Is she not beautiful?! We were just musing yesterday night about how glam Abigail looks in any candid picture we take of her. Any. Such an angelic face attached to such an angelic heart!
Yesterday night (I'm typing this right now at 2354, hoping to get everything published by 0000) a bunch of us went to Real Food to celebrate Abigail's 19th birthday in advance.
I like to tell my mom that I have a friend who's older than Dajie, because I feel it deflates her superiority as my elder sister >:)
But my evil part aside, the girls and I decided to surprise Abi with a birthday cake and thanks to Gigi's suggestion, we purchased the famous Carrot Walnut Cake from Cedele Bakery.
Guess I'm not that black-hearted after all :>
Abi suggested to go to Real Food primarily because Niki is a vegetarian and previously Abi and I spent quite some time searching for a vegetarian restaurant so that she could comfortably order anything she wanted instead of worrying if the food was tainted with meat or lard (or were we overreacting?) ... I thought it was an excellent idea because the menu was great, and the location perfect for us, who had to go over after school.
The cafe's concept was amazing! The main dining area and cashier counter were under what was constructed to look like a wooden hut, hence contributing to the 'back-to-nature' feel that a vegan restaurant usually tries to portray. We took the tables at the very end though, so that we could chatter and have cake without annoying too many people. The best part of the cafe was that they allowed us to store our huge cake in their refrigerator even though it was not purchased from their outlet! ("And the cake wasn't even vegan" - Gigi) I thought that was very sincere of them as a service provider. Kudos to the staff at Real Food Novena!
We went on to take our places and ordered our food, and I took such a long time deciding what to eat because I had no idea what to choose. The variety was average, but I just couldn't make up my mind mainly because I didn't want to take risks ordering food that may not come out the way I expected it to be -- I wanted visuals. Many a times I order from a text-only menu and end up being disappointed because the glutton in me, and the glutton in the glutton in me was expecting either more food or something else all together. I remember having dinner once at Toby's Dessert Aslyum and the Chicken Stew came to me as a surprise as I never expected it to be so different . The Chicken Stew I had had in mind was thick and brownish, something like a Kerala Chicken Stew, but the one at Toby's was red and tasted far off what I had expected it to be. Not that I blame the staff or the restaurant, because I did realise later that Chicken Stew in many areas are cooked like that, but boy was I disappointed that night because I didn't have a very nice dinner.
Okay, enough of reminiscing.
Anyway, we did come to placing orders and returned to our seats to chat about life and maybe, just maybe do a little gossiping... I'll leave that up to you to guess!
Now, despite the praises I have given Real Food right above, I'd say something lacking in this cafe/restaurant would be the efficiency. I swear we could have waited close to half an hour for our food! Or maybe 20 minutes, but you get the gist.
The problem was that it was not exactly rush hour (it was about 1800+ ?) and there weren't a lot of customers, so I was really curious why our food took such a long time to arrive. I'm guessing it was due to shorthanded staff, because I only remember seeing about three staff in total in charge of the kitchen and cashier. They can surely do with a few more workers! All is good though, because we certainly had a pleasant time catching up despite our growling tummies.
Here are some pictures of the food we had:
 |
| Old School Sandwich - $9.80 |
 |
| Baked Penne - $15.50 |
 |
| Organic Potato Wedges - $8.50 |
Shu and I shared the organic potato wedges, which consisted of both normal potato and sweet potato. The ones you see at the top are the normal potato, whereas the one at the top left corner in the bottom pile is the sweet potato. I'd give this dish a 6/10 because the skin wasn't as crispy as it should be, and the seasoning was almost barely there. For a price of $8.50 this shouldn't be what to expect, especially since a main course can be chosen over this by just topping up around 2 bucks.
When we were almost done with our meal, I excused myself from the table under the pretence that I was headed for the toilet, but really I was going to retrieve the birthday cake from the kitchen. Niki and Gigi came along too -- thank goodness for them! I wouldn't have been able to handle the cake and candles all by myself. We fiddled around with the candles for about 5 minutes and quickly brought the cake to the table, which, I hope, caught Abigail by surprise. We sang a really awkward verse of Happy Birthday to her (we were being judged by the other patrons) and then had her blow the candles. And there you have that extremely cute photo of her blowing out the flames!
At this junction I would like to pause for a while to dedicate a birthday message to dearest Abigail, who has been such a great friend the past year. Abigail, this is for you!
"Dear Abigail, the past one year has been awesome getting to know you, and sometimes I wish you had joined our school earlier so you might have joined my tutor group. Nevertheless I am grateful enough to have you in my Chemistry class, and it is certainly a joy to have you as a Chem Buddy! From sitting down together feeling lethargic on Monday/Tuesday mornings outside the Glass Hall, to being ridiculed by Mr McFarlane over our EE Experiments, every moment spent with you has been very enjoyable, and yes, the fact that you are older than all of us does not bother me one bit, nor are you being judged for it, so don't feel upset whenever you think of your other friends who have already started university! Hopefully our friendship as the Foyer Girls will make you happy to be in SJII despite having to miss joining G12 last year, and on our side, I believe we are blessed to have you as a big sister! Just one thing - quickly get your driving license so that you can drive us around!! Haha, I kid. But on a serious note, may your 19th year of life be filled with wisdom and maturity, so as to pass the IB with flying colours, yet be fun and meaningful at the same time so you can enjoy every part of it! Next year, we can conveniently buy two large candles for your birthday instead of 1 large candle and 9 small candles. Yes!!"
To my other lovely friends who might feel neglected in this post, do know that I love you guys as much ❤❤❤
 |
| From left to right: Nikita, Alexus, Abigail, Gigi, Valerie, Shu Yi |
xoxo
Valerie
No comments:
Post a Comment