Keep Singapore Delicious, Pt 3

Days 1 and 2 were a blast, but I was especially excited to start Day 3 because we'd be going to Geylang in search of the King of Fruits.

Geylang's history is definitely a mixed bag. The area, along the east coast, was a military outpost for the British and a hotspot for local entrepreneurs to set up their workshops and stores. But since it was a first point of contact for many Asian and European foreigners (civilian and naval) arriving into Singapore, it also became a center for prostitution and sex-worker trafficking. Geylang grew to become a major red-light district. Even to this day, Geylang is known to have some of that going on, some of it regulated and some of it running illegally.

 But Geylang in the daytime is something else completely. Walking around the side streets, Shan and I saw lots of active Buddhist community centers, temples and shrines. We checked out shops selling handmade bamboo birdcages and fruit stores with giant hanging pomelos. We enjoyed an outstanding bowl of Malay prawn noodle soup (one of the must-have dishes I had on my list of things to eat in Singapore). And once we got a certain distance into Geylang, we could smell our target...

D U R I A N!!!

The smell is unmistakeable, and extremely off-putting to many. The best I can describe it is that it's like gassy mango in dirty laundry. Shan says it smells like a diabetic foot wound. Subways stations, stores, hotels, and other establishments have clearly marked "No Durians Allowed" signs.

A durian can get as big as a rugby ball, and it's covered in spikes. When you chop it open, the flesh is big yellow seed pods, with a consistency somewhere between super-ripe mango and thick custard. Apparently, we bought a D24 variety/cultivar of durian. Shan says that the most popular cultivar is called Mountain Cat, but I think that was out of season.

Walking with the durian pack in a tote bag, we could smell the durian wafting up as we walked and as we ate our prawn noodles. Eventually, we sat down outside the metro rail station, and mentally prepared ourselves for this experience.

Shan: "Diabetic foot wound"

Me: "Hmm, not bad"

The best way I can describe the flavor is to think of over-ripe mango, dial down the sweetness and add more of a gassy almost-onion aroma. I would totally try it again, hopefully one that's in-season. Shan said F that... unless it's Mountain Cat, that would deserve another try. We then devoured a couple of mangosteens and then hopped a train to the Gardens By The Bay.

For the memories!

Keep Singapore Delicious, Pt 2

Day 2

Shannon and I went down to Little India, which, if you haven't deduced by now, is Singapore's hub of Indian (Tamil) culture, food, and shops. Originally, Little India was the section of old colonial Singapore where Indian immigrants were allowed to live, under British colonists' segregation laws. But nowadays, it's a thriving community with ornate Hindu temples, preserved and colorful colonial architecture, and a really impressive market and food centre.

Huge displays of fresh southeast Asian produce, dudes chopping up and packaging segments of giant jackfruit, and tons of fresh fish and butchered meat. Shan and I did a full lap around the upper level, and I swear we unlocked an achievement like on XBox because a random Tamil vendor with purple hair greeted us with a big smile and a thumbs up, as if to say "You've made it!"

To celebrate our achievement, we enjoyed some Teh Tarik (Malaysian "pulled" milk tea), and some roti paratha (Indian savory grilled flatbread). And then we wandered through Little India and into Arab Street.

Adjacent to Little India is Kampong Glam, Arab Street. It's similar to Tiong Bahru and Little India in that it's full of old colonial shophouses, but what sets it apart is the small, hip restaurants and cafes. Also, the Masjid Sultan Mosque. Shan and I were a little hesitant to go in, because we didn't know if we met the dress code.

We explored a couple of vintage clothing stores and t-shirt design shops, checked out the fragrance shop, discovered the Malay Cultural Center, and waited out a thunderstorm with some wine at a nice cafe/lounge before getting to our goal at an Arab St hawker centre.

Sup Tulang

Sup Tulang. As seen on the Singapore episode of No Reservations. It's a messy, deep red dish of slow-cooked mutton bones in a spicy tomato-based sauce. There's a little meat on the bones, but the real draw is the marrow inside them. Some people get to the marrow with a straw. Shan and I said F that, and we attacked the bone head-on.

So far, Singapore was still blowing my mind with the sights, smells, and outstanding food. On Day 3, Shan and I head to the red light district to follow our noses for some Durian, and we go ballin' out of control at Clarke Quay over some chili crab.

Keep Singapore Delicious

In February, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting my good friends Adley and Shannon during their expat year in Singapore. The timing was perfect for this trip, right in the somewhat quiet time at work for me, and in time for Adley's Chinese New Year time off.

