pepper lunch express rice

was at food junction in raffles city shopping center for dinner just now. last time i went there, i had my usual favourite of sticky gooey beef noodles (i am such a big time sucker for that starchy stuff). so anywayz, at that time, the stall next to it was bloody crowded; the queue stretching all the way to the next 2 stalls behind. being a typical singaporean, yeah u guessed it, i also had to check out what that particular stall was selling. lo-and-behold, it's the express outlet of pepper lunch! ok it ain't exactly that famous (that's why i'm doing a free promo for it now) but i came across an outlet when i was at imm some time back and found it kinda interesting - yet another one of those wacky jap inspired or rather brought over concept thingy. wanted to try it out then but decided that it was kinda ex for a simple fried rice on a hotplate fanfare. but guess wat? being an express outlet, the prices here are cheaper. the cheapest starting at 4.90, still kinda ex for me but well reasonable for foodcourt prices i guess. (it's quite sad that if you want a decent meal for 2 bucks, the hawker center is the only place left these days. higher cost of living indeed man. won't be surprised that it won't last for long either).

thus, without thinking i found myself at the queue and placed an order for the cheapest 4.90 beef fried rice. thank goodness there were only like 5 of us (myself included) in the queue. not too sure if it's because it wasn't the peak hour or that the novelty has died down. at the same time, i was craning my neck to see how the other folks were stirring up the contents on the hotplate when they got theirs. that's because on the pipping hot hotplate, we are served with raw beef, a scoop of rice with corn and butter + sauce in the middle. so we have to do the stirring and mixing it up on our own. of course, therein lies the fun! it could be that it gives you a sense of accomplishment, macham like you have just cooked for yourself a good meal or the fact that it is cooked in butter (think of those teppanyaki steamboat meals where you shabu- shabu your marinated beef with butter. yeah yummy indeed) that makes it rather delicious on the whole.

the sad part though is that i didn't manage to snap a shot of my stir-fried masterpiece cos my phone batt only had 1 freaking bar of power left. oh well, it just means that i've got a great reason to have another pepper lunch meal again ;D this time i think i shall try the curry rice instead. lol.