5/26/13 - Singapore Dining Old School/New School

The first month we moved here I happened to catch an Anthony Bourdain 'No Reservations' rerun about Singapore.  9 months later, I can't say I remember too much about the episode, but the final scene has stuck with me the entire time.  After making his way through the usual local experiences of a variety of restaurants and meeting people, Tony sat down with 4 or 5 retired men (likely in their 80's) at a hawker centre to get their take on longevity and Singapore life.  Essentially these men made it a habit to get together 2 to 3 times a week at different hawker centres, eat their favorite food and drink beer together.  Brilliant!  I've been meaning to recreate this since I saw the episode, especially because its one of the few ways to eat and drink for a reasonable price on the island, but as usual, there hadn't been enough time..... until now.

After spending half the day in the office I made the 10 minute walk to the Maxwell Hawker Centre.  Embarrassingly, this was my first time eating here and it is one of the larger, more well known food places in town.  Travelling had kept me from catching up with a good friend, so we now really were set for an Anthony Bourdain recreation.  We scored a perfect table right in front of a Thai food stand and about 15 feet away from a beverage vendor.  5 minutes later we were enjoying plates of fried noodles, phad thai, garlic kai lan (need your daily vegetables) and of course, some Tiger Beers in frosted mugs.  We've been staying away from Tiger recently, but it seemed fitting in this setting.

One of the fun parts about these places is they keep your empty bottles in front of you, its almost their way of tracking whether or not its time to give you the boot.  Luckily Sarah showed up to help us out later in the afternoon so the damage was pretty reasonable.  Plus it was a good excuse to get some boiled dumplings as a late afternoon snack to share.  Beer, noodles and dumplings, I highly recommend it as an afternoon activity in Singapore.  Just remember to bring along some change for the restroom if you're going to sit there for 5 hours.  All the change I had been accumulating during taxi rides to and from the airport finally got put to good use.

We woke up Sunday morning to sunlight streaming in and the birds providing their usual morning wake up call.  Thinking we were finally going to get some quality pool time in we actually got up and moving right away.  We've been meaning to hit up a Singapore brunch for some time as well, so we headed off to the PS Cafe in Dempsey Hill.  Many of the restaurants and shops are in the old British military colonial buildings, but this one seemed to be half old/half new.  The window didn't quite reach the ceiling and you realized you were essentially sitting in the ruins of a white brick building with a new roof and windows.  Kind of a weird style, but it worked.  After many previous weekend breakfasts of fruit and granola bars, a cappuccino and eggs benedict followed by a monster brownie and ice cream (it was the weekend after all) was outstanding.

Successfully checking off some old school/new school experiences for the weekend we hopped on the bus with the intention of getting some reading done by the pool and then this happened... foiled again by a rainy Sunday.  It'd be great if it was going to rain it did it in the morning so at least it would be a little darker in our room and might keep the birds silent a little longer, that's our request for mother nature for next weekend.

5/22/13 - Bintan Island Adventure

One of the best parts about living in Singapore is you’re right in the hub of Southeast Asia.  You have an amazing airport that is a short taxi ride away and a number of budget airlines you can jump on to take you anywhere in the region.  We’ve flown on Tiger, Jetstar and Air Asia and knock on wood, so far so good.  Everyone seems to have a horror story about getting overcharged for baggage, a flight getting cancelled without advance notice or even the pilots not showing up for the flight.  That hasn’t happened to us yet, but I guess it will at least make for an interesting story when it does.

All of this is great, however, at the same time one of the worst parts about living in Singapore is all these great places are within reach, but you’re on an island so you can’t just hop in a car and go somewhere.  What if you want to get away for the weekend, but haven’t really planned ahead and it’s too late to hop a flight at a convenient time somewhere?  The answer we found out a few weeks ago is Bintan!

Bintan is an Indonesian island about an hour ferry ride.  You still have to go through customs, but the process is pretty minimal, even compared to the Singapore airport.  The motivation for this trip was a friend’s 30^th birthday whose only request was a hotel with a swim-up bar....check.  To add to the fun, one of Sarah’s good friends from back home had made a detour from a work trip and was joining in the shenanigans.  So after a breakfast of fresh pineapple and mangoes and some banana prata for substance, the 3 of us strolled down to the street to find out if a taxi could actually get us to the ferry terminal.  Based on a normal taxi ride in Singapore to someplace I had never been before, I was highly skeptical.  Usually the driver gives you a blank look and you get prepared to pull out your phone out to provide directions, human GPS style.  Who would have thought after saying “Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal” he nodded and we were off.

