Week of December 6th, 2013

Have to say that I'm a little ticked off at Taiwan this week.  For Thanksgiving, took a long weekend family trip to Singapore, and while it is an international city, over 70% of the population is Chinese, so falls solidly in the Asian bucket.  They totally put to shame Taiwan in two critical areas...chicks and food.

At one point a couple of days in, I turn to Paul and comment "is it just me, or are the Chinese women here way more attractive than in Taiwan?".  Being 14 and talking to his parents, all I get from him is a knowing eyebrow raise.  What I wasn't expecting was Betty chiming in with total agreement.  It's not like there is a noticeable difference in body shape, it is what they do with them that makes the difference.  Think it is due to a mix of not being totally afraid of the sun, knowing how to use make-up more strategically, and a better (Western?) sense of fashion.  Was reflecting about this observation with the fellas as we watched the Seahawk/Saint beat down the other day, and one of the guys said that the Taiwanese girls lean more towards Japanese style. 

Have since determined that there are a total of three stores for women's clothes in Taiwan.  For the working girl, the polyester uniform shop.  There, you can buy uniforms for specific businesses (think 7-11)  And for the office, the black polyester pant suit...one style only.  The second store is for the younger woman.  Their entire inventory consists of two items...short shorts and black leggings.  Finally, there is a loosely affiliated chain of stores for all the other ladies.  Not sure if there is a literal translation, but I think the closest approximation is My Thrifty Grandma.  Leading up to the Super Bowl or other major sporting finales, they print victorious t-shirts for both teams, and after the games, they will donate to charity the shirts printed with the losing teams name to charity and ship them off to Africa.  My Thrifty Grandma (MTG) works similarly...whenever an old lady in the States passes away, and after her loved ones have scavenged her closet for anything decent, her clothes are taken to the Goodwill.  For those items that even Goodwill cannot sell, the savvy buyers from MTG will buy in bulk all the gently used frumpy sweaters, stretch pants and floral printed blouses and sell them here for a tidy profit.  Such a brilliant business model.  Quick aside on the stretch pants...due to the disproportionate size of the derrieres in Taiwan with their American counterparts, the US stretch pants become baggy ala MC Hammer.   

Side note on the Asian dudes...there is simply no hope for them.  They all look like they just emerged from the Commerce Casino after a marathon session of chain smoking and playing pai gow.

As for the food, Singapore totally kicks ass.  I didn't have a single meal that wasn't excellent.  There are plenty of Chinese options, but they have taken cuisine from all over Asia and ran with it.  We only sat in a restaurant once, and would consider everything else we ate as "street food".  We got in on Thursday (Thanksgiving) evening and had squid pad Thai for Thanksgiving dinner.  On Friday for lunch, we first walked around Little India where we had a curry puff to stave off our hunger, and then walked over to Arab St. where we had a yummy meal at a Turkish joint.  Felafel's, hummus and lamb/eggplant kebabs.  While we we're sitting there, the daily afternoon thunderstorm came barreling through, so we ordered a dessert called kanafeh to wait it out.  Never had tasted it before, but whatever you do, find a place near you and go get some. 

Another time, had kway teow, which is a fried rice noodle dish that I later read is popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.  It is also really unhealthy, but so damn good.  Kinda like pad Thai on PED's.

We enjoyed some fish and chips at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel.  Before we went, asked anyone I knew who had been to SG what to do, and they all said to hit this place.  Was the hive of British colonialism opulence and still has that vibe...and is also home of the Singapore sling, which we all enjoyed.

They even did a spot on take of our favorite from last summer...Seoul crispy chicken.  This time on skewers in a bag...the lady asked if I wanted chili sauce and mayonnaise squirted inside.  Ch-duh?

Our last night, we were going to hit this outdoor food gallery and go to the night zoo, but the afternoon thunderstorm didn't let up, so we had the concierge recommend a food place that was covered and frequented by locals.  We took a cab to the Newton Hawker Center.  I counted over a hundred stalls, mostly geared to local takes on Malaysian and Chinese seafood.  They mostly served the same stuff, and the owners were soliciting our business rather aggressively, so we settled on Ms. Tan's place as she advertised her stall as "Service With a Smile".  We had some very fine veggies and black pepper prawns.  Paul has become a stunt-eater and insisted that we try the stingray.

None of us had ever seen it offered before, so we dug in.  Good, tasted like regular fish, but not sure I'd go out of my way to search it out again.  What I would push my mother into the street to have again was the chili crab.

