Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Two Soft Boiled Eggs Drowning in Soy Sauce
My sister, cousin and I recently returned to Singapore to visit relatives. We stayed in Tiong Bahru, and every morning my sister and I would walk the five minutes to the hawker center while my cousin slept in, which was just enough time for our makeup to melt away in the humidity. We'd climb up the stairs, taking in the many foods we'd been dreaming of days before in our cold homes on the other side of the world.
I visited Singapore numerous times when I was young with my sister and mother; our main activities consisted of math workbooks, card games, endless eating, watching a string of Chinese soap operas over cut fruit, and going to Tiong Bahru Market. I'm embarrassed to say I truly hated it whenever my mother dragged my sister and me through the wet, smelly ground floor and up the stairs to the humid food court.
There is much to comment on how and why Singapore has changed so rapidly during my mother's lifetime and during my own lifetime. My Ama and Akong's home, among many other older buildings, has disappeared, and this odd shaped building called Marina Bay Sands has become the main tourist attraction (which my mother has yet to see in person!).
But at least for now, whenever we visit the city where my mother grew up, my sister and I can make our way to Tiong Bahru Market and enjoy an iced kopi, kaya toast with melting butter, and two soft boiled eggs drowning in soy sauce as we sweat through our clothes at nine in the morning.
Illustration by my sister, Lauren Monaco.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Last year in Singapore my sister and I were able to partake in some of the family Chinese New Year traditions. I had two days off from work, and my sister and I attended reunion dinner with our relatives. We received ang pows (red packets enclosed with money) and ate everything. We also partook in the recent Singapore tradition of yusheng (twice!); everyone stands around a dish of shredded vegetables and raw fish and tosses it with chopsticks at the same time. It is messy and loud and meant to symbolize wishes for prosperity. My sister illustrated the ingredients below. Traditionally (and still done), all relatives gather for a huge reunion dinner the night before and then visit older or more distant relatives during the following days, bringing oranges, snacks, ang pows and good wishes.
One of the best Singaporean desserts is onde-onde, which is a ball of coconut, pandan and gula melaka (sugar from a coconut tree). It tastes like everything good bursting in your mouth at once. I’m not sure if it is a traditional CNY dessert, but my aunt made some from scratch for our reunion dinner. Pictured above is my sister’s rendition of my aunt’s amazing onde-onde. Other common Chinese Year treats are pineapple tarts, love letters, egg custard tarts, almond cookies and kuih bahulu, among countless others. I am still on the lookout for Singaporean (preferably Peranakan) dessert places in New York (so please tell me!).
Having grown up in a mixed family far away from my ethnically Chinese relatives, my understanding of Chinese New Year is a bit fragmentary. However I have experienced it as a time of giving, eating, honoring older relatives and spending time with close family. It also doesn’t hurt that my parents give me an ang pow every year - one of the benefits of being young and unmarried!
All illustrations by my sister, Lauren Monaco.
Hawker Food in Singapore
Singapore has the best food in the world. Everyone has an opinion on the best food court in Singapore, and Tiong Bahru Market (near this bookstore) is one of the good ones.
The food court is above a wet market, which can be a little hectic to navigate if you come at prime market time. Singaporean aunties buying their fish and veggies can be fierce. Upstairs you find dozens of stalls, each with their own specialty. There are sometimes multiple stalls offering the same speciality, but just find the one with the longest line and join it (queues mean good food in Singapore). Even though the place could be cleaner and have air conditioning, the price makes up for it, with each dish costing around $3-4 SGD.
Don’t worry, I did not eat all the food in the pictures alone. Although I definitely wanted to. In my “Introduction to Singaporean Cuisine” for my out-of-town friend, I dumped on her Hainanese Chicken Rice, Char Kway Teow, Black Carrot Cake, Bakcang (glutinous rice dumplings), Lime Juice, SugarCane Juice and soursop on shaved ice. These don’t even cover half of my favorite dishes. I’m not quite sure how to describe the flavors; Singaporean food is a mix of the best of different countries’ dishes so it can be hard to generalize. All I can say is Singaporeans love their chili sauce.
If you go to Marina Bay Sands or Tanjong Beach Club, you might get a very different sense of the country. However, in my opinion, food courts are the most traditionally Singaporean. Instead of street food or high class restaurants, you can browse the regulated food stalls selling Chinese, Peranakan, Indian, Malay, or Indonesian dishes. And after stuffing your face with these unhealthy and mouth-watering concoctions, no other food will taste as good.
July in Review
Himeji
,
Hiroshima
,
Japan
,
Kobe
,
Miyajima
,
Month in Review
,
Singapore
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This month I'm exploring Japan and eating too much ramen :)
1st row: Xiao long baos at Din Tai Fung // Peranakan desserts // window view at Tiong Bahru Market [Singapore]
2nd row: trying Okonomiyaki // Atomic Bomb Dome // Itsukushima Shrine [Hiroshima / Miyajima, Japan]
3rd row: Museum of Contemporary Art // assortment of seafood // Himeji Castle [Hiroshima / Kobe / Himeji, Japan]
Cats and Mini Ice Cream Spoons
There’s a bookstore in Singapore with a cat and a lot of Murakami.
Books Actually is a two room shop in Tiong Bahru with books lining the walls and piling the tables. On weekends, you must dodge the readers to find your genre of choice. The front room sells books by classic authors, little known photographers, and Singaporean poets.
The back room sells antiques and is littered with small glasses, delicate elephants, mini ice cream spoons, and faded photographs.
The cat wanders, the folk music plays, you get happy.
You can lose track of time with someone you've just met discussing the countless quirky objects. You can lose track of time with someone you’ve known many years discovering new intensely moving poetry.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but this space is special.
June in Review
I had another college friend visit this month... remember my coffee shop buddy? She's now living in India doing cool things.
