Jenn Time

Over the weekend I had Mary come and watch the girls for a few hours so I could go out, explore and have some time for myself. I didn't have a clear plan of what I wanted to do with my time but I wound up going to SKS (a Christian book store), Lau Pa Sat, and Marina Bay.

My first stop at SKS proved to be very fruitful. I got a couple of gifts, a study on prayer, a book on prayer, and a new bible with study questions in the margins for Toby and I to study together. New books make me happy :)

I was getting hungry so I figured I would go to somewhere I had never been before: Lau Pa Sat. According to my Eyewitness Travel book, Lau Pa Sat is ....

Singapore's first municipal market {and} an architecturally impressive food court 

offering an extensive variety of Asian cusines...Originally comissioned by 

Raffles in 1822 on reclaimed land, the elegant octangonal cast-iron structure was designed 

by James MacRitchie and shipped over from Glasgow foundry in 1894. The market 

was dismantled during MRT tunnel construction and was later painstackingly reassembled.

I was there pretty early for dinner, but here are some of my pictures:

To drink I had sugarcane juice. Yum!

 For whatever reason I was fascinated by how they juiced the sugarcane. They just stuck it into this machine and out came the juice, but just seemed amazing how something that looks like a stick can produce such a great drink :)

Outside the main market, they closed off a street and hawker stalls were set up. Most of them were selling satay.

After dinner I was thought I might head to Little India to see all of the Deepavali decorations, but I was a little tired (from carrying all my books) and a little lost after exiting the market. I wandered around awhile and eventually found myself at Marina Bay, way on the east side which I had never been to before. I wandered around for awhile more and then found myself at the Merlion where I took pictures and people watched for awhile. I have decided that the Marina Bay/Singapore River area at night is my favorite place to go to in Singapore.

As I was walking I noticed this being built.

 From the pictures by it, it seems likes a place to walk up and observe the bay. Not sure what's going to be inside it.

Can you guess what this is?

I decided then to call it a night and head home. It was a great evening. I love exploring Singapore.

Kickin It Singapore Style

On Saturday night we met up with some friends from church who took us out to a Hawker Centre (Whampoa Market)  and exposed us to some typical Singaporean dishes that we hadn't tried before. Both Ruth and Bim grew up here eating hawker food plus Ruth even wrote a book about it so they know what they were talking about.

Here are some of the dishes we tried. I linked the names of the food to a description instead of rewriting everything.

Hokkien Mee:

This is the stale we got the Hokkien Mee from. It has a long queue, so it must be good.

Ngoh Hiang Stall:

This place basically sells fried things. It's fried and then when you order it it's fried again.

The food we got from the stall.

Rojak:

There were a few other dishes we tried that I didn't gt a picture of: an Oaster omlette and chicken wings. Needless to say we had a lot of food.

After our main dishes we had a few things for dessert.

I don't remember what these are called. The brown was like a peanut soup, made from roasted peanuts. It was like eating liquid peanut butter. The other was a sweet soup with boiled(?) peanuts and glutenous rice balls floating in it.

Chendol: (scroll down on this link to see a desciption Ice Kacang)

Here we are will out desserts and sugar cane juice:

Ruth and Bim:

After our desserts Bim convinced Toby to try some durian. I had tried durian when we first moved here and did not like it at all. Bim loves durian (Ruth not so much) and has fond memories of gathering with friends and family over a fresh cut durian; a very social fruit apparently.

Bim talked to this guy and got to taste the fruit before purchasing it- durian is like a fine wine or cheese. The guy said he would give us a mild one since Toby hadn't tried it before.

Here Bim is explaining how to eat it. You pick up a seed and suck it. He was so excited! Toby- not so much.

Once Toby tried it and said it wasn't that bad Ruth and I decided to taste it as well. It wasn't that bad. Bim explained that you need to get you durian fresh and if it's in a packet, it's probably old and won't taste good. That's what happened to me. I wouldn't go out and buy my own, but if someone offered it to me again I would eat it. Ruth, who hadn't tried durian since her collage days said it wasn't that bad either. I guess Bim picked a good fruit for us to try.

Overall, I liked most everything I tried. I would order most again. The different combinations of tastes and textures is great and truly unique to Singapore.

After the Hawker Centre we went to Mustafa which is a HUGE mall(like Super Walmart on Steroids times 2.) It has everything it it that you would want and never thought you needed. We walked on one floor and it just went on and on and on. It's like a casino in Vegas: no window, no clocks - no sense of time.

Here are a few things I saw walking through. We wound up getting bindis for our Singapore box and some Dr. Pepper.

I had so much fun and I can't wait to go out with Bim and Ruth again.