Another ass at a Makansutra

I’m still ranting on my frog porridge supper trip.

While Britney and I were blowing (the hot porridge), there was this family of four sitting next to us: a young couple, a grandmother-aged woman, and another younger-but-old-enough-to-be-a-mother woman. Anyhoo, while I was pretending to enjoying the porridge, I noticed that the husband was rather restless. The wife was trying to make conversation (albeit superficial ones) with the two older women.

After awhile, the husband stood up and walked to his car nearby. I thought he was going for a smoke or something, but instead he started the car engine! The wife then followed suit to the car. They entered the car, switched the air-con on and waited in the car for the two older women.

WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR ASIAN MANNERS YOU MOTHER OF FUCK

I was fucking pissed and disgruntled, but not so bitchy enough to show my feelings. The two older women haven’t even finish their lousy porridge and probably not-crispy-at-all chicken wings. But out of respect, you do not walk out on your older relatives on the same table! The Westerners can do it for all I care, but as Asians, we don’t!

‘Maybe he wants to warm up the engine’ said Britney.

FUCK LA, what engine do you need to heat up? They were at the eatery not longer than 30 minutes; a car engine does not freeze up in half an hour’s time!

More importantly, I just felt so sorry to the two older women, especially the grandmother for having such children. The least the young couple could do was stood outside the car and waited for them. Sitting in the car and enjoying the air-con is just disrespectful.

Ok, this is just from what I observed. There could be a different story behind it. Maybe the four are not related and are just neighbors wanting to have supper (which I doubt it), or maybe the four of them had a bad history, or maybe the husband just got fired. Or maybe it’s just me, as Britney didn’t seem disturbed by it.

Makansutra My Ass

Singapore food sucks big time.

 

Britney and I just came back from supper at Chinatown. We were at Orchard before that chilling with the crowd at Starbucks while the rest were busy doing their last minute shopping as the Great Singapore Sale comes to an end (it’s a Late Night Friday Shopping too) and that GST will increase to 7% effective 1^st July.

 

So anyway, we wanted good and cheap food. Since Fong Seng does not fit both criteria, I suggested Bukit Timah, where there is a Prata shop that serves mamak food that taste ALMOST like Malaysian mamak food. However, the two of us had no idea where or how to get there from Orchard. So we decided to go to Chinatown instead.

 

Britney brought me to this place which serves porridge and frog porridge was their specialty. I was quite excited about it as I’ve never tried frog porridge, or frog meat for that matter. We ordered one bowl each, which cost us 16 freaking bucks in total.

 

*Wait a minute, RM32 for frog porridge. WTF*

 

Anyway, since the price was so expensive, we were expecting good food in big quantity. The porridge came in a big claypot alright. It smelt delicious and I was eager to try.

 

The porridge fucking sucked. Ok the first few blows (it was hot) and slurps weren’t that bad, I even complimented the dish. However, subsequent mouth got me bored. I added soya sauce and chili to make it a bit saltier and somewhat spicier.

 

All in all, I wasn’t satisfied with the 8 bucks I paid. Although I agree that the porridge were one of the better Singapore dishes I tried.

 

I feel that generally Singapore hawker food is ‘of below standard’ aka sucks. Malaysian hawker food is DEFINITELY much tastier (and unhealthy but health is not my topic of discussion right now). There are good food stalls around the island, but they do not satisfy my taste buds as much as the Bah Kut Teh restaurants in Klang or SS14 Subang Jaya do.

 

The worst part of all this is that island actually promotes the country as a ‘melting pot of dishes that will tantalize your taste buds’.

 

However, before any Singaporeans start blasting me by saying that I’m just generalizing over a few restaurants (believe me, I’ve been to a lot of hawker centers), I feel that Western/international cuisine here is much better and tastier. I would rather splash my money in a western restaurant as compared to in Malaysia. Maybe the restaurants here are expected to meet the taste buds of a large western community here, or that there are more choices of pork =p

Ok, time to post some pictures!

I’ve been helping NUS Radiopulze for the Singapore Street Festival for the past two weeks. It was quite an experience as this is the first time where I get to host live events on the street! In fact, I was given a slot to emcee for the entire night!

The Singapore Street Festival is part of the Singapore Arts Festival and our radio station has been sponsoring our hosting services for three years running. After all, this event is an avenue for young fresh virgin talents to showcase what they got!

This year’s theme was ‘Children of the Revolution’ (nothing related to Moulin Rouge if you asked me), and depending on your own interpretation, I think MM Lee Kuan Yew should be worried about such a theme.

Anyway, the event was held at various spots along Orchard Road. I spent most of the days in Plaza Singapura and Orchard Cineleisure. And guess what? Throughout the days I was there, I didn’t even spend anything at the Great Singapore Sale! I say it’s an achievement!

I didn’t help much at the festival though, appearing only during weekends as I had other commitments as mentioned in the previous post. But when I was there, it was AMAZING! This is the first time where I hung out A LOT with my Radio friends, and we got very close since.

 

Besides that, Winni and I also had a chance to interview this indie rock band Anberlin from the States. We even got two tickets as MEDIA to watch them live at the Pavilion @ Far East Square!

Me posing with the Video Cam before interviewing Anberlin at Home Club

Me, lead singer of Anberlin Steven, and Winni! Steven had very Oriental eyes! Mata sepek!

Winni is like the only close Malay friend I have in Singapore (wait is Dean Malay too hmm). We would always use Malay to make fun of our very international radio crew, and always use Malay Mat terms like ‘Ei relak la’ or ‘Slumber saje…’

DJ Neoflava aka Buddhi! He’s Radiopulze’s Resident Deejay and my only Indian clubbing buddy (No Karthik we only CLUBBED TWICE)

Me and Dylan the Villain. Dylan has that personality where you love to hate, hate to love. I hate it when he makes fun of my nationality and when he’s on the phone…

the villain: Cheeks!
thephunkypharmacist: hey dylan!

*silence*

thephunkypharmacist: hello?

*silence*

the villain: so….

thephunkypharmacist: so what?

the villain: the program…

thephukypharmacist: what program!?!?!

This kind of conversation in the morning. Muthafucker!

And the other night we were hosting together on stage…
the villain: so CK, where else is the festival held?
thephunkypharmacist: er…
the villain: you should pardon my co-host he’s Malaysian, he doesn’t know where Orchard is
thephunkypharmacist: (MACIBAI) pardon my nationality, but …..

One of the nights, we went to Shiva’s birthday family getaway at Changi Chalet! The place was quite hard to find, and the chalet was quite run down… more of that at the next post!

the villain: this reminds me of a third world country Shiva
Shiva: WTF!

The Radiopulze Family! I love you guys! Sorry for not helping out that much! Hope I can help out more next year!