It’s 4am in the morning before I decided to go down to get food. The weather is merciful and as I opened my wooden door, i could feel the gush of wind blowing to my face. My hands traced along the cold metal gate, finding the lock in the dark with ease before I went down to get food.
Nights like this, you know you’re lonely, when you’re down, or when you’re just plain hungry and you’re too lazy to wait for that mcdelivery since it’s too sinful and too expensive anyway. You’re always glad that there’s something open near you. A less than 5 minutes walk perhaps. Probably something you can rely on, something that’s open for you 24/7 a day.
I waltz along the NTUC, looking for stuff as i’m seemingly the only shopper there besides the security guard and a cashier. Ironically, sometimes it’s a good time to get some grocery shopping done in the middle of the night, without crowds. You could take all the time you want. And there wasn’t even a single soul in the queue.
I walked towards the cup noodles section. There’s a 2 for $2.65 offer and i took 2, along with some other goodies that I decided to stock up. And a carton of milk and cereal for days that I would like to eat healthy. As harmful as cup noodles can be, we still take it, like nicotine and spirits which we ended up puking over the toilet bowl in Zouk after a rough night.
I walked slowly across the road, looking around, enjoying the night breeze. Compared to the scorching weather we have it in the day, this couldn’t get any better. A cooling non humid night, throw in some regular night breeze. This is one of the few precious days when you won’t sweat after you leave your house. I started boiling water and took a shower while waiting when it all came to me.
The variety of brands of cup noodles, even though we have our personal favourite flavors, brands. It still brings about the same memories as a whole. Such being the good old chalet days at Whitesands when teenagers alike snagging cup noodles, and then sitting there. While the BBQ pit still lighted up in the middle of the night, we take turns cooking that left over sausage and chicken wings while we share secrets and gossip about our secondary school classmates. Miraculously our little circle of cup noodles session gets the clique alittle closer.
Or rather, it could just be any of the days, when you and your friends are slacking around some random estates when you guys are just craving for a bite. Before you know it, you’re holding the boiling cup noodles gently towards that playground which you guys sat there, blasting hand phone music. Reminiscing about your lost love, singing KTV songs out loud since no one is there to listen except your close ones.
Exchanging ghost stories, or talking about the ghastly tales that you’d encountered in the Fort Canning, Red House, or Old Changi Hospital in your old days. Sharing stories you’d heard, giving spirits of all sorts exotic nick names such as Michael, Sally, Ms P and Mr P fearing that being too obvious might draws them along. The feeling of exchanging and the thrill of feeling scare all the same when everyone’s getting the goosebumps while we hold onto the warm cup noodles to make us feels better.
Nothing could go better with a beer at this time in a convenience store than a hot cup noodle. Sitting by the beach, it’s only the sound of the waves crashing in and the constant slurping of the noodles, sipping an ice cold beer followed by rhythmic burps.
We ate instant ramyun too (cup noodles) when we travel too. In Korea, it was just a minute walk outside our guest house, where the familiar uncle of the Mini Stop greets us heartwarmingly whenever we came in our sleepwear and hoodies in the wee hours when hunger strikes. The best part of it? We’d got a seating area all set up and we could enjoy sitting there, enjoying the coolest of the breeze, blowing and sipping the hot noodles while sitting there chit-chats or even just quietly using our handphones while time goes by.
Or even like now, as I off the stove, open the contents then cooking it with a towel wrapped around then slowly bringing it into my room before I change up and dry my hair while waiting for it to be cooked. Finding the subtitles for my movie, then sitting down and properly enjoying my cup noodles over it before heading for slumber with my hunger satisfied.
It’s the cheapest food that gives us the best of memories, the food that is made available for us at anytime of the day, accompanied us through the best or worst of the nights. It could be a social snack, but it still has its magic when you’re eating alone. It might sound lame, but yet nostalgic, and beautiful I think, of how it accompanied us throughout the years of us growing up.
So what is your cup noodle stories?
My personal favorite?
eating it off on an ironing board in a post hotel room with the love of my life.
P.S. Happy 3000th
1 comment:
Awwwww <3
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