Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

I normally cherish winter here in Europe.  I look forward to the cold crisp air, the snow on the ground, and the Christmas markets.  But in August last year, maybe as a sign of aging bones, I wanted warmth.  I wanted sun rays blazing on my skin.  I wanted tan lines on my neck.  I booked tickets home.

We always transit in Singapore for a few days on the way home.  What to do in Singapore?  Eat, of course.  Our friends enthusiastically ferried us around the various restaurants and hawker centres.  Upon landing, we were whisked into Long Beach at Dempsey for a reunion with colleagues disguised as a corporate dinner.  All I remember from that encounter was the black-pepper crab.  Unlike the typical black-pepper crab with its gooey and black sauce, this one was a whole crab fried in a sea of cracked black-pepper.  The crab meat was therefore peppery.  The steamed prawn in herbal soup was also very delicious as the prawns were sweet and fresh.  That dinner sated my craving for seafood.

In a hint of the frenzied eating we would do in the next two days, despite such heavy dinner, we retired to PS Cafe just up the hill.  The cafe served great cakes and not so great coffee.  It is also better to be there in the afternoon when the green foliage and soothing tropical atmosphere are visible.  At night, it was just another modernist cafe lighted with candles and stocked with pretty people.

The following day started with mie siam, nasi lemak - simply done with just a piece of otak (grilled ground fish with spices in banana leaves), fried fish and sambal, the way I love it - and kaya (coconut cream) toast at Killiney Kopitiam preceding another dimsum brunch at Lei Garden Orchard Tower.  For dinner, another friends brought us to Yummy Crab for some truly yummy salted-egg crab.  I raved about another version before but I must agree that this one at Changi (or Telok Kurau with its Lorongs?) was excellent due to its crumbly and tasty salted egg.  It was a special fun to gnaw the savoury egg fragments from the crab shells why prying the sweet meat off.

As always, I couldn’t resist the wonderful temptations of walking around stalls in hawker centres and ended up having a plate of Masala Dosai and carrot cake just before we had bakuteh (pork ribs tea) brunch (Outram Park Ya Hua Rou Gu Cha. 7,Keppel Road, #01-05/07. PSA Tanjong Pagar Complex).  For dinner, we couldn’t say no to our host who took us to Sushi Tei at Takashimaya- I am sure there are better Japanese restaurants out there but we were pressed for time - for some chutoro (Tuna Belly) sashimi.  Our determination to have just two meal per day was obviously futile. 

It was awful but delicious.