Ribbit Dinner

Yesterday I went to One-North and met John after work. Our friend picked us up after some confusion where each party was and travelled in his green car to an area where we had never been. Nevertheless I was sure I had seen these buildings before, but John questioned if I thought all of Singapore looked the same.

Our driver struggled to find a spot to park on the street. This neighbourhood seemed to only consist of one-way roads. We parked three streets away from the restaurant and walked through strange alleys to find our way there. We passed temples, golden elephant statues and simple food with a plastic spoon sitting in the street. Our friend explained it was for the Gods and I wondered if the Gods really needed a spoon. The only being I saw eating the food was a small undernourished street cat. One I squealed over and wanted to bring home. Then I saw a second and had the same reaction. Then a third and later a forth.

When we sat down around a table at Eminent Frog Porridge Seafood restaurant our friend needed to fetch something from his car and said we could order something to drink. While sitting there alone we quickly discovered we were the only pale people in sight. Even though we made a few attempts to receive attention from the personnel nobody came up to talk to us. We felt avoided. As soon as our local friend sat down a waiter came up with bowls and sticks and asked if we wanted to order now. We were still waiting for one person more so we declined. We bought drinks across the street where the food was being made. Our second friend managed to arrive during the few minutes we were away.

If you are planning on moving to Singapore I suggest to touch up on your English. Also, try learning Chinese. I believe the reason nobody came up to John and I was because we looked like we did not speak it. Our friends ordered in Chinese. Even though we did not understand what they said, when the lady taking our order pointed towards the two of us and smiled we saw that she judged us. Casual talking erupted once she left and soon the food arrived. We had rice porridge which tasted like rice crackers, a specific brand common in Sweden. I liked it a lot! To this we had two dishes of frog. First time eating frog. It was said to taste like chicken (which everything is explained to taste like these days) but it had less taste of chicken and was more like simple meat. Not a lot of taste in it. It was a filler for the porridge. It was good, but not fantastic!

I was almost full when one of the guys found an eye in his bowl. Seconds before they had assured me there were only the lower parts of the body in the dishes after I proclaimed I had found a head. I lost a bit of my appetite after that and took it upon myself to finish the porridge. After three more bowls I was finally full.

A girl from the chat (all of our friends are in the same chat) joined us unexpectedly in the middle of the dinner. It was an open invitation and it was only fun to have another girl there. A bit shy perhaps but I solved that by staring at her during the dessert.

After leaving the restaurant we travelled by car a couple of blocks down to a specific dessert place. Like a kiosk in the middle of a row of other small shops. We tasted bean curd in syrup, something we both dislike hence no picture of it, and egg tarts which John liked at least. Soon after that one friend needed to leave. The rest of us got into a car and had a tour of the area. Apparently a shady street; the lower the number got the shadier the area became. We saw brothels called things like Happy Nr Two (two being the number of the house) and men standing outside. A few girls could be seen but most were probably inside the houses. An interesting view of Singapore we had never seen.

Thank you friends for taking us there. The food was surprisingly good and it was fun to see a place in Singapore which still looked like it did in the 70's. Our friend said that and I believe him. He was kind enough to drive us home.