Eating at the Ghim Moh Food Centre

On, Monday, Michelle wanted to take me out for a Singaporean breakfast, since we had told her of our upcoming departure.  Tiong Bahru Food Centre is closed on Monday, so she took me to her second favorite; Ghim Moh Food Centre.  Even there, our choices were limited, because there are fewer vendors on Monday.

A Food Centre in Singapore is a place where they bring all of the vendors that used to have little sidewalk stands, food trucks, and stalls together in one location.  Each vendor has a stall with running water, and the Health Department can keep a closer eye on their food preparation methods.  Despite the fact that there are many vendors in one place, you can pick out the best because they have the longest lines!

Michelle queued up to get us some fish ball soup, because the porridge stall wasn't open that day.  It had about 6 people in line, so I knew it would be good.  I got us a table, and took in the surroundings.  We ate our soup, which was very good.  I haven't perfected my use of chopsticks, yet, so I did make quite a mess!  When we finished eating, the vendor selling juice was finally ready for business, and Michelle had an orange juice, and I had mango.  There is nothing quite like fresh squeezed juice.  Before leaving, Michelle bought some boneless chicken rice to take home for her boys.  I decided to get some, too, because the only thing I don't like about chicken rice is struggling to get the chicken off the bones using chopsticks.   Michelle told me that this was a family favorite, so I got some.

We headed to Ollie's school to pick him up from kindergarten.  It appears that every student in Singapore wears a uniform.  The uniforms have the name of the school on them, and include a backpack.  Every child has their name sewn onto the chest of their shirt.  Some people in the U.S. don't like uniforms, but I've always been a big fan.  It really saves time getting your child dressed in the morning.  Even with a uniform, there are ways to express your individuality.  Plus, it gets you ready for later life, as you can always tell what line of work a person is in by the way they dress.

Just as we were picking up Ollie, I heard my phone ring.  My landlady was calling to say that people were there to fix my air conditioning.  I wasn't aware that anybody was scheduled to come that day, but I was only 10 minutes from home, so we headed in that direction.  Michelle said that if we missed this opportunity, there was no telling when they would be back!

Michelle told me that we had to find a way to stay in Singapore, now that we had our hot tub repaired, our washing machine replaced, and were getting our air conditioning fixed.  She said that I should get a job, and Rich could stay home and take care of me.  All of a sudden, Ollie piped up from the back seat, and said, "Yes, Auntie Deb should go to work, and Uncle Rich can come out and play with us!"  Thanks, Ollie!

I got home at 11:45, and the three men started replacing the three older air conditioning inverter  units inside, along with the 2 bigger compressors outside.  They left for about 45 minutes for lunch, but were there until 5:30.  Good thing I had gotten that chicken rice!

Here's the queue for our fish ball soup.

A view of the Food Centre.

That's a hardware, or DIY, store in the right hand corner. 

This is where we got our chicken rice.

This is the juice stall.

This stall sells roasted chicken rice...

...and this one sells curried fish heads, a local favorite.

This is Ollie coming out of school.

This scene felt pretty universal to me.

Thank goodness I got this chicken rice.  It comes with two types of sauce; black and spicy ginger.

Getting my air conditioners replaced.