My friends, colleagues and regular readers of this blog will know that i am quite a big sized fellow. In terms of size, i can survive easily here in USA as a M-L, at times XL size depending on the brand and the cutting of the clothes.

In Singapore, i'll definitely need to wear clothes XXL or above in order to feel comfortable.

With that in mind, and after being told online and through anecdotal information that though some food places did not raise their prices after the GST increase, they did reduce the portions of their servings.

So one day, i went to the Chinatown temporary hawker center, and ordered a bowl of wanton noodles. The stall has a display that said it has servings from $2, $3, $4, and i was planning to order the largest one. Imagine my shock when the lady told me "Ah boy... eat $2 wanton noodle enough liao...".

I was quite amused by that remark, and decided to take her up on that "offer". Either she was confident that the portion for $2 was enough for a big fellow like me, or that she was trying to tell me to cut down of my food intake!

So i sat at the table, and waited for the noodles to arrive. Upon seeing it, i was shaking my head furiously, with a big smile on my face. I'm probably too used to the serving portions here in Redmond, and that noodle portion was just enough for two mouthful, with 4 very very thin slices of BBQ pork, and two of the smallest wanton I've ever seen! I think it was less than 20% of the serving in a typical restaurant here.

I thought this was an one-off, but apparently that wasn't the case. Two other similar incidents in Bedok Central's hawker center, where i was encouraged to order the "famous" Chicken Curry noodle at $2.50, and in a coffeeshop next to  Eunos MRT with a $3.50 Pork Ribs soup. I almost have to wear my glasses to look for the pork ribs!

Ok ok.. i get it... no price increase, and hence, the CPI can maintain at a lower rate. But i need TWO-THREE plates instead of ONE. Hmm..