Friday — Polling Day 2020 (GE2020) lunch at home. Voting wrapped up by mid-morning at our polling station, and we came back home for a civic-duty meal at the kitchen counter.

Today’s plate:

Hot rice base
Fried egg (sunny-side)
Stir-fried vegetables
Pan-seared protein
Chilli sauce on the side

Polling Day in Singapore is a public holiday for the express purpose of letting people vote. The queues at the polling station were managed under phase-2 safe distancing rules — masks throughout, contact tracing on entry, distance markers between voters. Quick in, quick out.

The post-voting lunch felt deliberate. The day had that small ceremonial quality that public-holiday-with-purpose tends to have, and the home brunch fit the energy — slower than a regular weekday, less rushed than a weekend.

Rice was the standby hot fluffy jasmine. The base.

Fried egg was the M-style sunny-side standard. Crispy white edges, runny golden yolk centred on the plate. The yolk over rice gives the meal its small daily ritual.

Stir-fried vegetables were a mix of cabbage and carrot today, with smashed garlic and a splash of soy. Crunchy stems, lightly seasoned.

Pan-seared protein was a small portion of chicken thigh — salt-and-pepper seasoning, skin-side first for the crispy render. Sliced into strips before plating.

Chilli sauce on the side as always.

We sat at the kitchen table, ate slow, and didn’t have the news on. The election results would come in over the evening anyway.

Polling Day plus home brunch is the kind of quiet civic ritual that the lockdown era reframed. Pre-pandemic, voting day might have ended with a restaurant lunch out; in lockdown, it ended with hot home food and BB across the table.

Some small things gained meaning during this period.

Overall: 4.3 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Quiet Polling Day lunch — civic duty done, plate clean.

Original IG post