A relative- one whom I've not met for six years- swept into town for a very short visit not too long ago.
It was good to be able to finally meet up after all this time.
After all... the place where we met six years ago has since been demolished to make way for a new housing estate up and coming on its way.
Honestly I had not intended for the interim to be this long.
There had been plans three years ago, but they were shelved because something came up on my end and I was in no frame of mind to meet anyone, eat anything or even smile.
Less of the case now, however, and we agreed to meet in the evening- for hawker food.
Apparently hawker food had been sorely missed.
I threw out a couple of suggestions- Lau Pa Sat, Fengshan, Chomp Chomp at Serangoon Gardens, and Old Airport Road
My relative chose Old Airport Road.
So it was at Dakota MRT Station on a Wednesday evening that I waited- with box of colorful Ang Ku Kueh bought from Ji Xiang in hand.
It didn't take us long to get to the food center.
First thing that greeted us was the crowd.
If Old Airport Road has her fair share of patrons in the lunchtime crowd, her dinner crowd is far more extensive, and more varied. Like Fengshan, it has a reputation of being a dinner/supper place, and so more common is it that people from the surrounding 'hoods (and elsewhere) will come down for their evening meal.
We walked around the place a little bit to hear the noise, and to get a feel of what we wanted to eat.
As we meandered around the busy tables, the waiting queues and the crowds, I tossed out a few ideas.
There was a queue at the char kuay teow stall so it probably had to be really good.
The fried Hokkien prawn mee this diner was having seemed to be quite good too.
Somewhere at the back there was a stall selling mutton soup.
And the satay stall was right in front not too far from the popiahs, the dim sums, the cheong funs, the wanton noodles and the muah chee.
We walked around, then got ourselves a table- at the front- near the main road- which was cooler, and windier too.
There was very little deliberation after that.
And this- eventually- is what we had.
A plate of fried Hokkien mee, two popiahs, and two sugarcane drinks.
It looks ordinary, commonplace, simple even, but I'm glad to say that my relative enjoyed the food.
For a very long time, we've assumed that what we have is too indistinct for the rest of the world, downplaying it for what it can actually be.
But, as we've recently discovered, that's not true.
It isn't always so convenient to get a popiah, for example, in London or Los Angeles.
Neither is it so easy to 'hop downstairs' for a plate of fried Hokkien mee with chili and lots of wok hei.
Not to mention that whilst some places may have plenty of apples, cherries, strawberries, oranges. blueberries and blackberries, none of them give you as much of the shiok, shiok feeling you'll have when you down a cup of cold, freshly-squeezed sugarcane from the drinks stall three tables away from you.