Most Dreaded Question.

In my opinion, this has to be the most dreaded question a person has to face, on a daily basis. I even dare say that this could very well be a global phenomenon. The annual Chinese New Year 'yee ma ku jeh' questions pales in comparison to this. Are you ready for it?

What to eat?

And since I'm Malaysian, let me introduce to you multiple variations to this question. In Malay: Makan apa? In Cantonese: Sik Mat Yeh? In Mandarin: Chir Shen Mer? (吃什么) In Hokkien: Chiak Ha Mi?

No matter who you're dining with, or who's territory you're in, it's almost the exact same routine. With your colleagues, you'll be looking at each other until someone suggested something - we've tried the 'random pick from pool' approach but it failed miserably, pity the fella who prepared the selection 'sticks'. 

With your parent's, they'll routinely ask for your suggestions and end at up dining at the same place eventually most of the time, bah. 

With your friends, there's usually an unofficial 'food god' that takes care of such delicate matters but in the unfortunate event that the 'food god' is absent, a round robin approach would be your best alternative.

And with your partner/spouse, it's a questioning game that lasts for a couple of minutes - due to the need for elimination, rice or noodles, Asian or Western, something light or heavy, location A or location B, and so on. 

One thing I have to admit though, when dining with the wife, I'm usually the picky one - my record breaking feat being strolling through the entire mall and still failing to decide on where to eat (we either ended up not eating or having instant noodles. 

Win.