Dining with clients can be an interesting experience. One of my clients has an affinity for good food and I don’t mean only the expensive restaurants type of food. We’re talking about good tasting food that’s value for money. More often than not, when we meet up, he’ll bring us to try some nice dish tucked in the corner of some housing estate or a nice inexpensive restaurant.

Today was no exception. We found ourselves waiting for half an hour in the hot and humid hawker centre for, believe it or not, turtle soup. You might think we’re crazy to be thinking of that given the hot weather we’ve been experiencing these days. But like many Singaporeans, when it comes to food, we throw all comfort and caution into the wind.

Since we had to wait for the soup, my client, hungry and impatient, got us a whole set of pork dishes as sort of a “starter”. It came in 2 plates, a couple of bowls of rice and a big bowl of soup. The pork dish that he got us was quite unique. There was fish, quite fresh, mixed with seasoned pork. Strange you might think but with the sauce, the mix of fish and pork blended quite well. In fact, we cleaned off everything in a matter of minutes.

Next came the turtle soup. As it was placed steaming hot in front of us, I can smell the strong herbal smell that could only be the result of brewing the herbs for long hours. I took a sip of the soup and I was impressed by the balanced of taste. The taste of herbs is there but not overpowering with a tinge of spice. The meat of the soft shell turtle is tender and well cooked but nothing much to say about the taste, in fact, it was kind of bland.

Portion was just right though, I managed to finish the meat but was too full by then to finish all the soup. By then we were all wet with perspiration but all well fed and fully satisfied with the good meal. Back to work…