chicken rice | elephantseverywhere

Seeing everyones posts made me think about the fact that I haven’t done too much reflecting on 2016 or 2017. There’s been so much change in 2016 that I think I was too busy feeling it to have a lot of perspective. So I spent the first day of the year just alone in my own head, catching up on some yoga reading and some writing, and trying to set some goals for the upcoming year. I put my bathing suit on and laid on the roof deck with my journal, my book, my laptop and my phone and it was just what I needed. Eventually I ventured out for lunch at Whampoa, the local “wet market” and hawker center.

Durian

I want to make sure I’m getting to try the best things so today I instituted a new system. I figured the locals know best so just started following the crowd. I got on the longest line and ate whatever they were selling. For lunch it was the “Best Lu Mian in Town.” It cost S$3, which is about $2 US. I have no idea what Lu Mian is, but it was delicious.

Also, everyone in front of me was putting all the condiments on their dish, so I did that too, not knowing what any of them were besides the chilis. I figured the green stuff seemed safe but I thought the red paste might be lethal but when in Rome…

Condiment options – I tried them all and didn’t even cry! Turns out the clear-ish stuff is raw garlic.

Best Lu Mian in town

The other longest line. Putting it on my to do list.

Dollar Store Bins

Red Kueh, it’s meant to look like a turtle shell ~$2 US

Peanut Kueh Interior

Balestier Road

After lunch I did some more reading and then walked the hour downtown to a yoga class, which just happened to be near the Maxwell Food Market. I got dinner there again, this time trying the best known Singaporean dish, Hainanese chicken rice. I ordered the “set” which came with clear soup and bok choy. I also added a black soy soaked egg because eggs make everything better.

When I got back to the apartment, Estela had bought banana fritters, and claimed these were the best in the city, because unlike most the pastry didn’t get soggy. She was right, they were incredible. Flaky, crunchy, sweet, with a not-too-sweet banana in the center. I promise tomorrow’s will have something cultural, or at least something that’s not about food. 😉

Singapore

First day in Singapore

Image | Posted on December 29, 2016 by elephantseverywhere

It’s impossible to believe my trip to Thailand was a year ago already, and yet it feels like a lifetime as well. While both the world at large and my personal world have changed so much this year, my love of travel and food have remained constant. So here’s the first day of my newest adventure: a week in Singapore and a week in Hong Kong.

It took two flights to get to here, one 12 1/2 hour flight from NY to Doha, Qatar and another 7 1/2 hour flight from Doha to Singapore. By the time I got off the plane, I was totally completely disoriented. I’d stayed up the entire night before to get adjusted but ended up sleeping in bits and pieces on the plane, rather than in a block like I’d hoped. That plus the changes in time zone left me totally confused. It’s really strange to arrive a day and a half after you left, when you’ve only been traveling for 24 hours. Luckily, I’m staying at a beautiful penthouse apartment, so that definitely softened the blow. Thanks again Paul & Michelle!!

The beautiful bathroom where I took a much needed shower

I booked a cooking class, but unfortunately my bad time change mathmeant that I signed up for a cooking class my first morning, not my second. I was dreading the alarm this morning.

I’m looking remarkably awake, considering (if I do say so myself)

Dessert first: coconut milk, mung bean powder, pandan and corn pudding

Weaving these little pandan baskets as molds for the pudding might’ve been my favorite part

Ingredients for the char kway teow (which is kinda similar to pad thai)

Lemongrass, candle nut, galangal, chili, garlic and shallot which we pounded into paste for the peanut sauce

The finished products: chicken satay with homemade peanut sauce, char kway teow and corn hoon kueh

The peanut sauce was much different than the one I’ve always gotten at Vietnamese restaurants. Instead of tasting like sweet peanut butter (which I love!) it was thinner and much more spicy and balanced. I spent the rest of the day just wandering around, first in Chinatown:

Temple in Chinatown

Array of chopsticks

Bamboo fans

Fans and paper cut outs

Lots of chickens, for good luck?

Chinese sausage

Many flavors of peanut

Chinatown

Reproduction of the 8×8 room the average Chinese family lived in in Singapore

Bakkwa, or barbecued meat. To me it tastes a lot like the boneless spare ribs you get from Chinese restaurants, salty and sweet, fatty and delicious.

Dried seafood, I didn’t taste this. Wait till I get smell-o-vision on this blog!

I was passing a place, Mei Heong Yuen desserts that had a big line, and some interesting looking treats, so I stopped. Due to a lucky miscommunication, I ended up with two desserts.

Peanut “paste” more like a warm sweet peanut soup, the consistency of as-yet-uncooled pudding, or ice cream base

Almond and sesame snow ice, the New Orleans snowball’s much more delicate and less-sweet Singaporean cousin

More lucky chickens

Fish cake stuffed foods

They had everything you could think of stuffed with fish cakes, including eggplant

Mangosteen, one of my favorites!

Pommelo, wrapped for the new year?

Food court in Chinatown

“Carrot Cake” is actually a savory radish dish. The translation of radish is “white carrot”but white is a color of mourning, and considered unlucky so it got shortened.

Char Kway Teow stand in Chinatown food court

This was the only stall with a line, I was too full to eat anything else but will try to get back there and see if it lives up to the hype

Red is considered lucky so many stands were full of red items for the new year

Red on red on

red…

Will have to go back and try this another day too

Egg and coconut tart from famous bakery Tong Heng. It tasted just like my mom’s coconut custard pie but in a flaky pastry crust.

Glutinous rice cakes to celebrate the New Year. Wrapped in pandan leaves and steamed for over 12 hours. They had them in all different sizes.

I didn’t get to try one, but they’re fancy mochi, a Japanese treat

The architecture in Singapore is really modern and a few buildings like this one, incorporated trees or plants

Lots of really fancy shopping malls

Follow your dreams

St. Andrews Cathedral. I loved how much space it has, this vast swatch of green in the middle of the city, a little bit of calm right next to a bustling public transportation stop

And how it nestled in among more modern architecture

Raffles Mall

Somehow the architecture reminds me of Vienna…?

Singapore also has a large Indian population, in addition to the Chinese

I just love the juxtaposition of the old building and the giant modern mall

	❌⭕️🐘🐘Cathy❌⭕️🐘🐘 on The one that’s not all a…
	c herald on The one that’s not all a…
	❌⭕️🐘🐘Cathy❌⭕️🐘🐘 on Beach Days
	❌⭕️🐘🐘Cathy❌⭕️🐘🐘 on Coffee & Kindergarten
	elephantseverywhere on Food for Elephants