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Entries categorized as ‘Singapore food’

Another ass at a Makansutra

June 30, 2007 · Leave a Comment

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.

Categories: Singapore food · Singapore from a Malaysian perspective

Makansutra My Ass

June 29, 2007 · 6 Comments

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 1st 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

Categories: Singapore food · Singapore from a Malaysian perspective