The other day the family went down to Borshch in Serangoon Gardens for dinner. Once upon a time we used to go there at least once a month, but that ritual ended when we moved over to the East, and it's been years since i last went there... But going back there reminded me of the umpteen times i'd go there and order the same thing time and time again - the $12.80 (now $13.80) set dinner with appetiser choice of shrimp cocktail or caviar with egg (no prizes for guessing which one i went for); soup choice of borshch or cream of mushroom (choosing the former is a no brainer - if they name the restaurant after the dish then it had better be good...); main course choice of several things which i barely remember cos my eyes would almost always automatically be drawn to the sirloin steak (first medium, then later in life, medium rare after i discovered the joys of semi-bloody meat - and i never contracted mad cow disease or salmonella, dun worry); drink choice of coffee, tea, coke or sprite (almost always took sprite - though now they've switched allegiances and offer pepsi or 7up instead); and dessert choice of fancy pancake or peach melba (and with the 'fancy' part of the former amounting to it being filled with banana, i'd automatically go for the latter...)
Um, looks like i got carried away there heh... But my point is that the food is not exactly the best around. It's really just above average at best (one thing that never changes is the ever-yellowing newspaper article from some time in the 80s promoting the restaurant, proudly displayed on one of the walls). But the draw of the place (such that by the end of the visit i resolved to go to the place a little more regularly - at least once a year...) lies for me purely in the nostalgia value that it holds. I've been going to that place since before it moved and was about half the size of what it is now - which is probably like since p1 in 1990 (which i now realize is a heck of a long time ago - after finding out that Keisha Castle-Hughes, the once 13-year-old star of Whale Rider was both born that year and also had her first child a couple of months ago) or even before that, and those memories all came flooding back when i went back there... Like how that's the only place i recall ever having eaten frog's legs (tastes like chicken). To top it all off, one particular waitress whom has been there for as long as i can remember took one look at me while we were ordering, and then before she left asked if i was the small boy who once upon a time was half my present height and who once frequented the place...
It's all but confirmed that this thurs nite will be the last night spent at my old house. However, that's dependent in large part on whether i can muster up the necessary willpower to pack everything by then. Sheesh. In the meantime, i'm continually unearthing stuff postmaturely like quiet time material that i had thought had not arrived but in actual fact was hidden under a pile of paper on a shelf somewhere, or old vouchers that expired months, if not years ago... It's almost like i'm conducting some sort of archeological dig...
Really need to settle travel details - i was just wondering if i might need to take a new passport picture, but i guess the aforementioned waitress recognizing me from more than half my life ago puts paid to those thoughts... Just hope that when i go through immigration wherever i am going to, no one will think i'm a terrorist...
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