Manhole-cover Gamelan

Last night I visited a new road in Singapore and found this entire pavement of drain covers. As usual, when you walk over one drain cover, it makes a 'tonk!' sound. But walking down a whole street of them started to resemble a kind of weird, post-industrial Gamelan. Which was quite appropriate for SE Asia, I suppose!

What is Gamelan?
Gamelan is a collection of 'gongs' and xylophones of varying size and tone, which together form an orchestra of soothing 'plinky plonky' music. (It's rather hard to describe, so listen below!) Each person has a 'gong' and you have to learn to play in sequence / time with each other. Apparently it's quite difficult! There are usually other instruments in the Gamelan too - flutes, drum things, string things.. It's a nice sound. 

Gamelan is native to Indonesia, and has an important place in Indonesian culture. But variations can be found in Malaysia and other parts of SE and South Asia.

(Thanks to Aurel Hollo for the video)

Squares

When I first arrived in Singapore, nearly two years ago, I had a (as it turns out horrendous!) job interview at Parkview Square. And got horribly lost. The reason is this:

In the UK (and other parts of Europe) when an address is in a Square it is.. well, an address in a Square. That is, a building situated in one of the many square open spaces which are bounded on four sides by buildings. The address you are looking for will be one of these perimeter buildings. (In the centre you might have a communal garden if it's private / residential, or a little park if it is public. In the summer, people all try to loll out in the sunshine with sandwiches for lunch in Central London squares.) Squares are old design features in Europe's urban fabric.

Golden Square, London

Pembridge Square, London

Trafalgar Square

In Singapore, however, a Square usually means a 'mall'. It is not an open space with perimeter buildings, but a building itself. The address you are looking for will be a unit inside the mall. I don't know if these buildings were erected on what was originally a square open space (but let's face it, a lot of architectural footprints are square!) or if they are just trendy-sounding brand names. Some condominiums are also christened 'square' simply as a branding exercise. So I suspect the latter.

Either way, I spent a great deal of time on my interview day, trying to find something which resembled a square open space; when in actual fact I was standing right under the banner for Parkview Square (a particularly ugly faux art-deco mall/office/hotel skyscraper!)

Parkview Square, Singapore

The giant mall that is Marina Square

You can click on the pictures to enlarge.

Additional photo credits: Hudson Property, Rightmove, Turismo Culturamix, SalesinSingapore.

6000+ !!!

We've passed the 6000 views mark!

Thanks to everyone who has visited so far. I hope you enjoyed your read!

This is not a bad total at all for a friendly blog that receives (deliberately) zero promotion ;)

Word of the Day: だんご虫 (dangomushi)

That's this little guy:

In Japanese, he is '虫' mushi = bug, with だんご dango, which is a small rice ball/cake (often eaten on a stick). Because basically, if you disturb him, he curls up to into a little ball. Such a cute name!

Dangomushi

Dango!

In British English he's called a 'woodlouse' (plural 'woodlice'). Louse = a kind of bug, and he likes to live in old wood such as tree stumps or logs stored for the fire. He looks kinda prehistoric, but he's harmless and only about 1cm long. :)

Bug photos courtesy Greenlegs7 and Matt Cole Photography

Spleen: Blog on Bogs - The Surge of the Auto-loo

One thing that is fashionable in Singapore and other new parts of Asia: the automated flushing toilet.

The upside of this is that you do have cleaner-looking public toilets. But there are downsides, and after two years in SG I am starting to really loathe these insta-flush contraptions! (If you're eating right now, maybe you should stop reading.)

The main issue is that in nearly all cases the auto-detectors don't work properly. And 90% of the time this means they are way too sensitive. So you bolt the toilet door: they flush. You sit down: they flush. You breathe in: they flush. You breath out: they flush. It goes on.

There are two particularly unpleasant user aspects to this:
1. If you are sitting down (and breathing) you will get the entire contents of the toilet thrown up onto your innocent posterior. Perhaps multiple times. Now this is NOT hygienic. Some toilets will flush with so much H20 that it soaks your clothes too! And God help any tourist here who has 'jelly belly' (I don't need to go into detail). That is surely a serious health-hazard?
2. If you're lucky, in most outlets, you will get around 10 seconds to 'finish your business' before the toilet soaks your backside. This is kinda stressful. If they are trying to get you to you leave the cubicle ASAP, they could at last allow you a decent 30 seconds before drenching you.

