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Archive for the ‘Food Stalls’ Category

 

Durians.jpg

Durians in Chinatown.

 

 

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I love a trip to Little India in Singapore. The area is so colorful and different than the rest of Singapore. You often forget that you are on this tiny island all together.

We had our first visitors in September and they wanted to check the area out. With the food and the visually stunning temples, this was not a hard sale for me. Here is a small collection of photos I took that day.

Temples, temples and more temples…

little india 1

temple

little india 3

little india 2

Beautiful shophouses

shophouses

Am I the tourist or is he?

tourist

Locals shopping for groceries

local shopping for bananas

Who can resist a coconut stand?

coconuts

British girl Amy’s first coconut.

chris and amy coconut

I think she liked it.

amy coconut

Note: Sunday in Little India gets hectic. Plan accordingly.

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With the likes of durian and passionfruit, my life has become a lot like that lastminute.com advert that urges you to “go somewhere with complementary fruit you’ve never even heard of.”  Oh come on, you’ve seen it. There’s a version of it here.

My friend, Eva, whom I recently met in Thailand urged me to try rambutans. Tricky to open, they are delicious, sweet and they come in small bite size portions. Because of their small portion size, I like to refer to them as “low commitment fruit.”

Cruising through the market in Singapore, the aunties are pushing their produce. Lo and behold! Rambutans.

I picked up a bunch for snacking. I had to, they wouldn’t sell them in any smaller quantities.

RAMBUTANS!

RAMBUTANS!

To eat, cut the skin open or squeeze in your hand until a lychee-like ball appears. Be careful of the seed!

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Oh no! They’ve closed the Singapore Carrefour! Both of them!

Panic. Where am I going to get things?

“Imagine not having a Walmart or a Target to go to,” I tell Leslie back in Texas.

“Yeah, I could see how that would be annoying,” she says.

It’s not that either of us like or philosophically support Walmart, it’s just that sometimes it becomes a necessary evil.

“Can’t you order things online?” Leslie asks.

“No,” I sigh. “Some things you can, but its not like they have an Amazon here.”

“Can you Yelp it?” she suggests.

“Nope no Yelp either,” I answer.

Hopefully someone more business-minded and less lazy than myself will see this as an opportunity.

But alas, this may be an overreaction. Afterall, there’s always the Mustafa Center.

In the heart of little India and open 24 hours, it’s 75,000sq ft of random and not so random items, a hotel, café and supermarket. It is the place to go to buy tomato soap, an engagement ring, an ipad and an eye massager all at 2 am on a Tuesday, emerging three days later after a sensory overload induced psychosis has finally run its course.

That’s right, I said tomato soap, not soup. And yes, an eye massager as well.

Eye massager. Multiple varieties available.

Did you think I was kidding?

In the spirit of Diwali, maybe I’ll head down to little India. Since I’m there anyway, perhaps I’ll pick up a curry, some aspirin and a new laser printer.

If I’m not back by Friday, send a search party out.

Editor’s note: Yelp has answered my plea! Or maybe I was mistaken in the past. Seems like some Singapore places are rated on the site. It’s a start.

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Have you had a walk around Bugis Street Market?

It may not be a great place to head if you know what you want and are in a hurry, but if you are looking for some aimless interesting walking and shopping, maybe some bargaining or snacking, it’s a good place to be.

You can buy everything from purses to iPhone covers to $1 fruit juices. Do you realize how much fruit has to go into a juicer to make a glass of juice? I recently acquired a juicer and I promise you that a knob of ginger, an apple and three carrots only makes about a third of a glass.

It reminded me of a very small and Asian version of London’s Camden Market with a mix of cheap items, food stalls and slow moving people. There even seemed to be some astrology reading sessions going on just outside the tent. The writing on the tent was in Mandarin, so maybe I will never know.

Unless I have a volunteer to come along and interpret for me.

Bugis Street Market

Fruit Stall at Bugis Market

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