SG24 – Day 1

Flight was fine, boring and smooth just how I like them. Caught a couple of movies, Oversteer, a Singaporean movie set in Malaysia (I thing it was Singaporean, it was in the Singaporean Showcase tab) about families and street car racing, and The Roundup Punishment, a Korean cop movie starring Ma Dong-seok where he goes around and punches people (it’s possibly a sequel to others I’ve seen, as a lot of faces looked familiar).

Took a Grab to the hotel, apparently it’s school holidays this week so things will be a bit quieter with families going away. Hotel is okay, good location, room is a little small and lacking in conveniently placed powerpoints, but the aircon works and the shower has both good temperatire and pressure, so overall not bad.

Checked in, absorbed a little aircon, and then walked the few hundred metres to the Auld Alliance whisky bar. Arrived somewhat sweaty, as i think i was defrosting along the walk. I’m obviously not a regular there, having been maybe 4 or 5 times in 10 years, but the staff are always friendly and happy to hear when I tell them I’m a returning customer.

First dram was a standard Springbank 15 year old (sadly they were out of the 18), a decent rich dram full of flavour, sweet, spicy notes to warm up my palate. Makes me long for a time where i could easily get Springbank for a less than crazy price. I’d been joking with some work colleagues that the Auld Alliance was my meditation room, and i can say that I did feel at one with the world staring at the wonderful amber liquid in my glass.

Dram two was from a favourite distillery that is also not always easily available, Ben Nevis. This was an independent bottling of a single cask, a 24 year old, bottled by Whisky Sponge (who are apparently associated with Edradour). This refill cask had beautiful flavour, light fruit, a hint of wax on the tongue, spice notes, a hint of cocoa, and I was sad to see the bottom of the glass.

I fare welled the wonderful staff with the promise to return on Sunday, and took a quick walk around the neighbourhood, stopping at a late night convenience store for essentials before heading back to the hotel, where I added slightly hard bed to the negatives.

Woke late to the first proper day of the holiday — well I woke at a normal time as my phone was going off with replies from pals who I’d sent a picture of me at the Auld Alliance, and then promptly went back to sleep. Today I was going to start with the very highly rated porridge from Weng Kiang Kee, at the Chinatown complex. For those who aren’t familiar with Hawker centres, they can be tricky to navigate, with over 100 stalls spread out and filling every random corner of the floor. I had the name and its stall number, 082, but at the Chinatown complex the numbering isn’t completely linear, so while most of the 80s were grouped together, they weren’t near the 90s, or 100s. I persisted, and was rewarded by a sign saying they were closed today.

Plan B is and should always be, aim for a stall with a decent queue. I found one, selling fish and peanut porridge, and bee hoon, at $1.30 each, so handed over $2.60. The bee hoon was delightful, full of flavour, serve not too large, with a little meat and some spicy sauce. After a few mouthfuls it was time to turn to the dreaded bowl of white. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it, there was definitely flavour, nothing too overpowering, and decent texture, not too thin. The peanuts were okay, but had been cooking in the porridge for a while so were soft, and I’d have been happier with some extra crunch, but overall it was okay, and I literally did not die. (I was tempted to add the bee hoon to the porridge, as I think that would have been a good combination.)

It was definitely a good start, giving me sustenance to look for more. I was tempted to join the queue for the famous Hawker Chan, but that was at least 50 strong and didn’t seem to be moving with pace. Other stalls with large queues included a chicken rice place, and the stall with the lucky number 88. I went for a medium queue for a spring roll shop Ann Chin with a Michelin Bib Gourmand mention, opting for the yam roll (full of delicious flavour), popiah – unfried local spring roll full of sweet, savoury and a hint of satay in the nuts, and kueh pie tee, which were fried dough cups with a filling similar to the popiah. All very good, a big dose of carbs for breakfast.

From here I wandered through Chinatown, grabbing a brown sugar bubble tea, before hading back to the MRT station via a detour to a weird vending machine to get a Darth Vader head keyring that will serve as my public transport card. Had a minor issue then adding credit, as they don’t accept overseas cards, but was then either helped by a wonderful person in a wheelchair or suckered into a weird con, where she offered to use her card to pay if I gave her cash, I couldn’t see the angle of the con, and went along with it. So if i’m tracked down and harvested for organs or my white skin, that’s why. Maybe she gets a lot of card points or something — she didn’t even ask for a tip/extra.

Darth Vader charged, I decided to catch the NE line, choosing Serangoon station as the name sounded familiar. On the train I quickly googled what was there, and found out about the Serangoon Garden food hall and figured that garden and food sounded good. Turns out this is a bit of a walk from the MRT station, so by the time I found it the stalls I really wanted to try were both closed for the day. I was probably also feeling the heat and humidity a little, and maybe a little bloated from the Milo and avocado smoothie I got at Fruce because it was a crazy combination I couldn’t say no to (mostly tasted of Milo) so instead of getting any of the amazing food there, settled for a Coke and some water, which perked me up a lot.

Made plans to meet up with D, a local whose birthday was today, so walked back to the Nex mall where we had a good chat about many things over some decent dumplings and barley and sugar drink at the upstairs Food Junction. Then we headed down the the mini mooncake village in the middle of the mall, where this year’s offerings from many hotels and shops were available. Much to D’s amusement, I got suckered into buying a few, but I think I got off lightly as I didn’t go for some of the more expensive on offer.

Then it was time to bid D adieu, and head back to the hotel shower, recharge my mobile, and throw these words at the laptop. Tonight’s a trip to the Swan Song whisky bar, where the lovely lads there will delight my senses and lighten my wallet. I’ve done 21,000 steps so far today so I figure I can eat whatever I want for dinner, a decision I’m leaving up to the magic of the merlion to solve.