Vietnam the third: day 17, Singapore
It’s kinda weird to be back in a place where people speak English, signs are in English, cars drive on the left all the time, intersections are controlled, people queue in an orderly fashion, yet at the same time looks and feels foreign.
Singapore, somewhere I’m yet to spend enough time in to gain anything but a surface understanding of: organised yet still South East Asian; both incredibly multicultural with multiple significant minority populations, yet to a degree lacking integration with each population having their own little enclave, and it seems that the upper-echelons are confined to a single group; a somewhat progressive country yet also quite conservative. The contradictions and inconsistencies abound on this definitely heterogenous island that does its best to defy understanding, in that it really needs both in-depth local understanding as well as sufficient external perspective to really pick up all of the layers of what is going on.
Someone who can at least bring a bunch of perspective to this pace is the wonderful D, who L and I caught up with today. We had no real plans, so he dragged us into the nearby Bugis Junction complex and downstairs to a well-regarded Chinese restaurant, Crystal Jade (maybe?), just next to a place serving large Japanese curries called, unsurprisingly enough Monster Curry. D is a Singaporean native, who spent a chunk of time in Perth in the 1990s studying, and also has a keen interest in science fiction, especially Australian sf. Always a pleasure to catch up with he was able to provide some amusing historical observations of parts of Singapore, as well as just some great chatting about food and life and books and stuff. At the same time we got to eat a bunch of dishes I would never have picked from the menu but were very good. One dish with eggs done 3 ways, as a broth, with salted eggs, and century eggs, plus spinach was full of flavour, though surprisingly the century eggs didn’t overpower the dish. There were deep fried stuffed tofu skins, full of crunch and flavour. There was a cold chicken and chilli dish, where the chilli was full flavoured without being overly hot, and egg fried rice, flavourful and not greasy. With this came a unlimited refills of pu-erh tea, and much conversation.
Full of tea, we took a wander through Bugis Junction, because L and I love checking out what supermarkets stock in different countries. Funnily enough, this one had many Australian products, including Tim Tams and lots of Australian bread, which apparently gets imported uncooked and then baked locally (a bit like the deal one of the Australian chains had going on with Irish bread, but at least here they were up front with country of origin). There was also live Canadian lobsters, all manner of Japanese and Korean foods, and booze: beer, wine, and spirits. One item D pointed out that does tend to be lacking in many Singapore shops is large containers of 100% fruit juice — there will be little juice containers, but it’s rare to encounter something similar to shelves of 2L bottles.
We headed upstairs to Kinokuniya Books to check out the selection of local and imported books. It was interesting to see a bookshop that has such a range of both English and foreign language books, including a bunch of Japanese magazines that appear to literally be a box with a different item each month, like a bag or thermos or purse or something — at least that’s what D described them as, but I’m always a little suspicious of anything that has a cutesy Japanese teenaged on the front. Was happy to see that among the graphic novels, things like Sandman, V for Vendetta, and Watchmen were still on the shelves, this makes me feel less of an old out of touch fuddy duddy. I managed to escape with only a couple of books, Lion City, stories by Ng Yi-Sheng, and A Universe of Wishes, edited by Dhonielle Clayton, a We Need Diverse Books YA anthology. Both look pretty good.
After a coffee, we said goodbye to D and prepared for the next Singapore must-do, a trip to The Auld Alliance Bar.
The Auld Alliance ranks among the world’s best whisky bars, featuring hundreds if not thousands of whiskies, including an astounding number of expressions by renowned independent bottler Samaroli, as well as in-house exclusive releases. The list of whiskies by the glass is a leatherbound tome, the do half measures for budget-conscious folks who want to try several drams and neither spend lots not get too pissed to enjoy the experience. While L went for a Kir royale, I kicked off with an Auld Alliance bottling of a 9 year-old Bruichladdich, a lively bourbon cask with an incredible nose, full of sweetness and molasses, and full of stone fruits in the mouth. Next up is an old favourite I’ve had a couple of times before, a 1967 Samaroli Tomintoul, still with an absolute corker of a nose and a delicate spicy flavour. Then a 31yo Laphroaig (astoundingly good value as an independent bottling that doesn’t identify the distillery on the label — try getting any sort of bottling of this age that’s affordable) that still had a bit of iodine and peat on the nose, and a warm coastal smoky flavour, a decent dram for its age. I finished up with something that I knew would deliver an incredible kick, an 18yo Samaroli bottling of a Coal Ila, and it didn’t fail to impress being full of peat and sugars and citrus and smoke and all of the joy that a good Caol Ila can bring. I left lighter in the wallet but a very satisfied person.
Dinner was a little way up the road at 25 degrees, a place promising gluten free burgers, which is something L rarely says no to. Burger was good, nothing to go wow over but certainly decent, if a little pricey even by Singapore standards (not helped by a 10% service charge and 7% GST). While the gf bun was quite dry, they get a bonus point from me for not doing the whole brioche thing — If I want a sweet burger I’ll get an icecream sandwich.
Strolling around Singapore was very pleasant today: I think it’s because we’ve become accustomed to 36-39 degrees and humid, so 31 degrees and humid almost seems cool. The weather is promising to be pretty much 31 max 26 min for the whole time we’re here, so hopefully it’ll continue to feel as pleasant as this.