SINGAPORE
Singapore. In all honesty, it's not a spot which excites me like other cities of Asia. Having said that, it's a fascinating place and over the last few years of coming here every year, the place has spruced up some mighty fine architecturally astounding skyscrapers. Sailing in, i looked out my window and saw white sandy beaches. Perfectly white sand. OHHHH! That's right! It's all man-made. And that was part of Sentosa Island.
As always, food is at the forefront of my mind and when in Rome ... I was craving one thing and only one thing, chicken rice. To get out of the terminal was a maze, weaving around Vivo City (Singapore's largest shopping mall) with some small distractions of Warehouse, TopShop, Zara .. the usual stores for quick-fixes. Finally getting out of the box of escalators and brands and following recommendations, we jumped into a cab and went to the Maxwell Food Centre where the award-winning, food-bloggers haven pointed us to the Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice. Was it all that? It sure was. For $3.5SGD (which is like $3AUD), a dish of boiled chicken and rice with its sauces. The hawker stand across it was selling drinks so we opted for the grass jelly drink, the soursop and the pineapple juice. $1.20SGD each. Delicious!
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| the queue for the chicken rice. totally worth it! |
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| yeah ... right! |
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| delish! |
As we exited the Food Centre, some 'pink' balls caught my eye. A man was loading up his window front of his hawkers stand. Not knowing what they were, we picked a white one and a pink one. Turns out they were glutinous rice balls stuffed with beans. 50cents each. We walked out laughing.
Marina Bay Sands was next but across the road turned out to be Chinatown so we dawdled across. There's a Chinatown in every major city isn't there! They were selling the same things. T-Shirts, souvenirs, jade, horoscope tokens, stamps, chopsticks, masseuse parlours. The architecture was a cross between old-British buildings, somewhat European but also with an asian spin in terms of their windows and coloring.
Upon finding the exit of the Chinatown area, we passed a 'Fragrant Meat store'. Hysterical. They were sheets of meat - pork to be exact, marinated in sweet sauce. Kind of like a beef jerky, but not dry.
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| Fragrant slices of pork! |
To make things even more funny, the taxi we jumped into was advertising the exact same brand of 'frangrant meat'. Hysterical!
We made our way to Marina Bay Sands and soaked up the expansiveness of what it was then got in a lift that took us to Level 57 to Ku De Ta Club Lounge. Cocktails, beats, lounges, birds-eye view of Singapore and a mighty sunset. It made me really appreciate what my work was all about and how it took me around the world.
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| view from Ku De Ta. |
The evening consisted of a fabulous culinary experience at Newton Food Centre - chilli mud-crabs, Tiger beers and stingray. I kind of felt weird about the stingray bit but the guy who sold it said they made their own sauce and seriously, it was the tastiest thing ever! The chilli mud-crabs were from Sri-Lanka and most places sold them by the kilos but this particular stand sold them as male and female crabs with a set price.
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| picking out the crab .. which one is which? who knows! |
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| where we bought the mud crab. |
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| where we bought the stingray dish! |
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| chilli mud crabs. |
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| stingrays. |
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| kankong doused in chillis and garlic. |
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| food loverssss. |
Raffles was closed for the token Singapore Sling so off to Clarke Quay it was, with a drive through the famous Orchard Road with its bajillion malls and bright lights. It WAS St. Patrick's Day so the bars and clubs were vibing. We entered one place called the Brew Room which had a live band and danced the night away.
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| Oxygen, the band ripping up the stage for St. Patrick's Day! |
I really feel like Singapore is too man made. Things aren't cheap, buildings are great to look at but it seems to lack a certain soul. Chicken Rice was rocking my socks but otherwise ... it's easy to say that Singapore is a strange city.
Would I come back? Sure, if i'm in transit or working/performing but otherwise, I'd say another city in Asia is the way to go!
with love, grace and light,
Van-Anh
And for the RIGHT NOWs:
Favourite Food: Chicken Rice. It's all about the simple foods sometimes!
Reading: a Seabourn menu ... mmm lobster tail.
Wishlist: a flight to America
Current city: en route to Pulau Weh, Indonesia
Listening to: Imogen Cooper and cellist playing Rachmaninoff G Minor Sonata Op 19. Makes me melt!
Favourite clothing item: my geek shirt.
Missing: my friends on the Amsterdam.
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