I am a practicing clinician, a recent doctoral graduate who finally graduated school but will never leave school, a huge technology lover, a man constantly fighting off the fat, and a father.
Flashback to Singapore – went to visit H back in 2012. Got a hot piping meal from Cathay Pacific with carton eggs (!) sausage, pastry and some fruit and yogurt.
Landing in Singapore airport. It already looked mucky and super humid. You can tell I am highly aversive to humidity
First stop- coffee shop with a cold drink and pastry while I do work. I was transcribing and theming qualitative data at this point. Highly unexciting when you are in Singapore.
Bread and curry dish as first meal – so good and this was at a hospital cafe.
H had a hot pot with its own candle to keep it piping hot till the end. It was plenty warm and I just could not believe H would eat hot soup out here. The cool thing about Singapore is that the weather is so consistent that there are permanently opened structures to always enjoy the outside. Unless you hate heat. Like me.
Satay skewers at night- the cool thing is that they close off an entire street just to have everyone come down and eat their heart out. It was quite warm at night still- at least 25 degrees C.
More heat- I don’t know if that fan is for the satay cooking or for the poor man standing by an open grill in the Singapore heat.
These were sooooo good. Also had grilled stingray on the right. This was ok, but there were sooo many bones. I was more annoyed with the bones than interested in the exotic meat.
Walking along the harbor at night. This weather was just asking for night strolls, one of the best things about these tropical climates. We cannot do this at all back in Alberta.
Heavy rain the following morning. Tried to capture the intensity of the storm. I was running here and the parking lots provided a nice area to hide from the rain and the intense sun.
Went to a food vendor on the hunt for Hainan chicken, a Singapore specialty. Went to the supposed best vendor and I made the dumb mistake of going to the restaurant where the best chef left and set up his own place over a dispute. I should have followed the chef and went to his restaurant.
I really wasn’t impressed with the Hainan chicken. My favorite place for it in Phoenix back in Markham was loads better IMHO.
H had frog congee. It was actually rather bland to me, and not quite as mind blowing as I thought an amphibian based congee would be like.
Of course I was eating tons of bakery when I was in Singapore. Asian bakeries are my secret kryptonite and I just can’t say no.
Catching the bus late at night. The sweet feeling of an air conditioned bus pulling up was too good for me.
Laksa soup at another really great vendor in a mall, with a fish paste wrapped in a banana leaf. We got in trouble for drinking the beverage from an adjacent business that was sharing the same freaking table.
Shaved ice for dessert. This melted extremely fast.
One of the moving walkways- this was super long, at least a ten to fifteen minute ride on the moving walkway.
Checking out a butterfly garden.
One of the tastier dishes I ate. I think it was a meat filled roti bread. Except there was tons of butter inside.
Ordering our meat and roti dish.
I liked the train system. The doors would open exactly at the same spot, not quite like the LRT back at home where you have to guess where they would stop at. Also seemed safer to have these doors separating the train from the waiting people.
Walking out to the bus station from H’s place.
I can’t remember what this was called, but it was bbq sauce, pineapples, meat and peanuts mixed together. I think it was a local delicacy. It didn’t fit well with me. It was like a lot of bbq sauce of pineapples. That just doesn’t kick it for me.
Enjoying one of the original pepper pork soup places.
This soup was DIVINE! Spicy and full of pork flavor and black pepper, it was just so so good. I bought a package of soup mix to bring home.
I love these crabs. I can’t remember their common name right now. I’d love to have these as pets.
One of the consequences of permanently open houses- this is a potter wasp nest I think – it was made of mud. Or it could be a mud dauber. I am too lazy to ID the nest. But this was under the piano in H’s home.
Riding the Singapore transit- this was one of the first times I got to experience the pay what you ride system. In Edmonton its a pay once to ride for 90 minutes or theoretically all day since the bus guys don’t check your transfer unless you actually transfer.
Leaving the tropical Singapore
Flight back home. I can’t remember what was in these dishes. I dig the mini ice cream bucket though.