Eating Duck Rice - Change of Plans - Food for Thought at the Botanic Gardens

On Tuesday, Michelle was getting together with some friends to have lunch at the Duck Rice Restaurant.  Duck Rice is a local institution which will be closing its doors soon.  The owners are planning to retire on June 22nd, and there is nobody to take their places.  Apparently, the essential secret to good duck rice is the proper cutting of the duck, and that is a skill that is nearly impossible to teach.  The proprietors have been unable to pass this skill on, so Duck Rice will soon become a thing of the past.  In the meantime, Michelle, and her family and friends, are trying to get to the restaurant as many times as possible.  Michelle told me that there is no easy way to get there using public transportation, so when she offered me the opportunity to tag along with her and her friends, I jumped at the chance.

As I was heading to the subway, I ran into Kjersten and Buddy.  I went with them as she took Buddy on his morning walk, and she showed me a way to get to the Clarke Quay MRT station while walking along the river.  Her husband's parents had just gone back to the states, after a weeklong visit.  One of the highlights of their visit had been a visit to the beach at Batam in Indonesia.  They had taken a short ferry ride to get there.  She said if you go during the week, the beautiful beach is nearly deserted.  That might be a fun thing to do during Erin's visit.

Ben and Michelle picked me up at the MRT station after my subway ride.  Ben dropped us at their friend, Alysia's, parking garage.  Alysia's, driver, Michael, took us to the Duck Rice restaurant.  I had mistaken Michael for her husband, rather than her driver, and all the women got a big laugh out of that!  We took long, windy roads to the restaurant.  These were the roads on which they used to hold the Formula One race, before they moved it near the Harbourfront.  It reminded me of the windy, hilly roads in Wisconsin that my husband and his brothers love so much!  When we finally arrived at the restaurant, it was not open!!  We had no idea why it was closed, it was just closed.  We needed to get in touch with the other women quickly, before they headed to the Duck Rice restaurant, too.  Michelle and Alysia brainstormed for ideas, and Michael gave some suggestions, too.

We ended up at a restaurant called "Food for Thought", right inside the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.  There, you sit down at a table, peruse the menu, and fill out a form, turn it in at the cash register, and pay for the food and beverages.  Then servers bring the food to the table.  We chose some traditional Singaporean food, along with some Western type dishes.  Mussels were the special of he day, so we got a bowl of those.  We also got some chicken wings, and some spaghetti and meatballs.  For our Singaporean dishes, we had Mee Rebus, and Chicken Laksa.  Everything was delicious, but, all in all, we had too much food for 5 people.  Also, the Western style dishes were more popular than the Singaporean dishes.  As we prepared to leave, we had 1 chicken wing, and lots of mee rebus and chicken laksa left.  I asked the other diners if they would mind if I took the leftover Singaporean dishes home for Rich to taste, especially because I hate to waste food.  Michelle advised me against it, because the noodles in both dishes would absorb the soup, become tasteless, and Rich would hate it so much that he would never try it again!  So, I left it, for Rich's sake.

During lunch, the women talked about their children's schools, their teachers, and their principals.  I have had these same conversations with my friends back in the States.  Are the schools good enough, and will they prepare the children for the places that their parents dream that they can go?  Been there, done that!  I wished that I could reassure these new friends that things would turn out ok.  But, even though my children are older, they are still works in progress.  Thankfully, they are past the grammar school years, when parental involvement was so important.  During high school, it became less so.  Now that they're in college and beyond, I just hope that they have chosen their courses of study wisely, and they end up in careers that make them happy.  Because the person who loves their job never works a day in his/her life!

Alysia paid for all of our meals, and before we left, she bought us each a piece of Pink Velvet Cake to take home with us.  It was wonderful!  It tasted like strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting.  YUM!  She wouldn't allow any of us to repay her.  I hope I can repay her in kind sometime during my stay.