If only I could get him to take me to Tinaries Bakeries, I would have such a good time.
Source
I chewed on my lower lip as we drove out of his residence. It was 5 pm and on any other normal day, I would have been on my chair in my room typing away at my laptop and not in this pair of tight jean trousers and fancy wrap top.
He took one look at me and smiled. I could almost read the expression on his face as he swerved into the lane that led to Ewet housing where the popular China Town restaurant was located.
“You would love it, I'm telling you,” he said when we were still at the house.
“I don't want to go to any Chinese restaurants. What if I do not enjoy the food? Or I start reacting to it?”
He laughed as if he was enjoying my disapproval.
“The problem I have is that you don't like trying new things. You should be open to new ideas young woman”.
“That's not true,” I gave him my hardest glare, “You're the one who doesn't like new things. How come you've not eaten Amala till now if you like trying out new things so much?”
He raised his both hands in surrender knowing I had hit a sore spot. The fact that my boyfriend couldn't go on an Amala date with me was one of the hardest realities I had to live with. The first time he attempted, he nearly puked in my food.
“But seriously babe, I wouldn't take you somewhere I think you wouldn't enjoy”
I wanted to go to Tinaries. If I was having a sweet craving, that was where I walked into. There was no kind of snack they didn't have; burritos, shawarma, meat pies, ice cream, cupcakes, chicken pies, yogurts, cookies…..they just had it all no matter what you wanted to get, and their stuff had such amazing tastes, thankfully, they were Completely affordable for a student like me.
Then if I was going on a food date that didn't involve Amala, I was definitely eating at Chicken Republic.
I loved their chicken so much that I would rather place an order for it than prepare chicken by myself when I wanted some. That wasn't all, their ice cream was completely different, totally delicious, and unlike any other ice cream sold by restaurants. Then there were their snacks too. There was no day I walked into Chicken Republic and I didn't have an extra bag of snacks with me.
If I was getting take-home shawarma, I was definitely getting chicken pie and ice cream or their king-sized burger.
Then their salad was so good that I ate it with every meal I got from them, even rice and beans.
An Amala date would take me directly to an Amala joint where I loved to sit in the main restaurant so I could be hidden away from the rest of the world because of the indecent way I was going to tackle the Amala and meats.
This Chinese restaurant that I wanted to visit now wasn't even on my ‘all-time favorite restaurants’ list.
“Babe? Are you okay?” I turned my attention back to him and raised my brows in question. I had been too busy thinking about Tinaries and Chicken Republic that I didn't hear him speak to me.
“What did you say?”
“I said we could get shawarma and ice cream from Chicken Republic on our way back to compensate for bringing you here, and if you don't like the food here, I'll get you a plate of Amala too. Deal?”
Of course, it was a deal. Whether I liked the food or not, I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to get a free plate of Amala that evening so I cheered up.
We arrived at the restaurant almost an hour after we left home. The external ambiance was already attractive enough for me to know that I wasn't going to be unimpressed by the food.
We ordered mocktails while waiting for their infamous fried rice which I ordered to be prepared. Everything was prepared in front of us. By the time the food was ready, I was so excited that I couldn't wait to start eating.
The rice was everything they said it would be, and more but that was just the first course. Dumplings were brought in next and since I couldn't resist taking photos, my boyfriend had to wait until I was done with my photography session before we dug in.
By the time we were done at the Chinese restaurant, there was no space in me for Amala, shawarma, or any of the other things he initially wanted to order for me so I just asked him to take me back home.
“We should do this again,” I told him just before we exited the restaurant.
“Look at your small mouth” he teased. We both laughed gaily as we began the drive back home.
I mentally added China Town restaurant to my all-time favorite restaurants' list but I knew I wasn't going to patronize it on my own, I didn't have enough money to take myself on such expensive dates yet.