Okay, so this doesn't happen to me very often, but once in a while I find myself at places where I know I (very likely) will not be returning to them anymore.
It's not because the food isn't good.
Neither is it because there's nothing of value on the menu.
Just that I like to know upfront how much I'm supposed to pay, what exactly I'm paying for, and whether or not I'm getting a great value.
What makes this a wee bit sighy is that I had been quite excited to try this place.
When we walked past this place the first time, we had noticed the dishes all laid out prettily and neatly on the counters. We had also noticed the posters and advertisements stating how their system worked, and how there was now a deal of 3 for the price of 2.
It felt like a good deal, so this evening we had our dinner there.
It was lovely seeing all the different dishes laid out on the counter.
What exactly there were- now I can't remember- but there were local favorites- the same kind you find in a Teochew Porridge or Scissors Cut Curry Rice stall- and dishes that one would normally only be able to have in a regular Mainland restaurant.
Some of the dishes I thought rare were like the steamed chicken feet (with some sort of sauce). There was then a dish of Sichuan-style La Zi Ji, another dish of what I call Sichuan-style Fish with Pickled Mustard Greens (Suan Cai Yu), and another smaller dish of steamed fish very much like what I would see at the Teochew Porridge stall.
We chose what we wanted, put it on our tray and went to the cashier.
The lady rang it up, and that's when I got a bit of a surprise.
Will I say it clouded my enjoyment of the meal?
No.
I had my fill.
I loved what I ate.
But the eye-opening price of $17 for all them six dishes had me wondering just what exactly I were paying for.
How did all of these come to the grand total price of $17.20?
How had the price come about?
Were it because of the dishes we chose... but the most expensive I saw was $3.90..?
Or were it because of the beautiful, aesthetic way they had been arranged?
I have no idea.
The brain refused to calculate.
The mouth felt too shy to ask.
And in any case hungry me wasn't in the mood to get into a bantering mode with the cashier knowing she'd probably give me an answer the jiak kentang I would grasp.
This evening I just wanted to eat.
I just wanted to enjoy my food.
So no way was I going to let an answer leave me with a sour taste when right in front of me there were all them dishes I wanted to reminisce, and wanted to try.
Looking at these pictures more carefully now, a part of me realizes I really shouldn't see the cost to be that much of an issue, especially when you consider how a main dish at any Mainland Chinese place is minimum of $15, whilst here on the table there were a sampler of six.
Perhaps that be the only way one should see it.
Because where else (in the world of Mainland dining places here on the island) can one get a steamed egg, a tomato egg, a sweet and sour pork, a braised eggplant, a couple pieces of La Zi Ji, and a heap of beautifully arranged Mei Cai Kou Rou for the price of one main dish?
Where else (in the world of Mainland places here on the island) does one get to choose their own samplers and have a taste of this and that at 1/6 of what they would normally pay?
What's more, the dishes were done good.
I really liked the sweet sour pork, the tomato egg, the braised eggplant and the Mei Cai Kou Rou (Pork Belly with Mei Cai- I've no idea what the English name of these vegetables they are).
The sweet sour pork was surprisingly tender, not overwhelming sweet, and chopped into bite sized pieces that I felt were easy to pick up and eat. I had worried it would be either all hard meat, or all tendon fat- both of which I don't quite fancy.
The tomato egg wasn't bad, not on any counts even if- as some say- be the most ordinary of homecooked dishes that is easy to prepare. Eating it made me wonder just how life had been that (Cantonese that I am) had never had it before.
What I appreciated very much, however, were the braised eggplant and the Mei Cai Pork Belly.
There are places where they slice the eggplant so thin that you're literally getting eggplant chips doused in lots and lots of sauce but have no chew.
Then there are places where the division between vegetable and pork belly is so mixed that I can eat only vegetable but not the pork belly.
Here the pork belly was evenly divided, slice by slice, making it possible to eat it with scoops of rice.
That I liked.
I only wish there could have been more of them pork bellies.
The steamed egg and the La Zi Ji were just as good.
Sometimes in life you want to mush up your egg with rice, carve it separately or you want to have a bit of fried stuff for the day without too much spice.
That's where this version of La Zi Ji comes in.
I barely tasted the Mala.
One thing though, given these prices, perhaps next time I should be more discerning when it comes to what I want to eat and what I want to take.
Maybe I'll still take the steamed egg and the braised eggplant and the Mei Cai, but I might just drop the sweet sour pork and go for the Suan Cai Yu instead. A sample dish of Fish with Pickled Mustard Greens gives me a whiff of flavor without me having to finish a full-sized dish.
Maybe I'll go for some of the more unusual, more difficult to make dishes.
That way, I'd make my moolah feel more satisfied, more worth.