I know you don't need to do anything more than steam it to enjoy, but this thing was so different and delicious.  Every bite was a soaked in this chili goo....aaaarrrrghhhh.  After dinner, Ms Tan made us look through her many books of business cards.  She was so proud to show us all the influential business men and government officials that had been there and were her friends.  Pretty adorable.

 

So the point is, what's the matter with the Chinese here.  Sure, you can get some decent non-Chinese food here and there, but you have to search it out and the vast majority of it is total crap.  A few posts ago, I mentioned a fabulous chorizo burrito hole in the wall joint that opened up in March, and have just learned that they went out of business.  No one can recommend a decent Italian joint on the entire island...how is that possible?  Had a couple conversations about it with Westerners that have been here a while, and they like the local cuisine, but feel as if they are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.  Until TW steps up their game in creativity and diversity in both of the above areas, they are destined to remain a provincial backwater. 

Some other observations of Singapore.

The preconception of Singapore is that it is so anal about cleanliness that you will get arrested for chewing gum, and while it is one of the cleanest cities I've ever seen, think that stereotype is a bit overblown.  People still smoke everywhere, they just do it in designated spots and throw their butts away accordingly.  I didn't notice any gum, but wasn't really looking for it.  It was a well ordered and polite place, well behaved drivers and said several times how civilized it felt.  A terrific subway system that was super efficient and clean.  Something we noticed in Korea and now in Singapore are these raised metal bumps throughout the subway system.

We have debated what these are used for and could not land on a reason we all could agree to.  I did a brief Google search about "bumps on subway" and found this unrelated, but hilarious article about how the Chinese sell fake baby bumps to women so they can get seats on the crowded Beijing subways.  Our best theory is that they are there for blind people to help them navigate the system.  I was on board with this theory, but then saw this.

That post is at groin height, so if these are for the blind, that's just cruel.

One morning, we took a duck boat tour.  Was a nice way to see the marina and historic British downtown area.  The guides are always full of facts...a couple of my favorites:
-Population of Singapore is 5.5 million with an ethnic mix of 70% Chinese/14% Malay/7% Indian/9% other.
- Total size is 710 square miles with 30% of the current land being "reclaimed from the sea".
Our guide said that phrase so often, that we started completing her thought whenever she started a sentence that such and such is on land...

We stayed in the marina area at the Marina Bay Sands hotel. 

Opened a couple years ago, was built by the Sands Corp for 8 billion dollars.  Swanky mall attached along with a casino that we were told has the largest gaming floor in the world.  We went and it was quite nice, but since I lose every bet I make, I agreed to not play and just went to enjoy the mix of cigarette smoke and the nitrogen they pump in to give the players a high.  Entrance to the casino is free to foreigners, but in an effort to keep the locals from becoming gambling addicts, they charge Singaporeans SG$100 (US$80) just to go inside.  Regardless, on this Saturday night, the place was jammed and could see few sparsley populated tables or empty machines.  The most popular game was one I had never seen before.  It is a 3 dice game called Sic bo.  Won't bore you with the details, but if my gambling karma ever changes, I will be searching it out and winning big.

The draw for the Marina Bay Sands for us was the Infinity Pool located on the 57th floor.  It spans the length of the three towers and the roof deck provides an unobstructed 360 degree view of the city all from the luxury of the pool or hot tub. 

Killer.  The last snap is of the marina and the British historical area is on the far shore.  Reason this one is included was to show the white pontoon things in the water.  Those are actually white beach balls that they allow people to write wishes or resolutions on them for the coming New Year celebration (huge fireworks display in the marina).  Afterwards, they take all the balls and recycle them for next year. 

Unexpectedly, Singapore is really into the Christmas holiday and they deck the halls of the city with decorations.  Later read it is a top 10 X-mas destination city.  One evening, we took a stroll along swanky Orchard Rd.  Every high-end store in the world is represented along Orchard Rd and is one of the most expensive areas to live in the world.  Huge xmas trees, streets lined with lights, very festive.  This is inside a giant walk in Christmas tree.

While I have enjoyed being away from the crush of X-mas mania in the States, it was pleasant to get a small classy dose of it.  In addition to the X-mas stuff, there was cool public art scattered throughout the town.  This is my new favorite family snap.

The only two drawbacks I could think of were the weather and cost.  Due to it's location 150km from the equator, Singapore is hot year round.  90 degrees and humid every day.  Also, Singapore is a very wealthy city, and while that provides for a healthy infrastructure, can imagine it being a very expensive city to live.  Other than that, a fantastic place to visit and a huge thumbs up.