Thursday - Arab Street

Today was last day at Singapore. Packed everything night before so that after breakfast we can check-out without much wasting of time.It was holiday at Singapore as of some Muslim festival. My plan was to go to Arab Street. This area has beautiful old shop houses that line the streets. 

The highlight of the area is the grand Sultan Mosque, which was crowded as people were coming out after prayers.I think Arab Street is known for the fabrics a great place to go if you want or need cut piece. Here you can find materials of every imaginable colors. Not only fabric but also carpet, prayer mats, jewelries oriental carpets, pashminas, sarong, batik shirts etc. I think you can BARGAIN!!!! but not sure. The shops here sell French Lace, Thai silk, Brocade, Indian Silk buttons, and many more...anything related to sewing.

It is a great stop to just walk around and see the shop house architecture of Singapore. Seemingly endless number of fabric shops starts to make your head spin. On Baghdad street-there are a lot of new restaurants/cafe houses. Many of the restaurants have sheeshas or water pipes, which you can smoke while having sip of coffee. We had kasha laham for lunch at Cafe le Caire @ Al Majlis located at 39 Arab Street which was for more than 2 person in terms of portion.

After having heavy lunch we walked towards Bugis street but I missed the charm of it as Santanu was not in mood for any more shopping. Its place for shop-alcoholics with good street shopping experience. 

Then came to Raffles hotel to see its colonial style architecture. It houses museum shops, tropical garden courtyard and Victorian-style theater, tiffin room among many others. Best part is at raffles you will be first welcomed by a Sikh doorman dressed in white ironed Grieves and Hawks uniforms with thick mustache as you get down from your car. It is impossible to overlook the doorman dressed in traditional Sikh attire. But what is fascinating is the fact that they are one of the most photographed icons of Singapore.

Then visited raffles mall and after strolling for a while decided to return to our mandarin hotel as Santanu''s flight was ahead of us. Yes...you heard it right..we had different flight on way back as well.

While going from here to Singapore it was smooth journey with Aarush but on way back it was really terrible as flight was fully packed and with time difference and whole day moving around he was cranky enough. With very less leg space he was not getting proper sleep. Then after landing too we have to spend another 2 hrs. at airport as Santanu had phone call meeting.

Wedneday- Visit to China town

It was the day to visit china town and particularly Buddha tooth relic temple.  The day was very bright with little could in the sky. This is the view from our hotel room looking central Singapore Business District.

After a good breakfast headed out of hotel. Got down by MRT at China town & took exit to Pagoda street. One can't miss the colorful row of shop-houses along that street, with baby blue and yellow flowers painted all over. This whole area is labyrinth of shops selling all and sundry. Take a few minutes to explore the Chinese furniture shops close to the end of this street. Many of the pieces are indeed very beautiful.

I walked straight till South bridge road where there is one oldest Hindu temple on temple road SRI MARIAMMAN TEMPLE whose facade was under renovation so decided not to enter. So walked straight to Buddha tooth relic temple & museum. It took us 2 hrs to complete the whole. It was worth the visit.

Next to this place was Sago street. At end of sago street is china town complex. The most interesting part of the Complex is the wet market, located at its basement. The Chinese are reputed to eat everything from hoof to tail, and there's no better place to witness this than a market in the heart of Chinatown! You will be greeted by the sight of turtles, eels, pig trotters, live frogs being skinned and a fascinating array of fresh meat and seafood. Colorful tropical fruits and vegetables are abundant. There are also dry and preserved goods stalls selling a myriad of Chinese culinary needs from sharks' fin to century eggs. The market is busiest and at its best in the morning as told by one shopkeeper. I boycotted this part as I won't be able to eat anything later.

Took left turn to Terengganu Street which ends at Pagoda street. This street is crammed with shops selling clothes, antiques, wood carvings, etc. The goods are not sold at fixed prices, so one can test bargaining skills here. But while walking around I came across one juice shop selling juices of cactus to orange. Decided to have Bitter Gourd juice just for change. Not bad though. From there we came back to hotel to freshen our self at late afternoon and then in evening left for IKEA where we had dinner.

