Trapped in Singapore between two “workshops”, I spent most of the weekend with Good Friend in PR and Thoughtful Financier (as his boyfriend is to be referred to henceforth), and had a great time. I even had a great time when walking around IKEA – a particularly surreal experience in Singapore – and observing the locals going mad for miniature “Daim” bars, pickled rollmops and gherkins in the food market.
But the highlight was probably going to a Hawker Centre, or local food court, where (seemingly) hundreds of individual stalls serve speciality dishes which are brought to your table and paid for piecemeal.
Not only was the food (and the company, needless to say) absolutely outstanding, but it gave me one of only two tastes of genuinely Asian cuisine that I was to have on that trip (the other two were also with my adopted weekend family, and was just as excellent) – and thus a FANTASTIC opportunity to show off to those of my colleagues who had (as had I, until then) been considering such local specialities as Balsamic-flavoured Tenderloin with Wilted Spinach and Parmesan Air (to quote). God, I bored them SENSELESS with fond memories prefaced with “When we went to the Hawker Centre…” It is a mark of my colleagues essential kind-heartedness that they didn’t punch me square in the face.
I would have done.
Eiljert Gabbles On 