Casual dining of yesteryears

At Far East Plaza on Saturday. Because we walked past Hans and out of, I don't know, nostalgia perhaps, we decided to have dinner there.

Everything tastes exactly the same. The overly thickened cream of mushroom, the cold garlic bread, the sickeningly sweet iced tea, the boiled cabbage and mixed vegetables side salad, the dubious sauce ladled over the chicken fillet. The only exception was the fruit - it was quite fresh and sweet. (My fear of honeydew is from camp and Hans.)

Lawyer was rather disgusted with the meal and was skeptical when I said it tastes exactly like what we used to have. I also recall eating at Hans a lot more times than she remembers.

But if I'm not wrong, we started going to Hans because our seniors brought us there. I only remember two outlets vividly - the Far East one and the one outside camp.

It was an easy place to sit and talk the day away. And I suppose when you are 13 or 14, it's fun to have a place where you can actually have a drink, a soup and a fruit or dessert to go with your "main", all at a pretty affordable price.

Gradually we grew out of it. It has been years and years since I last ate there. On Saturday, we readily reached a mutual agreement not to eat there again.

After all, the purpose had been served. We revisited a place we frequented more than 10 years ago, which triggered the game of 'I remember'**. Nothing makes you feel as old as when playing 'I remember'.

** What do you remember?
I remember the mathematician not caring that her nails were dirty when she ate, and economist sprinkling copious amounts of salt on her fries, and the layout of Far East Macs is still imprinted in my head.
Lawyer remembers the old uncles working at Macs coming to tell us stories because we were there so often. I concluded they must have been talking to her while I chatted with someone else, cos I seriously don' remember that.