'Sidewalk' restaurants

In our city, maids make up a significant portion of our population.

Specificially, we call them Foreign Domestic Helpers here and they make up 3% of our population.  Majority of them are young women coming from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

I want to write about them today because I've learned a few things about them recently and I think it's interesting.

The first thing is that they do a lot for us - they are our legs and hands.  When I was eating at my usual breakfast place this morning, I overheard a conversation between 2 grandmas who were sitting next to me.

Essentially, one of them went grocery shopping and when she was done, she passed all the bags to her maid, who then carried them home.  That was why the grandma was able to meet the other grandma for breakfast.

This is not unusual in our city.  In families where both parents work, majority of them hire a maid to help with housework.  However, you will notice that these maids do more than just housework.  They also take care of the children (if the parents are busy), they cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner (most importantly, have them ready before mom, dad, and the kids come home from work/school), they do laundry, clean, grocery shopping.......they essentially keeps the household running.

And where do they live?  They live in a little closet - more like a storage closet - usually by the kitchen.  Yes, it's inhumane in that they get no space, but.....well, there's no justifiable but.

In the photo above, you will get a glimpse of what they do on their day off (Sunday).  All of them would flock to their usual meeting place and congregate there, meet their friends, catch up on each others' lives, maybe complain about their boss (who knows?), and most interestingly, they would eat there - right on the sidewalk.

And what's fascinating is that some of them will prepare an assortment of dishes, which they carry in suitcases, and sell them. So, all they need to do is just open their suitcases and viola!..mini-buffets on the side of the road.  If you see something appetizing, you just need to take off your shoes, 'walk into' their area marked by the plastic on the ground, and then enjoy the meal.

That's what I saw this past weekend - a bunch of mini-restaurants all lined up by the side of the road.  And each would be circled by a group of customers.  I asked Chris whether he wanted to give the food a try.  Surprising, he said "No this time"....LOL.

Maybe next time, then ;)


Zooe