The irony of all this is that when you HAVE actually finished, and get up the leave the cubicle, the toilet won't flush! And you then spend ages waving your hand in front of the detector to get it to do so. I guess it just flushes when the next unsuspecting user turns around to bolt the door, or starts breathing?

Two of SG's worst offenders:
1. The Icon village at Tanjong Pagar. These overzealous toilets are clothes-soakers. Grim! I had to throw my outfit into an extra-hot wash that night at home. But I still had to work for an afternoon wearing it first! And you'll get just 4 seconds before these latrines immerse you.
2. Paragon mall on Orchard Road. These look lovely and posh. But you'll only get 7 seconds before they soak you. (Yes, I have got so exasperated with this whole scenario I started counting for this bog blog!)

What is the solution to this? Obviously the technology needs reworking. But perhaps as users we need to carry Post-it notes and see if covering the sensor allows us to sit in peace, with non-sewage-drenched backsides and clothing?? Or simply stop using public toilets?

The Eco Issue
How many litres of fresh water are wasted in this endless, pointless flush-nothing scenario? Apart from the water over-expenditure during normal use, some people do use toilet cubicles for other legal activities like changing clothes. In the absence of changing-rooms, I used to use a toilet cubicle to change into my Gi for an after-work martial arts class. I put the toilet seat down. I never sat on the toilet, even with the seat down. And during my standing, quick-change, the toilet managed to flush itself 17 times. SEVENTEEN! That's around 102 litres of water for an average appliance! And to think all of our club used these cubicles for quick-changing, four times a week.... In a properly working (or even traditional, old fashioned) system, these cubicles would not have been flushed once.

And in Singapore, a country famed for not even having its own fresh water sources, the use of this 'crap' technology seems ludicrously wasteful. (It would be anywhere).

A real case of superficial appeal over functionality or hygiene. :(




Photo courtesy Freeexistence.org

Nosh of the Day: mobile Tiong Bahru satay

My first place of residence in Singapore was the now deeply trendy Tiong Bahru district. And one of my favourite SE Asian foods of all time is the Satay. So it was with some interest that I once or twice during my stay caught glimpses of a Satay-man, wheeling his mobile BBQ cart around Tiong Bahru. But I'd never seen him serving food; let alone managed to find him to buy any. The mobile roadside vendor is the old way of eating Satay. And often you'll get the tastiest food there. But this type of vendor is becoming increasingly rare.

For those who have not already tried it, Satay is the term used to describe skewers of marinated meat (usually chicken or beef) and a little fat, deliciously grilled over a flame, and served with a unique sweet/spicy peanut sauce. It can also come with chunks of cucumber and/or onion and, in Malaysia at least, cubes of compressed rice known as 'ketupat'. You basically dip everything in the sauce and it's really, really yum. However, while you'll probably find Satay on many menus in SE Asia, it is incredibly rare to find the real thing. Hotels even in Kuala Lumpur will offer up strange 'healthy' Western style chunks of meat alongside an insipid paste posing as spicy peanut sauce, and probably try to charge you $1 per stick (outrageous!). Popular Hawker Centres might offer something a step up, but still charge stupid prices. The best vendors are nearly always the little guys - whether they are mobile or not. They'll have delicious secret recipes, charge a good price and you'll need a trusted local to find you one.

Satay is originally Indonesian. But you can find damn good ones in Malaysia too. Despite searching, I'd yet to find anything decent in Singapore.

Searching the (empty) back-streets...

So this weekend a friend and I decided to go on a hunt for the Tiong Bahru Satay-man. And after a wander about the likely back-streets of the area - we found him!! I could hardly believe it! It had taken nearly two years to locate this elusive Satay-man!

Spotted!!!

Of course, there was already a queue there, so we had to wait a while for our order. These Satays were different, however. They were pork Satay (Malaysia / Indonesia are predominantly Muslim so pork is never used; but this vendor was Chinese) and this sauce was a mix of a peanut sauce and pureed pineapple (normal for pork Satay I'm told). There were no ketupat on the side, only cucumber chunks.

The verdict: they were really, really good. Different from the Malay version I know and love, but just as tasty in a different way. There was quite a generous portion of chargrilled meat on each stick, and the sauce for this style was more fruity-sweet than spicy. But that worked with the pork. All in all, a very successful Sunday outing!

