This Enchanted Evening

Just back from prata & teh tarik at the Al Ameen Restaurant just up the road from here. It's one of those wonderfully run-down places that comes in a tawdry blur of gaudy lights along a row of dark shophouses, announcing good food with no frills. The walls nicely painted, but all the electric wires showing, several bandaged unconvincingly with duct tape. Next door is one of those old provision shops, that seems to stock everything in the space of a single shelf at the Giant at IMM. And on the corner of the row is a little mesjid, modern in style, where you fancy doing the prayer just because it looks so cosy.

We ate outside on the front, like most of the other customers, wrapped in the sultry warmth of a typical Singapore evening. It was sort of busy but not really. And it was sort of wonderful, absolutely really.