Hungry for meat!

Contrary to what I had expected, giving up meat — even for some of the time — is really hard to do.

This despite the fact that I don’t eat beef, lamb, mutton, duck, goose, game, and many forms of crustaceans and many cuts of pork. Which shows there aren’t that many kinds of meat left in the animal kingdom or that many types of seafood that will tickle my appetite.

This also despite the fact that I’m hugely fond of all vegetables, nuts and fruit, except perhaps the pineapple.

I discovered that I’m not cut out to be a full-time vegetarian only recently when I began limiting eating meat or fish to just one meal per day. When social functions make it impossible for me to stick to that regime, I make up for it later by having all vegetable and fruit days.

I’ve written about how I longed for meat, especially pork, in a post last year.

Nothing has changed since then.

The other day, I was at Marina Bay Sands be4 lunch — just to vary the timing of my joust with Lady Luck — when I felt a sudden need-4-meat attack.

I was in Rasapura — the MBS food court — and decided to succumb to my craving for  meat rather than eat vegetarian and save my meat quota for dinner!

satisfying meat pangs

 Yup, I just had a few pieces of roast pork (siew yoek) despite the tempting meat array (below), because most of the meat on display was anathema to me: goose, duck, char siew! While the pork ribs were expensive and messy and difficult to eat.

sight for meat hungry eyes!

Dinner from winnings

When I won “big” by my reckoning at the Marina Bay Sands casino on Jan 7, I thought of treating myself to a good dinner with my ill-gotten gains at one of the restaurants either inside or outside of the casino.

The only trouble was I already had my meat meal for the day at Beng Tin with my friends and so dinner had to be vegetarian — and it would be a shame to blow my winnings on a salad, potatoes and such like. Also, I didn’t want a long leisurely dinner; just food that tastes good.

I deliberated whether I should head down to Rasapura the food court where I know from my 5th visit to the casino on Jan 2 that there was a vegetarian stall. The helper was friendly and generous with the helpings. The prices weren’t exhorbitant.

But I hesitated heading that way because of the longish stroll from the casino and also because the food was right out of the Greasy Spoon.

So Hobson’s choice meant Tong Dim, a noodle house right inside the casino, which saw long queues outside the first couple of times I was at the casino last year.

On the night of Jan 7, I was lucky. There was no queue. In fact there were empty tables and the receptionist was most helpful.

dinner bought with my wins

There was only one dish on the menu that met my no-meat, no-fish criteria. Vegetable fried rice. And my request for less oil was cheerfully acquiesced to. As the dish cost just $7.50, I even splurged on a glass of white wine, a Lindemans chardonnay which at $12.50 a glass could have bought me a whole bottle from the supermarket.

Still, it was the casino’s money I was spending, so I didn’t feel a scrooge.

I was in such a good mood that I even checked for Sparklette’s benefit whether the restaurant charged for water, warm or cold. When told “no”, I wondered why I wasn’t served any with my rice but was still in such a charitable mode that I made no fuss.

My meal ended and I returned to hitting the jackpot machines but not for too long. Because I’d been out all day — though only getting to the casino around 4.30pm — I decided to call it a day while most of my winnings were intact.

You see, once i had bought a full-year entry to the casino I didn’t feel the need to max out my $100 per day levy. I could go at any time and leave when the going is good. Which is what I did on the 2nd time I used my annual entry pass!