If you are a food lover, you understand how food can tempt you, seduce you.

You are thrilled when you see a stand overflowing with fresh local produce or a store with unique ingredients to cook with. Oh the possibilities!

You are excited to try unique taste bites where ever they may be. There is no end, only beginnings!

Food is my seducer. I like being wooed.

I love Singapore for its diversity, its greenery, how clean and shiny it is, and for the innovation and design everywhere.

I wasn’t in love with the high prices for the most basic of food items when I went into a grocery store. It’s no wonder they say that Singapore is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in.

I stumbled upon Little India during my daily walkabouts here which I love. I don’t have much of a plan when I walk, just to get some exercise, observe, and follow where my heart and feet lead me, which is usually to food.

When I entered Little India, I was pleasantly surprised and very excited. I could feel that it had a great vibe and healthy pulse, full of energy from its people, food shops, produce vendors, stores, and temples.

1.This was the first stage of  how I was seduced: produce

There were many produce stands with piles of fresh vegetables and all sort of green herbs, many specific to Indian cooking, which were overflowing the stands like waterfalls. And they were much fresher and more reasonably priced than the regular grocery stores in town I had visited previously.

I was excited and wanted to bring it all home like a child who wants to bring home a kitten it has found, but then there is another kitten, and how about that kitten too. I resisted and just looked.

2. Second seduction: the smell of spices

There were stores with rows and rows of ingredients for Indian cooking, spices, mixes, pastes, basmati of different grades, and flours of all kinds such as dal and chickpea. There were stores where there were nothing but lentils, beans, grains, and other dried foods in sacks on the ground.

But it is the scent of spices that brought me into these stores in the first place and I wanted to bring it all home too, like the kittens. I resisted.

3.  Third seduction:  smell of flowers and Jasmine

There are many flower shops and stalls with fresh flowers and garlands for the temples. I believe it was Jasmine I smelt throughout my travels in Little India, lightly, delicately and ever so sweetly Jasmine. It was the perfect backdrop to the rest of the sites, sounds, smells and tastes to come.

4. Fourth seduction: backdrop

All food is served within a backdrop, a landscape that makes it unique, and Little India is no different. Its colourful and vibrant scenery, whether fabrics, lights, music, stores, food and the temples, had my head swiveling this way and that to take it all in.

5. Fifth seduction, a long one: freshly made chapati

There were so many options as I walked along the streets of Little India. I had to stop at each food place to see what they had. I even went in sometimes even if I wasn’t going to eat to see what they were making and serving, who was eating it and how they were eating it. I am nosy that way.

I was walking along the sidewalk, then it hit me, a waft of something delicious. It had a fresh baked doughy smell mixed with the smell of charcoal.  I had to find out what it was!

It was coming from a non descript cafe on the corner. Two men were cooking the unleavened dough into flatbread chapatis over a drum which served as a grill. I was fascinated and couldn’t stop watching.

They say we can’t stop looking when something is very beautiful or very ugly, but for me it’s food.

When food allures me, I pause and everything else can wait. I can’t resist. Seriously, I have been late for trains, planes and buses because of my need to stop to observe or taste something fascinating that I came across on my way to my next destination.

That’s why I call food my allure, my temptress. She hooks me all the time.

The one thing that I love more than anything is home cooked food. There is something about it that I can feel in my bones when I eat it and it’s like coming home, even though I am not in my home country.

I believe it’s the love that I am tasting in the food. The care that someone put into making the food and serving it to people, day in and day out.

There is a difference from the McDonald’s down the street. People may like it but there is no love in there. Careful testing, packaging, marketing, and processing yes, but not love.

You can only get that when food is cooked in the home or in a restaurant by a chef that cooks for customers that are like his/her family. That makes all the difference.

How I arrived at Azmi Restaurant (Norris Road Chapati)..

I actually went past the place as I walked down the street to see the rest of the stores and cafes on the block first, but the place and smell never left my mind.

As I was walking back home, I had to visit the place once more time to take some photos. And then without even thinking, I walked into the restaurant.

There was a line up to order the food, and the menu was in English but I still couldn’t understand what most of the dishes were and what I should order. This is when it’s good to have a line up.

First of all, it’s usually means it is a good place if locals are lining up, and the prices are usually more affordable.

Second, if you are in a line up it gives you time to study the menu and what’s offered, to observe what people are ordering and eating, and you can start to look for the foreign money in your wallet to see how much you have and if you have small bills, which is usually the requirement for stalls and places like this as they often don’t have a lot of change and I think it looks pretentious handing out big bills, but perhaps this is just me.

As I was coming up to my turn, a nice man, like the manager of sorts, came up to help me and ask me if I was eating there or taking out. I must have looked confused, because I was.

I was going to do take away as that would be one less decision and less awkward than sitting by myself.

Instead, I made a quick decision to stay.

I couldn’t resist because there is nothing like eating something at the place where food is made and when it’s hot and fresh vs bringing it home in a bag and eating it later alone and when it’s cooled down.

Yes, I would eat my food there. Now what to eat?

I knew chapati but what else. He pointed to the buffet of dishes, with several different types of curries in particular, and I looked at him slightly puzzled of what to order. He suggested a few items, I agreed, and he told me to find a seat.

I sat down on a small plastic stool at one of the bare metal tables. The food came. I paid for it. $7 for two chapatis and two small dishes. Great, especially for Singapore!

Great, now how to eat it is the other question. He gave me a fork and spoon but nothing else.

I looked around and the older man next to me was taking bits of his chapati and scooping the dishes with it. Ah I got it. I just wished that I had brought the sanitizer and wipes so I could wipe my hands before but I’m glad I brought a hankerchief so that I could wipe my fingers and face as I was eating because being a novice, I got messy.

I saw washing stations at some restaurants so perhaps this is the reason. I could have washed my hands before my meal in the bathroom but I’m a bit phobic about bad bathrooms and didn’t want to ruin my appetite before eating. Enough said.

The food was great. The chapati thick and heartier and more dense than I had imagined it would be. But that is often the way with food and life, it’s never exactly how you imagined. The chapati had spots from the grilling and a slightly smoky taste, which I loved.

Being warm and malleable, it made the perfect vessel to scoop up the warm and room temperature dishes with.

As I was eating, I was observing the line up at the take away that was growing, the increasing number of people sitting down alone to eat or share several dishes with a friend, all eating the food with torn pieces of chapatis. I felt smug that I was eating the food in the way in the way it is meant to be eaten, which I believe is an important part of trying foods of different countries and cultures.

I noticed the sign on the takeaway window in front of me:

“Secret of good mood”

“Taste of Azim’s Food”

I knew it.

Food made with good intention and love. And it did put me in a good mood and happy.

This is the power of food made with love, and another taste memory.

 

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Also published on Medium.