Published: February 7th 2009January 15th 2009
A happening spot for night life
Singapore, for us, was essentially a sandwich stuffed with Borneo. We spent two days there before Borneo and five days there afterwards. It definitely was not a symmetrical sandwhich, especially in terms of experience. The front end of that sandwich was plain white Wonderbread, the back end was a slice of sesame crusted marble rye infused with a compote of wild figs and dusted with the essence of a virgin bee's honey (I'm going for a good piece of bread here, but you get the point). Let me explain.
Our first day in Singapore was spent as would be typical of any tourist doing the new city thing. We hopped on the MRT (subway) and took the train into the heart of the city for the day. I should mention Singapore has the cleanest subway subway system in the universe. Armed with a trusty tourist map, we followed the suggested walk through little India, and then on through Chinatown. As Singapore is a fairly equal mix of Indian, Chinese and Malay culture, sprinkled with a bit of Ex-Patese, the walks offered enough of a cultural experience to appease the tourist conscience and if nothing else, some welcome exercise. We spent
Just inches away
Lee almost makes the cut for a free subway ticket. We had to pay an extra buck cause she wouldn't take her shoes off!
our second day completing the Singapore experience by walking up Orchard Road, "the other thing to do in Singapore," and then, rather uninspired, we decided to kill some time at the movies to make sure pop culture hadn't unknowingly left without us while we travelled. Orchard Road is impressive for its shopping, with almost every block seemingly a shopping mall, and every shopping mall is immpresive for its food courts, where for a couple of bucks you can eat like a champion...and we did. As for the movie, we caught the latest Adam Sandler flick, but I'll remember it because in Singapore, if you're a couple or if you just like your space, you can opt for a two seater couch type thing. It was perfect, Lee could watch her movie, and once I had convinced her we were in an Autocratic State and she should therefore endeavour to keep her hands off me, I could take a good, cool, airconditioned nap. Other than the usual city sights and sounds, that was about it, all rather pedestrian. We headed of to Borneo figuring we'd spend a night in Singapore on the flipside and move on. It's a nice city, but
It's one long car. No one selling candy. No bands...Is this a subway or a church?
just another city type thing, maybe a bit to clean and ordinary.
....and then we met Peter and Sharla at Uncle Chang's in Mabul, two expats currently living in Singapore. Two absolute top shelf people who opened their lives (and apartment) to us. If you guys read this, thanks a bunch! We had a fantastic time and can't wait to see you in the big apple or somewhere along the way. With a little bit of local knowledge, Singapore blossomed. As New Yorkers I'd make the comparison that it was like spending your time walking up and down down 5th Avenue and then being led to the real New York in the gritty alleys of the East village, the juicy vibes of Greenwich village or any of the little bars, restaurants and hidden gems that makes NYC what it is. A little guidance goes a long, long way and having a home thrown in as well made all the difference in the world.
Beside our new mates, Singapore will be forever remembered for its food. I know it seems rather odd to focus on something so common to our collective experience, and we're pretty far from food critics,
Absolutely spotless subway system
but the food was so good that I'm actually going to bother telling you about it. (If you could witness the painful, time comsuming war of attrition that is me typing, you would be even more impressed with this - I wouldn't torture this keyboard for mediocre fare.)
After a day of wandering around the city we would return "home" to meet Pete and Sharla (who were back doing that crazy work thing) to discover which of Singapore's outrageous flavours would waltz across our tongues and cockily introduce themselves to our tatsebuds that evening. It should be said that of the four nights we spent together, two of the meals we had would without question make it into my belly's hall of fame. We kicked off at the "Banana Leaf" in Little India for their legendary fish head curry and the other usual Indain delights of naans, rices and veggies made to taste heavenly, served appropriately on a banana leaf and consumed with our hands. Who knew we'd spent half a lifetime eating the wrong end of the fish. HOLY COW, (couldn't resist the Hindu Pun) it was fantastic. I've had good Indian food before, but nothing like this.
no matter how far you run...christmas will find you
Maybe the pair of eyes staring back at you from the pot plays some sort of puppetry with the chemicals in the brain, or maybe the holistic way in which it was served and consumed gave it some kind of subconcious kick. Whatever the reason, this was Indian on a different plane. Eating with your hands takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you wonder why we got away from it in the first place. Of course, it means you have to pick you nose with your fork, but this seems like a small price to pay. Anyways, as usual, I digress. If the food in India is anything like this, we're going to be coming home looking a lot more like Budda than we'd like.