Most of the rest of our party had purchased the ‘Emerald Fare’ class of ticket, so they were able to board the boat first.  I would highly recommend this for anyone as they were able to exit first and fly through customs on arrival, but for this trip we were stuck with the normies.  Luckily, our friends took pity on us and left us with a "treat" to make the trip go by faster.  To top it all off, once we were done weaving in and out of ships the size of small skyscrapers, they started playing classic Disney cartoons!  I’m talking Mickey, Donald and Pluto that were hand drawn and had to be on a VHS tape.  Of course, considering where we were it was likely a hot DVD from some back alley street market, but whatever.  The only way it would have been better is if they would have shown the episode with old school Mickey Mouse gang in a camper eating corn on the cob.  What topped the ferry ride off even more was the snack booth on the boat was called the “BRF Canteen.”  I fully understand we were on the Bintan Resort Ferry, but reading ‘barf canteen’ on a wavy boat ride out of the corner of my eye resulted in a lot of internal laughter.

Once we got through customs and rejoined the group we hopped in the hotel’s bus for what was a pretty short, albeit rocky ride.  The bus actually felt more like you were on the ocean than the ferry did.  Somehow, after waking up in Singapore around 8:30 AM we were sitting by a pool staring at the ocean a little after noon.  For being as close to a major shipping lane as we were, the water was pretty clean.  Seeing large ocean tankers off in the distance was a split between entertaining and unsettling, but you got used to it.  The Bintang beer (another Asian beer crossed off the list) wasn’t bad either.  After playing beach volleyball and hanging out in the pool, we wrapped it up with an open air grilled seafood dinner in which I may or may not have eaten an entire grilled squid, followed up by the requisite Filipino cover band.  After getting up early and with a full day ahead on Sunday, we called it quits after the first set, besides they were showing NBA playoff basketball in our room.  In terms of a short little holiday away from our island, on another island no less, not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

5/18/2013 - The Pit

I'm honestly a little nervous to discuss what I'm about to because this restaurant currently seems to be a bit of a hidden gem.  Luckily, 90% of our readers seem to be from 8,000 plus miles away so its probably fine, but one can never be too careful.  About a month ago we were really in the mood for some BBQ, but didn't really have it in us to journey across town to the one place we knew about.  We've kind of gotten to the point that if we can't take a direct bus or subway line somewhere we think twice about going.  I don't know what we're going to do when we move home and someone asks us to drive 20 minutes to visit.  We may settle for a facetime conversation.

Anyway, whenever we go to Holland Village for one of our weekend nights out we always take a right when the road splits. To the right are our favorite Mexican, Mediterranean, Pizza and Asian Fusion places..... to the left, well we knew there was a Subway and a Kenny Rodgers chicken, neither of which really gets you excited.  It really was the road less traveled.  Ironically, one night after what had probably been too many noodle cup dinners, Sarah was grabbing Subway on her way home from class.  Out of the corner of her eye, at the end of the road, a sign caught her eye..... The PIT.

I know all you Oregon Duck fans out there are wondering how your beloved basketball arena migrated 8,000 miles.  Given I just got done watching the Malaysian Dragons finish off the San Miguel Beermen in triple overtime of an ABL (Asean Basketball League) game, and no, I did not just make those two names up, it would be outstanding if Mac Court magically had landed in Singapore.  Considering those two teams compete with the Slammers and Slingers, part of me wonders if a certain college roommate of mine was allowed to name the teams in this league after entering some late night contest.  As usual, I digress.

The name was interesting enough, but when she caught a hint of a normal, smoky BBQ smell (if you've been in Asia long enough, you realize how rare this is) she officially got sucked in.  3 days later when I got home, we hopped on the Circle line (one stop direct to Holland Village) and took a left down the road to see if this place was legit.  After a dozen ribs, an actual hamburger, some jalapeno poppers.... jalapeno poppers!!!! we  were on board.  We went back a few weeks later to have a pulled pork sandwich and nachos that even had real and fake cheese on them.  You know, the slightly neon orange goo that comes out of a squeeze pump that you know you should never eat because its not a naturally occurring substance, rivals a Twinkie in terms of longevity, probably is the cure for and cause of multiple ailments, but tastes great?  Exactly.  Somehow they always seem to have the local microbrew on happy hour when we are there, even better.  Its nothing fancy, a concrete slab with a lot of fans, a killer bar with Forest Gump license plates and a hidden smoker cranking out some solid BBQ, but its our new favorite place for comfort food.

