Chapter 5: What are we having for lunch today?

A pregnant woman tends to have all sorts of cravings for certain types of food. Their imagination could affect their cravings so wild that they can crave for curries in the middle of the night, durians in the early morning, or worse, assam laksa in Penang. For the assam laksa craving, the husband might have to make a quick and painful decision on whether he should endure his wife’s non-stop grumbles about how little he understands a pregnant woman’s misery, or to make a grueling drive up to Penang. And usually, the intelligent husband will choose the latter, which is less painful.

Some experts suggested that a pregnant woman’s cravings could be caused by the chaotic hormone progesterone in her body. A pregnant woman will support this theory when she argued that her craving for a bowl of Vietnamese beef noodles came from deep inside her body in a manner that she could not explain, and had absolutely nothing to do with the host on the gourmet food show on television who had just eaten a bowl of Vietnamese beef noodles and exclaimed how delicious it was.

Other experts suggested that the cravings could be due to the culture in a society that expects this type of behavior with every pregnant woman. In this situation, she might be subconsciously complying with tradition. This theory is applied when a pregnant woman chided her husband for not being sensitive to her needs and cited that the pregnant Mrs. Wong next door had such a caring husband that he drove all the way to Penang to get her assam laksa.

Whatever the reasons for a pregnant woman’s cravings, it is a common practice that husbands will try to fulfill their wives’ desire at all cost and all time. However, what is not disclosed is that, colleagues can be pulled into this quicksand of never-ending pregnant woman cravings as well. Just like how our lunch venues were related to Dawn’s cravings.

As a pregnant woman, Dawn faithfully exercised her “thou shalt obey pregnant womens’ cravings” right. But luckily for us, she did not request for assam laksa lunch at Penang. Her cravings were ‘normal’ food like pork porridge, sushi, dim sum and fish soup, which could be easily found in our dining venues. One problem though. Her cravings will persist for a long period of time.

When she craved for sushi, she urged us to accompany her to a Japanese restaurant for every lunch and each of our lunch budgets busted for that month. When she craved for dim sum, all of us scheduled our meetings and conference calls during our lunch time because we knew that a dim sum lunch at a Chinese restaurant everyday for a month could bust our lunch budgets further. However, when she craved for fish soup, we did not reject her lunch invites initially because we were thinking that since fish soups can be found in most hawker centers and food courts, and lunching at these places were kind to our pockets. But we did not expect her to fall in love with one specific fish soup stall in one particular hawker center, which led to similar messages on our MSN Messengers everyday…

“lunch together later? Wat do u wanna eat?”
“anything”
“I feel like taking fish soup. Let’s go to Telok Blangah hawker center, ok?”

“lunch together later? Wat do u wanna eat?”
“feel like having a burger”
“I feel like taking fish soup. Let’s go to Telok Blangah hawker center, ok?”

“lunch together later? Wat do u wanna eat?”
“I wanna have the western food at Clementi coffee shop”
“I feel like taking fish soup. Let’s go to Telok Blangah hawker center, ok?”

After one whole man, every single one of us had tried the food offered by every single stall in Telok Blangah hawker center. Except for KZ. Because KZ was a vegetarian, he had been eating the same food from the same vegetarian food stall in the hawker center.

In Singapore, hawker centers around the whole country sell almost the same kind of food. You can always be sure to find fish soup (yes, again), fishball noodles, fried carrot cakes and char kway teow (some kind of flat noodles), prawn noodles, duck rice, hot and cold desserts, yong tau fu (tofus and vegetables stuffed with minced fish), vegetarian food and of course, chicken rice. Chicken rice is a mandatory food that must exist in every single hawker center and food court because it is the most popular food among Singaporeans. So how does our team choose which hawker center to go to for our lunches? It’s still the food, stupid! Citing from the kind of messages running around in our MSN Messengers…

“hey Beng, feel like eating fried kway teow today?”
“ok, let’s go Bukit Merah!”

“Nicky Nicky! Wanna eat some roast duck rice?”
“cool! Let’s go Bukit Timah for lunch!”

“Dawn, shd we go for some dumplings noodles today?”
“ok! They’ve got dumplings noodles at Telok Blangah! And even better fish soup!”
“oh…”

Hawker centers could be selling the same but different food. The chicken rice in hawker center A and hawker center B might contain the same ingredients – chicken and rice. However, due to some secret recipes, the chicken rice in hawker center A could taste better than hawker center B. So when our team felt like taking chicken rice, we would rush to hawker center A, but we will go to hawker center B another day for their delicious prawn noodles.

Food courts are another story. There is one food court in every shopping complex in Singapore. Food courts are the air-conditioned and cleaner versions of hawker centers. The range of food that they sell is akin to the ones offered by the hawker centers, though in some food courts, they tried to sell lower quality Japanese food with prices that could compete with those served in most Japanese restaurants. The main difference between a food court and a hawker center is that you pay more for food that are lower in quality and quantity. However in a hot and humid country like Singapore, our team does appreciate some air-conditioned dining at times. But since most food served in the different food courts are as tasteless, and the chicken rice in food court A could taste as tasteless as the one offered in food court B, how do we choose which food court to go to for our lunches? It’s the distance, stupid!

Typically, this happened in the office on a daily basis…

At about 10a.m., my MSN Messenger popped out. It was Dawn.

“wat do u wanna eat for lunch later?”
“dunno. Haven’t decided yet”
“ok, lemme see wat are the rest planning”
“I feel like taking fish soup”
“I’m busy with something now”
“oops, sorry!”

Fifteen minutes before lunch, Nicky sent a message to KZ.

“hey, let’s go for lunch! got 2pm meeting or conf call?”
“yes”
“who’s tat inconsiderate idiot tat planned the meeting?”
“Rose”
“oh…”
“will packet”
“ok then, I’ll see where r the rest going”

So Nicky sent another message to Choi…

“Choi! Let’s go for lunch! got 2pm meeting or conf call?”
“of course not! Where shd we go?”
“how abt the yong tau fu at the Arcade?”
“I think the one at People’s Park is better”
“ok, we’ll go there then, call the rest!”

And Choi sent another to Sally…

“we’re going to People’s Park for lunch today”
“People’s Park very stuffy, can go somewhere else?”
“like?”
“how about Raffles City food court? Got air-con”
“but wat’s there to eat?”
“sure to have something you can eat wat, the food court’s so big”
“ok then, call the rest”

And Sally sent another to Ju…

“Ju, we going Raffles City food court, you coming?”
“tat food court very crowded and not much to eat”
“wat do u suggest then?”
“how abt the Marina Sq food court? It has just been renovated”
“sounds great. Can you ask Beng if he’s joining us?”

And Ju sent another to me…

“Beng, u joining us for lunch at Marina Sq food court?”

Before I could reply, Dawn sent a message to me as well…

“Hey, let’s go for fish soup at Telok Blangah?”
“no, got meeting soon”
“oh, ok. I’ll ask the rest then”

Without losing a second, I replied Ju…

“Ju, Dawn asking to go Telok Blangah again”
“ok, I’ll send out evacuation to the rest”
“see u at the 1st floor lobby”

And Ju sent out a message to all except KZ and Rose, who will be having meeting and thus will be packaging their lunches, and of course, Dawn.

“evacuate now! Dawn looking for ppl to go Telok Blangah again!”

In five minutes’ time, we gathered at the lobby and left for Marina Square food court. As for Dawn, she found colleagues from the other team who were willing to join her for lunch at Telok Blangah hawker center, while wondering why most of us were having meetings during the lunch time.