Catching a gem that serves with a cheerful heart

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After the first business day in Singapore, my boss brought me to what he referred to as his favorite food court for our dinner.

On the following night, I was alone and was later than when we first arrived in the food court. The stall where we ordered was still open but I wanted to try others so I made my rounds.

This stall is one of the few that were open. Looking at the sign above which reads "congee", I got the impression that they serve porridge only so I just passed by it.

Congee or conjee (ˈkɒndʒi/) is a type of rice porridge or gruel popular in many Asian countries originally from India. When eaten as plain rice congee, it is most often served with side dishes. When additional ingredients such as meat, fish, and flavourings are added while preparing the congee, it is most often served as a meal on its own, especially for persons who are ill.

My boss was saying that the food court is up to the second floor so I made another round and looked for the stairway. I went to the second floor only to be disappointed because right on top of the stairway I can see that all stores are closed and a man was doing the general cleaning for the entire dining area.

I went back to the ground floor and made my round for the third time. Almost all stalls that were open serve dishes that are foreign to me. I was not in the mood for experimenting so I thought of better resolving to congee.

There were only two diners in the whole dining area when I got back to the porridge stall.

I got closer to the stall and stared at their congee menus. I can not make up my mind with the many options and yet still congee.

With my many second thoughts, these ladies came and went straight before me to place their order.

"There. People took over you because you're too slow." I thought to myself.

It was actually a blessing in disguise because while I was waiting I saw their orders of noodle soup with veggies. That made me wonder, how did they know that this stall serves noodle soup? I looked up again and beyond the congee displays. That was when I noticed those around the stall number are not congees. The dishes are steamboats or hotpots.

Hot pot, or hotpot (Chinese: 火锅), also known as steamboat, is a Chinese cooking method, prepared with a simmering pot of soup stock at the dining table, containing a variety of East Asian foodstuffs and ingredients. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table, in a manner similar to fondue. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, tofu, and seafood. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce.

Ahhh... Why wasn't I paying more attention?

I looked at the ingredients on display and somehow had a peace of mind. Onion leaves, garlic and ginger. Nothing spicy. Yay!

I asked the crew who served the order of the two ladies if the steamboats are not spicy and she laughed.

"Why spicy? It will be spicy if you put chili!" She was laughing while talking.

I laughed back for both the contagion of her laugh and my silliness which I realized when I was already being laughed at.

I ordered for the seafood mini-steamboat and the crew asked me if it's okay that there is no more rice.

Rice? I looked up again and saw that there is indeed rice that comes with the steamboat. Ahhh, I missed that again. Am I too hungry now?

I told her that it is okay even if there is no rice. She withdraw back to inside the stall and started working on my steamboat.

When she was done cooking she turned to me and asked.

"Where do you want to eat? In this or this?" She was holding the hot pot straight from the stove on her right and a bowl on her left.

I thought my jaw dropped. She's asking me to eat straight from that pot! I know the literal hot pot but to also eat from it literally... seriously?

"You want me to eat straight from the pot?"

She laughed again and asked me, "why not?"

"Oh yeah, why not?" I thought. Then I remembered my mother.

When I was a kid there was once when I went straight to the kitchen, got a spoon and started eating from the pot to my mouth. My mother saw me and asked, "do you want to be dumb?"

I asked how would that be. She said that is because anyone who is eating straight from the pot will be dumb like the pot. I got a plate and did not eat straight from the pot again since then. That was how my mother would "scare" us not to do something that is not a norm when we were young.

"No auntie. I want to eat from the bowl," I told the crew.

"Okay," she answered and smiling wide.

While she was transferring the noodle soup to the bowl, I took a photo of her activities alone without taking her face. At the same time, I asked if I can take photos.

"Ah, photos lah! You want to take photos of auntie?" There goes the infectious smile again.

That was very cool! I did not mention that it's her that I will take photos of but she offered it.

"Yes! Can I? I'll post them on the internet."

"Okay!" and I took the previous photo above. Then I asked for one more, she possed for this "candid" shot. How I love this auntie's cheerful and charming appeal!

She handed the bowl to me and I was suprised to realize that it was big.

"Oh, it's very big! Can I finish this?" I exclaimed.

"Yes. You finish because there is no rice" auntie said while smiling and half-laughing at me.

I am not sure if that is her regular serving size or she upgraded it to offset the lacking rice. I did not ask. I was just so happy with what was in front of me.

I put the bowl on a tray for a while as I put sliced onion leaves from the displayed ingredients. My mind was already full and rejoicing by just looking at my bowl.

I next took a soup spoon from the container on display. There was also a container of chop sticks but no steel utensils. I was thinking that I have soup anyway so I can manage with the soup spoon. However, I was wrong. It was so hard to get the noodles with the soup spoon.

I waved at auntie from two tables away.

"Can I borrow fork, please? For the noodles," I said.

"No fork! chop sticks!" she exclaimed while smiling wide again. She pointed to the container where the chop sticks were.

"I don't know how to use it!" I exclaimed back with no shame.

She laughed at me again. "Oh gees... those laugh and smiles. She's so comfortable teasing me," I thought. And I loved it. I love it when I know that people are comfortable in their true selves while they are with me. There is no need to put up a show.

I thought she was serious when she said she does not have fork so I went back to my noodles trying to catch them with a soup spoon. After few minutes, she came back with a fork fresh from washing as it was still dripping when she handed it to me.

"Here. I found one just for you."

"Oh my... Thank you very much!" I wanted to kiss her!

She was laughing again while going back to her stall.

I thought the name of the stall was New Hong Kong Congee but when I asked for a receipt, New Hong Kong Kitchen came out from the registry. That is the registered business name of the stall.
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As I walked back to my hotel room that evening, I can not help thinking about auntie. If everyone in any organization that provides customer service serves like she does, I would love to keep going back to them. The charm and happy heart, loving what she does - I wonder who wouldn't love back such positive disposition.

With the price of SG $5.50 for a big bowl of seafood steamboat and a very cheerful auntie, it was a very good dining experience. That is how I would want to end my every day.

New Hong Kong Kitchen
Stall #01-04
Ground Floor
Amoy Street Food Centre
7 Maxwell Road
MND Building Annex B
Singapore 069111