Hectic Tuesday

We woke up bit early; had heavy breakfast as usual. For today I have already decided to go to Botanical garden in first half of the day. So took a cab from hotel and I figured it was very nearby. This botanical garden is must if you want to see the greenery and variety of plants and flowers they have. Excellent maintenance, people come here for jogging, picnic and touristy purpose. They have one section of National orchid garden which is just awesome. After strolling for few minutes I realized that battery of my camera has not been charged for past 2 days and unfortunately after a while in major area of Orchid garden my camera stopped working. With orchid garden they have number of mini- attractions. I couldn't take any photo of mist house, cool-house. Other than that they have rain-forest, ginger garden, evolution garden. Then they have 3 lakes: Swan Lake, Symphony Lake and Eco Lake. Then even have French restaurant and cafeteria in the garden. It takes at least more than 2 hrs. to complete round of the garden.

At certain places they have flight of stairs where I have to carry Aarush as well the stroller up and down. Otherwise, overall pavement is very good for kids in stroller and handicapped people. I decided to return by public bus so got down at orchards street close to hotel. Went to hotel room put the batteries in charger. Meanwhile we freshened up, fed my son and put him to sleep. Then around 4.00pm I took metro while he was still sleeping and went to Raffles place by MRT.

From here I walked towards boat quay seeing parliament, supreme court, city hall building and Saint Andrews cathedral on the way. My objective was to see Merlion. So walked all the way on the riverside lined with restaurants basically hangout for expatriates and tourists with chic cafes, yuppie pubs. Here every restaurant employee tries to persuade you to come in. While strolling saw structure of arts along the river which was amazing. Walked all the way till the back of The Fullerton hotel then crossed highway to go to other side i.e., one Fullerton to Merlion park tourist icon of Singapore.

As located next to marina bay on city's edge it has seating arrangement to view Esplanade, sea and bum-boats to give tourists a tour of Colonial Singapore from the river. Me and Aarush sat there relaxing my feet after a hard day of walking. It was about to sunset & weather was very pleasant, chill air blowing.

While sitting there I was gazing people from different corners of world coming and posing with Merlion. One big Japanese group came; and they were posing like anything and I couldn't control laughing all alone; truly had a fun time. After a while I realized that we too also became tourist icon with Merlion as some of those Japanese women in late 40s wanted to have picture with me and Aarush (taklu baby) too.

Well, with the fall of day-light statue is floodlit and water pours from the statue's mouth. Fortunately we spent quite a lot of time there as it was today’s end point. Around 8 Santanu met us there and we left for dinner by cab to Little India.

Today we had south Indian thali; portion of food was too much to eat then we walked to Mustafa known shopping complex open 24 hrs. I believe They mainly serve tourists from India, Middle East, South-east Asia and Africa other then Europeans and Americans. They have wide range of items from pin to piano thronging with narrow aisles. Staffs don't respond properly except in diamond-gold jewelery section and most of them can't speak simple English neither they have product knowledge. Its heavily crowded even at 12.00AM.After a while I started feeling dizzy due to claustrophobia. Then quickly bought few stuffs and headed back to hotel via public bus.

Sleepy Monday

Monday morning mother-son woke up pretty late. Santanu already left for office while we were in sleep. Around noon we went out of hotel to nearby mall. Today I was not much interested in exploring rather looking for kids activities. Spent almost half day at Toys R Us play area in Paragon mall where Aarush enjoyed to fullest. He did not want to give-up the car and was seating there for hours. He was not interested in playing with slide,swing and all. In fact he was bit scared when I put him up there. From there went to Carrefour to get some food for him. Around 4.30 PM came back had shower and both took a beauty sleep. In the evening Santanu had phone call to attend so after that we went to food court of Takashimaya for Dinner.

Had noodles and killed time sitting at one corner of pavement as Santanu had another call to attend.Very uneventful day. Came back and went to deep sleep again.

Jurong bird park

After a full day @ Santosa on Sunday we woke up pretty late. We decided to go for Jurong bird park and offbeat track -Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, is the largest monastery in Singapore.

We had breakfast at ChatterBox as the normal breakfast side was packed. The menu was quite different  from the normal side as we had lots of traditional dishes to choose from. As usual Pamela had lots of dim-sum and I  preferred the usual cereal and fruits.

We started with the monastery, and when Orchard road tourist info office they were bit of surprised with our choice. The nearest MRT stop is Bishan and from there we took bus no 410. It took around 1 1/2hrs to complete the same. We enjoyed the serenity of that place painted in bright colors.

