Number Fifteen
Singapore Flyer
1 July 2013
We had a visit from
Sarah and her fiancé over Christmas. They toured some places with Kaye and on
their own; this Flyer only reports on activities where I was along.
Sarah had been to
Singapore twice previously (which is one of the reasons I ended up here on my
sabbatical). She wanted to visit Chinatown and the hawker centre there. It had
been closed for major cleaning and renovation, but fortunately reopened by the time
of her visit. After lunch we headed over to a Chinese dessert restaurant that
Kaye had discovered. Amongst us we had peanut soup, ginger soup, soursop shaved
ice and a white & black shaved ice of almond and black sesame. Unlike
Hawaiian shave ice where the flavoring is added to plain ice, here the flavor
(often in the form of actual fruit pulp) is frozen in.
We visited the
National Museum, where I spent most of my time down in the exhibit on the
playwright Kuo Pao Kun. I watched a video of his play "The Coffin is Too
Big for the Hole", which I reported on before. I also read more of the
background information on him, and learned that while in detention from
1977-80, he taught himself Malay in order to read Sejarah Melayu. (Sejarah
Melayu = Malay Annals -- a history of the Malaccan sultanate that dates to the
15th or 16th century)
Right behind the
museum is Fort Canning Park, which has an extensive spice garden. I got to see
lots of ingredients I mostly encounter in jars or bags: nutmeg (also the source
of mace), cloves, red & black peppers, laksa leaf, galangal, lemongrass,
turmeric, curry leaves, torch ginger, tamarind, pandan, cinnamon, cocoa,
allspice. (This last one is a bit surprising -- allspice is grown commercially
only in the western hemisphere.)
Christmas evening we
walked down Orchard Road, the high-end shopping street here. There were lights
all along the street, which I think were designed to cover both Christmas and
Chinese New Year. A lot of stores had their own decorations, too. The place was
mobbed -- it seems Singaporeans like to shop Christmas afternoon and evening.
There was a trip down
the hill to the wet market one morning, so Sarah could check out some local
ingredients. We bought some fresh jackfruit segments, which I had only had before
in dried form, or as an ingredient in drinks and desserts. Jackfruits are
pretty impressive to look at. They are green and spikey on the outside like a
durian, but generally much larger. A typical durian is about the size of an
American football, or a bit smaller, whereas I've seen jackfruits that are
bigger than watermelons. Also, the spikes are smaller and more densely packed
than on a durian. The other new fruit for me was pulasam, which some people
call a wild rambutan. They are larger than rambutans, a darker red on the
outside, and have stubbier spines. Once you get one open (pulasam =
"twist" in Malay), the fruit is much the same as a rambutan. White
flesh, single seed, maybe a bit sweeter.
Near the top of
Sarah's list of things she wanted to do in Singapore was the buffet in the Bar
& Billiard Room at Raffles Hotel, where she had eaten on both her previous
trips. We've mostly not been eating out at places with Western cuisine, but the
buffet is so nicely done that we make an exception for it. I didn't actually
end up eating much in the way of pasta or main course, as the cold seafood,
charcuterie, appetizer and salad offerings were so extensive (plus I wanted to
save room for dessert). The room itself is essentially a separate pavilion with
windows all around, and an oblong bar in the middle. Since I could see out in
all directions, and the bar area wasn't that big, I couldn't figure out where
the kitchen was. At first I was wondering if the food might be brought in from
another part of the hotel before the buffet opened, but I saw dishes being
replenished without the staff leaving the room. Sarah did a little
reconnoitering, and reported there is a large dumbwaiter built into one end of
the bar. So apparently all the cooking happens in the basement.