Eating our way through Chinatown, Singapore

SINGAPORE

Just about everywhere you go in the world, you're going to come across a Chinatown. So when I was told that I needed to go and check out the Singaporean Chinatown, I was a bit skeptical. But after a group of out-of-towners told our Singaporean colleague that we wanted local food, we were taken there. And I have to say it was pretty amazing.

Chinatown comes a bit out of nowhere. You are walking down the street and turn a corner, and, out of just about nowhere, you are greeted with paper lanterns and a street lined with food stalls. I can tell you that the moment I turned that corner, I got happy. The combination of the noise, smell of smoke coming off grills and the lights of the street lights and lanterns can put a smile on anyone's face.

Carrot Cake

The problem that you are faced when you come to a place like this is that you can't possibly eat everything. But I have to say that we, a group of girls from work, tried. We each ran off into separate corners of Chinatown to bring back our findings to a communal table.  When we reconvened, there was Chicken Rice, Seafood Laksa, Satay, Carrot Cake (totally not what you're thinking), Sting Ray, Duck, Pepper Beef, and I'm sure some other things that I'm totally forgetting now.

Chicken, Prawn and Squid

I don't know which was my favorite. It was all pretty amazing. The squid satay was possibly one of the best I have ever had: amazing flavor and not so chewy that you couldn't bite through it. The carrot cake, which is a plate of cooked radishes with all sorts of other things including eggs and lots of garlic, was amazing. The radishes and daikon are cooked through to the point where they have lost all their crunchiness.  Thrown together with just about everything, I have to say it's incredibly delicious.

The other dish that was really unique was the Sting Ray (photo). Yes, I ate that odd looking, incredibly graceful, Steve Irwin-killer. The dish had a thick chilli and spice seasoning on it that was almost a paste. The fish (is it a fish?) had a slight bitter tang to it, but was really great. I have to say that I was a fan of the seasoning as well.

Seafood Curry Laksa

And of course there is the Laksa. The other day, I had had a Penang Laksa, which was really good, but nothing beats a seafood curry Laksa. Let's let the photo to all the talking when it comes to this one.

And now to dessert. I ate durian. Yes. It was an experience. I was taken to the cold dessert stand which sold ice cream and other sweet, probably delicious, icy things. And there, prominently displayed on the front of the stall, was a listing for a durian dessert. I think when I was asked "how about durian?" it was actually a joke, but I, stupidly, jumped at it. "Sure!" I said "I'm totally up for it." But you have to be adventurous, right? And admit it. Even though you have heard horrible things about it, you have always been curious as to how it tastes. And so I took my durian dessert back to the table for a bite. I have to say that it really does smell pretty bad. It smells like something sweet that has gone bad, to the point that it was a slight sour stink to it as well.

Durian Dessert

After I ate the durian

And now for the taste. The first taste was actually not bad. In fact, I was expecting so much worse. It's sweet with a bit of a bitter deeper level. But what really surprised me that every further bite I took was worse and worse. The third bite was my last. At that point, all I could taste was bile. What is especially unfortunate is that that bile taste sticks with you. It sits in the the back of your mouth as well as on your lips. But hey, now I can say that I have done it and that's a good thing. I can also now identify the smell of durian, which will be a great skill to have so that I can run the other way.

Huge shout out to Rebecca who took us foreigners out to this fantastic food adventure!

Our spread

First Impressions, Singapore

SINGAPORE

I recently (i.e. three days ago) took a new job for a company whose headquarters are in Singapore. Although I would be part of the San Francisco office, my first few months on the job would be in their home base. And so now I find myself in a corporate apartment in the Holland Village district of Singapore.

Before I came here I, of course, did my research on the city-state. I read about its British background, how everyone who lives here came from someplace else, and how there is a huge expat community. Great, I thought, that sounds like just about any other former British colony that I have lived in. I envisioned a mix of Asian and Southeast-Asian cultures with colonial undertones. What I didn't expect was what hit me in the face when I landed here: the opposite.

Everything is in English. Street-signs, menus, directions, warnings about not carrying durian: they're all in English. Not only that, the atmosphere is really that of a British colony. It also smells like a British colony. Historically, it makes perfect sense and now that I think about it, it's my initial assumptions that didn't really make sense. But I had expected that, being smack in the middle of Southeast Asia, it would be, you know, more Southeast Asian.

That said, my first impression of Singapore was one of awe. Sitting there in my taxi from the airport, I  drove by slightly run down public housing one minute and the next, the beautiful modern architecture of the Singapore Casino area. Then through Rain tree-lined streets and then by the biggest harbor that I have ever seen in my life. The number of cranes, ships and cargo containers had me glued to the taxi window like a 5-year-old.

Many I spoke to warned me of the Singapore heat. But I have to say I love it. I'm not sure if it's the sweltering Washington DC summers of my childhood or the few years in Barbados and Sydney that got me addicted to this kind of weather, but I have to say that the heat and humidity just make me happy. Granted, I know it's not for everyone, and I can see people here really struggle with it, but I think it's wonderful.

I'm excited to start exploring Singapore. To dig deeper into the culture here as well as discover what all those food lovers are talking about!