Day 18: After a Dinner and a Movie

Dinner at a modest restaurant isn’t all that expensive after all. One full three course meal, which includes a starter, the main dish and a desert, costs about forty to fifty SGD. It’s not really too expensive, considering that one meal in ordinary Swensons’ can cost close to the same amount. It's really quite affordable. But, of course, when I see prices in the hundreds (even though) they are in kronors, I freak out. I think it's because those numbers just register in my head as SGD. I don't think I'm accustomed to seeing these type of numbers yet.

Dinner was at a Greek restaurant tonight, and my starter was some seafood mayo salad on a piece of toast. I particularly enjoyed the salad, but the toast could be better. It was slightly too well done. It should be much more palatable if it was toasted half a minute lesser. The main dish was Filé Oscar. It’s a pork fillet with some sour dressing. The amateur connoisseur in me likes the vinegar but the fillet wasn’t as tender as I would like it to be. My overall impression of the dish was good. I’ll give it 6.5 out of 10. I don’t think I’m too fussy about food, just difficult to please. Wonder how the Japanese restaurants fare here? Any standard you think?

The sweets, however, eaten during the movie needs some getting used to on my part. I'm getting there. I think.

But the movie tickets are expensive! 90kr per ticket comes to over S$20! And to think there was so much caterwauling when some cinema chains at home raised the prices to just below S$10 for the weekend shows. And considering the state of our cinema chains, I can say that we have it really good. We are lucky.

Well, we watched Jarhead. I won't give any reviews on this show, but it was realistic enough, for a war movie. I give it 6 out of 10.

The walk back was cold! Maybe it was the late night air, coupled with the wind. Shear factor, I was told. But it felt like I was walking along Mohd Sultan Road. People were gathering to drink, with bottles of beer in their hands. Some drunks staggering past. Huge screams of joy or ecstasy rang out occassionally. Very Mohd Sultan Road. But much bigger. The scene stretched from the main city to one street from my apartment building 10 minutes walk away.

There were cars racing on the narrow streets. Skidding at times then negotating a bend. It's lke watching a shootout. You suddenly hear the screech of tires and see a car speeding past you. Then while making a turn, the wheels lock and the car skidded a bit. Almost like watching another movie.

Well, we missed desert because of time and I mentioned about our green worms during dinner tonight. So here's desert for tonight.

Chendol in its full neon green glory! Looks disgusting, tastes like flour.



Because it is made of flour.

But it isn't eaten plain. Usually with other ingredients, and most importantly sugar (gula melaka) and/or coconut milk. But it's still called chendol.

Oh yah, a description of pandan leaves can be found here.