Night two took us across the street from the apartment to the local hawker stand...Baz Seafood (corner of LLOYD and KILLINEY if you find yourself in the neighborhood). Wow! First lesson here is not to judge a book by it's cover, or I guess in this case, a restaurant by the prices of it meals or class of its customers. There were five of us,
Random City Shots
a couple of the many skyscrapers
we sat at a little plastic table on little plastic chairs right on the street, ordered for ten and finished it all. The bill was nominal. Cuttlefish, deep fried baby squid, black pepper ribs, sliced fish, tofu (thanks Lee-way to use that imagination), salted fish and beans, the obligatory cold bottles of Tiger, etc, etc. What a meal, as good as anything you'll eat in your better restuarants and a whole lot more entertaining and definitely more fresh. South East Asia is legendary for it's street food and seemingly the cheaper it is the better it is, which is going to be great for the wallet and terrible for the waistline, but hey...when in Rome!
The third night of our culinary adventure took us to Cafe Iguana on Clarke Quay, a very modern, trendy spot along the Singapore river. We dined on Mexican and quenched our thirst with ice cold margaritas. The food was standard mexican, and, well...who ever had a bad margarita? But night three was more about the atmosphere. This little stretch of Singapore, to use the modern vernacular, had it going on! Hip and trendy, this is where Singaporeans and a whole bunch of Expats go
to drop some loot and feel western for a while. You could probably have one of the worlds most convenient and interesting pub crawls here, although I wouldn't want to end up with the bill. Reggae bar, next to 70's bar, next to country bar, next to Biker bar etc etc all the way down the line. One of the more interesting ones we found was a bar called "Clinic" where they seat you in wheel chairs and feed you booze thru an IV drip. Needless to say we checked in for a while. I couldn't help but wonder, quite callously I suppose, if a genuine chairbound person would be made to stand on crutches and hold his beer, I wouldn't put it past them.
Little did we know that all this was just leading up to the grand farewell finale. Pete and Sharla, like the two savvy hosts they are, had spent three night just teasing our palates. They dangled the vindaloo carrot in front of the proverbial donkey, luring him closer and closer to the gastronomic state of euphoria known as "Chilli Crab" As a signiture Singaporean dish you can find it fairly commonly throughout the city,
Spoilt for choices
So many choices, just one stomach
but if you're switched on to the scene like us (ie- if your hosts give you written directions in the morning), you head out to the "East Coast" where you find a whole complex of competing restaurants, dedicated to preparing anything that ever donned chitin and spent it's days underwater. Lee and I headed there around four to get a good table where we had a couple of jugs of nice cold beer and tried in vain to count the tankers waiting to pull into Singapore's harbour (we stopped in the 70's, someone should let them know theres a recession on). Peter and Sharla joined us shortly thereafter and we got down to business. Permission was given for Peter to run amok with the menu, a skill he persues with vigor and talent, and in no time our feast had been delivered. WOW! Up until that point, crabs had been annoying itchy things MY FRIENDS would complain about in college, or some little nippy creature that dangled from a chicken neck before finding it's way into a pot of boiling water and a box of Old Bay. Henceforth, crabs, chilli crabs in general, and East Coast Singaporean chilli crabs in
This frog is no longer with us
...but he went out in style. Covered in garlic and served over noodles... tasting just like chicken
particular, shall sit upon the throne and reign supreme in the kingdom of the outrageously delicious. In saying this I don't mean to disparage the black pepper crabs or the special house shrimp who earned their fair share of the oohh's and aah's flying round the table. If only you could taste a picture!
Obviously there's more to Singapore than food, buts it's the food that made it stand out for us. From the food courts to its street hawkers to its restaurants, if you like to eat, you'll love Singapore. It's a city that feels manufactured, and to a large degree it is. A trip down to Sentosa, the "plastic fantastic" will give you a good idea of what Singapore is about. Singapore didn't have a nice beach, so they built Sentosa, and now they have a few. You can go lie on clean sand imported from Indonesia, sip beers at a bar straight out of the Caribbean, and feel a million miles away from the bustling city that it is. I guess you could debate the pros and cons of an autocratic democracy (isn't that an oxymoron) until you're blue in the face.
As a visitor,
Singapore was an advertisement of the pros. Clean, safe, efficient and uncorrupt. Relative to many of the cities we've passed through it's a very easy place to be. I would guess if you lived there the cons would probably start to get to you after a while. There is a price to pay for all that efficiency...big fines and petty rules, which in turn leads to a depletion of a place's character. Cities are like people, they need some grit, some sort of edge. Do you want to hang out with the guy who never did a thing wrong in his life, or the guy who had some fun along the way?
Peter and Sharla, thanks again, you guys rock!
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