The Canteen

Today's lunch brings us to what my boss and other colleagues call "canteen". It is a typical Chinese seafood restaurant in Klang that is always empty for lunch except for me and my colleagues. The company has been such a regular customer the past year that my colleagues were treated to a massive seafood hotpot ON THE HOUSE.

See, just us.

Today's steam fish was delicious.

The company even had our Chinese New Year company lunch with a company lucky draw earlier this year! Yes, still confused.

The owner likes us so much that she serves us fruits for free after we are done with the dishes. Today, she served us the sweetest jackfruit I have had in years. I have never heard the Mandarin word for jackfruit so I inquired of my colleagues and I learned a new word today - 菠萝蜜 (Bōluómì), which apparently means "pineapple honey". After learning this new word, I thought it would be fun to surprise my Mandarin-speaking colleagues but they did not understand what I was saying. Interestingly, 菠萝 (Bōluó) means pineapple in Mandarin but here in Malaysia, pineapple is more commonly known as 黃梨 (Huáng lí), literally "yellow pear". And during CNY, "to attract prosperity". My colleagues also made me realise that 菠萝包 (Bōluó bāo), a famous sweet bun in Hong Kong I have eaten so many times before that it is called pineapple bun in English. Gosh. Mindblown. Mom, please do not reproach me for being hopeless in Mandarin.

Moving on to making fun of my friend's motivational quote sharing of the day:

"Time and silence are the most luxurious things today. Good morning..:)"

Actually, I have no comment for this. This could be true in an age of information deluge. Wise share, friend, wise share.