Munch Munch

My wife and I decided to have Japanese food today. We planned it during the week and had waited patiently for Saturday to arrive.

It was about 6.30pm, when our long awaited date begins. We got dressed up for the occasion and left the house. We wanted to be early so as to avoid the crowd at Sushi Tei, our usual hunt for Japanese food at Serangoon Gardens. (It reopened at 6pm.)

When we arrived at Sushi Tei, we found that it was packed. There were no seats and we had to wait. Unbelievable to be so crowded because it was only 7pm and they had just started operation, I thought. I asked the manager, and he told me that they had been operating since morning. They have their daily breaks, from 3pm to 6pm, only on weekdays. As for weekends, they work from morning till night without a break in between. My memory failed me as I thought otherwise.

Anyway, my wife and I did not wait for long. We got our seats. It was nearest to the entrance. We were browsing through the menu, when we heard some noise. Hmm... wondered what it was. Then, we realized that it was the munching sound of an unclosed mouth beside me.

This man, seated beside me, was chewing his tempura with his mouth open, with occasional splashing of the sauce out of his mouth. He kept pushing tempura after tempura in to his already filled mouth. Then when he choked, he snorted and then coughed to clear his throat. It was an awful and unhygienic sight.

He was not alone. His partner, a lady seated beside him, sucked her chopsticks passionately and then poked the chopsticks into her freshly made sashimi salad. She then toyed with her salad, stirring and stirring, until it looked too gross to eat. I wondered if she preferred it that way. Then she started talking to the man. The man, not noticing that his mouth was stuffed, replied her. She seemed to have an invisible shield that protects her from the man’s spillover.

I saw a couple walked towards the cashier. Immediately, I requested for a change of seats. We got our request, stood up and left the dynamic duo. Fortunately for the nice waitress, our date was saved.