Typically, when I plan my trips, I put a lot of thought in and do tons of research on what I could possibly see, where I should eat, and how to make the most of my time. This time around, I left everything to Shan's expert hands. Eager to show me the best of what Singapore has to offer, she put together an epic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure of neighborhoods and hawker centres.

Day 1

After a little solo exploring at the Merlion plaza and Marina Bay, I got my first taste of hawker centres at the Lau Pa Sat market on Raffles Quay.

Aisles upon aisles of Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, South Indian, Korean, and other stalls. I can't even describe how good this place smelled. I took this interior shot around 11:00am. 30 minutes later, the lunch rush came in and there wasn't a single open table in the entire market.

After the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre, I met up with Shan and we explored the neighborhood of Tiong Bahru, one of Singapore's oldest housing developments. It's retained some of its older architecture, but now it's also home to newer condo/apt towers, famous hawker centres, and some nice thrift shops and indie bookstores. The must-have hawker dish of Tiong Bahru: char siew pork at Lee Hong Kee Cantonese Roasted Pork.

Tiger on the shoreline

Left to right: Sambal stingray, prawn fritter, carrot cake with prawns

What was left of the satay when we remembered to take a picture, and Mee Goreng.

After Tiong Bahru and a stroll through the Singapore Botanical Gardens, we met with Adley coming home from the office, and we headed to the East Coast Lagoon hawker centre. This one was an open air market right on the water. We knocked back some Tiger beer and enjoyed some ridiculously good Singapore specialties: sambal stingray, prawn fritters, "carrot cake" (actually stir-fried radish and rice flour cake with seafood, soy sauce, garlic, etc), and satay. It was a great end to my first full day in Singapore.

One thing I was really impressed with in Singapore was the diversity of people and food. Yes, on the surface it's all Southeast Asian (South Chinese, Indo/Malay, Tamil, what-have-you), but you never really feel like it's a homogeneous culture. I more of a feeling that this is the NYC or melting-pot of Asia.

In Part 2, Shan and I earn props for navigating a Little India fish market, and we get sloppy on some bones on Arab Street.

Asia 2013: Know Your Noodle

I'll admit that, on my first trip to Japan in 2010, my first impression of Tokyo was not the best. Granted I only gave myself approximately 2 days to enjoy a mega-city like that, and it was on the tail-end of the trip and I was sad about the idea of returning to work so soon. But one of the best things I took away from my first time in Tokyo was meeting up with my friend Nai for my first ever bowl of real ramen.

2010: Niboshi (fish-flavored broth) ramen at Nagi in Golden Gai, Shinjuku

On my 2nd trip in 2012, over the course of 10 days, my friends and I had at least 5 bowls of ramen each. It ranged from thick and spicy miso broth to the light and understated/underrated shio (sea-salt flavored) broth.

This time around, I knew I was going to have just a hot minute in Japan, and a couple of days were already accounted for. So I did a little research into what is the one bowl of ramen I should have on my layover in Tokyo before arriving in Singapore.

Fortunately, there's a number of American expat bloggers dedicated to sampling all of Tokyo's best ramen joints. The one in Ueno that they give glowing recommendations is Ramen Daiki Tenjinshita. They specialize in more of a chicken-based recipe. When I arrived, the first good sign was the line of people out the door.

Shoyu (soy sauce flavored) at Ramen Daiki Tenjinshita in Ueno

At first, the soup tasted like little more than chicken broth. But going deeper, I realized there was a lot more going on. It was nice and light like shio broth. I guess I've gotten so used to the thick tonkotsu (pork bone) broth that's more popular, and is available at Austin ramen houses Michi Ramen and Ramen Tatsu-ya. This soup was subtly complex, light, and doesn't bog you down in the end. And the toppings of green onion and clover sprouts accented it perfectly. So did the chashu (pork belly), cooked so well that the fat was nicely rendered off but the meat still tender enough to break apart with the slightest bit of chopstick pressure.


About a week later, after being shown the wonders of the foodie metropolis that is Singapore, and after rediscovering real relaxation off the gulf of Thailand, I got to spend 2 days with Nai in his swank Osaka bachelor pad. That 2nd night, he took me out for what would probably ruin me for this variety of ramen for the rest of life.

