Yesterday once more@Shashlik

All my best memories
Come back clearly to me
Some can even make me cry
Just like before
It's yesterday once more

Carpenters, 1973

Shashlik brings back a flood of memories. Good memories. Memories of a time when we were young and dating and happy even if broke most of the time. A time when there weren't very many steak restaurants to choose from and Shashlik was the answer to a stylish dinner date in the late 70s.

One recent evening when the man was visited upon by nostalgia and sentimentality, Shashlik came to mind. It was like stepping back in time some 25 years. The dim lighting, the overly dark wood furniture, the so-very-70s leather-bound chairs, the service trolley, even the Hainanese ah-kor's (servers) were all just as we remembered them.

There was no need to look at the menu. We knew exactly what we came for. We started with their famous borscht soup, shared a chateaubriand steak, and eagerly looked forward to the bomb alaska. Every detail was as we knew it would be.

The borscht soup without beetroot, the entree sizzling on a hot plate while the trimmings were being assembled in full view by your table, the bomb alaska flambe'ed before your eyes. All done with the courtly manners of the old-style ah-kor's on trolleys with squeaky sticky wheels.

We want to commit every detail of the place to memory. We want to remember our favourite ah-kor from our courtships days - now 70 years old - still going about his business in that familiar no-pandering fashion.

As the evening drew to an end, we took a long last look at the place. Finally, with reluctance, we stepped out of the restaurant and walked into the present.

Shashlik Restaurant is located at:
545 Orchard Road
#06-19 Far East Shopping Centre
Singapore 238882
Tel: 67326401