Close to meltdown in Little India

My pre-Singaporean knowledge regarding holidays were basically extended to there being something called Chinese New Year. Moving here didn't exactly give much room to read up on the culture. As a foreigner you expect a lot of fire crackers and Chinese people in big dragon costumes. I now know it’ll be in the end of January, so it’ll be very interesting to see what it’s like. I also knew the Chinese had years named after animals and I just want to point out here that it’s perfectly logical to have a dragon year, but not a chicken year. Of course. I also knew they had their own zodiac and didn’t start counting ‘modern’ time in the same manner as Christians (since naturally Jesus becomes a bit excessive here). It’s still a slight mystery to me regarding the fire, earth, water, wood and metal, since I mix them up with the different houses which seem to be of similar description regarding physical elements (but has air rather than wood and metal.. I think..). I know they are connected to when in the year you are born and should reflect on your personality, but that seems to be an entire jungle, so I’ll just leave it for now. 

   

The Chinese zodiac

Last weekend we wanted to sort out some shopping in Little India and made the huge mistake of going there during a Sunday evening. A lot of Indian short time workers are off on Sundays and do their necessary shopping then. I’ve gotten the hang of avoiding being outdoors in between 12.00-15.00 doing anything requiring physical strain, since the last time I did so, I almost got a heat stroke. I’ve now also understood not to go to Little India on a Sunday evening. 

What it normally  looks like; was actually too shocked to take a picture later on

On top of this, the Indian community is preparing for Deepavali = The Fest of Light, which is basically as big as our Christmas or New Year. Until we moved here I had no idea what this was. I wanted to know which dates it was celebrated and found: ‘Deepavali falls on Amavasya, the new moon night, that ends the month of Ashwina/Ashvin/Aasho/Aswayuja and begins the month of Kartika in the Hindu Lunisolar calendar, while varies in the Gregorian.’ That’s smashing guys, but didn’t really help me much. I finally found out that it lasts for 5 days and 2011 it’ll be 24^th- 28^th of October. Hence at that point, it hadn’t even started yet. 

Typical Deepavali ornaments

To really top this, we also decided to go there for a meal before attacking the shopping list = I was very hungry. And this was in my French-university-roommate’s-pronunciation-kind-of-way = I was both hungry and angry. 

I should have made some food out of this before we left; at my last visit to Mustafa Center I decided to buy some Indian spices to make Indian food..

When we surfaced from the metro it was like an inferno bomb had exploded in crowds, sounds and smells. There were people everywhere making food, bargaining loudly or honking their car, moped or bus horns. The atmosphere was just a melt pot of all kinds of impressions and I became completely exhausted just looking at it. 

This dress department in one of the stores pretty much describes the feeling; complete madness

On top of this, we got out from the wrong exit and it was completely impossible to turn around and go back due to the endless stream of traffic and people steering us in the opposite direction. Then the GPS on my phone died and considering the amount of tents that were temporarily placed all over the place, I really didn’t recognize myself, even though I’ve been there so many times.

In- and outside all kinds of temples there were scented candles

We started crossing a road, when all of a sudden we get separated, the traffic just pours out on the street and I get stuck on a small island of concrete, while Jonas is forced forward by the crowd. In addition, there seemed to be some sort of caravan trail with double decked busses and huge trucks in that traffic batch coming at us, so for a minute or two we couldn’t see each other either. I just thought ‘Dear God, please don’t let either of us get run over and please, please, please make us find each other down the street. Also, food would be good at any point’.

Ornaments like these hangs outside almost all the stores

Fortunately when the traffic lights switched and the pools of people started crossing from each sides, we managed to get hold of one another, literarily ‘get hold’, and a small place which was not that crowded caught my eye. 

Another hand in the crowd

We threw ourselves in and Jonas ordered paper dosai (a huge, really thin ‘pancake’ with three different curries you dip it into; in Indian cuisine curry = sauce with or without solid stuff in it) and a meat set (chicken curry and rice + little balls of sugar and something called tamarind in a very sweet syrup and a soup which is good for you). We really don’t know what’s in the soup, but you have it after the meal and is sort of like stock with herbs. Just so we wouldn’t leave hungry he also got roti (almost like a pita bread which is freshly baked with e.g. butter and spices on it) and apple- (freshly pressed, so it looks like watered out coffee, but tastes delicious) /mango juice. And the place was very air-conditioned. It was pure bliss. 

