Steamboat Buffet At "Carry On"

Last month, Wilson's mother AL sent me a short message to ask if I could bring them out this month to celebrate Wilson's birthday. After fixing the dates according to our availabilities, last Saturday afternoon at 4, I drove towards Bukit Baru to visit Saratha while standing by for AL who was on duty at Giant hypermarket at Bukit Beruang.

AL telephoned me to pick her at 6.30pm as she thought she would have finished her day. But after I had stood at the entrance for more than forty minutes, she still did not turn up without notice. I became restless and finally called her to know her whereabouts, only to learn that she had been held up by her work. Thinking of myself who neither needed to work on Saturdays nor at late hours, I felt guilty to be impatient with a mother who had to work hard physically, despite her health conditions, to earn her living and to support her son financially at the care home.

When AL was finally in my car, we went to Bukit Baru again to fetch Wilson, for he was allowed to be taken out by his mother only. Next, we were discussing the venue for dinner. As AL knew Wilson loved to eat prawns, she wanted to treat him a steamboat buffet. The nearest place was supposed to be an open-air restaurant next to the "New Heaven and Earth" food court at Malim. I had been there with Edidav in February 2007 but it was closed down and replaced by a car park.

The other option was "Carry On Barbecue & Steamboat Restaurant" at Melaka Raya which was on the other side of the city. As I had promised to be the driver, my job was to fulfill my passengers' request. AL said she had gone to that restaurant once with Wilson when he was two, three years old. Only then I realized that this restaurant which I had been introduced to by YT's friend two years ago had such a long history.

Not remembering the exact address, we had to rely on the indications of AL's friend to find out our destination. It was near a former shopping complex. The restaurant was on the first floor.

Crowded with customers, the dining room was also filled with steam and smoke. A bright yellow gas tank under each table was the least aesthetic but the most important equipment.

We were given a table close to the buffet which offered a wide variety of meat balls and fish balls. In addition, we could serve by ourselves unlimited prawns, seaweed, dried vermicelli, noodles, mushrooms, vegetables, pieces of watermelon, pineapple, tea or soft drink. Compared to the steamboat dinner at my brother's house, I had five times the choice of food!

On the first round of our servings, I picked one item from each of my selections of processed food and a few prawns. It was a bit strange to see orange and apple green colours on the meat.

AL and Wilson were busier to take chili sauces, fried garlic and onion, margarine, drinks and more dishes for all of us to share.

An employee started the fire for us and poured soup into our pot. While it was being boiled, we placed margarine balls onto the aluminium paper surrounding the hot pot. There were two ways to cook our food: either in water or in oil. We dumped seaweed, mushrooms and vegetables into the soup and grilled the meat and prawns.

AL told me that her whole family loved steamboat. In my family, I knew that Dad, Seng and myself were not great fans of soupy food and fish balls. Besides, I was not hungry as I had eaten two pieces of cake earlier at Saratha's house. However, it was a pleasure to see my two companions enjoying their every mouthful of food.

AL who had spent a lot of energy at work and Wilson who was growing in bigger size were still not satisfied after a few rounds of serving at the buffet. I just had to remain seated since they took more food to cook and kept adding into my plate and bowl. The caring mother patiently removed the small prawn shells for her son who easily swallowed more than half of a small mountain of his favorite seafood.

Teenagers at another table started to sing a birthday song loudly to one of their friends. AL and I also sang the same song to Wilson in a much lower voice. We had not bought any cake because of the abundance of food at the restaurant. One of these days, we would try to organize another gathering to have our desserts together.

Wilson was pleased with this outing. AL was specially happy that she could spend time with Wilson whom she was able to visit only once a week at the care home due to her job. I was also glad to provide them with transport and accommodation.

The sequel of this dinner rich in calories was that all of us felt our bodies so warm in the middle of the night that we shifted from our beds to sleep on the cold tile floor in our respective rooms!