It was one of those evenings when we weren't sure what we wanted to have for dinner.
On one hand we didn't mind Turkish style beef kebab with fresh tomatoes and lightly buttered rice.
On the other hand, neither did we mind having braised pork rice with hard boiled egg and pickled vegetables Taiwanese style.
But then we'd already had the beef kebab buttered rice for lunch, and we didn't quite feel like having hard boiled egg for dinner.
So we stood at the crossroads between Wilkie Edge and Peace Center trying to make up our minds what to do.
Should we head down to Bugis for duck rice?
Should we head towards Plaza Singapura?
Was there anything else to be had along the way?
We even considered mutton briyani from the Indian-Muslim coffee shop newly opened at the corner of Peace Center, but then decided to stick to our favorite place and so changed our minds.
Eventually we decided to just walk ahead towards Plaza Singapura and make a decision along the way.
That's how we ended up at this place in Parklane.
I don't know the name of the cafe.
It's a very non-descript one.
All I know is that it sits on the first floor, and where it is now used to be an open space where a second-hand bookstore would occasionally have atrium sales there.
I bought several paperbacks from them before.
The cafe offers several dishes on the menu-
Amongst some of the more popular ones include fried rice (of various kinds), basil pork rice, and zichar-style meals.
My friend took basil pork rice.
It wasn't too bad- it was appetizing enough, there were lots of little chillies hidden in the meat bits, and there was a sunny side up egg.
My choice of dinner that evening was fried mee sua.
Partially because I've taken to mee sua recently.
And partially because I wanted something bright and cheerful looking for my evening meal.
I quite like the way it was done.
The plate was colorful, the portion was sufficient and it had a variety of vegetables, meat, fish cake and prawns.
But what fascinated me most about my meal wasn't the food, but the crowd.
They- their mannerisms- seemed somewhat familiar.
To my left, a group of three sat quietly chatting amongst themselves as they finished their plastic cups of iced coffee and lime juice. Plates that once held their dinner were now empty in front of them.
All three were dressed in office wear.
There was a man seated behind me.
I'd seen him earlier whilst walking up to the counter to collect my dinner.
He sat alone reading quietly, a cup of hot milky tea in his hand. In front of him his cleaned-up plate had been slightly pushed to the side.
They were a quiet crowd, all.
No one talked loudly.
No one laughed or chuckled at the top of their voice.
Except for that one group of three, and another of two, nearly everyone else in the cafe was having their dinner alone.
Even the one sitting at the table in front of me, scrolling through his phone with one hand as he ate using the other.
The way they were eating, the way they were reading, even the way they drank from their cups- the intensity of it- it all seemed familiar.
I too had been that way once.
Nothing, it seems, has changed in the last ten years.
There are still part time students going for evening classes after a long day of work.
There are still part-time students whose cost calculations are high up in the head as they hunt for affordable meals (near their school) that will fill them up and wont make them feel hungry during lectures as they try to concentrate.
The spirit of a part-time student has not changed.
The stress- the pressure- the necessity for the qualifications- they're all still there.
But maybe there's more camaraderie now
At least there're more places where one can have a proper (affordable) meal.
And you don't have to rely solely on (weak) vending machine coffee anymore.