The opportunity came and we took it. It isn’t often that we get to do “fine dining” (though most of the time we are fine when we dine😂). Here when I say, “We”, I mean my family: Jeannie, Laura and I. Our dinners are usually rushed or “on the go” as we try to meet our scheduled “to dos” planned for, after that. With all the technology, available to us, especially the new buzz phrase, “A. I. or Artificial Intelligence” coming to our rescue or aiding us in freeing up our time each day, we shouldn’t be rushing. However, with this time saved, which we are sold on the idea that it should be for relaxing; we usually cramp more things to do in our schedule. So, we are always rushing.

Earlier on in the Merdeka afternoon, I suggested to Jeannie and Laura that we go for a nice meal since our evening schedule looked fairly clear. The question of where we should have dinner was quickly thrown back to me. It was between “Jake’s charbroiled” in Damansara Medan (quite a distance away), or Las Carretas. I was more inclined to Las Carretas as they are famous for their margaritas. Las Carretas it was. It is also less than 10 minutes away from home.

The very friendly waiter showed us to our table and handed us the menu. We placed our order and had a nice, “slow everything down”, no rush conversation. The setting, the ambience was just right, pleasant and quite quiet, too. There was music, Mexican, that is; softly playing in the background, though it sounded a bit Spanish.

I was also having a short text / messaging / whatsapp discussion with my La Salle school friend of 40 years, Lee Seng; on the side. Its been a long time since we last met in person. The saying, “The apple does not fall far from the tree” has some merit to, it: Both Lee Seng’s sons were top students in school, as was Lee Seng, too. Somehow, in the midst of the non-verbal conversation, I thought of my classmate, Lourdes Nathan.

Jeannie and I met Lourdes with his wife, and another schoolmate, Gilbert Chin for lunch, a few months ago. The last time I met Lourdes was some years back. I was shocked to see Lourdes with a big patch on his neck. He said his voicebox was removed due to cancer. Now he communicates with a device on his throat – and holds a sort of tiny vibrator next to this device when he wants to talk. This mimics his voicebox. Other than that, Lourdes still has his famous smile. He told me that he has read my posts especially about Laura’s swimming and studying abroad. My take from Lourdes is that he keeps abreast with the latest from our schoolmates. He acknowledges he has a health issue, not ignoring it. But he is always forward looking. That’s the stuff that made him School Captain and a great leader.

We did not have to wait long for our meal order. Our orders all came at the same time. The texting with Lee Seng ended then.

Jeannie had the “Muslo de Pollo Cocinado en Salsa” – a whole chicken leg with Mexican rice, side decorated with jalepenos and lettuce. The chicken was slow cooked, giving it the “roast” look, I think. The rice was a sort of reddish-orange in color. It looked great. Tasted as good as it looked.

Laura and I ordered the same, “Pollo Loco” (crazy chicken?😉). It was charbroiled boneless(very important) chicken chop, with a not too pepperish black Peppercorn sauce. It was served with baked potato (we were given the choice of fries or baked potato).

The black Peppercorn sauce was smeared evenly over the whole chicken. The sauce was not over-powering. We still could get the black pepper effect on the chicken. It looked presentable. The chicken was tasty, inviting to the palate. I liked the baked potato minus the sour cream. The taste of the baked potato seemed lost with the sour cream on it. Other than that, it was excellent!

The food was so good that neither one of us three eating, added and salt or pepper or anything else to enhance the taste of our meal.

I thought we were going to have margaritas after our dinner. I ordered a Mojito by mistake, while waiting for our dessert – “Home made brownie” with ice-cream, to arrive.

The vanilla ice-cream was a nice touch with the homemade brownie. It came with a bit of a strawberry, mint (mint again?) leave, a squish of whipped cream and zig-zagging of chocolate sauce. Really not too sure why this is done. Presentation on the plate served.

The Mojito looked like iced-lemon tea with a twig of mint on top for deco. However, it was not. It had a nice zing of rum, with sugar and lime juice. A good after dinner drink.

The waiters were always checking in on us, once in a while to attend to our needs. They were a bit witty, too. Must have been a pre-requisite when applying for the job.

As we came to the 10.00pm mark, we called up our long time friend, Richard Kok; to come to our house for coffee. He said, “ok”. We made a zig-zag line back home, shortly after that. Maybe, it was more zag than zig, as we had a few turns to make to get to our house. Jeannie was driving, – designated driver.