From there we went to Jurong bird park via MRT. This MRT journey is very long as covers almost whole Singapore Northern part. On the way we picked Zongzi (or zong) traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings; we had red bean paste. It is tetrahedral shape and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves where leaf imparts its own unique smell and flavor to the rice. They are cooked by steaming or boiling. After a long wait got into 194 SBS bus from Boonlay metro station by that the sky was already dark with afternoon clouds. As soon as we reached park gate it was almost 4 PM abut luckily rain stopped.

It is open concept park which houses some thousand birds. We started our walk from on left side of ticket counter followed by crowned pigeon- World’s Largest Pigeons. They are at tree-top level with walkway which offers a completely unobtrusive view of the birds since there are no wire meshes separating the visitor from the birds. Then they have large collection of horn-bills and toucans. Lory Loft showcases the Lorykeet where Visitors can enter, traverse and exit Lory Loft at treetop level, allowing for a bird eye’s view of the majestic panorama.

The bird shows at the Pools Amphitheater featuring flamingos, macaws, hornbills and cockatoos are both spectacular and funny we heard from others but we couldn't watch any as reached there late afternoon. African Waterfall Aviary, home to free-flying African birds and parrots paradise we missed. They have air conditioned panorail system with stoppages which covers the entire Park providing excellent elevated views.

They have birds of prey section too then ostrich, Double-Wattled Cassowary, Emu followed by Dino Dig which allows children and family members to experience archaeological diggings together and discover fossils hidden through time amidst the sands. It is entertaining for both adults as kids.

From there we walked towards riverine featuring ducks, fishes and turtles, swan and pelican cove and then flamingo .Penguin Parade enclosure, in a re-created Antarctic setting is worth seeing from kids point of view. Shoe bill, African crane, saddle billed storks and then at last we entered world of darkness which houses different species of owl.

TIP: Scrolling around the park would take more than 2-3 hours. So make sure to come earlier so that you can spend more time mingling with birds. And one can still have time to relax in one of their huts while watching the birds and listening to their symphony. Personally, seen different kinds of birds only in pictures and books. It really awakens our childhood desires. My son enjoyed a lot. We had to carry stroller up and down the stairs many a times. Although it was bit tiring but MUCH better on foot, at our own pace. Overall, spent fabulous day with birds of different species from different countries at one place. Best part is the whole area is very green and serene.

They have unique restaurant as all the chairs are made of metal with different kinds of animal figures. As well one can't miss their souvenir shop as it is at EXIT door. Instead of wounding up by taking the bus to MRT we hired a cab for our hotel; got freshened up then left for dinner at Lau Pa Sat known for satay and stingray under the stars.

Day-3 Sentosa visit

Saturday, we planned for Sentosa Island – Sentosa is the top tourist attraction if you ask any Singaporean tourist information or locals. Sentosa has it all – beach, corporate team building activities, aquarium, great food and entertainment and soon there will be Casio and entertainment park with roller coaster rides. We planned for complete day-trip; as usual after heavy breakfast we went by metro to Harbour Front MRT station. From there took Sentosa Express (Monorail train) from Vivocity mall’s top floor. Once out of Beach station (last stop) we saw two queues for trams- one blue line queue to take the tram to Palawan and Tanjong beach and other green line to Siloso beach. We preferred for first one as it was less crowded. Today it was more relaxing for me as Santanu was there to take care of Aarush. And Aarush was also happy to see many kids around him.

The main highlight of the Tanjong beach is the suspension boardwalk that brings you to the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia which is also known as the closest point to the Equator in Asia. A bit tricky geography as Singapore is connected to Malaysia by a bridge it is not considers as an island and same true for Sentosa which is again connected to Singapore by a bridge; reminded me of those great signs of Western USA. We chilled and tried to get connect with nature as much we can in those tall shady coconut trees and beautiful bougainvilleas around. Aarush was so excited to see water that he just wanted to jump and Santanu told him very tight while he dipped himself in sea. It was not sufficient for him and ultimately he has to strap Aarush in the stroller. From Tanjong we came by walking to Palawa beach where we couldn’t control Aarush anymore. There is a small fountain square or wading pool for kids to play beside seaside. He played happily without bothering even we are around or not for almost 2 hrs; then we forcibly took him out as it started to rain.

