Lunch

I’m just back from lunch, which is always an occasion here in the land where food is King! Today I ate nasai lamak, which consisted of coconut rice, omelette, fried chicken wings, green beans with shrimp paste, veggies in spicy coconut milk, peanuts, cucumber and chilli. That’s a lot of lunch but I’m trying to fatten myself up having got to London last week to be told by countless people that I look ill. Great. It reminded me of that bit in Bridget Jones where she finally, finally gets to 8 ½ stone after dieting obsessively for years, and all her mates tell her she looks terrible! I haven’t been dieting obsessively, far from it, the Singaporeans eat about six meals a day and there are countless snacks in between. Yesterday I ate two breakfasts, (including some glutinous rice and red bean paste wrapped in a banana leaf), roti prata (crispy Indian bread) and curry for lunch, about four snacks and Vietnamese beef noodle soup for dinner. That’s not counting supper! I don’t know how they all stay so thin… most people here are miniscule, of adolescent proportions. I think that’s why I hadn’t realised I’m thinner than normal – I’m about twice the size of anyone on my bus journey to work! I’ve only got six weeks left to enjoy the food, and enjoy it I will.