sea bass w/ brinjal

it is may day and i desperately wanted to have something different from the usual routine. if i have my choice, i would want to go out to town with bee. just the two of us. but i knew i would be stretching a bit too far cos we had gone out for an hour plus this afternoon without her. and so, we decided to bring mum out to town for dinner and to do some shopping in town.

we had dinner at a cafe that specialises in bread-related food, soups, simple western mains... we were half wondering if mum would be able to enjoy/ appreciate the food. afterall, he closest encounter with western meals had been kfc, mcdonalds, or at most ikea food... and given that she is toothless, i decided to order sea bass fillet with sauteed brinjal for her. the sea bass and brinjal was grilled and the dish came with a hearty serving of tomato puree and topped with a sprinkling of fresh veggies. for ourselves, we ordered some vegetarian dishes (we are on a vegetarian diet in prep for vesak day)... and we shared a mushroom soup. happily we ate..  halfway through, mum said she was full and wanted to pass the remaining food to bee. i told her he's also on vegetarian diet and asked her to leave it aside for the waiter to clear. what? buang? sayanglah! cannot waste food! and she went on to gobble everything down... very typical of the elderly generation. i also asked her if it tasted good and she nodded her head as she used her fingers to gesture the "money" sign. (meaning - it must be good since it cost so much!)... anything expensive must be good. ha! another typical response from the elderly generation.

we went shopping after that and the evening wore on. and on our way home, i asked if she enjoyed the dinner. and finally she gave her frank inputs - the food was bad, the fish was bland... yadda yadda yadda... yup, another typical response from a old bibik. no food can be considered good if it did not taste familiar (no need to be peranakan dishes, but it must be something familiar), it was not cooked with strong spices, it was not sufficiently pedas, and for that matter, did not include her favourite sambal belachan...

i had guessed it right. she didn't know how to appreciate western food.

haha...