Comfort Food

Today Emily and I celebrated that her big sisters were both at camp by driving over to Tanglin Mall for no other purpose than to let Emily walk the mall and have lunch. I didn't even bring a stroller and she loved being a big girl, holding Mommy's hand and stepping on and off the escalators with no problem.

After riding as many $1 Sesame Street, Barney and Bob the Builder rides as she could find, we visited the new Chili's restaurant for the first time. Of course, growing up in Dallas, I remember the good old days of Chili's -- the original on Greenville Ave (it's gone now) and enjoying nachos every chance I got. It was one of my favorite places. As the chain grew, the experience went downhill and when the menu started showing pictures of the food, I couldn't take it anymore. It became a place we seldom visited and usually just when the girls requested it.

So here I am on the other side of the world where the cuisine revolves around rice and seafood. Every now and then I get a craving for a good hamburger that can't be satisfied at a fast food chain. Enter the new Chili's. Emily ate almost all her quesadillas and I had to resist the urge to eat the entire Oldtimer I ordered (half of it is in the fridge for Brian to enjoy later :) Their menu is definitely smaller than in the US but in my opinion, they have chosen the "classics" to serve here. Brian might be disappointed that there's no chicken-fried steak but there are some things that just don't travel well! And keeping with Singapore tradition, everything on the menu costs about twice as much as it would at home.

The restaurant was doing good business today with the crowd being equally Asian and Caucasian. I hope it does well so there's one place outside my home where I can find a decent margarita, burger and brownie sundae in this town!