 







PS If you want to try to find Satay-man, today he was by one of the walkways, right between Tiong Bahru market and the main bus-stop heading West/towards Delta. We started looking at 5pm and found him at maybe 5.45pm (ie early for dinner). Good luck!

Nosh of the Day: The new Ebi Burger

We're not so far from Japan in Singapore, and we get a fair number of Japanese trends here. The latest is the McDonald's Ebi (Japanese for prawn) Burger. Adding a SE Asian twist, your Singaporean Ebi Burger meal will also come with a Pisang Pie (pictured) (pisang is Malay for banana).

I'd heard the Ebi Burger was actually quite hard to find (sold out?) but I managed to purchase a single tonight. (Yay!) They had sold out of the Pisang Pie, but to be honest, I wasn't so crazy about that part.

I rather liked the Ebi Burger. It looks pretty much like its photo and the burger itself is light and crispy. There's a little mild mustard (?) inside but you might find it needs a bit of additional enhancement with some chilli sauce or ketchup. All in all, definitely worth a try, even if you're not a junk food fan!

Waikiki: the International Market Place

Waikiki's International Market Place is set to close. It's going to be torn down. This December, apparently. I'm not saying it is the most beautiful place on earth. It is basically an open air shopping area with local vendors selling touristy tat, a bit like London's Camden in Hawaii (but without the drugs and pickpocketing). But Waikiki is a touristy place, and if you are visiting, International Market Place is actually a fun way to spend time, not to mention buy unique gifts for friends overseas, where they have a different sort of touristy tat.

Also, having come from Singapore, and spent time in L.A. recently, this Waikiki vendor spot makes a warm and welcome relief from the endless malls with identikit global brands. (Yep, same stores in L.A., Singapore, Honolulu, some also in London.. )

The depressing thing is they are apparently tearing down the International Market Place to build - yes! - another spanking new mall full of identikit brands. I'm not some old guy in a tweed jacket moaning about urban progress (and assuming it all isn't just a music industry-style 'final tour ever!' ruse) but this closure seems a real pity.

I spoke to one of the stall holders and asked what she was going to do when the place closed down. She said with a shrug "Go somewhere else, I suppose."

You can click on images for a slide show

 

Nosh of the Day: Butterfish, Japanese style

OK I am not sure of the details of this, as I was not blog-prepared with notebook or camera. Only that a friend took me to a very authentic Japanese restaurant in Singapore and I chose the Butterfish Set. As a set it came with rice, miso soup and kobachi (こばち little side dishes - in this case pickles and kind of marinated cabbage). And the main was this amazing fish with tofu. I've never seen a butterfish before (even during Scuba!) but the meat was white and firmish - texture a little like unsmoked mackerel. It was in a very nice, light, sweetish sauce which my friend described as a bit of soy, miso, mirin (a kind of cooking sake). I think it's quite a common Japanese sauce.

Anyway, a tasty find. And do try butterfish if you see it.

 
I also tried a new dessert at this restaurant - it was a kind of Warabimochi jelly. Warabimochi is a kind of mochi made from a fern, and is extremely sticky (so much so that you have to serve it with a powder of some sort or it gets stuck to everything!) This version was actually a black, slightly sticky, clear jelly, served with sesame powder. Also very nice!

More reading: Nosh of the Day: warabimochi & anmitsu

Halloween

That time of year again. Jack Sparrow outfits left, right and centre here in Singapore (in Hoxton, London, I suspect it is still the bloke off The Clockwork Orange, plus the ubiquitous 'sexy witch/cat/vampire' for girls.)

Tonight it got a Japanese friend and I talking about the festival. So here are some pointers.

The big fancy dress / parties and trick-or-treat stuff all comes from America. And it's quite a modern invention. It's catching on in Europe and other parts of the world now, but traditionally in the UK (for example during my childhood) we had never even heard of trick-or-treat and any fancy dress and partying was reserved strictly for kids. (We would also do harmless things like apple-bobbing*).

In the UK, Halloween has never been a big commercial event like it is in the US. But the roots of Halloween are definitely European. And it's quite complicated!