Itadakimasu

Tsukemen is a style of ramen where the soup is kept separate from the noodles so that you can dip each mouthful of noodles in it. San Ku (三く) is a special tsukemen shop in that it's not run by your typical ramen chef. It's been in operation for about 1 year now, and the chef is trained more in classical Japanese cuisine. So he takes flavors and techniques you find in fancy Japanese haute-cuisine, and twists them into his soup.

Thick noodles topped with what we think is dried husks of rice/wheat grains. And dat soup.

Normally, when you see the soup that thick and cloudy, it's from the marrow and fat rendered out of the pork bones. San Ku's soup, on the other hand, is flavored with bonito fish (?) and is thickened with grated Japanese mountain potato. I first learned about the mountain potato at my splurge-meal during my first visit to Kyoto. So you don't feel as bogged down and heavy in the end as you would with a tonkotsu soup.

Another feature the chef puts into the soup is a stash of "treasure" at the bottom of the bowl: bits of Japanese pickled plum (umeboshi) and shiso leaf under a super thin slice of crunchy lotus root. Shiso is like basil + mint + parsley + love. Umeboshi is strong and sour on your first try, but in small amounts it really enhances other flavors in your mouth, and it's pickled with some shiso leaf.

Nai tells me that he's gone to San Ku so many times now that he and the chef know each other by name now. And that sometimes when Nai goes to the shop, he's privileged with samples of the chef's new experimental recipes. Now I'm determined to change jobs to a company that will let me expat in the Osaka area.


Good God, I'm in shiso withdrawal right now.

More to come soon

Nothing inspires me to write new posts more than fresh new travel experiences. I had the pleasure of spending time with some good friends in Singapore, Thailand, and Japan. And that 2 week span was filled with some of the most outstanding food I've ever had on my travels. While I get my photos organized, enjoy a recap of my time in Singapore and Thailand over at Shannon and Adley's blog, starting here.

Japan: The Izakaya

Kanji: 居酒屋
Hiragana: いざかや
Romaji: I ZAKA YA

Literally translated, the characters mean "to stay" and "liquor" and "shop". Altogether, it means "pub." It's Japan's version of where you can get yourself a drink, order some food, let loose and socialize. It could be bottled big-name beers like Sapporo, or craft brews on tap, or sake brewed down the street and bottled with a hand-drawn label. It could be beautifully presented sashimi, or it could be homestyle fried chicken. My point is that Japan's izakaya are as diverse as your favorite bars in the States.

When I first visited Japan in November 2010, I traveled alone. As fun and liberating solo travel is, sometimes you just want some good conversation and human interaction. I quickly learned that an izakaya is the place to be. When you're a lone foreigner sitting at the counter, you're bound to make your neighbors and the staff curious. Here's a recap of my first true izakaya experience in Kyoto in 2010.

On my second trip to Japan, I traveled with 3 other guys, definitely a good group to travel with. It was incredible for me to be back in Japan with some experience and a little more Japanese language skill under my belt. It was also great to have other people to share this journey with. Part of that journey, of course, was bar-hopping, and we got a pretty good sampling of izakaya during it.

思い出横丁, Omoide Yokocho, a.k.a. Memory Lane, Piss Alley.

Located in Shinjuku, Tokyo

 

This is a popular collection of izakaya jam-packed together over a couple of city blocks. You can get ramen/soba/udon noodles, yakitori (char-grilled whatever on a stick), yakiniku (meat/veggies that you can grill for yourself on an open flame), etc. Omoide Yokocho, pronounced oh-MO-ee-day YO-ko-cho, first popped up after WWII in a war-torn Tokyo. It was a den of market stalls, then became a cheap dining/drinking destination, and eventually a really poppin' drinking/nightlife area. This video gives you a good feel of walking down Memory Lane.

What did we consume? First and foremost, costly table space. We only entered 2 izakaya there because there was a 300 yen table charge per person just about everywhere. At the first place: chilled saké and yakitori. Specifically, chicken hearts, chicken thigh, green onion, chicken liver, chicken meatballs, pork tongue, and other stuff I forget. It was tasty, but not satisfying, as is most Japanese bar food when shared among friends. On a more positive note, a tipsy salaryman gave me a high-5 as we squeezed into our table in the back corner.

At the second place: more chilled sake and self-grilled meats on an open flame. We ordered tuna cheek, marinated octopus, and whale bacon. Yes. Whale Bacon (the orange-ish looking squares in the lower right).

