香港に住んでいたときに油絵を習っていたのですが、そのときの先生（それがご縁でお友達）が今お住まいのKLからシンガポールに遊びに来られるとご連絡をいただき、昨日は夕食をご一緒しました。絵心のないわたしに誰でも絵を描くことを楽しむことが出来ると教えてくれたお友達。わたしがシンガポールに来てしばらくして（多分４、５年前）一度シンガポールでお目にかかったので、４、５年振り。夫とも面識があったのでお友達ご夫婦（ご主人とは初対面）と４人で夕食をすることになりました。
When we were living in Hong Kong, in the last few years, I was taking oil painting lessons, which I enjoyed immensely, and the owner and the teacher of the studio became a friend. She moved to KL soon after we moved to Singapore and has visited me once in Singapore since, I think it was probably 4 or 5 years ago. She is the person who taught me that anybody can paint, which changed my life. I don’t think I would have even attempted to try to paint watercolours without the experience of being able to paint in oil with her. Anyway, she contacted me to let me know she was going to be in Singapore for the weekend and we made an arrangement to have dinner in “Mustard” in Little India with our husbands.
お気の毒なことに金曜日の夜から具合が悪くなり、胃腸風邪をひいたみたいで食事がほとんど取れないと当日の夕方にご連絡があり、日にちを変更、またはキャンセルを提案しましたが、食事はできないと思うけれど少しましになっているので予定通り会いたいとのことで、決行。
Unfortunately, she came down with something like stomach flu on Friday night and was very unwell yesterday morning. She contacted me in late afternoon telling me this and warn us that she will probably be having just plain rice. I asked her if she wanted to put it off to today’s lunch or cancel it but she assured me that she was feeling better and wanted to go ahead.
場所は、リトルインディアのインド料理 Mustard。胃腸の具合が悪いときにこともあろうにインド料理（苦笑）。場所は前日に決めてしまっていましたし、土曜日でしたし、２、３時間前のご連絡だったのでそれから別のレストランを予約するのも難しく、場所も予定通り。
Indian isn’t something we would have chosen if we’d known the situation but it was too late to change the restaurant in such a short notice on a Saturday so we went ahead with our plan and met them in Mustard.
話に夢中になりすぎて写真を撮るのをすっかり忘れ、結構食べてしまってからの、しかもなぜかほとんどライスしか写っていない写真ですが（苦笑）。右上がオクラのカレー、左下がバターチキン。他にエビのカレー、前菜にカリフラワーのロースト、サモサをオーダー。体調が悪かったお友達はダールとご飯を少しだけ召し上がっていました。
We were so keen on catching up with each other, I completely forgot to take photos. I did take just one after we ate most of the food, and by some reason it’s only the rice that you can see mostly but here it is. Okra curry on the top right corner and Butter Chicken on the left. We also had roasted cauliflower, samosa and prawn curry. As my friend was eating only a small amount of rice and daal, this was plenty for us.
お友達の体調が良くなくて残念でしたが、今朝は随分良くなったとのことでよかったです。４、５年分のキャッチアップをするには時間が全然足りませんでしたが、お目にかかれてとても嬉しかったです。ご主人とは初対面でしたがイギリスの方で、夫とフットボールの話で盛り上がっていました。お友達も「まるで何年も友達みたいね。」と笑っておられましたが、共通の話題がいくつかあったので会話が弾み、楽しいひと時でした。次回は４、５年と言わず、近いうちにまたお目にかかれますように。
余談ですが、Mustardはこのところ日本の方に人気らしく昨日も日本人の大きなグループと他に２、３組日本の方がいらしていました。（お店の方がわたしに嬉そうに伝えてくださいました。）
It was a shame that my friend wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t enjoy the dinner and there wasn’t enough time to catch up with each other to follow the 4-5 years, but it was wonderful to see them. It was the first time to see my friend’s husband for both of us but my husband and my friend’s husband were soon talking like they’d known each other for years. They are both very keen on football like many British men and there were a few other mutual interests so we never ran out of things to talk about and had a lovely evening. Hope it won’t be 4-5 years to see them next time.
Incidentally, this restaurant seems to have become very popular amongst Japanese, one of the staff told me that there was a large group of Japanese and also a few more tables of Japanese last night.
Mustard
32 Race Course Rd
Singapore 218552
Tel:+65 6297 8422