Crab Beehoon + Chilli Crab!

Went over to our neighbors' dining table to celebrate M's birthday. They had a lovely seafood feast delivered. It arrived earlier than expected, at 5.30pm! We totally don't mind eating at 6pm nowadays! So having the food come in early was great since we were all home, and we only needed to pee the dogs, and we could happily eat.  

We had crab beehoon and chilli gravy. There were also salted egg yolk prawns, coffee ribs, stir-fried sambal kangkong and kai-lan with garlic. What a nice meal! This type of dinner requires three to four people at the table. It's very hard to have them alone, or with just two persons. Well, the man and I did try having just crab beehoon and rice vermicelli. The man took all the crab, and I ate loads of vermicelli. Fairly satisfying, but we couldn't order any other item. That was all we could stomach. 

I don't bother much about crabs, but I liked that crab soup and chilli gravy. It's such a treat to have the rice vermicelli in sweet crab gravy. Slurrrrrrped those up. I asked for those crispy mantou. Loved those. I like them plain or soaked in the chilli crab gravy. Tonight we had 25 mantou! Muahahah. More than enough to go around the table. I asked for two mantou. I might have eaten four... or more. 👀

We brought cake! Pre-ordering (to pick up) on Pantler didn't work since the website requires like three to four days' notice. It was much easier to stop by the patisserie to see what's available. They would usually have something. We got 'Yatsura' — made up of hazelnut dacquoise, dark chocolate ganache and crunchy hazelnut feuilletine. 

Our neighbors are very nice people. Of course we never knew that till we bonded over our dogs, and slowly got to know one another. As neighbors, while we randomly might know who live in which unit, and who might have a dog, or as that person who laughs loudly or have friends over, etc. Generic information. We don't pry and nobody would do that either. Nobody has been that mean in our block for anyone to start a fight. A smile and a civil head nod suffice by way of greeting, and being friendly usually means we actually open our mouths to voice a 'hello'. Like us, M and B have been living here for three years, so while they're still living here, we're glad to have them around!

The dogs were on best behavior. Hurhurhur. Even Choya who doesn't usually beg at the dining table joined Maya and Ivy to see what the fuss was about. When she smelt crabs and such, she wasn't interested, so after lying about at our feet while we ate, she abandoned the table and went up the couch. 

Keeping Up With The Fitness Regime

Hello. How are you doing? 

Have you fallen off the exercise bandwagon? 

Don't. 

Stay on it. 

I have been less rigorous about exercising. LOL I feel like I've turned pudgy. Feel. That's because abs disappear damn fast. While the existence of abs isn't the yardstick of fitness or health, I use it as a gauge for the level of perceived fats in my body. And that's for me. That's not how I see you. Oh fuck it. Why would you care how I see you. Why would I bother to do that even? Your body, is none of my business.

I flat out refused to go running at all. It's too damn hot, even at 10pm. The idea of sweating it out at HIIT is also...... too hot. I don't have the luxury of an air-conditioned home gym. This is probably one period when I wished I had bought a bigger flat like I thought I would. Anyway. Press ups and planks are the easiest things to fulfill at home. 90-second daily planks and 50 press-ups a day do tone the body and keep it nimble.

My krav maga classes go on with a mask. My requests of coming up with tactics to fend off monkeys, wild boars and otters have bewildered my instructor. He was like, WHUT. HOW. Yup, how is exactly my problem. Explosive movements aren't my forte. I'm so lousy at plyometric exercises. I will never be as fast as the animals. Even if I'm in tip top shape, I'll never be as fast as an aggressive opportunistic monkey. I've come to realize that by simply appearing in their territory and even walking as fast as I can past them, they'll attack too. It's very hard to fend off an animal attack without being injured myself. 

Pilates and gyrotonic classes are still going on weekly. Studios have to get so creative about not letting clients 'share equipment'. So we are allocated set pieces and timings during this period, and we never share. We have also brought along our own personal equipment (towels, Arc, straps, balls) to and fro as well. I'm so glad that these sessions could still continue in the studio. I don't do group classes, so there're fewer rules to adhere by. By now, my instructors are all vaccinated, as are the staff at the studios. Even during the period when we (clients) could have masks off in the studios, most of us still kept them on. It's really in our personal interest to keep ourselves and everyone else safe. 

Canchita at Home

I was eager to taste chef-owner Tamara Chávez López's menu at the newly opened Canchita. We get so little LatAm cuisine in Singapore. The restaurant's Peruvian cuisine was right up our alley. K hurriedly made a reservation for lunch. Table of four! Wheeeeee. BUT P2.1HA happened. So we swopped it to dining in. Went to pick up the food and popped over to K and YQ's home for dinner instead.

It's sometimes very hard to share food between just two people. With four, we had more choices from Canchita's wide menu. We ordered the 'Canchita Bundle' for two persons which included a fisherman's soup, and, this tickled me the most- arroz chaufa — the name! It's really Cantonese fried rice in Peruvian style. But ours was more similar to a seafood paella in terms of flavors and texture than a drier wok-hei type of fried rice. I loved it though. Heh.

Added on an extra serving of mixed ceviche of fish and prawns and crispy calamari, beef, chicken and pork tacos, the requisite vegetables of espárragos (they gave both green and white), cochinito criollo leg (crispy skin suckling pig) with dried potato stew and grilled baby corn. The bundle came with a dessert of coconut cake with strawberries and cream. Nope. LatAm desserts are always wayyy too sweet. That was way out there for me. Ugh. 

This dinner suited my schedule. I had canceled earlier appointments and rescheduled a number of them. I didn’t want to see anyone for a week. I was in hibernation mode; not on QO but since I work with old folks, I decided to stay away from humans for a few days. Of course I went out to walk the dog, soaked in the sea breeze and the green at the parks. But I didn’t want to have f2f work meetings or meet any friends; didn’t want anyone over, and even canceled pilates and gyro. I needed the time-out. Tonight marked the first night that I could meet people. So I was in civil form tonight to see friends and not be a downer.