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July 23, 2005
The Food of Singapore
he people of Singapore LOVE food. How can you tell? Everywhere you go there is a place selling food. Almost every block of every street. There are dozens of food courts around the city island. (We took the local subway, the MRT, and traveled around Singapore in about an hour.) The food stalls sell fresh vegetables and seafood. Since there is virtually no agriculture in Singapore, all the fruit has to be imported.
For lunch we went to Little India and found a banana leaf style Indian restaurant (your food is placed on a large banana leaf) and had black squid, chicken tandoori, samosa, veggies, curry, and rice.
But it was when our local host and her husband took us out to dinner when we had the main course. First we when to some outdoor stall mall where we had that famous smelly durian, The King of Fruits. It looked like a large green porcupine melon with spikes, and yes it smelled a kind of pungent sickly sweet that wasn't as bad as I imagined. The seller took out a curved machete and made a triple slash on the fruit and laid it on our table.
The fruit is about the size of a kiwi, three pieces in three pickets within the fruit. It was an unusual, unique taste, like a thick yellow-orange pudding surrounding a large seed.
We also ate some longans, a smaller version of the lychee.
Then as we walked with our hosts, they made us try various little curiosities, like Otah, a fishmeal cooked in banana leaf, and pork jerkey.
We were full so the obvious answer was to go the the restaurant. This one was famous for a chef who had a little hole-in-the-wall place without a sign board. It became so popular, they finally put up a sign, The No Sign Board Restaurant. Located in the Red Light District of Geylang. (Singapore is also famous for the Four Floors of Whores, where the best and most beautiful "girls" are on the fourth floor, with quality going down as you go down each floor. I put "girls" in quotes because they're NOT girls.) I've never had an experience with a brothel or prostitute.
We sat outside and let our guests order. We had a small plate and chopsticks. Fortunately, I've had enough experience not to embarass myself with them.
We had some tasty spicy mustard greens, pickled cucumbers, and then FROG LEGS. Yes, they kinda tasted like chicken. But they're still FROG LEGS.
Then came the OYSTER OMELETTE. Yes, little oysters in an egg omelette.
Then we had pepper crab. We were already pretty full, but the tasty PEPPER CRAB somehow helped to settle our stomachs. A complete cracked crab cooked in a black pepper sauce.
Then our waiters took away our little plates and replaced them with BIG PLATES. Holy crap!
Then they brought the big bowl of CHILI CRAB. Spicy tomato-based sauce with a complete cracked crab.
My belly had enough after that, although I did have the cold liquid desert, that tasted like longan juice.
Then we returned to our hotel, with potruding bellies, and didn't move much.
I think I will skip breakfast...
*** I went into a French restaraunt and asked the waiter, 'Have you got frog's legs?' He said, 'Yes,' so I said, 'Well hop into the kitchen and get me a cheese sandwich.' Tommy Cooper
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Posted by witnit at July 23, 2005 2:02 PM
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