有楽町, Yurakucho Yakitori Alley
Located under Yurakucho station, walking distance to Ginza

photo from dannychoo.com

Yakitori Alley is another post-war throwback. I actually stumbled upon one section of it by accident during my first trip in 2010. I got lost in Ginza, trying to walk from Tsukiji fish market to Shinbashi station, and I ended up near Yurakucho station. Underneath the train tracks I found a few small yakitori shops, sat at one that had an English menu, and had some nice skewers and a mug of Asahi. 


On this past trip, the group and I headed here after we got sick of the table charges in Memory Lane. Food and drinks were cheaper here than at Memory Lane, but no more filling. I think we got more chilled sake and similar skewers to what we had at the first place in Memory Lane. Afterward, still hungry, we ended up wandering around the corner and filling up on some spicy miso ramen. At the time, we thought that Yurakucho Yakitori Alley only went as far as the 2 or 3 shops inside this tunnel. Apparently it goes farther.


Ginza Seaman's Club
Located near Higashi-Ginza Station

Sharing some conversation and shots with Fumihide-san

On our last night in Tokyo, the other guys wanted to go out and experience Tokyo's wild and crazy nightclub scene in Shibuya. I'm really not a fan of loud, hot, and crowded clubs, so I opted to stay behind and try one of the bars near our hotel by myself. I saw one bar open, took a seat at the counter, and ordered a Japanese whiskey from the bartender's recommendation, Nikka single malt on the rocks. I sincerely hope that Nikka picks up some distributors in the USA, it is outstanding.


Fumihide the bartender spoke a bit of English, but it was good practice for my limited Japanese. We chatted about my trip thus far, the history of the bar (built from wood and metal reclaimed from old boats), and even our favorite music. Fumihide even surprised me with a complimentary shot. I was really happy to have found my bar in Tokyo.


大衆酒BAR, Taishuu Sake Bar
Located in Downtown Sendai

When the bar is playing Lionel Richie music videos, and a tipsy local gentleman buys you all a round, you know you've found a good place.

The day after I went out to the bar alone, I shared my experience at Ginza Seaman's Club with my travel buddies. They were jealous of my good times with a local, so that night we set out to do the same thing in Sendai. We stumbled upon a tiny place with a big yellow sign that said "BAR," so we went for it.

After we ordered a round of sake, the nice guy in the photos above in the black jacket greeted us. He was excited to see foreigners visiting Sendai, especially after the events of the 3/11 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear-disaster, and wanted to make sure we thoroughly enjoyed the locally-brewed sake. He ordered us a bottle of Hitakami (日高見) brewed in Ishinomaki, a small coastal city northeast of Sendai that was particularly ravaged by the tsunami. I'm no expert sake-taster and I can't pick out individual flavor/aroma components, but Hitakami was smooth and delicious. As was the Mori No Kikukawa, brewed in Sendai.

We invited him to sit and drink with us, and we all talked. Or rather, he and I spoke in a combination of broken English and beginners' Japanese. We told him how we were enjoying Japan, he told us about places in the USA he wishes he could visit. We shared some food and lots more local sake, Mori No Kikukawa from Sendai. The food, however, wasn't quite to my liking. I don't like pig intestines, and definitely not intestines stuffed with natto. All-in-all it was a fantastic night, and our new friend was super-appreciative of us supporting Northern Japan's recovery.


べっぴんや, Beppin-Ya
Located in Downtown Kyoto

 

This is the izakaya that in 2010 started my love of popping into random Japanese bars. I befriended Shingo and his staff, as well as local clothing store owner and blogger Taka, and we've all kept in touch online since then. Some changes at Beppin-Ya from my first visit: some new staff members who speak a bit of English, and a full menu translated to English.

That night we just enjoyed chilled local sake, most likely brewed in southern Kyoto's Fushimi district, chock full of independent breweries. Unfortunately we didn't make enough time to visit a second time to enjoy the food. Their specialty is free-range chicken from Kagoshima, served in a variety of ways. Breast and liver sashimi; char-grilled thighs and skin; hot-pots and noodle soups; etc.


This is only a subset of our bar-hopping experience in Japan, but still pretty representative of the variety of ways to get your drink on.  Dive bars under the train tracks, tiny pub-shacks that fit no more than 8-10 local businessmen, theme bars with impressive collections of bourbons and rums, and full-on restaurants with excellent hook-ups for local sake. Whatever your preference is, just grab your Japanese-English phrasebook, prepare to use a lot of hand gestures, and jump right in.