AT in SG: Just My Asian Luck

Before you visit Singapore, there are a couple things you should know:

Taxis consider being flagged down like an invitation to dinner.

“No thank you!”

“Busy!”

“I am washing my hair!”

Don’t take it personally.  

Everyone’s speaking English, but everyone’s speaking a different language.

“I need this signed immediately.”

“Can.”

“Thank you. Please sign here.”

“No-lah! I cannot sign! 3 days for processing.”

“But you said you can sign.”

“Can.” 

It's home to the world’s worst website.

Have you ever heard of a website that is only open from 8 am to 8 pm, has a 10 page application yet does not let you navigate to a specific page, does not generate automatic error messages, does not process applications in the order they are received, and does not validate credit card information to process payment?  I know.  I am also impressed. 

Singapore hates you.

If you want it, they don’t have it.  If you need it, it doesn’t exist.  And then it will rain. 

It’s OK to feel like a Loopy Nut in Singapore.

AT in SG: A Quest for Kaya Toast

Kaya is coconut and pandan jam.  See that goopy green stuff she’s pouring into the bucket?  That’s kaya.

For kaya toast, they cut a piece of bread in half, spread kaya on it, then place thick pats of butter on top of the kaya for a crispy and creamy bite of joy.

I wanted it and I wanted to know which one was the best. In my limited time, I tried three popular chain’s kaya toasts.  I regret not trying Wang Something’s kaya toast in the airport.  Now I’ll never know how theirs ranks. 

Toast Box

Toast Box adds honey to their kaya.  In my opinion, the honey overpowers the coconut and pandan flavors and it just tastes like honey toast.  It was satisfying, but not exactly what I was looking for.  The peanut butter toast was fun.

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

Since Time Out Singapore listed this one as a top pick for kaya toast and since it’s named after kaya toast, I expected this one to be the best.  I was a little disappointed.  There wasn’t enough kaya in the toast for me to tell what the kaya itself actually tasted like.  I guess I should have expected this, the way you can be disappointed when “Quality Computers” are not very high quality after all.

Not to say I didn’t enjoy it.  The soft boiled eggs were very good. 

Coffee and Toast

Another establishment named after toast, this one was my favorite.  The toast is thin and crisp, they give a generous spread of coconutty kaya, and the butter plops round out the combination nicely.  I went back to Coffee and Toast for one last hurrah to solidify that it was the actual winner.  It was. 

AT in HK: Week Stew-ve Got a Friend in Me

If you've ever wondered if making bad puns is a marketable skill, the answer is yes.

Before I left, my mother said, “It will be nice for you to have the support of your Hong Kong colleagues over there.”  Rather than tell her the truth that I would actually have no colleagues, office, internet, or resources, I responded with “Yes.”

But I can’t say that I've been lonely though I have been alone.  I would like to dedicate Week Stew to finding friends in unexpected places and my love for soup evolving towards clay pot stews.

When my boss came to visit, he asked if I’d been lonely.  I told him no because I had The Soup Man (see previous post).  Besides, when I visit The Soup Man I get to dine with some of Hong Kong’s finest and we have a lot of great conversations about how great our table manners are in between slurping bites and spitting bones directly onto the table.

I stumbled upon this place in Wanchai for lunch.  There is only one man who directs the crowds.  Like the sorcerer’s apprentice, he sends groups of hungry diners to several different corners of the restaurant at once.  Note: If you order the “beef brisket soup” and expect beef brisket, you will be disappointed when you receive pork feet.  I intentionally ordered beef brisket for the pork feet though.

I met a very nice man named Yossi who owns a pastry shop called 126 grammes.  They specialize in choux.  I chatted with him for a long time, and we had such a good time talking that I forgot to pay for my pistachio crème and cherry confit choux.  It was delicious.  For the record, I ran back up the hill to pay him when I realized that I’d just become a thief of 18 HKD.

This is a pretty kitty with a merciless heart.  She nearly successfully pounced on a bird mid-flight.  I could tell she was going for the kill, and I like that about her. 

My Hong Kong obsession with food in clay pots began after a trip to Yau Mau Tei with a friend to enjoy some 煲仔飯.  Then I remembered everything tastes better in a clay pot because it makes and keeps your food super hot.  As in, this-food-is-only-for-looking-and-not-for-eating hot.  The result is a nice crispy char on your rice and a really happy Alexa with yet another burned tongue.  

This group of friends seemed to be having a really great time.  They kept yelling “Squid!” in Mandarin and laughing.  I didn’t really understand the punch line, but I went ahead and laughed with them.

Cafe O is actually run by a little old lady who loves milkshakes.  She is there when Cafe O opens and closes.

Every day, a little hunchback lady comes into ifc mall to clean herself in the washroom.  She mutters as she wipes down her face, arms, and legs with the paper towels and nobody bothers her. 

This taxi made fun of me when I said “I want to go here” in Mandarin and then handed him an address card.  He said, “No! Read it!”  It felt a lot like I was in Chinese school again, especially when I filled in the words I didn’t know with “something, something” and he finished the phrase for me.  Then he made me practice saying numbers in Cantonese when we got to the apartments.

This taxi was the nicest taxi I’d ever met.  I needed to visit a storage warehouse far away in Kai Chung, and when he wasn’t exactly sure how to get there he called the number and asked for directions.  He told me how he believed Taiwanese people have the best-sounding Mandarin, how people from the PRC are rude, and how impressed he was that my Chinese didn’t even have an accent.   He was probably flattering me for extra tips, but I didn’t fall for it.  I believe in China thriftiness even if this is a Special Administrative Region.

I met some relatives I didn’t know I had.  The little one got restless at lunch and went outside with their nanny.  He returned with an entire bunch of balloons and a huge smile.  Watch the video to see what the older one named me. I think I’ll officially adopt this name when I have the chance.

Here, the little one is concentrating on pooping.

I was shaky-hungry one day and decided to try a place I’d read about.  I ordered laksa, a vegetable, and some tea.  I was served laksa, a vegetable, and some very medicinal-smelling herbal bone soup.  When he first put it down, I clapped and thought, “Soup!” but then I wondered out loud if I had actually ordered this.  The nice girls who had just sat down at my table figured it out for me – it turns out that Mandarin for “tea” sounds a lot like “bone soup” in Cantonese.  They were really hungry from just running 12K, and they also ordered a lot of food (though intentional).  We decided to share our feast as new friends, and the waiter laughed at our greedy Canadian-American appetites. 

This is a clay pot stew of pork knuckles.  I think my neighbors may have been a little disgusted at how quickly I inhaled this.  I was hungry.

My cousin I’d never met invited me to hike with her and some friends.  We went out to the new territories to Yuen Long, a place I could never figure out how to get to on my own.  Her friends also ordered a feast of dim sum for us followed by many tasty and local desserts. 

For my last Hong Kong dinner, I chose one more fish ball clay pot stew.  It was awesome.

This is Kitty Ting Ting and Sweet Sweet the Rabbit.  They love to talk about pockets.  I learned a lot about friendship and self-worth from reading this book.  Thanks for the life lesson, Tin Hau library!