish. I mean by now, I know which dishes I'd order at the respective Peranakan restaurants. Ooof.