Meeting up at The Singapore Restaurant

Yesterday was a monthly dinner for fellow Singaporeans at the Singaporeans Restaurant. So we met up with Uncle Tan's colleagues and had dinner there. As mentioned in my earlier blog entry, the food prices was somewhat pricey compared to other local restaurants. Well, it's considered as an exotic food here.

There were about less than 20 of us. I suppose not all will turn up on a monthly basis given that the place is not located centrally and some of them travelled pretty often due to work. Hmm...they seem to have already form a clique and when we reached, the seats were already reserved by their friends. S'porean's habit?

So we only managed to mingle with those who came to our table to introduced themselves and they are the ones who have been staying many years in Switzerland, long enough to be able to become a PR there. And apparently, quite a number of singles too ;p haha I'm at 'work' again, trying to sieve out the potential ones for my friends :) Found a few potential ones and let's see if there's a chance to meet again to find out more. But going back there for dinner doesn't seem very enticing thou...
We ordered a plate of fried hor fan fried with chicken and a plate of sin chow mee fen fried with shrimps and chicken which cost us Fr 47 in total. Ya, we didn't even dare to order drinks...Popiah was like Fr 11.70 and Satay was like Fr 20+? It's local fare at restaurant prices for us. Ok, the portions are big but the taste was not as authentic, of course can't expect too much. We were told we could pack back but looking at the dry and hard hor fan, we decided to give it a miss. Some of my friends were joking about opening a tze char stall here and opens beyond 7pm as the shops here closes from 5pm onwards.

The shop owners here are particular about their time. They will inform customers that they would be closing in about 5 to 15 mins time. Even their housing agents don't work on weekends and only till 5pm on weekdays. No wonder my friends here are contemplating to work here. It has indeed been an 'enlightening' trip for them ;p

I'm usually a fork person at home cos it's convenient to pick up any dishes. But seeing chopsticks in the restaurant just make me wana use it. I savour the green chillies, chye sim and the shrimps as it was hard to find fresh seafood and chinese veggies here. Those that I've found in the asian supermarts are rather hardy veg with very fibrous stems and leaves. I suppose such veggy can withstand the long distance travel here without turning bad easily ;p Oh yes, and the bean sprouts too, cos a packet would cost Fr 3 in the supermart.

I guess only when you're living abroad for quite some time and you'll begin to appreciate the things that you have at home. For instance, I never really am a sio bah (roast pork) person, but that day while we were shopping at the Thai supermart, the smell of the sio bah is sooo enticing that we bought a slice, which cost us Fr 6.80 for 226g. I guess it's like triple the price as compared to Singapore? And it just taste good haha...I guess we're just deprived ;p And I fried it with garlic and dark soya sauce the following day as we couldn't finish the whole thing. Kinda oily.

We were told that now we can at least get non-frozen fish (note that I didn't use the word 'fresh') at certain supermarts on certain days especially on Sat, unlike the past where they have only frozen ones cos Switzerland does not produce veggy and there's no sea for them to catch fish. Hence, veggies are also imported and are usually on sale on Tue and Thur. According to his colleague, there's fresh fish from the northern sea called Nordsee in Zurich main station. Hmm...shall check it out but I bet it'll be pricey.

So, it goes to show that the Swiss don't really take seafood and not a lot of fish, yet they are so healthy. We then came to the conclusion that stress is the number one killer and the root of all illnesses.

We ended at about 10pm and took a tram and change to a bus back. We talked to 2 of them who had been there for a long time and it seems that they are very used to the life there already. And well, they are not that proficient in German either thou they understand but can't really speak. Oh well, guess they don't really have to since they are travelling around all the time.

One of them shared that the most common traffic fine is on speeding. And the fine amount goes according to the speed limit that you have exceeded. They have hidden cameras all around. They are now coming hard on drink driving and the limit is half a glass of beer. Once caught, you'll be asked to see a psychologist who will counsel you for 6 months. One of his friends who had attended this course decided not to repeat as it was a really boring and painful thing to go through that course. Haha, maybe this might work in S'p?