Walking Ixus

I’ve broken one of my HK traditions, sorta. I arrived on Wednesday PM late, ate a LOT on Thursday and will bug out to Republica Singapura on Friday AM. Returning to HKG on Monday PM and bugging out AGAIN to NRT the following AM.

Yes, this trip is panning out to be the “fastest Asia trip ever”. And my trips are usually anything BUT speedy.

With copious apologies to Mel Brooks and the late Cleavon Little:

Hey, where all the Azians at??

Well, we ARE in Singapore, just look at the sign! =)

Met up with a couple of frens for some window shopping and lunch at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Scotts Road. Yeah, I know it's a chain, but who cares? It was good chow!

Yum yum yum, now THAT's a good beginning!

Look at those dumplings! That was our starter. Mmmmmm. The xiaolongbao were really good too!

Good xiaolongbao u dun have to go to Shanghai 2 have, cuz it's cold there!

Usually xiaolongbao outside of Shanghai is pretty pathetic, especially in the US, but these were excellent! Just soupy enough inside but not that soupy so that it was soggy. If you eat xiaolongbao, you understand what I'm trying to describe. We had some fried eel and some other dishes.

It’s easy to take pictures of food. Not so easy to take pix of people. For one thing, food cooperates!

Since it was my fren's day off, we partook in that peculiar Singapore sport, retail therapy. I mean, it IS the Xmas season, so I guess it was the thing to do...

We wound up going to Tang’s where we looked at dehydrators (huh?) and “sampled” expresso from fancy schmancy expresso machines (yeaaah!). Actually, they were making cups when you listened to their presentation. So we made like we were dense so the guy would make us expresso.

Then to Takashimiya for more of the same. Sounds pretty domestic lah! Of course, back home we have Williams-Sonoma to do this kind of shopping in. Did I just say too much about myself?

Then...
The shopping day ended when those two decided to head to Tiffany’s.
Guys are there for two reasons: either to look at the men’s stuff (watches, various accessories) which takes all of five minutes because there’s so little of it OR they are there to get baubles for their girlfriends/wives/mistresses/SOs. Big expensive baubles in a baby blue box.

My self preservation instinct kicked in and I made myself scarce until they were done. My fren’s husband didn’t come out with us today, claiming illness. I wonder if he knew this was in store...
Smart guy! =P

No, that's not a new UPN show. Actually, it’s some of the traditional SIN food that I got reaquainted with with Dimsumdolly, who I got to hang out with this evening. She and her red shoes (cuz that’s how I found her at the MRT station where we met up) took me around to some neat places.

We wound up in the East Coast (apparently a tradition since my last trip out here) and wound up at some food stalls that claimed to have the “Best Laksa”. And they did, depending on the newspaper/website/TV show that was quoted. And after she ordered and we started eating, I realized I’ve never written about these. So heeere we go....

Mmmmmm laksa! Coconut milky chilli goodness!

The dish in the middle of the two bowls is Rojak, a interesting dish with a cool manly sounding name. Sounds Klingon, actually. “I am Rojak, son of Baggh”. OK, no more Trek references.
Rojak is a sort of salad, but according to DSD, is not healthy like a traditional salad. I believe that! It feels more like the main course of a meal then just a “salad”.

The bowls flanking the rojak is Laksa, a rice noodle (yum) and prawn soup. The soup has coconut milk and chili paste and other spices in it. RICH STUFF. This alone is a meal! Yum yum yum.

After that meal and a few beverages (which I kanna remember exactly what), we wound up farting around East Coast. We passed by Charlie’s (from dinner with the lovely Sara-Ann back in May) and picked up some “authentic Hong Kong dim-sum” in the form of chau siu bow for DSD who was fighting some bug. And not winning...

Wandered through the Malay Village but that wasn’t too neato because everyone there was closed. Instead, we wound up at the Fullerton for dessert. We both ordered a dessert set (coffee, dessert) for S$15 each. Wasn’t bad, considering the price of alcohol (more than the dessert set). DSD had tiramisu and I had a creme brulee with coconut ice cream and shards of coconut on top.

Mmmmm. Creme Brulee! MMMMMM COFFEE!!!! Loved them both!

Wound up chatting about all sorts of stuff before we and the MRT began turning into pumpkins (translation: it got late). Fun evening.

Sunday afternoon, hanging out at The inn-Crowd. This is where I stay at when I'm in Singapore. Fun place, neat people running the place. This place gets my approval as a "fun, clean, safe place to crash lah".

And Tiger on tap...

They also have a couple of silly cats that have the run of the place. Actually, this is what they do most of the time.

Lucky furball!