TONGUE PLAY


Nah-uh, this isn't a kinky post, you little so-and-so you! hehe...

I'm talking about the language, more specifically the accent. Actually, I have to correct myself. The first New Zealander I ever met wasn't the cab driver from the airport. It was Phil, Nona's boyfriend, on the event of her birthday. I didn't last five minutes listening to him. I couldn't understand a word!

How could I have had trouble with their long, heavy E's when we have our Visayans back in the Philippines? Keetchup, seeven, and leeg should have been a breeze. And how could I have had trouble with their missing R's when I've been living in Singapore for 3 years now? Cohn, cohnuh, and fouh should have sounded familiar. Even the very English terms they have sneaked into their everyday conversations shouldn't have fazed me. It's easy enough to understand that loo means the toilet, lorry is the truck, and lollie is the candy.

But then, if I had to say something like, 'Look, there goes the candy truck!' It would have to come out as, 'Look, there goes the lollie lorry!'

THEN! I was in trouble.

And you wouldn't believe how fond they are of rigging up the local names of places with a lot of vowels. They did it like their life depended on it. For instance, there's Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Kaitaia, Maungakungakaramea. And then again, when you put it all together, how would they say something like Te Rerengawairua with their inability to pronounce their R's? And how would something like Papatoetoe sound coming from them? Pa-pa-toe-toe as it is written, or Pa-pa-toee-toee with their long, heavy E's?

And while we're on the subject of tongues, let's talk about the flavors I've tasted. By and large, their food is characteristically English, which, of course, would mean bland. Even their sweets were not as sweet except for the complimentary handshaped chocolates from that chocolate shop at Parnell given to us at the hotel. Now, those were good.

Steak is to New Zealand the way rice is to us Filipinos. Be that as it may, the only steak I liked was the rump special I had for dinner at The Grill on our second night. That was really good. The next good meal was at this Thai restaurant where we had the welcome dinner Monday night. After that, it was downhill all the way.

Until we got to Wellington, and our friends took us for lunch at Nando's. It serves this great stone-grilled chicken, Mexican style, pretty much like Pollo Loco, only better. And they have this homemade chilli sauce that went perfectly well with the chicken. That was a real feast.

I really wouldn't have minded if they took us there again for dinner. But no. They brought us to this Chinese restaurant somewhere downtown and it was the best! I especially liked their chow mein, which tasted so much like our pansit canton... something I've been looking for here in Singapore all these time.

And then again, there's Denny's. Like I said, we had breakfast there everyday for the whole week. The thing is, the group we breakfasted with did three things fast... eat, talk and walk. Denny's served their meals in huge servings... at least for me, they were. And I never got to finish any meal I ordered. On the last breakfast though, I did just the right thing and I now wonder why I never thought of it before.

I ordered my meal from the kiddie menu.

God, I'm so brilliant!