1st row: view from my window, Peranakan food at Blue Ginger, my friend trying Kopi and Kaya [Singapore]
2nd row: broken tree at Singapore Art Museum, cat friend at Books Actually, doodles at SAM [Singapore]
3rd row: ferry to Pulau Ubin, sunset on Sentosa at Tanjong Beach Club, Sunday reading at Baker & Cook [Singapore]
May in Review
One of my roommates from college visited me, and we flew to Bali and climbed a volcano!
1st row: pool time, Keppel Island, streets in JB [Singapore / JB, Malaysia]
2nd row: Singapore flyover, Bali walls, Batuan Temple [Singapore / Bali, Indo]
3rd row: Mount Batur, breakfast, goodbye Bali [Bali, Indo]
March in Review
This month I stayed in Singapore! I wrote an article on my favorite finds in Singapore, planned trips, and watched Gilmore Girls.
1st row: a family wedding at Halia // hawker lunch // lychee ice cream at Selfish Gene
2nd row: Straits Times special edition // paying respects to Lee Kuan Yew // the funeral procession
3rd row: a stormy afternoon // sunset by the MRT // art exhibit at Gillman Barracks
A Saturday in Singapore
I recently wrote a post for She's Poised on how I spend a Saturday in Singapore. Of course most of my Saturdays are not this ambitious!
However it serves as a guide for some of my favorite Singapore spots and routines. These include waking up to a Kopi and Kaya breakfast in Holland Village, browsing for books at the Library near Orchard Road, tasting Hainanese Chicken Rice at hawker stalls, and heading to Tiong Bahru to find gifts at Books Actually and enjoy coffee and cupcakes at Plain Vanilla.
The full write-up with photos is found here.
Feeling British for a Morning
Dempsey Hill is a secluded area in Singapore that once held British army barracks. Now it is full of restaurants mostly featuring Western food. My sister and I ate at P. S. Café for brunch, and it was perfect. The restaurant is down a
smaller tree-lined street in a bungalow-style home. We sat outside in a grassy area surrounded by trees. I almost forgot that I was in dense city. The place was filled with Europeans or Americans, mostly families with small children spending their Sunday morning eating overpriced eggs. We ordered a Croque Madame and a bread plate. The food was delicious, simple, and intentionally arranged. In the background floated old-time jazz sung
in Chinese. The whole experience was special for my sister, who just flew in from the freezing Chicago tundra, where the grass is not green and the sun is not warm. So we relaxed, soaking in the breeze and munching on our pieces of bread and jam in between sips of coffee.
To be completely honest, it felt strangely colonial. It is when I’m sitting in cafés like these that I understand why Singapore is often considered one of the easiest countries to live in for many Western foreigners.
February in Review
Japan
,
Kyoto
,
Month in Review
,
Singapore
,
Tokyo
2 comments
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I had a visitor thismonth! I was so happy to see my sister and visit Japan for the first time with
her. We spent about 36 hours in Tokyo, but it has become one of my favorite cities.
1st row: Paranakan shop, brunch with sister at PS. Cafe, Chinese New Year goodies
from my Aunt [Singapore]
2nd row: coffee at Omotesando Koffee, Tokyo sunset, Shibuya side street view [Tokyo,
Japan]
3rd row: trees and temples in Arashiyama, geishas in Gion, mountains in Kurama [Kyoto, Japan]
January in Review
Chicago
,
Dallas
,
Month in Review
,
Singapore
,
USA
1 comment
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Ok this is a bit longer than this month - starting from surprising my mother in Dallas for Christmas to spending New Year’s with close friends in Chicago to settling back into my life in Singapore. Eating too much dessert with my family was most definitely the highlight, but it was a good feeling to leave my belongings in another country and return to an already established life.
1st row: plane tickets at Changi International Airport, view from The Art Institute of Chicago, eating lunch
with my sister at Parson’s Chicken & Fish [USA]
2nd row: commuting (MRT), view from my kitchen, commuting (Raffles Place) [Singapore]
3rd row: brunch at Revelry Café, my bedroom wall, reading Zadie Smith at Department of Caffeine [Singapore]
Waiting for Popiah
Near my office in Singapore, there is a hawker center called Golden Shoe. It is above a car park with little ventilation, and if you go during lunch hours, it is almost
impossible to find a seat. I know I can trust it because I see very few people like me there (foreigners). My coworker once picked up popiah for me from one of the stalls, and now I stop by about once a week. One wrap costs about $1.40 and it’s a nice midday snack to pick up with coffee. I’m not quite sure how to describe popiah; it’s kind of like a thin wrap filled with crunchy and soft goodness and sweet sauce. You’ll just have to try it.
When I was younger, every time we went to Singapore, my grandmother, mother, sister and I would go to a family friend’s home to make popiah. We’d sit around a round table and carefully assemble the ingredients, careful not to overstuff the thin wrap. Since my move to Singapore, I’ve tried many many different popiah stalls. While no pre-made popiah will ever bring me back to sitting around that table, this hawker stall’s popiah does come close in taste.
Good Food and Good Causes
Food for Thought has got to be my favorite café in Singapore. Located right near the Singapore Art Museum, this odd shaped building stands out against the uniformity of Singapore’s HDB landscape. This café is part of a larger enterprise that aims to bring people together in public spaces for good causes. I love the atmosphere, the food and the locations, and I aim to visit every single one in Singapore.
This particular location (8 Queen Street) is great to visit for decently priced brunch before a day of museuming. Glass bottle jar lights hang from the ceiling and a bookshelf displays arts and culture happenings around the city. I can’t completely remember what I got, but I know it consisted of eggs, kaya on brioche (completely random, I promise I didn’t name this blog after it!), and a large cup of coffee. Lovely.
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