You know how life be sometimes like how you chance upon the most surprising, most unexpected of foods that you happen to find, and what you thought was just another 'eat to live' dish transforms into a pleasant, gently significant memory.
We had not known what to expect here at the Albert Center Food Center.
Especially with it being in the late evening when the food center is known to be one for the daytime.
But there weren't any places around us that I felt like wanting to have, so to the food center it was.
There were plenty of seats- no worrying about trying to find a table- the number of open stalls in the food center were a completely different matter altogether.
Near where I sat there were a few still open.
There was a stall selling chicken rice both steamed and roasted.
There was a stall selling what I think was some sort of mixed vegetable rice.
Then there was another stall which I now don't remember what it was.
We didn't seem to have the appetite for any of these this particular evening, so off it was my friend went hunting to the other rows behind.
For a moment I had wondered just what it was my friend would come back with.
It did not take long before he came back to our table holding a tray on which sat two bowls of these.
Now, the light from the food center doesn't do them justice.
Neither does the camera- I was hungry and decided not to spend too much time posing the bowl.
But the bowl was delicious.
Swimming inside the laksa gravy was a serving of noodles that was neither too much nor too little. Then there were pieces of sliced fish cake bobbing all around, one big piece of fried fish that somehow balanced itself on top of everything, a couple big rectangular pieces of tau pok, and a heap of cockles hum that these days not every laksa place provides.
I was surprised by the portion of the noodles.
See, I tend to be the kind who likes maximum bang for her buck so the more noodles the better, but what I didn't realize is that the portion of noodles gets calculated against the portion of laksa soup so that one spoonful of well-cut noodles taken together with the gravy will let you finish the bowl just right.
I mean, how do they do it?
How do they ensure that the soup gets finished the same time as the noodles?
Or that in between them spoons of noodles you'll pick at the tau pok, the fish cake and take bites out of the piece of fish, working through the whole bowl in such a balanced way that you won't find yourself being overwhelmed by the portion and the taste?
Because that is exactly what happened.
There wasn't much soup left in the bowl after I'd finished my noodles.
Other bowls with fewer ingredients don't have me eating them the same way.
Often it has been that I work through the slices of fish cake first, then maybe take a bite out of the hard boiled egg, and then work through the laksa noodles all the way until the whole bowl is finished.
With those bowls I don't alternate the ingredients with the noodles the way I did with this green plastic one here.
It's not a bad way of eating, honestly.
I felt like it made the meal last longer.
There are times in my life when the best way to respond to s*** is to enjoy all the (hard-earned) moments as best as I can.
Whether it be a meal that on other days I wouldn't have known, or whether it be a bowl of noodles costing a $3.50 carefully calculated for, it is a moment, an experience, that I don't want to speed through, forget and ignore.
What more should it be when a meal springs you surprises like this in the likes of a laksa gravy so good you did not anticipate.
You know, I really, really appreciated the gravy.
It was so unexpectedly thick, so unexpectedly rich with the coconut cream and the coconut milk, and so full of flavor that- even though I couldn't sense the fragrance that some say laksa soups are supposed to have- it weren't enough.
We haven't been back to Albert Center in a while, but I hope I'll get to drop in soon. There'll be other dishes from other stalls that I'm sure I'll want to try, but this one, this bright green bowl of laksa, I'll certainly keep in mind, and very likely I will go try.