Constant Craving

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I’ve been thinking about food a lot. More than usual. It’s not like Brunei is short of eating places/restaurants. So far, the food that I’ve sampled here is “not bad”. Singaporean-speak, “not bad” usually means “average”, “you’re not missing anything”, “I’ll pass”, “can be better” – you get the drift.

I was craving for Nyonya laksa – the Katong kind, very “lemak” with lots of cockles. Well, I ordered a bowl of laksa at one of the restaurants here. I was assaulted by the pungent aroma of the dish (which I deduced came from “buah keluak”). The noodles that were used were not even the “mee laksa” variety. It was more like “bee hoon”. Apparently this is the Sarawakian laksa. I had a few mouthfuls and pushed the bowl aside. I had to order something else which was more palatable. I’m sure it’s a matter of acquired taste… 

I didn’t learn my lesson and ordered laksa at another restaurant. My colleague assured me that the laksa there was the Singapore-style one, emphasising that it will not be the pungent kind that I tried the first time round. Looking forward to finally satiating my craving for laksa, I confidently ordered a bowl. It looked like Singapore-style laksa but that was where the similarity ended.  Suffice to say, I will not order laksa in Brunei ever again.

If there’s one thing that I really miss about Singapore, it’s definitely the food. I’m now thinking about chicken rice (steamed chicken, at Banquet Causeway Point), cheese prata with fish curry (at Al-Ameen, Jalan Remaja), mee soto (anywhere), barbecued chicken wings (at Lau Pa Sat)…. I know I’m only torturing myself by thinking about all the food that I can’t have here!