A food tour

Post-LASIK dr appt at 8:15am, we were tired from overnight supervision and constant eye drops. Got to the hospital at 7:45am and the food tour began.

8:05am, hospital coffee shop at the Singapore Eye Centre. What a nice place! The outdoor food area was so nice; waterfall and all. The hut got everything SouthEast Asian b'fast items. However, I had a hard time understanding the menu. They were all in English but... They were in a form of Chinese dialect with English words. Like: Chow Kuai Twoy (Fried noodle). Right... Good thing there were pictures so I could understand what they were. The only items I could recognized were: coffee with milk, wihtout milk, tea, waffle with peanut, kaya, and something else. So, I ordered coffee with milk. Where was the milk? It was dark, thick and sweet. Ah... Yummy. Strong. Then my waffle, I ordered with "peanut butter". The girl that made it could really speak English. Mandarin only. I couldn't catch what she asked as my brain did not have enough of this caffeine. She was asking me "Hua Sheng"? (花生） Meaning "peanut butter" but she chopped off the "butter" part. After a few times, I comprehended. "YES, peanut butter". All in Mandarin, of course. But the older lady said, "No Mandarin, only English". Haha.... So I had a fresh waffle with peanut butter. O.. It just gooie and melted in my mouth. Then followed up with this dark "Coffee with milk".

After the specialist saw iron-wife and all, he came by to say Hi to me and crack a few adult jokes. I bet he couldn't do that if the waiting area was full of patients. The guy reminded me of Chooi - that mannerism and the body gesture.

Nap time, we were whipped by the time we got back to the hotel. Napped for two hours then headed for lunch. Fortune Centre again. To iron-wife's favorite restaurant. I had a vegetarian curry noodles and she had a rice steamed from inside a bamboo. Very nice.

After that we headed to Orchard Road to check out some sunglasses for her. Never mind that, it was such a zoo. Tourists everywhere. We couldn't find any as the sunglasses were not for function but oversize with no guarantee of UV protection. All from brand names. We walked back to the hotel, about 2.5K. After half way, we decided to walk on the "non commercial" side of Orchard Road. It was insane with the people, the construction, the cars... Not a nice place to visit this Orchard Road on a weekend. Funny, the "non commercial" side of Orchard Road had as many people as one arm length of me if I were to continue to walk on the "commercial" side. Ridiculous.

Before stopping back at the hotel, we stopped by a Kopitiam, a food court, to pick up two Jendoh. I figured we should sit by the pool to relax.

The history of Kopitiam.... as we had just found out in the evening's Singapore National Museum (free admission after 6pm), means "coffee shop". It is the Hainanese dialect of the Chinese language. When the Hainanese settled in Singapore, the men congregated every morning in their PJs to have coffee, to exchange news, little by little, street hawkers moved into take up permanent stalls to sell their food. Now, we see Kopitiam all over town with different ethnic food stalls. "Kopi" is coffee, and "tiam" is shop. The food stalls range from juice bar to Chinese to Indian to Malay to specialized dessert place.

After Jendoh at the roof top pool side, we went to Little India for dinner. The walk was about 1.5K. Not bad if my body cooperated. But all those Arthritic joints. Dammit! We walked back to the direction of Mustafa, that 24/7 grocery store where Indians go to shop. We had a very nice Indian meal, both northern and southern dishes. The total came to SIG$26.00 (US$18) We had 5 dishes in all (3 entrees and 2 breads). Not bad.

O yeah as we walked down toward Little India for dinner, we walked pass a gov't housing complex. The community area can be rent for anything. So, there was a funeral going on. Basically a mobile funeral parlor. Coffin and all.... I just felt sorry for the people living just above. All the incense being burned and the Buddist prayer service.

Just before dinner, we went to the Singapore National Museum for a quick tour. It was just a stone throw from the hotel. And what did we spend time on? The food history of Singapore. Very interesting.

So today, in a mere 8 hour or so period I have eaten:

coffee with waffle w/peanut butter SIG 2.40 (US1.66)
vegetarian curry noodle soup SIG 7.00 (US4.83)
Jendoh SIG 1.50 (US1.00)
Indian dinner (1/2 of the bill) SIG 13.0 (US8.98)
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Total US16.47

Now, where can you enjoy all the local food in such a short span with such authenticity with every food? I don't think we can do that, maybe in KL.

OK, I spent SIG1.00 for a can of Coke at the hotel's vending machine too. And that was the only Western food I had. Would have cost me more if I were heading to a Starbucks or Coffee Beans....

Live like locals and eat like locals have its advantage.