The friendlier skies

Kim, Libby, Dawn and I hadn't met up as a group in ages so when we found that we all had a sudden opening on Monday night, we jumped at the chance to have dinner together.

Dawn suggested a restaurant called Sushi Airways at Arab Street that sells Japanese food in an airplane-themed setting.  I love Japanese cuisine more than life itself, but my first reaction was that surely no one would pay to be fed in an aeroplane.  

Full disclosure: I hate flying.  I hate it with a passion because it terrifies me.  (Amanda and I had a very lively conversation at the office because we're both plane-phobic to the same degree.  Each time a plane takes off or lands, I grip the armrests and my palms go slick.  I have come very close to having panic attacks in turbulence.  But I fly anyway because.  You know.  How else would I get to my friends or see the world?)

Anyway, in my mind's eye I saw tiny cramped seats with those awful metallic armrests that bruise your elbows and oddly-scented trays of food with rock hard rolls and limp vegetables.  

Dawn, however, has a very good nose for restaurants, so I decided to put my uncertainty aside.  (We had a quick tea together before dinner and she looked wonderful, fit and hot as always!) 

Of course, I was just being silly because, well, what restaurant would pay such a literal tribute?  Instead, the joint was all sleek metal with capsule-like windows and black swivel chairs.  Cute!

(The counter is actually not that reddish colour.  I'm just playing with tweaking colours because my friend at work, Rebecca, inspired me when she told me that she once unrolled an entire roll of ISO 400 film under her blanket in the dark and then respooled it backwards.  Film.  That's dedication, folks.  Apparently, shooting on the back of the film gives you something called redscale.  I wanted to emulate the reddish-yellow cast using iPhoto.)

Before we started eating, they let us choose our sake cups to match our personalities.  Dawn chose the classy cracked-jade one, Libby chose the sweet pale pink and I went for the clean lines of the dark blue.  Kim came late so I didn't get her cup, but I think it had a floral sort of pattern on it as well. 

The food was a little pricey, but very fresh and tasty.

I love salmon in almost any form.  Here it was thinly sliced with crunchy vegetables and the kind of umami dressing that the Japanese excel at.

That's Dawn pointing excitedly at the sashimi in the background.  I loved the fish and scallops but the squid was a little gummy for me.  For some reason, I don't like prawn sashimi either.  Otherwise, there is nothing more delightful than a cold, firm, salty piece of good-quality sashimi between the teeth, just before it explodes with the kick of wasabi.

Because the other two at the table are pescetarians, Libby and I had this very tasty fried breaded pork to ourselves. 

As usual, we laughed ourselves silly, three former Straits Times people and one still an editor, talking about old times and new adventures.

What I find funny is that Libby and I are actually blog friends as well.  She writes a beautiful blog called Little Bow Girl, which you can find here.  Many people that I've recommended her blog to love it, and we read each other's sites fairly often.  So even though I hadn't actually seen Libby in upwards of six months, I knew exactly how she was keeping.  We had a few laughs about all the vain things bloggers do, like taking self portraits, and Libby's camera which has a makeup function that makes your skin look like silk!

Among other scandals, we covered the Joanne-Bobby split, which Kim had been dying to read about.

Before leaving, we made massive fools of ourselves by posing with the food serving cart, thankfully the only thing that actually looked like it came off an airplane. Kim is supposed to be an air stewardess, albeit one that cares more about her image than her passengers.  (I don't know if you noticed Libby peeking through the sake cups in the photos above but I jumped when I first saw her.  She looks a little ethereal!)

We finished off with dessert at the Cafe Rouge downstairs.  Chatting with girlfriends over some very dark chocolate, orange cake, sea salt and creme brulee is the perfect remedy for a long day.

All in, I thought it was a delightful outing.  To cap the evening, I got a ride home from Libby's husband, and sat, warm and full in the back of the car cradling her darling schnauzer, Benjy in my lap while he gently nipped my wrist.  As Benjy and I trundled along sleepily, I thought about what Libby and Kim had said earlier. 

It's so nice to meet with friends that you can reminisce with and who understand the weird hold that the past has on you because it happened to them too.  And of course, it's just as nice that we still take the time and trouble to have fun together in the here and now. 

My phone lit up in my lap - Kim proposing that we choose an equally interesting place the next time round.  I can't wait.