15-9-22
My brother and I had Halal food at Fortune Centre in Middle Road today. The proprietress of Syam’s Corner served her padang dishes with delight. She was pleased when we asked her for sambal belachan.
After lunch I dropped by a vegetarian dry goods shop owned by a lady from Yunnan. There are 26 tribes in the place she was born. She climbed up a chair to bring down cups of sweet & sour vermicelli to show me the difference between that and mala noodles.
Carrying papadums, pumpkin crackers and cup noodles, we went to greet the deities at the Hindu temple and the Buddhist temple outside Fortune Centre.
We had been talking about this outing since 2020 but kept postponing it because of safe distancing measures.
Today we finally made it.
I couldn’t resist having pictures taken with Hanuman and Garuda no matter how many times I had seen them. They are ageless, but I’m not.
A soft spoken lady from Thailand approached us to take a picture of her and her mom. We had a great time helping them to strike a pose.
In a short span of a few hours and within a few hundred square meters, we interacted with people from different cultures and faiths and experienced architecture that went back hundreds of years.
And only after 50 plus years I noticed that my brother enjoys padang food, just like the way our father did.
Lisa Ong 