This island is simply beautiful and bustling with activities. It houses many museums, theatres, aquariums, luxury shops and of course beaches. Had very light Indian lunch and then left for Silosa beach. There we visited underwater world which was equally fun. Underworld is one of expensive attraction of Santosa (S$22 per ticket) but it really worth the money. Next to the aquarium is the show of dolphins but due to rain it was cancelled and we have to be happy with the show from sea-lions.

From there we took a bus to tiger sky tower, images of Singapore and Merlion. These attractions are sited so close together that you need not spend more than 5 minutes to walk from one attraction to another. The easiest way to get to Imbiah Lookup is by Sentosa Express, a monorail train which will bring you directly to Imbiah Lookup station. Finally, after whole day walking and stalking my son slept and we too decided to relax while gazing at the serenity of the sea so comeback by monorail to last stop as we had bought ticket for last show of the day. Before Aarush went to sleep he was really cranky and was doing all kind of real naughty things, ultimate one was he just lied down completely on the pavement to lodge his complaint like a street activist.

We ended our trip with one of the highly-rated show, Song of the Sea where the highlight is on fountain-like water spray dancing harmoniously with the background music. In addition, to colourful lighting which changes constantly with the rhythm of the background music it is enhanced with lasers, pyrotechnics, bursts of fire, water jets, pop music and a live cast, the show is more like a state-of-the-art entertainment. After show we left for Vivocity for return journey to hotel.

We had our dinner at Vivocity food republic; place bubbling with energy. It’s the place for the food connoisseurs. They have wide range of international cuisine and restaurants serving French, Italian, Japanese, Taiwanese local flair and what not. We had java and fried Hakeem noodles...which was absolutely awesome.

Friday - Black Peper Crab

 On Friday we woke up early; had breakfast- an elaborate one. Me and Aarush after shower around 11am left our hotel room. Today again we walked on other side of Orchard Street till Dhoby Ghat Station. Now a days;  I too feel sick like my hubby when too much time spent at malls … am I growing old ? :D  It was good to be in mall when it is raining. On otherhand, it also allows you to enjoy the air-condition in the stores as outside it is really hot and humid when not raining.  We visited malls after mall Paragon, Orchard central, Specialist Shopping Centre (John Little store), Plaza Singapura etc flanked on Orchard street. This street is one of the best place to spend during any time of the year specially during year end when  the whole stretch of the street and the buildings are beautifully adorned with Christmas decors and lights.

Had hot piping dumpling soup at lunch while my son slept at street shop.Then continued walking past official residence of Singapore President, the Istana which is next to Plaza Singapora Mall.  There I picked a  local SIM card in the same mall so that I can talk to my hubby at least in need. Lastly, couldn’t stop myself on seeing Carrefour French hyper store after long time at same mall. Bought some errands and returned around 6-ish to the hotel.

Hubby too returned from office early being Friday around 7 ish; then we together left for dinner at Clark quay. Everyone were in weekend party mood. This area is lined with bars and notable restaurants like Hooters and others strung together, looking somewhat identical. Many waterfront restaurants to enjoy (Thai, Indian, Chinese ...) food one wants to. They all have large covered patios that extend even further uncovered. G-MAX reverse bungee, River cruises and river taxies on the Singapore River can be accessed from Clarke Quay.

We chose Riverside Jumbo restaurant. Open air seating near the waterfront; its relaxing place for long chats while savoring seafood dishes after a long day of walking. We ordered steamed prawns with duck sauce as starter. Instead of popular and common Chili Crab which has more gravy we ordered black pepper crab a dry variant. Taste wise Black Pepper Crab is dry and spicy! Very yummy!  Its Crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside.

This was my fist experience with crab; learned one thing that they are delicious but messy to eat. Not the most elegant food to eat as they serve with a bib and trust me - unless you eat crab regularly you'll get it absolutely everywhere.  Literally struggled during the whole course where the waitress kept on changing plates. Both hands got quite dirty but thankfully they kept a bowl with warm water and plenty of napkins to keep oneself clean. Santanu guided and helped me in cracking the crab. He told me that pickers generally used to split the shell or push the meat out with a long, thin tong. At times I felt like in a  bio-laboratory to dissect this crabs and in this long process lost my appetite. We need to use fingers in order to fully savour the crab.

