Durians in Chinatown.
Posted in Asia, Chinatown, Food, Food Photography, Food Stalls, Foodie Photo of the Day, fruit, Fruit Stalls, Hawker Food Diaries, Photography, Raw foods, Singapore, singapore photo of the day, travel photography, Uncategorized, Weird Asia, tagged Asia, asian fruit, banned fruits, Chinatown, durian, Food, food photography, foodie photo of the day, fruit, Fruit Stalls, Photography, Singapore, Singapore photo of the day, smelly, Street Food, travel photography, weird Asia on April 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Asian, Bathrooms, Cheap Eats, culture clash, Food, Food Stalls, fruit, Fruit Stalls, Hawker Food Diaries, Hygiene, issues, Lau Pa Sat, Singapore, take out, Vegetarian/Vegan, Weird Asia, tagged bathroom, culture clash, Food, hawker market, juice stall, Lau Pa Sat, office, poor hygiene, sign, Singapore, Vegan, Vegetarian, wash hands, weird Asia on June 20, 2013| 7 Comments »
The other day I noticed this odd sign in the office I sometimes work from. It has detailed instructions on how to wash your hands. I mean, I get it if you want to put up a sign reminding people to do it, but are there really people out there that don’t know how?
I apologize for the blurriness, but have you ever tried to discretely take a photo in a busy office bathroom?
An expat friend of mine and I send each other photos of things we think are unusual in Singapore, so naturally this was immediately sent to her. She replied with one of her own. No tutorial but a less than gentle hand washing reminder from an angry cartoon.
The next day I’m in the hawker market ordering a juice. I am waiting for the juice lady to finish dealing with the trash. She has her fist happily plunging ahead into a bag full of waste for a full 3-4 minutes of my waiting time, before she comes to serve me. I order my juice and patiently wait for her to a.) wash her hands and b.) prepare my juice.
You would guess it, she never took care of part a. She did not even bother to change or remove her glove. When I asked her if she was going to wash her hands, she pretended to not understand me, alienating me with a funny look on her face. What was the strange foreigner asking of her?? Surely it was too difficult and taxing! Let’s intimidate her by furrowing our brow and pretending not to understand why she might be upset or flailing about across the counter. Another lady, a nice one who communicates well in Singlish, had to tell her what was going on. Her hands. The germs. The glove. The trash. My juice.
She leaves halfway through making the juice and another lady takes over. What to do now? Take the juice half way made by trash glove lady or walk away thirsty?
I did not get a juice that day. I also did not get diphtheria, so you win some you lose some.
The takeaway to this post seems to be two-fold.
1.) The wash your hand signs in the bathroom may not be so silly after all. Perhaps it’s not a ritual everyone is accustomed to.
2.) Do not buy juice from the juice stand at Lau Pa Sat.
Posted in Cheap Eats, Food, Foodie Photo of the Day, fried, Hawker Food Diaries, Singapore, Thai, Vegetarian/Vegan, tagged Food, foodie photo of the day, fried, Hawker Center Diaries, hawker market, Holland Village, Singapore, thai food, Vegetarian on December 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Cheap Eats, Hawker Food Diaries, Photography, Singapore, travel photography, tagged Hawker Center, Hawker Center Diaries, Photography, Singapore, travel photography on November 12, 2012| 2 Comments »
Posted in Cheap Eats, Food, Food Photography, Hawker Food Diaries, Holland Village, Singapore, Vegetarian/Vegan, tagged Carrot Cake, Eggs, Food, Hawker, Holland Village, Hot Sauce, Market, Radish, Singapore on August 1, 2012| 3 Comments »
Carrot Cake in Singapore is made of neither carrot nor cake. Woh.
The dish is basically an omelet, or maybe more of a fried egg, with steamed rice flour and radish “cakes” and spring onions. You can get it black or white. The white is without soy sauce and the black is with soy sauce, which is more popular in Malaysia.
Why do they call it carrot cake then? Well apparently the radish is known as “white carrot” in Chinese.
This one is from Holland Village Food Centre. $3 for a small, $4 for a medium, $5 for a large, prices in Singaporean dollars. Honestly I’ve seen the small and medium portions and they seemed the same, so I’m not sure why the price difference. Maybe the man thought I looked a bit skinny when I ordered the small.
Have it with hot sauce. Lots and lots of amazing hot sauce. Yum.