My bean sprout woes ....

Just some ramblings from a very grouchy person irritated with a persistent cough that is refusing to go away! A warning dear friend, if you're a fan or bean sprout, skip this post.

I recently felt like having some Mee Rebus (noodles with nice thick gravy) and there's one Malay stall near Heartland Mall (where the former Hougang Bus Interchange used to be) supposedly serve good Mee Rebus. They usually have a long queue of people waiting to either have their noodles or Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice). So I went there, joined the queue and when it came to my turn to order, I asked for 'Mee Rebus, satu, bungkus, tak nak taugeh'. Alrighty, let me translate all that. I ordered one packet of Mee Rebus, to go, with no beansprouts. Simple right? Right.

Now, I need to state this here. I am not fussy about food. Basically will eat anything that's put infront of me. Whether I enjoy the food or not, that's a different thing, but I will eat anything. The only time I am a wee bit particular is when it comes to veggies. I am not a fan of veggies and yes, I know it's good for you but I just have certain veggies that I eat - egg plants (brinjal), mushrooms, green leafy veggies (any kind), lettuce, ladies fingers, tomatoes and recently, I may consider eating capsicum too. See, I do have quite a range of veggies that I do eat if I have to. Anything else than these, I stay away. For example, am not a fan of brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage (unless sliced thinly like them coleslaw), carrots (unless mashed with potatoes) and BEAN SPROUTS. I simply loathe BEAN SPROUTS. Three things that I will painstakingly remove from my food (in order of dislike) - bean sprouts, onions (unless finely chopped and I have no choice but to eat it) and cabbage (thick chunky ones). Friends know how weird I get when it comes to bean sprouts. After several bad encounters of food orders going wrong, I have learnt to be wiser when ordering food.

Indulge me as I share a common bean sprout encounter. My friends and I were at a kopitiam (food court) and I ordered Mee Goreng from the Indian Muslim stall and I told the guy at the stall 'Sayur, Tak Mau' (with accompany hand and head gestures to emphasise my request for no veggies because the dish usually comes with chunky chopped cabbage and bean sprouts). And when the dish comes, he made up for the request for no veggies with extra helping of bean sprouts! And when I told him that I had requested for no veggies, his reply was, 'No veggies what!'. And when I pointed to them bean sprouts, he gave me a puzzled look and replied 'Itu bukan sayur apa!' (translation 'But that's not veggies!'. Huh? So these days, I request for 'No veggies and No bean sprouts. I allergic. If eat, I will die here on the spot'. Usually it does the trick and my friends will have a good laugh at how serious I look when I tell him (and yes, instructions come with full hand and head gesture...with me showing using hand gestures to show him how I will collapse and die'. Yeah, I can get very dramatic about such things. I just can't help it.

Anyways, back to my Mee Rebus story. After politely requesting for no bean sprout for my noodles, I watched her as she prepared. She packed the gravy separately - clever girl, otherwise my noodles will get soggy by the time I get home to have it. She grabbed the yellow noodles and dumped it into hot boiling water. And to my horror, her plastic glove covered right hand grabbed a WHOLE bunch of bean sprouts and dumbed it in together with the noodles. Immediate reaction from me was 'Dik, kan tak nak taugeh!' (loose translation: 'Didn't I say I didn't want taugeh!'). She looked at me, looked at the bean sprout and then turned to me and said,'Sikit aje kak' (translation: 'Just a bit Sis'). Huh? A bit you say? *sighs* How difficult was it to just not put the beansprout? I just shrugged and took the packet of noodles that she handed to me, and didn't feel like having the noodles anymore.

You're probably thinking right now that it's just bloody bean sprouts, just eat the darn thing and stop fussing about it! *laughs* Yeah, you're probably right. Yes, it's only $2 which is cheap for bought food these days so I should just shut up and eat the food when others elsewhere in the world is thinking where their next meal is going to come from.

Yes, yes, yes, I know all this. It's just hard to explain why I get upset by these incidents. And by the way, I did eat the noodles after I spent about three minutes removing the bean sprouts (even that I missed a couple as you can spot them in the photograph below).

But this incident got me thinking I will move away from bean sprout. Yes, it's not a post just on bean sprouts *laughs*. Last week, the same thing happened when I placed the same request with the same girl for the same food. And I was surprised when I opened the packet of noodles at home to see bean sprouts waving at me. But I brushed it aside as maybe the girl didn't hear my request. But this time round, I made sure I made eye contact with her when I made the request so I was sure she heard me. That was what I thought at least.

She heard me, but I think it was selective hearing. She just needed to know what dish I wanted and prepared that. I think she just heard 'one' 'to go' 'mee rebus'. Anything else in between got ignored as noise and totally unnecessary. Is it because she does this everyday for at least 8 hours and it has become so routined that no thinking required because I am sure she can prepare the food with the eyes closed after doing this for years (plus probably not many people would make such requests I guess).

I was just thinking how it would be like to be working in a job that is so routined that I would not have to think much about what I am doing, no stress too, no need to change since things would be the same for a long while. Once in a while, have to deal with a fussy customer (like myself). Hmmm .... not too bad.

But I think it depends on the individual. Some would like such routine so that they became really skilled in that one area. But some may get bored with it after a while. I have a very very short concentration span and if I do anything for too long that's too routine, I will get all fidgety and restless and will get on my colleagues nerves probably.

Then it got me thinking about the staff that's working with me. Are they bored with what they have to do because after a while, it's sameo sameo thing? Or is that how they prefer to work? I recently had to design an enhanced jobscope for some of the officers and it was quite a challenge to design ways that I can grow them professionally to do work that will require them to learn to do new things or do the old things in a new way. I know some may take this as a challenge (and enjoy it) but others may not. I think I am just going to assume that as human beings, we all want to learn and develop professionally and do work that challenge the mind. Will have to talk to my officers soon about this. Good time to be doing this as the year has just started! Hmm, all this from a bowl of Mee Rebus and a handful of bean sprouts. Food for thought indeed ... *laughs*