We ordered some Chinese buns (man tou) for Aarush which did not liked it much so we finished those on behalf of him. Next time, will  definitely like to try the chilli crabs. As Aarush only had yogurt and some side dish we got french fries for him which he had while running near Clarke Quay riverside.

Links

www.jumboseafood.com.sg

First day @ Singapore

Viewing Singapore through a lens of mother of 22 months old baby was not fun all the time but enjoyed our stay there for 9 days. Actually this journey is because of Santanu who went almost every year after returning to India. Each time after his official trip he use to complain about his loneliness and etc. So this time we made sure to accompany him. But what a luck! he was damn busy in his office. He use to leave hotel early in the morning and come late at night. It was me and Aarush who were left to explore Singapore of  our own.

We reached Singapore on Thursday morning, on our way to hotel we figured that its extremely green country with no single patch left just like that. Had our buffet breakfast till throat and hit the bed to overcome jetlag. We slept till 4.00PM Singapore local time.  Straight I went to window of my room on 30th floor and surprised to see natures tears rolling down from mournful burdened grey  clouds and people carrying open umbrellas. I cursed myself that I got rains along with me from Bangalore as it was pouring the day we left from there.

Lazily me and my son took shower and left the hotel around 6pm. Our hotel Mandarin Meritus was on Orchard Street; I preferred to know my neighborhood first. So, walking on that street felt like walking on Champs-Elysées of Paris with only difference that former is full of malls one after another while later is full of shops from branded company.  All these malls have branded showrooms; labels like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Cartier, Dior and Giorgio Armani you name it its all there in one street.

It seems that Christmas preparations started earlier. Whole street was already decorated in Christmas mood; spotted so many caricatures along the road on pavement; a huge Christmas tree at shopping extravaganza ION Orchard and lots more Christmas decorations outside and inside other Malls. The architecture of the Ion orchard building is something different compared to other malls in Orchard road. The facade is formed of huge glass bubbles.

For my son, whole thing was absolutely new,  he was behaving like a hero of Bollywood who just  came from very remote village to a big city. He was too excited to see all these hustling bustling city life.  Near Orchard metro they have colorful fountains dancing with light. He enjoyed so much so that he completely drenched himself.

It seems People too were in festive mood carrying shopping bags in each hand. After strolling on that busy Orchard Street we headed to hotel as my son's clothes were wet and I didn't want to take risk with his health at new place and massacre my holidays.

On returning to room Santanu was already there busy on phone call meeting. By the time my son had some food and slept again. It was almost 11 when Santanu had finished his phone call. Had dinner at youth park; back of our hotel. We had Stingray (a common Singaporean dish) with rice and Stir Fried kangkung (water Spinach). We walked around to locate  nearest metro station and Santanu showed me about how to follow bus-route.

Cost cutting Travel and more

My last week trip to Singapore was a hectic one. Too many meetings and meetings at work; best  part is now a new Starbucks at Science Park Drive is opened close to work; was very lucky where every other day got pampered by my host with a coffee.

The flight from Bangalore was a nightmare I never experienced such horrible service from any airline in my travel history. For Airlines each seats are perishable commodities, which is lost as soon as the flight takes off and it is a dream come true for Airline Company when they have one. But looks like Singapore Airline (SIA) staffs not adequately trained to handle such pressure. The dinner was served at 1:30 AM while the flight was on time at 23:00PM. Neither they came with coffee or tea after dinner, may be most passenger would not have asked for the same but still they should have don’t they... ? I pressed the button for extra water but no one attended me.

While returning from Singapore person at counter was very strict about extra luggage. I had to adjust extra 2 Kgs that I had which was something new for me. For the first time, I had to do that …. blame it on IKEA . Anyways, the famous courteousness of SIA staff was totally missing when I asked for priority level for my check-in. And this time I did ensured my seat on-line prior to flying. In-flight service was much better this time as the flight was very much empty. May be only half or less and service was comparable to old times.

But on whole it looks like entire Singapore is going through a cost cutting measure to turn around their economy. They issued me a 2 year VIA on simple A4 paper. Not sure if that paper is going to last or not. And clearly SIA staffs donot know what to do when the flight is full which is really a BIG disappointment.

