Continuing the journey to Enlightenment

Yang chow fried rice from my usual Chinese shop near the station.

Dinner tonight was baked potatoes, drumsticks and salad for hubby and I.

Our Buddha at home.


It seems that I have had quite a few misadventures in Almere lately. The first post in this blog was inspired by a visit to the Buddha Restaurant, and now, quite disappointingly I have moved on. I have already been enlightened here...not in the way I expected to be, yet nonetheless aware.

First it came as a painful awareness and then a blissful understanding that I should just let go and move on to explore new frontiers.

I was in the Buddha Restaurant two weeks ago. I had been here some five times since the first blog post. When I come here, I always order the crispy deep fried noodles which I cannot get at the regular cafe near the station. That day, I felt I had stayed away long enough and decided to indulge in the noddles along with the more exotic pork intestines and seafood.

The regular, pleasant waitress which was normally here was not present today. Instead I was served by a grumpy, elderly woman who also banged the dish on the table as she came along. I was not much bothered by it for I came here to eat, not to get irritated with waitresses. A grumpy woman was not going to spoil my yummy meal.

The meal was tasty. I loved the egg sauce. Slurping my noodles, I found that I could not swallow this string of noodle. I could not chew it. To my surprise, it was a piece of green wire which I had tried to chew.

Yet still, I ate a little more after that...

I debated whether or not to inform the grumpy waitress. I was more concerned about her reaction, in case she would be unreasonable. I did inform her - customer's rights after all -  and she told me bluntly that it was a wire from a brush used to wash the dishes which got into the food. She said a quick sorry without looking at me and then dashed into the kitchen to scold the cook.

"Crazy man! How do you do business?" She yelled at the cook in Cantonese.

It was so loud that I could hear although I did not see them in the kitchen. So happened I was the only customer at that time. I could not continue eating anymore. My appetite was gone, more from the bad treatment I got than from the food.

I told the waitress that I could eat no more because of that wire - a white lie - I could have eaten more if I felt they were sincere and apologetic. After all, the wire had already been in my mouth and out! I had only a quarter of my plate.

I paid the bill. I was also disappointed that I was not given a discount on the noodles, and had to pay the full price. No other apologies. The bill was passed to me in robotic voice and gestures.

I left the Buddha Restaurant and decide to boycott it now. I believed that they changed ownership because the usual serving staff were no longer there. Instead it has been replaced by two elderly women as waitresses and an elderly man as the cook.

I am glad though that at home we have a nice bonsai tree where our own little Buddha is sitting under.

On a happier note, yesterday I had yang chow fried rice at my usual Chinese shop and it was delicious, minus the sambal. I avoid the sambal here because it gives me a tummyache.

So thus far my misadventures in Almere; but that is what makes life interesting, no?