My childhood was one of excess.
By the time I was 12, I must have eaten at least a thousand Old Chang Kee curry puffs. Before Old Chang Kee mushroomed around Singapore, it only had a few stalls in obscure places and one of them happened to be right outside my school. I started taking violin lessons in school on Saturdays, and those became Old Chang Kee pilgrimmage days.
After my lessons, my mother would take me to the Old Chang Kee stall and buy me a snack, even though I had lunch less than two hours ago. Old Chang Kee only had curry puffs, fish balls, and carrot cake then. At first, I would only eat a stick of fish balls, sometimes a carrot cake. My young tastebuds didn’t like the spicy stuff, so I never ate the curry puffs.
NOT BY MYSELF ANYWAY.
I would make my mum buy them and I would chomp away at the crust, leaving the corners for the last because THEY WERE (ARE) THE BEST. Then my poor mother would eat the rest because she is a good person cursed with a steller’s sea cow (extinct now of course because they ate so much they got too fat to swim away from predators) for progeny.
This went on until my tastebuds got hardier, and I started to eat curry puffs all by myself, which is even worse because THEY WERE (ARE) SO NICE. I COULD EAT TWO NOW, AND EAT ANOTHER TWO FOR TEA LATER!
And on Sundays, my mother would buy me even more curry puffs from the famous curry puff stall at Marine Parade market (it has ceased to be). My brother liked (still likes) dough fritters, so since he’s getting them, might as well get half a dozen and give the fat sister two.
I’m thankful to have a mother who has never stopped me from eating anything, or pressured me into losing weight. I got to a point where baby fat became just fat, and while my baby fat was cute, my fat was not. But whatever issues that I had with my body then was SOLELY the fault of ugly mean girls. My childhood was one of complete, undisciplined gluttony, and total unfettered joy. Had I continued eating the way I did though, I would probably have ended up like the steller’s sea cow.
But you know that total unfettered joy? I miss that.
I think my mum misses it too.
Millinery
Satin, two-way scarves, belts, clips
