Day three: Singapore
Crashed pretty early last night, so I was up at 4:30 this morning. Thanks, jet lag! No matter, I spent the morning with headphones in, watching Pete & Bas music videos on YouTube while I waited for the daily NYTimes crossword to drop. Eventually, it was time to head out to find some brekkie. We opted for a little place right down the street called Breakfast Hola. It’s a Taiwanese place that sells these neat little egg things that are sorta like an omelette and sorta like a crepe. It’s listed under “Egg Crepe Roll” in the menu. I saw “spicy Cai Poh” and asked what that was, but the lady’s English wasn’t to the point that she could translate it. So WTF, I ordered it anyway.
I mentioned before that I like contrast… well, I’m a very picky eater, but with a very adventurous palate. In other words, there is a short list of things that I enjoy eating, but I’ll try almost anything - hoping to add stuff to that list. So me ordering an egg crepe filled with something I’d never heard of isn’t a big stretch for me. And believe me, things are going to get weirder before this day is over.
I ate it and enjoyed it, but I had no idea what it was. It was white, diced, and crunchy like a carrot. It wasn’t spicy at all. It was, however, really difficult to eat with chopsticks. Rob got a bacon one, which he said was very good. (I looked it up after I got back to the hotel and found that Cai Poh is preserved radish. Now I know!)
After brekkie, we headed to the kopi place. Kopi (“kaw-pee”) is so traditional Singaporean that it’s listed officially as “culturally significant” by the powers that be. It’s basically coffee, but unlike other coffee you’ve had. The beans are roasted in a big wok with caramelized sugar and butter. No, really.
Then they’re ground and put into a sack made of cheesecloth-like material and the hot water is poured over that. Then it gets poured into a metal pitcher that looks a bit like a garden watering can.
A little dollop of condensed milk is placed in the cup, plus sugar if you ask, then the coffee is poured from about a foot above the cup.
The end result is one of the best cups of coffee you’ll ever have…. and those who know me know I wouldn’t say that lightly.
I got the traditional and Rob got an iced version. And then I got a second one.
From there, we did a bit of a walkabout and Rob wanted to see the mall that I went to yesterday, so we did that. I mentioned that greenery happens in unusual places here and the mall is no different.
On the way back to the hotel, we passed the Parliament building.
Back to the hotel to get a blast of A/C. Rob decided to try for a nap (jet lag is still very much a thing for us) and I decided to have a walk. I headed off in the opposite direction of Chinatown and wandered through the Central Business District for awhile.
I stumbled upon Lau Pa Sat, the most famous of the hawker centres. Rob and I ate here several times on our last visit because the food was good and cheap.
Rob had asked me to find some freshly-squozen juice or maybe a coconut drink of some kind while I was out. So I had a look in Lau Pa Sat to see if there was anything. It was so crowded, it was really hard to look around. That’s what I get for coming around lunchtime.
I figured I would stop back by again on the way back to the hotel later. I wandered a bit more and noticed that I wasn’t very far from Marina Bay Sands, so I headed that way. The harbour front is always nice.
The curved-roof building in front is a mall full of high-end brands that are already expensive, even before they showed up in a Singapore shop. It’s a pretty mall, though.
I thought I might ride the subway back to Chinatown, but I couldn’t find the metro station. I did find the skybridge over to Gardens by the Bay, which we did on our first visit here. Look carefully at those dots on the walkway between the trees. Those are people. The trees are HUGE.
I looked all over for about an hour and finally found the metro station… only to discover that they’ve got some sort of an account that you have to set up first. I couldn’t find any place to do that, nor could I find anyone to help. Ah, well. I did discover that you could walk from where I was to the station I wanted to ride to without going back above ground. It’s yet another mall down here.
Popped back above ground at Lau Pa Sat, which was much less crowded now. Found a little shop with wine in a can (!), found Rob a coconut beverage (which turned out to be an actual coconut with a straw) and some freshly-squozen orange juice. I got myself a coconut as well, AND I found the stall from our first visit here that sells the milk ice with durian. Milk ice is a dessert with milk poured over shaved ice, then some kind of fruit is spooned on top. Mango is very popular, but I was specifically seeking out one with durian, because it’s delicious and I’m never going to get it in Calgary.
