It's The Steamboat Man!!

Last night, I had a (mis)adventure of sorts when I met yuhui and emelyn the xiao meimei for dinner.

When one pays for a meal, reasonably good service is usually expected. Well, at least a lecture from a member of the staff is certainly not on the menu.

For the past 2 years, I have eaten at one of liang seah street's steamboat shop on 5 occasions. On most occasions, I have enjoyed good and friendly service, and I have introduced friends to that place too. The food is pretty good, treats my palate well and has a relatively okay price. And as most Singaporeans do, I have never finished every thing that I have ordered.

So this evening, I experienced a some customer service that is a certain way off the extremely low standard that I usually have. When I called for the bill, one of members of the staff, a tall and muscular man, told us that we would have to finish up the food, or face the a $6 fine for wastage.

I was dumbfounded and I explained to him that I have patronised this restaurant on many occasions and I have never finished up all the food, yet this is the first time I have to pay for having leftovers? Talk about a loyalty plan for customers yo? And by the way, we only had a 3/4 serving of prawns, one flower crab and a 3/4 serving of meatballs left. I know on the whole it really IS alot but come on, I bet you know yourself too that you never finish everything you order for a steamboat buffet.

So this man continued on, "Our boss is very particular about wastage of food and it is very sinful to waste food like this." Did I hear things right? He is trying to impose his boss' standard on us, the paying customers! His attempt at inducing guilt within me only enraged me. He went on, "If you didn't put the food into the soup, I wouldn't have charged extra," and I guess that anger and andrenaline got the better of me, and I totally no impression of what I said after that, except for telling him that he had "ruined my evening" and "i will most certainly never come here again". And during all this while, I was speaking to him in my softest and calmest tone possible, yet he raised his voice and created such a mayhem that everyone else turned to look at our table...

I silently prayed to God to not let my anger take over... I swallowed my pride, argh, heeded yuhui's words and told him that we'll try to finish as much as possible... I felt really bad cos the xiao meimei was really full already and yuhui also ate alot more... But they said that the anger really fueled their outburst of hunger, which I totally agree...

Well, in the end, we escaped the 'penalty' (just like liverpool), and everything ended peacefully with a thank you from that man... I seriously wonder would he had gave us that lecture if we weren't this young. I certainly hope that this experience didn't really spoil their evening and I had real fun actually!

Looking back, I start to realise that he was making a stand and fighting for what he believed was right for him. And as a journalist (in the future and in the making), that is really part of my (future) job. I have long realised that it's gonna be inevitable to step on some people's toes as I carve out my career and perhaps even cause some of my friends to hate me for whatever reason. But I have come to revisit my cause, and to fight for justice with the pen not according my standards, for that will simply conflict with many others. And instead, I shall carry out my work according to the standard and the law of the Lord...

'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,'

-Romans 3:23