In a pot

Da and I decided to eat out for dinner today.

As it has been a cold and wet day today, I had in mind to eat the mini hot pot with dry noodles at Siglap Beer Garden (a coffee shop located at Upper East Coast Road).

En route to Siglap Beer Garden, we were side-tracked by several eating establishments and many pubs. Da suggested that we try somewhere that we had not tried before and I agreed.

We parked our car at Burnfoot Terrace and walked to Upper East Coast Road (which was parallel to Burnfoot Terrace). Hmm... pubs, pubs and more pubs. We saw many "sarong party girls" there as well. There was a very slim, tanned and petite Asian girl (wearing a dress that was extremely short) who was practically latched onto a much older Caucasian man outside a pub. They were sharing a cigarette.

Then we chanced upon a cafe called "Claypot Cuisine".

The cafe did not look very crowded (but then again, it was almost 9.30 pm), so we decided to give this cafe a try.

The menu looked rather old. Perhaps this cafe used to be a Vietnamese cafe because the name of the food establishment at the back of the menu was a different name ("Le Viet") and a "Claypot Cuisine" label seemed to have been stuck to the front cover of the menu.

Be that as it may, we decided to order the "house special" claypot chicken rice. We also decided to "go green" and we ordered:-
(a) broccoli fried with mixed mushrooms; and
(b) sliced bittergourd omelette.

When the food arrived, I took a bite of the claypot rice. It tasted so much better than the claypot rice that Da and I ate at a coffee shop at Joo Chiat Road shortly after Chinese New Year this year. Of course, as my Uncle T would say, nothing compares to the Kampar claypot chicken rice in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia!

The broccoli was stir-fried with three types of mushrooms - dried Chinese mushrooms, button mushrooms and straw mushrooms. Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables, so I had no complaints about this dish.

The bittergourd omelette was nicely fried although I prefer the bittergourd omelette from Chin Chin Eating House or Y Y Kafei Dian, both of which are located at Purvis Street.

As we were about three quarters through our dinner, suddenly I heard the sound of water dripping. I looked up and realised that one of the air-conditioner blowers near our table was leaking at two spots. Fortunately, there was no table located just below the blower otherwise the diners seated at that table would have a very wet dinner! The staff were quick thinking and placed a large pail below the two spots where the water was leaking. They also mopped the floor.

I commented to Da that I expected to see more diners. Although it was not during the peak hour of dinner, I would have thought that there would still be many diners, finishing up their dinner at 9+ in the evening. However, this just goes to show that the current financial crunch has hit many areas of commerce. Perhaps more and more families are opting to eat home-cooked food instead of eating out.

Interestingly enough, as we were eating our dinner, I realised that more diners were starting to arrive and the business seemed to be picking up. Have you ever been in a situation where you enter a shop that is not very crowded and not long after you arrive, the shop becomes more and more crowded? As sons and daughters of the Lord, we are all blessed to be a blessing wherever we go. Thank You, Abba Father, for looking after Your children.