The word Halloween is a version of 'hallowed evening' (holy evening) because in the Christian calendar, it is the night before two holy days: 'All Hallows' or 'All Saints' day (Nov 1) and then All Souls day (Nov 2) - dates for honouring saints and the recently departed. In Catholic teachings, Halloween was also the date before spirits moved from purgatory (an in-between place) into the afterlife. As a result it was thought that Halloween was the last chance that any angry dead had for revenge on past wrongs before they passed on. So people would dress up to disguise themselves from any vengeful spirits ...though as you will read below, this is not really a Christian idea.

When Protestant Christianity gained a foothold, purgatory was no longer part of the belief system. So the feared spirits on Halloween were believed to be not 'gaining revenge before moving on' but simply evil.

A practice that developed later on was 'souling' where special 'soul cakes' were baked and shared to honour the dead, and (often poor) children would go door to door to collect them. This is thought to be the origin of trick-or-treating, but of course without today's  commercial element.

All sounds plausible. But in fact, the original spring dates for Halloween were changed in 835AD by the Pope. In the same way modern Christmas evolved, today's Halloween was repositioned to coincide with, and be adapted / adopted into an ancient Pagan or Celtic festival, called 'samhain'. Christianity was still relatively new to Western Europe and the British Isles then, and this kind of 'change management' practice seemed to be quite common!

Samhain marked the end of the harvest and signalled the start of dark winter. It was a festival where magic and other spirits were thought to roam about freely - sometimes invoking fear among the people. In order to be seen favourably, not least throughout the coming winter, people would give food offerings to the spirits, and even set dinner places for the dead at home to welcome them and bring good fortune. (You will note striking similarities to the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival!) Bonfires were often lit as part of the cleansing and ceremonial activities - another element which was used in Christian Halloween.

In some Celtic communities, this ancient festival time also involved 'guising' (dressing up as the spirits, or in disguises so that bad spirits would not recognise you) - which is doubtless where today's costumes first derive from. Vegetables like turnips were sometimes carved to resemble spirits' faces and lit to guide the way of the 'guisers'. Hence the jack-o-lantern. A lot of what we know as 'traditional Christian Halloween' is actually ancient and Celtic / Pagan.

Soul cakes are still made today for All Souls day in some parts of the UK

After 1605, Guy Fawkes Night became a big deal in the UK (a topic for an entire other blog I think!) and some of Halloween's traditional elements such as the bonfire were re-appropriated to November the 5th. This probably fit well enough with the Protestant Church of England's lower emphasis on Halloween as a festival. And Halloween's own importance and popularity dwindled. (Until the Americans re-ignited it in their modern 20th century context!)

Shropshire soul cake recipe: http://theordinarycook.co.uk/2011/11/02/soul-cake-a-shropshire-recipe/

* Apple-bobbing
I thought I'd written about this before, but can't find it! Anyway this is a game we used to play in the UK on Halloween (and sometimes Guy Fawkes Night). It entails a barrel full of water with apples floating in it. You hold your hands behind your back and try to pick up a 'bobbing' apple using only your teeth. This particular practice stems from an ancient Roman one. During the fertility festival of Pomona (which fell at roughly this time of year) young people and couples were thought to improve their chances of marriage if they could bob for an apple. I don't think we had any inkling of this when we bobbed for apples as kids in the 1980s!

Photo credits: Wordpress, crazysalad

More reading: The Hungry Ghost Festival

The Pasar Malam

In Singapore, some of these pop up around the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Pasar malam means simply 'night market' in Malay. But these are (often large) temporary market tents with vendors selling halal foods, toys, clothing, household things, electronic goods and lots and lots of bling. There were also quite a few henna hand-painting outfits on our visit. The one we went to at Payar Lebar in July consisted of several huge, circus-sized tents dotted around the free space.

During Ramadan, worshippers are only supposed to eat after sundown - hence I suspect the night market element. And if you are craving fried and spicy snacks or sweets, you will certainly find them here! After the festival, these market tents all disappear.

Worth a visit if you are in Singapore at the right time. (You can click on the photos to enlarge.)

 

 

Things I Miss About the UK No 3: Crumpets

Yep, I think my body is thinking this should be autumn. But I'm in the tropics, so it's not!

Here's another autumn / winter warmer - the humble crumpet! (Toasted hot, and buttered of course!) If you haven't tried one before, it is a neutrally-flavoured cross between maybe a bun and a pancake, with a 'honeycomb' type interior texture a bit like the Pernakan cake kueh ambon.

