Funniest thing happened to droo and me yesterday! We were eating at our favourite Hainanese Restaurant, Yet Con, where the food is unashamedly homely and distinctively Hainanese, the wait staff make YOU wait for them, the prices dependant on the owner's mood, and the heavy disability to even looked surprised if the bill is about 4.5 times more than you expected it to be.
We ended up ordering up a feast, as we normally do, and clocked for this round, half a chicken, a plate of liver and innards, pork chops, roast pork, and chap chye, together with rice, drinks and coffee at the end. As we were happily feasting, and nearing the conclusion of the platoon-feeding meal (WHICH WE FINISHED), we were cringing at the possible price to pay...
There was a slugfest going on in front, when we were queuing to pay, which involved the elderly, no-nonsense-'cos-I'm-Hainanese-and-this-is-my-bloody-restaurant, proprietor, and a disgruntled chinese lady who apparently felt cheated at paying $10 for kangkong. While they were mudslinging, we sullenly realised that if she had to pay $10 for Kangkong, lord knows how much we had to fork out for our meal.
After she stormed off swearing never to come back again, he smiled to his customers, who by then were staring as though he was about to close the shop there and there, and some were, from the look in their eyes, contemplating wolfing down as much as they could before they were kicked out. He muttered something about if everyone who ate here was a Chinaman, he'd might as well not do business, and when it finally came to our turn, he looked at us, looked at our table, and said, $28 bucks. We were stunned. A far cry from the $50 we expected. We triple-checked with him, and he gave us the look that said, "Charity does not occur everyday." We paid, left, howled with laughter outside, and went to celebrate at Shokudo, eating crepes and waffles.
Interesting people, we hainanese folk are! =)