I ensured to share the same feedback to SIA website and hope for the better service next time.

Fresh Tomato Soup

Till far only soup ever tried to make was carrot soup in Paris that too in bleak winter. Big thanks to my French Teacher for sharing the recipe en Français. Recently, went to local vegetable market; seeing tomato got so tempted that without thinking bought two kilos. Then I brainstormed a bit to think and idea of soup came as an escape. Here is my 2 cents recipe. If craving for something sweet and sour at the same time just have a bowl of creamy tomato soup to satisfy your desire as an appetizer.

• One kilo Tomato – boiled, peeled and deseeded.
• Two/three carrots – chopped to tiny pieces.
• One big Onion finely chopped
• Few cloves of garlic
• One red chili
• One Bay leaf
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• Black pepper
• Nutmeg
• 2 tbsp Olive oil / ½ tbsp butter
• Juice from one fresh Orange
• Low fat cream or thick yoghurt
• Dried Basil / Parsley leaves - optional
• Salt to taste

Heat the oil/ butter and fry cumin seeds, bay leaf, garlic and onion with pinch of salt. When onion turns golden, add carrots and continue frying at low flame. Once carrot is tender add tomato and fry for few minutes

Make puree in a grinder (remove bay leaf before). Add water according to thickness required. Put the blended soup back in the pan. Bring to boil and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Now add freshly squeezed orange juice and cream after removing from heat. Season it with nutmeg and fresh black pepper. Garnish with a couple of parsley or basil sprigs if any and serve hot with either croutons or bread slice.

Best news is “Bread-Talk” boutique has recently opened at Vashi. It is a famous bakery chain from Singapore and they do cater good quality of various breads as well as desserts. But sadly, the dessert I got from there was too creamy, spongy and sugary. I will say tasteless to my taste buds as these kinds of pastries are very popular throughout India. After tasting European pastries, I find these one as - concept of western baked goods mixed with Asian ingenuity makes cool looking pastries that are hit-and-miss at certain point. While multi-cereal bread which I got was awesome.

Back from trip

Well, I am back to Bombay from my official visit after four weeks stay in Singapore. There are lots of pictures from the trip, but as I did not visit any vista-points or sight-seeing points as tourist rather which ever crossed my path got snapped. Will post them soon. Note: this picture is not from Mumbai Airport but from Kolkata(Calcutta)

Exploring…bits n bites II

Continuing from my last post I like to share a great experience I had. It was a sudden plan and I was tagged along with my instructor who in-turn was invited by a local Singaporean colleague after work for dinner. It was buffet for a fixed price at Marina Bay Shopping Mall. The crowd was very young far-eastern or North-Asians. Sorry guys, I could not figure out who is Chinese, Japanese, Koreans or just Singaporeans…as they all looked alike and age-wise they looked like high school or college students to me. Thankfully, our local guy made a reservation otherwise we might had to wait in long queue.

I started with some sea foods; I tried Oysterr for the first time. It was OK but did not found the delicacy as it is said in France - a key component of fruit-de-la-mer (fruits of the sea or sea food - in this except shrimps and prawns rest all like oysters, clams, mussels, whelks, and periwinkles come raw). If I am not wrong the concept is same in Kerala (south-most state in India) where any fish is treated almost the same. Being a Bong- I am a lover offresh river fish.

In the second round, I opted for Japanese sushi and sashimi which I love and can have a lot. For many, it is raw fish (actually firm but melt-in-your-mouth when you bite it). To me it tastes delicious when dipped in Shoyu (Soya sauce), speck of Wasabi (very strong, hot flavoured green mustard) and with gari (thin-sliced sweet pickeled ginger). Ocassionally at end it is accompanied by sake-japanese liquor.

While I was enjoying the same my colleague’s girlfriend had turtle skin soup. It seems that it is very good for female skin according to Chinese belief. Well well… all big cats of Asia are almost extinct due to high demand from such Chinese myth. But I kept my WWF conservation “fundas” with me while my colleague enjoyed fish-head which has same realm of myth.

To conclude, I think I beat every one when it comes to desserts which were really yum. Unfortunately, I did not had enough room left for ice-creams which they had so many varieties to choose from. But, indeed it was a great dinner.

