My reflections after eating at a Little India restaurant

On 14 May, our Language Arts teacher, Ms Kala, brought our class, as well as others, to a Little India restaurant, called Spice Queen) to have a taste of Indian food, especially chappatti, after going through Village by the Sea with us. Our teacher chose that restaurant as it was quite a famous one and the chef, as well. The chef, Chef Devagi Sanmugam, is an author of 16 cookbooks, as well as a food columnist for magazines. She also owns a culinary consultancy firm Devagi's Epicurean World Pte Ltd.

At the restaurant, we were packed like sardines and fortunately, my group of friends and I quickly got ourselves a seat each. For hygiene's sake, we were told to wash our hands before we could eat. After that, Ms Kala introduced Chef Devagi Sunmugam briefly to us and the chef herself introduced Indian food to us and we indeed gained new insights. Without further ado, we took the serviette and queued up to take the food. The snake-like queue was really long and each of us waited a long time before we got our food. However, a number of us did not have a chance to taste the tendoori chicken as it went out and it was apparently not enough for everyone of us. However, the service there was really good and before we got to the place where got our food, an amicable female staff gave each of us a piece of koropok and gave those a second time if they requested for it.

They gave us a variety of dishes, such as Indian rice with gravy, cubed potatoes, tendoori chicken(not for me) and chappatti, not forgetting lime juice. Without it, we will definitely not be able to eat the food. It was really spicy! The rice and chappatti was fine but not for the potatoes. Many of us were complaining about the spiciness and for me, I could literally feel my stomach burning! For some of them, they actually took their own drnk to drink as the lime juice was not enough.

After our stomachs were filled, we went back home ourselves by taking the Little India MRT train as the MRT station was just beside the restaurant. For those who wanted to take school transport back to school, had to wait a little more. I felt that it was indeed an enriching and enjoyable experience for me. Firstly I got to see a famous chef in person and secondly, I learnt more about Indian culture including eating the food with our bare hands. We also got to know about the different kinds of Indian food. Last but not least, I interacted with my friends at the same time and I really enjoyed the entire time.