In the words of the How I Met Your Mother gang, if there is a Barney out there that might try to ruin the bar for us, just take a right when you're in Holland Village.  However, if you want to watch some community college level hoops while making a mess eating ribs, come grab a bar stool with me.  I might even be willing to share some nachos.

5/10/13 - Battling Jet Lag and the Tricks to Winning

I know, I know, I’m getting lazy again.  I wasn't sick this time so I don’t have that for an excuse for letting the lights go dark on the updates for a few weeks, but I did have to go back to the US for a little bit for work.  Its not a great excuse, but flying 10,000 miles seems to be the best one I currently have.  On the plus side, it did give me an idea for something to write about – how to defeat, or be defeated by jet lag.  After enough trips back and forth to Asia, I think I have it boiled down to 5 do’s/don’ts.  Some you can control, other’s, not so much.

1. This may be the most important one – if you can manage to have your flight land at your destination sometime between 6 AM and 8 AM, it will go a long way towards helping you feel normal.  On the way to the US, I got in at 1 AM.  Nothing like trying to fall back asleep when you literally woke up 7 hours ago.  The weirder part was then trying to go to bed again for the 2^nd time in 18 hours.  This one didn't go so well, after crashing hard at 11:00 PM I found myself wide awake at 1:30 AM, watching re-runs of Law and Order and Married with Children until the sun was practically coming up.  Made for an ugly Monday.  On the flip side, getting back to Singapore I strolled into our apartment at 6:30 AM and managed to stay up until about 10:30 at night with the help of some Shanghai dumplings and beer.  At this point your sleep deprived body is bobbing and weaving like Rocky after going 15 rounds with the Russian, but you sure do fall asleep quickly.  With a little luck, you may even sleep until 7 AM (I hit 9, major win).  Trust me, staying awake all day with the sun up is a much better way to reset your clock than the inverse.

2.  Point #1 is worthless if you can’t stay up for the rest of the day.  If you arrive early, but find yourself at risk of drowning because your face is in a bowl of soup at the lunch table, it will all be for naught.  The best way I have found to combat the inevitable sleepiness is to get out and do something.  Get some sunlight on your face, at least that will somewhat trick your body into thinking it really is daytime and you should be active.  So swing by your favorite coffee shop and if you are in a new city, go walking/exploring.  If you are at home, go run all those errands you've likely been putting off for the past month.  One time in Amsterdam I managed to have some ice cream, a cup of coffee and did not fall into any of the numerous canals that were land mines in plain sight, even while going on 3 hours of sleep and staring at the sites like a total tourist.  Trust me, it works.

3. If you can start flipping yourself over time wise a few days in advance, it seems to pay dividends.  On the return trip I was able to stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning for the two nights before flying back and then potentially more importantly, I was awake on the plane watching movies until the equivalent of 5 AM central time or 6 PM Singapore time.  So when I finally did go to sleep, it wasn't much earlier than I would be going to bed the following evening.  3 days after getting back, I actually felt pretty normal.

4. Look for the pharmaceutical option.  We have had some success with melatonin.  It’s of course marketed as something that is naturally recurring in your body and helps reset youe sleep cycle.  So that, plus some coffee in the morning and possibly a drink or two in the evening could be all you need to reset yourself and convince your body you really are in a foreign country.... if the food doesn't do the job first.

5. The expensive solution, if you’re lucky enough, which I usually am not, fly business class.  If nothing else, this may be the best use of all those frequent flier miles you've been accumulating over the years and all you seem to be able to get is a free flight to Toledo on President's Day.  A quasi bed and a “few” glasses of wine makes a big difference as well in terms of keeping you normal at 35,000 feet.  There is something to be said for actually getting 6-8 hours of sleep vs. getting sleep in 6-8 minute increments when you are doing the head jerking action in coach.  Kind of like that kid in your 8^th grade English class who just can’t stay awake while listening to teacher discuss MacBeth. 

If anyone is still with us – well thanks for hanging tight.  We've found an outstanding southern BBQ place that is going to get some airplay in the next few days and have an upcoming Indonesian birthday adventure as well.  Plenty of material to keep things interesting now that I’m back and healthy on the far side of the world.