Durian is known as “the king of fruits” and it’s sold all over Singapore, but mostly in Chinatown. You can smell the durian stands long before you see them. Durian isn’t allowed on public transport or in many public places and if you find it on a menu, it’s going to be at a hawker centre, because they’re open-air. On the outside, it looks like the bastard offspring of a watermelon and a porcupine. (Pic taken on our first trip here)
I was super-excited to find the stall at Lau Pa Sat that sold the durian milk ice! But I forgot the biggest rule of eating durian: never, ever, ever allow yourself to smell it. Put the bowl far away from you, then hold your breath when you lean in to eat it. Close your mouth and move away from the bowl again before you breathe. I accidentally breathed a bit through my nose when I was moving the spoon up on my first bite and I almost didn’t eat it.
It’s that bad.
The travel and food writer Richard Sterling states that "its odor is best described as pig-excrement, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock." (Wikipedia). He was being kind. The most common description people use is “rotting meat in a sewer.”
But wow, is it good. The texture is a it like mashed bananas, but slightly stringy. The flavour is unlike anything else, but there are hints of banana, papaya, cream cheese, caramel, onion, and almonds. Just remember to hold your breath while eating. The hawker stall I got this one from also put a bit of mango jelly under the durian for a bit of tang, which made it even better.
Anyway, I ate my durian milk ice, drank my coconut juice, put the cans of wine (that feels strange to type that) in my pocket, then carried the other coconut and orange juice back to the hotel for Rob. Walking through the Central Business District feels very much like walking through any big city, except that it’s extraordinarily clean.
Singapore has some of the harshest laws in the world and you absolutely do not want to get caught breaking one. Littering comes with a $1000 fine for the first offence, and the whole city is covered by CCTV, so you aren’t going to get away with it.
To keep the sidewalks clean, chewing gum is banned and spitting carries a $1000 fine.
Get caught with drugs on you (even cannabis) and it’s 10 yrs in prison and/or a $20,000 fine. Get caught with enough that they think you’re dealing, and it’s a mandatory death penalty. They are NOT playing around here - and it shows.
At no time during my long walk today did I ever feel unsafe, even with my good camera around my neck. It’s ranked the 3rd safest city in the world (behind Copenhagen and Tokyo).
Once back at the hotel, Rob enjoyed his treats and we started plotting what to do for dinner. Over our cans of wine (which we poured into glasses, because we aren’t heathens!), we decided to head next door to the BFF Club (which I’ve since found out stands for Bing Fen Friends) and have a couple of espresso martinis to ponder our options further. Also to pet Dogo. Alas, it wasn’t open yet, so we headed around the corner to the Maxwell hawker centre. It was early enough that it wasn’t too crowded yet. The lady at the front desk of the hotel insisted that we try the chilli crab, but the price was more than we wanted to pay for an unknown dish (see bottom of menu)- especially when there are so many other good things to be had for cheap.
So we looked around a bit and I decided that I’d get one ‘safe’ dish and one that I’d never had before. Rob got some curried prawn tempura, which he said was very good.
I started with my adventurous choice, which was steamed chicken feet in a chilli sauce.
At first glance, I thought, “looks like ginger beef - I’ll be fine” but when you pick up a piece, it comes out of the dish as the whole foot with three long toes. You can’t pretend it’s something else. The good news and the bad news: the good news is that it was really tasty! I liked the flavour and I loved the chilli sauce, but they’re super-hard to eat and you spend quite a lot of time working at it just to get a morsel here and there around the bones. Just not worth the effort - I wouldn’t order them again. Then I headed over to another stall for my ‘safe’ choice: Dandan noodles.
You’ve got spaghetti-like noodles, minced pork, chopped peanuts, scallions, and diced chilli peppers sitting in a spicy broth made of chilli oil, pickled veggies, and mustard stems. The name translates to “noodles carried on a pole” - as in the early days, vendors would put a pot of noodles hung from either end of a long pole, then place the pole on their shoulder so they could peddle the noodles to passers-by.
I was first introduced to the dish at restaurant chain P.F.Chang’s, then discovered the Viking cruises offer it on the daily buffet. I eat a lot of dandan noodles on a cruise! Neither of those versions had anything on this one, though. They were easily the best I’ve had - and only $5 a bowl!
After dinner, we headed back to the BFF Club, which was now open, said hi to Dogo (who was happy to see us) and finished off the night with a couple of very good espresso martinis.
Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow - supposed to be thunderstorms, but they said the same for today and it didn’t happen. Whatever it is we end up doing, you’ll see it on the next post.