In For A Repair

I had my fair share of hospital food. Most were bland and unexciting. This one blew my mind in terms of hospital food.

I was admitted to repair my tennis elbow, and the irony of the situation was that I don’t even play tennis. Anyway, please remember to walk away from the keyboard once in a while. That was the cause of my tennis elbow – prolonged hours in a constricted position.

So, I was admitted to Mt Elizabeth Novena. Why is this place special? Just look at their meal services. Staying in the hospital, you are usually served five meals a day – breakfast, lunch, tea break, dinner, supper. These are usually boring, purposeful calories replenishing exercises. But here, you are spoiled for choice.

The surgery was scheduled for the early morning, so I was admitted the afternoon before. The first meal catered was the dinner – Hainanese chicken rice with chocolate lava cake. The chicken rice was ok, not the Tian Tian quality but flavourful for a hospital dinner. I was supposed to fast from 8 pm onwards so no supper and breakfast.

This is the piece de resistance in this hospital. The last time I was here for another problem, I didn’t have the chance to eat it because my family insisted that one should not have shellfish after surgery. With Covid and no visitor policy, I shall indulged myself with the Slipper Lobster Laksa. Very nice and packed a lot of flavours, it took my post-surgery blues away. But it was really difficult to eat noodles with the left hand when I am a right hander.

OK, this is getting too much. Dinner was seafood char kway teoh and kambing soup, with apple crumble from the tea break (I was sleeping due to painkillers) and New York cheesecake. I ate everything and skipped supper.

As it was just a one-night stay, I managed one more meal before check-out. It’s a full breakfast with croissant (you can choose from a full range bread basket), fried eggs (again you can choose the way you want your eggs), hash brown and a full English breakfast spread of juice, coffee, yoghurt, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes. The only thing missing was baked beans.

Not that I encouraged you to stay in the hospital, but if all hospital meals were like this, I believe many would recover better and happier.