Exploring…Bits n Bites

Singapore has so many ethnic cuisines to offer for its natives that you have to stay long to explore all the corners. Food is highly influenced by Malaysian, Chinese, Indonesian and none other but South Indian too. Even annually Singapore government organizes “Singapore Food Festival” in month of July. I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of it. When it is a matter of food I consider myself to be “not a typical desi” sticking only to one variety of food. I love to explore as much as I can. But of course at same time I try to avoid certain meat other then duck, chicken, turkey,lamb or goat. So, after that only sausages or bacons can make way to my plate with choice rest I do not like to taste due to various personal reasons. Well, please do not be surprised as I went very specific with meat. As, according to French there are so many delicious delicacies to taste ; that do not think only about Chinese or Korean if you are a vegetarian.

Recently, I had Red chilli chicken from a western wok at my lunch. For lunch, we have a food court opposite to our Singapore office. It is not specific to any company; it seems there are few others nearby as well. Variation ranges from Indian to Japanese to even cross-cultural fusion. So a lot to choose from if you can figure out. I am not sure sometime what they have as main-ingredients. But this dish was simple to order as it said red chili chicken with rice. But, astonishing part was the numbers of chilies it had. At first, I was bit skeptical about its spiciness with so many chillies in plate but later I took a bite of one of those and found they are not as hot as they looked. A Good experience indeed:D.

The second picture of Fish curry is from a food court eatery; the curry was excellent… very close to Indian kind but then the down hill journey started for me. They said - you can choose two veggies as side dish and I opted for Spinach and peanut sauce. I specifically asked about the Peanut one as they mentioned it will be melange of sweet and sour savour. When I was ordering my plate it looked like that sauce had some sprouts but thank god I am not a vegetarian - infact it had some dry fish. But, as a whole this side-dish was a big thumbs down which changed my taste-buds …yuck!!! :.(

Sale

A four letter word of our modern consumerism; like all other 4 letters words this is very commonly used.

The first time I was introduced to this was back in USA on Labor Day weekend (1st week of September-’98). In US, every long weekend brings a SALE. Size of weekend supplement of news-paper increases with advertisement from cars to toys. Not only that even you get constant reminder from Macy’s to Wal-mart on your radio while you drive your car.

In France or continental Europe, it is different; the retail store only has two sales in a year normally for cloths. In July, it is to clear spring and summer collections and get ready for autumn and winter while in February to make room for summer. But never happen to notice for car or computer; may be I was not looking for car.

Now, when I reached Singapore, two weeks before big summer sale was going on. One such place is Orchard Road which is known for its retail and entertainment centre. This Orchard Road is flanked by malls (houses brand boutiques), restaurants, cafe, nightclubs and hotels This picture was taken inside of Takashimaya -the famous Japanese super store.

Reading the article in Wikipedia it became clear why there are so many sign on the side-walk with fruits it seems it used to be fruit orchards in 1800s. Well, people say the same about bay area where there was Orchard once -around 1960ies before it became Silicon Valley.

Shop till you drop

I took this picture last Sunday; when I tried to kill my boring rainy afternoon with a cup of coffee at Starbucks. There is a big project to make Singapore full with Hot-Spots; currently it is in BETA testing mode and all you need to do is sign-up with Sing-Tel or StarHub or M1(not sure) the three main Wireless provider ; the back-end services is provided by iCell and Qmax networks.

As Singapore is famous for its shopping center. This picture I took to capture shopping weariness of this guy as he drops on sofa at Starbucks after shopping at Mustafa Centre. It is a shopping paradise open for 24hrs. in Little-India area of Singapore which is very famous among locals as well Indian tourists alike. They even claim at weekend the store is packed with more then 15,000 customers of all nationalities. Well, while his lady partner was quite busy on her mobile phone, it allowed me to take this picture (invasion of sleep if not privacy). Personally, I do always complain about my feet hurting and headache whenever I am in a shopping mall but never dropped yet this way.

Arrived Singapore

Reached Singapore on a business trip for about 26 days. Will try to post more often as I explore Singapore from my angle.

Bombay International Airport

Bombay International Airport is always under construction as far as my International travels are concerned. Good news is that it is getting better and the completion date is getting closer. Here, are the pictures for the same as I waited for my flight to Singapore.Though the pictures looks quite world class construction work; but on the ground it may be not …quality wise.