Beautiful ornaments in the windows all over

After this, it was just to take a deep, very deep, breath and head into the narrow streets of Little India. Fantastic place, but I will stay clear of it during weekends in the future. It’s just too much for my Nordic spirit to handle at this point. I wonder how I would do in Mumbai. Or, as my Japanese colleague would simply put it; ‘Oh, Colin-san, maybe not’.

Fantastic flowers in one of the windows

Happy Deepavali all!

1st Formula 1/visit from Sweden/black chicken/Indian lunch/10-year anniversary

I’ve never been to a high profile car race in my entire life; I’m from a small town in Sweden called Ulricehamn and the most extravagance in motor way have been racing on the ice of the lake Asunden. I however never dared to go driving on the actual lake. Hence the closest thing to an adventurous car episode in my life, was when I was allowed to drive my best friend’s car on a football field and spin using the handbrake. Before I had a license. I thought it was really outrageous and still do. Therefore you can imagine my expectations of the Formula 1 2011 International Midnight Race in Singapore. And it was awesome. In addition we met several new friends during that night; thank you all for making it a night (and early day..) to remember!

 

Little did we know when we first got down to the race that we’d be sitting on one of the balconies on the 30th something floor of this skyscraper at 06.00 AM on an after party.

 

This was very cool ;)

 

I am very proud of our ticket badges.

 

Survival kit = earplugs and rain cape.

 

The cars are fast; I tried to upload a short clip on them as well, but there was a 'conflict with the raw data'; I quote Homer Simpson: 'boooooring'.

 

My husband was very happy standing on the sidelines at Esplanade Drive Bridge by the Marina; the race is set through the city center of Singapore, so the scenary is quite awsome.

 

Part of the vintage car show next to the race. Really sweet rides.. I absolutely fell in love with the red one.

Then we had our first visit from Sweden! We were touristing around and it was really fun to introduce Singapore to others. Here are some of the places we squeezed in during the week, in between frequent visits to the pool and sundeck at our condo, shopping and taking strolls in the city.

 

Nettan and Robin at Raffles’ Long Bar.

 

And of course we needed to have Singapore Slings and throw peanut shells on the floor; my initial thought enetering was 'Has this place been cleaned by Stevie Wonder?'..

 

Me at Raffles’ Long Bar.

 

Raffles’ court yard with their outdoor restaurant and kitchen; very nice.

 

One of the nights was dedicated to the quays; we had chili crab at Jumbo Seafood on the way to Robertson Quay, drinks at Boat Quay and here more drinks, water pipes and dancing on Clarke Quay. 

 

Nettan at the open sky bar One Altitude on the 63rd floor with a 360 view over Singapore and glass walls. It takes almost a minute to take the elevator to the 62nd and compared to Gothenburg's Heaven 23 (which was the tallest building I'd been in before we came to Asia), it's almost three times as far up. The elevator is in addition made out of glass on one side and you really think you are there around floor 20. Then it's only 40 floors left ;)

 

And one evening I decided to try green beer; it was truly disgusting.

We also had to show off the Singaporean Botanical Gardens and the breathtaking orchids. This is so worth a visit and is only S$6; if you haven’t been, go. These pics are only taken with my phone, so I’m really looking forward revisiting with a proper camera. And I really couldn't decide which to take for this text so there's quite a few. But they are so beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Last week I was invited to a very traditional Chinese lunch, since our neighbors had heard I’d never seen, let alone eaten, black chicken before in my life. Therefore, black chicken soup it was. I was actually quite skeptical, since it still baffles me how an animal has white feathers but black skin and meat. I was even more skeptical when I was presented with a dish which looked like a little pot with roots and a whole black chicken leg sticking up out of it. It just looked nasty.

 
Mmmm…

However, I had not been taken to lunch to bail out, since Vikings obviously do not bail, so I dug in. And it was delicious. The texture was quite interesting as well. I was expecting it to be like chicken meat, but it was almost like smoked fish and quite dry, even though it was in a soup.

