Friday, March 25, 2011

Food Heaven!

February 25, 2011

Today we arrived in Singpore.  It was hot, sticky, and humid.  First impressions?   Singapore is an amazingly clean and efficient city.  A shining example of the modern and new.  A cith with a sky line that's dominated by towers of glass and steel.  Each skyscraper glistening in the sunlight.  The first obvious difference between Singapore and Malayasia are the people.  While Malaysia is dominated by Malay's and Indians, most of the people in Singapore are of Chinese descent.  The local flavor of Chinese being either Hokkien or Teo Chow with a sprinkling of Cantonese here and there. 

Unfortunately, at least for us, the cost of living in Singapore is pretty much the same as America which means things can get pretty expensive.  However, me and the wife managed to get a relatively cheap hotel, $25 U.S., in the “Red Light” district.  I have to say that for a red light district, the area was remarkably clean and lacked the usual seediness that accompanies such areas.  In fact, the place was rather dull.  It looked like any neighborhood in the U.S. minus the prostitutes of course, which by the way were not hot.

After a short rest and a quick stop at the local coin op Laundromat, the wife and I decided to head on over to Singapores China Town, although it could be argued that the entire city is one huge China Town, and the first thing I noticed about this China town is that, like the rest of the city, it is impeccably clean.  No garbage, no weird smells, no hawkers.  Strange right?  No one bothering you and insisting that you buy from them.  No awful smells to taint the senses and force mouth breathing? 

The wife and me explored the winding narrow alleys of China Town and found ourselves in what I will describe as food heaven.  I mean seriously this place has got it all.  First off it’s sort of an indoor food court.  You must be thinking:  food court?  The food must suck.  But let me reassure you, that this is not like any kind of food court that you would ever find in the states.  They basically took all the street side vendors and moved the operation indoors.  Now it’s a food court with over 200 stalls.  Each selling incredibly delicious food.  Chili crab, chicken rice, spicy delicious Laksa, not to mention the endless amounts of the most delicious moist duck or chicken you could ever imagine!  Fresh hand made dumplings, skewer upon skewer of perfectly grilled chicken or pork satay!  Oh and the noodles!  I have no idea what they’re called because we’ve got nothing even close to the stuff in the U.S.  Let’s just say you can have nearly endless combinations of noodles, broth, meat, and vegetables.  Oh and did I mention that most of the dishes are about 3 to 5 Singaporean dollars or about 2-4 U.S.  Not bad right?  I swear, if they had food even remotely close to the stuff that we found here I’d never eat at home.  That being said, most of the other attractions in Singapore were a little too expensive for us to indulge in.  I mean we are travelling on a budget and still have about 4 more months to go.  But we did visit Little India, the huge Singapore Sky Park Complex, and Clarke Quay.  Anyways, it was only a brief 2 day stopover in Singapore.  Next up, 4 weeks of trekking through the Annapurna Conservation Area and the Nepalese Himalayas.  See  you then. 


Chantra at the entrance of China Town


Chicken Rice


Spicy Dumplings


Chicken and Pork Satay


Laksa

Dry Egg Noodles with Minced Pork and Mushrooms


Fried Taro Roll and Vegetable Roll








Rice


Grass Jelly Drinks


Noodle Stall









Singapore's Skyline


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