Singapore. Delicious, delicious Singapore.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Wendy and my culinary adventures in Singapore started before we even entered the country, thanks to the gourmet stylings of Thai Airways. Our first meal (I had lemon chicken, Wendy had Japanese-style salmon) was delicious. Our second meals were no less so. Wendy went with salmon again, this time a salmon curry:

and I had a lamb steak.

You heard me right. Lamb. Steak. And not just some weaselly little portion, or cafeteria-grade chunks of gristle in sauce. We're talking at least six ounces of nice-cut tender meat. Look at the cross-section!

Seriously, the food was so good that if Thai Airways were a restaurant, Wendy and I would have gone back. I am just praying the return meal lives up to it.

And then it was off to the conference for our first day (more on the conference later. Maybe. I have my priorities, and they are food.) until we were liberated for an evening seeing the sights and tasting the tastes of Little India.


My feet, God bless them, magically led me right back to the amazing dessert bakery Justin and I visited on our previous trip. We waited inside for a while and then confessed to the man behind the counter that we had no idea what anything was, whereupon he broke off and gave us tasters of something like eight different foods. It was amazing.

Here is Wendy, smiling the chagrined but unrepentant smile of the just-ate-too-many-Indian-desserts:

On to another restaurant. Here, I demonstrate the influence that Scotland had on me: I love a lassi!Thank you. I'll be here for the next two years.

I had poori with a chana masala and some sort of potato thing, which I didn't much care for, but just as well, because otherwise I would have eaten myself sick. As it was, I just got a bit full for comfort.

Our stomachs thought they were safe when we got back to Orchard Road, the stop nearest our hotel. Poor, naive stomachs. This is Singapore! There is no such things as "safe from food.". We got lost, because Orchard Road doesn't have surface pedestrian crossings, and in going underground trying to find an underpass, we stumbled upon Mooncake Madness:

The Chinese mid-autumn festival is going on now, and it is traditional to give moon cakes (little sweet doughy balls with various fillings) to friends and relatives to celebrate the story of the moon goddess. At least that's what the salesguy told me. And all the booths had samples set out! What was a girl to do, but get eatin'?

Cranberry:


Delicious. Sweet, smooth, and creamy. Maybe a bit like a light strawberry mousse flavor. My favorite.

White Lotus:

Traditional. Somewhat milder. Tasted oddly like banana.

Durian:

Durian, my old foe. You may recall our encounter with durian the last time we came here, when we drank the durian smoothie that reminded us rather of the aftertaste of vomit. But I shall not let durian defeat me! It is there to try, and you were all counting on me to try it! (You didn't know it, maybe, but you were. I could hear you. Maybe I should get that checked.) See me saddle up and take my durian like a man!

Victory! It tasted basically like the dough in chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream. Nothing to be afraid of. The score is now durian 1, me 1. In the words of Earthworm Jim, cartoon character of my childhood: "You are a worthy foe indeed. We'll call it a draw."