no live prawns

my brother brought the whole family out for dinner saturday and we went to a seafood restaurant. and as usual, he wasn't familiar with restaurant fare and asked me to pick the dishes from the menu. his only input was that he wanted prawns, chilli crab, shark's fun, cold dish... well, seemed like he already knew what he wanted. hmmm...

anyway, i simply ordered a set menu with an additional ala carte chilli crab. but when i looked at the details in the set menu, there was an item that made me very uncomfortable - poached live prawns. hmmm, this was something that i had stopped taking since i took my buddhist vows. i no longer take anything that had to be killed specifically for me, especially poached live prawns at seafood restaurants. i do not like the idea of the restaurant hauling up a netful of live prawns, place them in a bowl, display them to you as the prawns jump, and mix a concoction of herbs into the prawns in front of you as you look on, before bringing the bowl in to cook them. 

i asked if my brother wanted to change the dish to which he looked at me, bewildered, and commented "you must be crazy, why would anyone not want to eat prawns?" he wouldn't understand my tensions as his framing and attitudes towards religion, specifically buddhism, was totally different from mine. so for me at that very moment, i was in a mental dilemma. my mind was going through a debate over how i should proceed. in the end, i decided to ask the waiting staff, who was standing beside me awaiting my order if we could replace that with any other dishes that kids would enjoy to which the waiting staff rattled off a list of how they could cook the prawns. my brother looked on as i asked. hmmm, looked like i couldn't escape the prawns in front of my brother. so i simply told them to prepare cereal prawns and whispered to the waiting staff - and i don't want any live prawns. i said we are buddhist and do not take anything that was killed specifically for us. thankfully, the staff understood and went off. no live prawn was presented and the prawn dish that was served was delicious, although my brother commented that the prawns were not fresh.

overall, i thought it was a very decent dinner but my brother had different views. he commented post-dinner that the food was not too nice. it was an interesting comment, considering how he heaped praises after praises whenever a dish was served. his comments didn't bother me. i just enjoyed the food and i was glad i managed to work around the prawny issue.

:-)