You must toast crumpets to eat them, and then you would normally let butter or jam, or butter and jam, melt into the holey crumpet structure. After toasting, the underside should get a bit crispy, but the interior remains dense, soft and slightly chewy.
Yum!

My memory of crumpets: family Sunday lunch, followed by a long walk across the fields until it started to get dark (around 3.30-4pm in winter). Heading home, having hot tea and crumpets in the kitchen, leaving the whistling wind, cold and dark outside.

I have not seen any crumpets in Singapore shops - they might sell them at an inflated price at somewhere like M&S. Re-creating the proper setting might prove a bit more difficult, however!


(ps I believe that there is a slightly different recipe for crumpets in Scotland.)

Conkers

I was chatting with a UK teacher friend about going back to school this autumn, and it suddenly brought back a memory of my own secondary school in the UK. It was a school founded in the 1600's. It had a certain Hogwarts feel to it now I look back to my own school years. (But we didn't study anything quite as interesting as magic...)

I actually quite looked forward to the start of Autumn term - the 'new year' back after a long summer break of two or more months. In some ways autumn in temperate countries can bring a melancholy of 'things coming to an end' - the change of the light, the colour of the leaves on trees, the shorter, and colder days - all signals that summer has finished. But with a school year starting, it was also the signal of new things. We might have something cool like a new stationery set to use, and we would of course be in a new classroom, sometimes with a few new schoolmates too.

All this randomly reminded me of the big conker tree outside the building we were housed in when I was 11-12 years old. I don't know if kids do this in other countries, but conkers - the fruits (nuts?) of the Horse Chestnut tree - used to be collected and sometimes used in games by UK children.

Like I said, you find conkers on a Horse Chestnut tree. But in fact they are poisonous to eat (I think for humans and other animals including, ironically, horses). Despite the name, the tree is not a sibling of the 'Chestnut' tree, which produces slightly similar looking fruits ..which are edible and quite nice roasted on a bonfire or used in cakes!

It was a big deal to find the biggest conkers, and one game British children played involved drilling a hole through the nut, threading a string through it, then bashing it against a rival conker. The aim is to crack your opponent's conker, then you win! A conker that has defeated one rival nut is called a 'one-r', two nuts a 'two-er' etc. I am not sure if 'Conkers' is still played much by UK kids, it is an old fashioned game, and fairly rare during my early years in a rural UK town. But there is a World Conkers Championship (which adults also enter) held annually in England today! I think this is a modern festival.

And remember!

The conker or Horse Chestnut - do not eat this!

 

The slightly fuzzier Chestnut - quite tasty when cooked!

 

Further reading: http://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/ ;)

 

Credits for conker game photos: Bookdrum.com; Woodlands Jnr School in Kent.

How to Create a Pom-pom

Hee hee.

This cheerful birthday present just arrived in the post from London. I love it! Very simple to make, but fun and effective (and, very lightweight to post long-distances!)

Make sure the paper is securely tied with the ribbon in the middle.

Carefully puff out the layers of tissue paper...

Hang it up using the ribbon :) 

 

Absence again

Hello Peeps.

I've been injured and laid-up for a few weeks - basically not going out, so doing almost nothing of interest, or worth writing about! Bits and bobs will follow as I start to recover. :)

Peranakan Plasterwork

These photos were taken a while ago on Balestier Road in Singapore. It's not a central area, and a little rundown, but what struck me was the amazing plasterwork on the old shop-houses along it.
 
Decorative plasterwork and tiling are both features of Peranakan (aka Baba/Nyonya, or Straits Chinese) architecture, and these are quite impressive examples, I think. The style is part of the Eclectic style, which combined influences of East (dragons and other motifs) with West (Dutch, British, Portuguese). Usually the level or ornateness was a show of the wealth of the merchant who owned the property. These buildings are probably late 19th, or 20th, century. (My research shows a number of different dates for the introduction of plasterwork!)
 
Most of these buildings have modern shops downstairs (or, in one case, a prominent American Diner!) Blogger won't let me format the images, but you should be able to click on the pix for enlargements / slide show.

   

 

 

 

More Peranakan posts:

The Peranakan Museum

Nyonya deco shopfronts in Singapore

Peranakan at Kim Choo's Kitchen