 
You gotta fight, for the right, to party.

We also had Drunk Chicken (cold boiled chicken breast with ginger paste), a fantastic fresh water fish that I can’t remember the name of (served cold with chili, garlic and leeks), spinach with sesame oil and numerous other little dishes.

 
The fish dish.

This kind of food is called Dim Sum and is a lot like tapas = many small dishes which everyone shares around the table. Thank you Charles and Shiela for taking me to one of the most amazing Chinese lunches ever!


Since we now have tennis rackets both of us, Jonas decided to challenge a colleague.

 
Jonas at the bottom and Jayaraj at the top; pic taken from their balcony.

I came along and we had an absolutely fantastic homemade Indian lunch. We also got our first proper Indian lessons in how to behave at the table. You eat with your right hand and make small balls from the rice and curry, do not under any circumstance lick your fingers since that means you are not full and think that there was not enough food. Also, if your Indian host says it’s spicy, prepare with a lot extra water, youghurt or coconut flakes. Thank you Jayaraj, Malarjayaraj and Jagajeeth for a great day!

 
View from our friends’ apartment overlooking a few of the public outdoor baths in the area.

 

Mother Malarjayaraj and son Jagajeeth; he wasn’t super keen being photographed, but rather wanted to play tennis with the boys. 

On Sunday the 9th of October we had been a couple for a whole decade! Hence the entire day was devoted to hang out and do nice things together: morning tennis, swimming, making a fabulous lunch together and having it on the balcony with chilled rose wine, watching a romantic movie while a tropical thunderstorm made the skies black, having dinner at our local hawker center and finishing off the evening with a spa treatment for two long hours. We are now officially embarking the next decade together ;) 

 

Lunch on the balcony: vegetable tortillas with vinaigrette tomatoes, rose wine and pineapple. 

 

My favorite dish at the local hawker center at Chuan Central: chicken and charcoal grilled pork with rice, soup and oyster sauced bok choy. 

During the week we were invited to a shop-warming-party at More Than Diamonds, run by our friends. It was a so much fun with some familiar, but also so many new faces. It was a really different and cool experience to have a party surrounded by several glass monters of sparkling jewelry. Thank you Sara and Chris for making it a wonderful night!


On the Saturday we were asked over to a super nice BBQ with absolutely fab food from The Butcher and homemade dishes. We also met new friends and had a lot of very tasty wine spiced with very interesting discussions and a lot of laughter. Thank you Anna, Mikael, Conny and Victoria for a truly great evening!  

Sentosa and 1st BBQ Springbloom

Since we like Singapore so much, find the people here really friendly and think the city itself is so clean, our outing became a choker. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the ‘paradise island’ Sentosa, but it’s probably the worst place in Singapore (minus Tanjong Beach Club, which was the only plus). We were there briefly when we were on the run from earthquakes and nuclear disasters in March, but were definitely too worked up to fully understand how much almost all of Sentosa sucks. (For the Swedes reading: basically, imagine Liseberg, Gothenburg on a salary-weekend when the weather is good, add big American-stylish-plastic-looking complexes and prices which are through the roof.) To make matters worse, we hadn’t gone there by the cable cars, which we decided would be smashing since we’re both scared of heights. Sometimes I think the joint intelligence in any marriage just becomes slightly paralyzed.

 

View from the cable car; the entire thing is made out of glass which doesn’t really help if you don’t like heights.

It was also hotter than hell and a national holiday = well beyond crowded = more or less how I picture an average purgatory.

 

Me on Palawan Beach which is seriously dirty (huge contrast to the rest of Singapore) and full of male participants who take pictures of everyone who’s in a bikini. We left after less than 5 mins.   

 

Japanese tourists seemed to be of the same understanding.

 

Entrance of the Robinson-alike island, which was not tasteful, practical nor fun.

Basically, you can go to Sentosa, but stay bloody far away from any of the beaches besides Tanjong Beach. Book a table at the beach club in advance, go directly there and only enter the ocean if you have to. Otherwise, just use the pool. Really, it’s the best option. And yes, we should have listened to our friends Claudia and David telling us just that.. 

