Dine like a pauper... or not

The day started on a promising note towards healthy eating. For breakfast today, Da and I ate homemade carrot and pistachio nut bread that I had baked on 29 August 2009 (saturday).

As the day progressed, things went "downhill" in terms of healthy eating but "uphill" in terms of "yummy" factor of our meals!

Da and I met for lunch at the Indian Muslim cafe located at Stanley Street. We had originally arranged to meet for lunch at the Amoy hawker centre. However, the elevators in my office building are undergoing upgrading and there is currently only one elevator serving my floor. As such, by the time I managed to leave the building and walk towards Amoy hawker centre, Da had already walked in my direction and we ended up meeting at Stanley Street. Since Da had to work late today, we decided to eat rice for lunch.

The cafe was relatively crowded when we arrived but we managed to obtain a seat. Do not be fooled by the apparent number of dishes that you see in the photograph below. Actually, we ordered:-

(a) 1 small piece of mutton cutlet;

(b) 1 small piece of fish cutlet;

(c) 1 piece of fried chicken; and

(d) a portion of stir-fried bittergourd.

The food was served with 2 plates of steamed white rice, a small plate of pickles and two types of curry sauce (fish curry and chicken curry).

When it came to the end of the workday, I sent a text message to my mother and suggested that we eat toasted sandwiches for dinner. She agreed.

When I left my office building, I walked past the building next to ours and lo-and-behold, I saw six piping hot curry puffs in the warmer in the cafe located on the first storey. I approached one of the staff at the cafe and said that I would take all the six curry puffs. He nodded and told another staff "扫" (sǎo), which literally means "sweep". I guess he wanted to inform the other staff that I would "sweep" all the remaining curry puffs?

When my mother saw the curry puffs that I brought to her home, she suggested eating the curry puffs for dinner instead. My mother ate her curry puff "neat" (that is, without condiments/sauces) while I ate mine with tomato sauce (to counter the spiciness of the curry).

What drink complements curry puffs? Hot coffee, of course!

My mother and I decided to stop at one curry puff each. As the curry puff was a little oily, there was a feeling of "jelat" after one curry puff. How do I explain "jelat" in English? Hmm... in economics terminology, I guess the closest would be "zero utility" or even "negative utility"?

How does one counter the feeling of "jelat"? With chocolates, of course! *grin*

When the sound of my mother's gate being opened was heard, Boy-Boy ran excitedly to the main door. Ah... it was ZT (girlfriend of my brother, LG) who was back from her dinner. She had bought some snacks from NTUC Supermarket. Do you see Boy-Boy licking his lips in anticipation in the photograph below?

According to ZT, NTUC Supermarket was having a promotion. As such, she bought two packets of mixed nuts and two packets of satay broad beans.

Boy-Boy stood on tip-toe, wanting to have a look at the snacks. As such, ZT obliged by showing him the packet of snacks that she had bought.

Suddenly, Boy-Boy's ears perked up again. His sharp hearing had detected another arrival at my mother's home. It was Da, back from work. I heated up two curry puffs for him in my mother's oven.

Ever since ZT came back, Boy-Boy has been putting up an Academy-award winning performance, making the appropriate noises and when ZT looked in his direction, he would walk towards the edge of the staircase in the dining room and turn to look at her meaningfully. Yes, he was hinting to ZT that he wanted to go for a walk.

When ZT asked Boy-Boy whether he wanted to go for a walk, he immediately turned and ran towards the shelving in the living room where his leash was placed.

Look at how excited Boy-Boy was!

Boy-Boy could not wait to put on his leash. He kept fidgeting, as though to tell ZT, "Let's go! Let's go!".

With Boy-Boy's leash in place, ZT and Boy-Boy proceeded to the main door. Or rather, Boy-Boy led ZT to the main door!

And off they went on their walk! Actually, Boy-Boy took ZT for a run.

In the meantime, my mother, Da and I ate some prawn crackers that Da's colleague had given him. Yummy! They were very fresh and must have been fried over the weekend.

After his walk (or run, actually!), Boy-Boy came back a happy dog. He knew that what would follow would be his bath. After the bath, his fur would be dried thoroughly and he would smell absolutely wonderful from the dog shampoo.

Shaloam,