 

Jonas at Tanjong Beach Club where fortunately the music was very good. Thank you DJ and friend Johnny!

We quite quickly took the first transportation towards the outstanding cable cars to just get us off the island. Unfortunately the only thing which came by was a parody of a too too train that merciless brawled out ‘TOOOT TOOOOT TOOOOOT’ at a volume that would make anyone not only go deaf, but both blind and mute in one go.

Since apparently the hits just had to keep on coming that day, we got on a bus to take us closer to our cable stop. That was exactly the same though that passed through the mind of the man with the largest problems with his intestines I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to have to endure. If his farts had been caught on an IR camera they’d been green. He could’ve killed a small cat with that smell. I’m not joking. THEN a man with the most foul body odor decided to enter the bus. J and I quickly threw ourselves towards the exit. Too late though, so we spent another 5 mins in the vicinity of a person smelling so strongly of sweat that my eyes were tearing when we finally got off. Jonas was almost green in the face and looked like he was gonna hurl any second. With a joint ‘Let’s just get the f*** off this island’-understanding we got on the cable cars and headed for civilization.

 

View from the cable cars; beautiful, but next time it’ll be straight to Tanjong Beach Club. 

We have now also quality tested the BBQ pits at Springbloom and they work just fine. The first round of BBQ guests were primarily Jonas colleagues; I spent the entire day before to plan and do the shopping. The menu included all kinds of salads, skewers, exotic fruits and drinks, so I started by heading to Little India.

 

Beginning of the main street Serangoon Road in Little India

 

It’s a bit tricky to find Mustafa Center where all the food is, but it’s just to follow the signs..

 

On the way one passes the absolutely gorgeous clothes section; it just goes on and on with row after row of fanatically beautiful and cheap clothes. I took a little detour here..

Well at home after a full day grocery shopping, I prepared all beans, peas and lentils for the following day. Might sound a bit out of place at a BBQ, but I had instructions there’d be a lot of Indians, and I know they are huge fans all kinds of legumes. And no one was leaving this party hungry.

The day of the BBQ I started early with boiling all the legumes; in the mean time I prepped the fruit and made grill packages.

 

 

 

Pineapples, dragon fruits, yellow and red water melons were all chopped and placed separately in the fridge to cool off

 

 

Tomatoes and mushrooms were chopped and placed in separate tin foil packages with oil, garlic, salt and white pepper 

Then it was time for one huge potato salad with creme fresh, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles, capris, salt and black pepper + one green salad with all kinds of salad leaves, green/red spinach, all colors peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and squash. I also prepared a bean salad with white/black/red beans, chick peas, celery, red onions, green peppers and red cabbage. To this I made vinaigrette (lemon juice and mustard) and herb (vinegar, oregano, basil, rosmarin, thyme) dressings, based on oil, salt and pepper. Brilliant.

 

Start of the salads

Then it was time for the shaky part: the tiger shrimp skewers. I’ve not done them before, so I was a bit nervous they’d be really bad. At least I didn’t do the obvious beginner blunder of forgetting to damp the actual skewers in water before. It’d be really unfortunate if they’d just catch fire.. I had found a great recipe online where you just soak the whole thing (tiger shrimps, all colors peppers, onions and squash already on the skewer) in a marinade of soy sauce, oil, lemon, lime, garlic, ginger, red and green chili for an hour. They became a real hit, so I'll definitely keep them in mind for next time.

 

Preps for the marinade

Kitchen duty went really well besides one episode where I over enthusiastically manages to shove the very sharp Japanese knife straight into my ring finger. Needless to say there was blood everywhere. I don’t handle blood well. At all. After flipping over an entire chopping board of tomatoes by mistake as I was reaching for the kitchen bench so I wouldn’t pass out + sitting on the floor for about 20 mins with my head between my knees, I was fine though. It was however both cold and slimy unpleasant to sit flat arsed down in a pile of chopped tomatoes, but after a shower, three plasters and ‘Moves like Jagger‘ on full volume, I was back in the game.  

 

I was actually contemplating buying this and tell Jonas dessert was under control; they’re iPhone covers ;)  

The evening was really great and thank you all for making it so!