Fish Head Curry and other adventures in Little India

Roly-poly fish heads are never seen drinking cappuccino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women! Garth, we were thinking of you.

On Sunday, we decided to explore in Little India, which is only a 10 minute taxi ride away from our hotel.

Deepavali was celebrated recently, and there are still arches over the roads decorated with swirling patterns and peacocks and lights. It’s a technicolor paradise: women dressed in gorgeous saris, fabric shops galore, and temples covered in statuary and floral decorations. The air is perfumed with spices and incense, and it was a far cry from the shopping malls of Orchard Road.

We visited two temples: Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, dedicated to Kali, and Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, dedicated to Vishnu. I wish I knew more about Hinduism to better understand what I’m seeing, and I guess this will be my year to learn! The second temple actually had a nice exposition tucked away on the side about Vaishnavism that was very interesting.

Shoes off before you enter, and it’s customary to bring some type of offering for prayers and to receive blessings, such as fruit or flowers, and there were many shops nearby to purchase them. Lots of chanting and people were queueing up at the different shrines to pray and prostrate themselves in front of them. You could wander the entire temple as long as you didn’t enter the inner chamber.

I could have happily stayed in the first temple for hours, watching everyone participating in small rituals. My favorite one is the ringing of the bells on the doors as you enter and exit. Both temples had huge wooden doors studded with small bells and carved icons, and it seems that the ringing of these bells creates an auspicious sound, announcing your presence and driving away evil energy.

We spent a couple of hours walking around, and on the advice of our taxi driver and Lonely Planet finally ended up on Race Course Road in search of fish head curry. Why? Why not! When in Rome…or Singapore…

Grant hadn’t tried this when he was in KL, and in the morning he announced that today was the day. Once the taxi driver recommended it too, it seemed like a no-brainer (and no, I don’t think I ate fish brains). Banana Leaf Apolo had been mentioned in the guidebook, and the promise of air-conditioning along with the presence of lots of Indians made it our choice.

We ordered a small Fish Head Curry to share, and the serving that arrived was huge; I can’t imagine how enormous a large order would be! It was delicious, not too spicy and kind of fun to pull the meat off the bones. After we’d attacked the first side, I flipped it over and the flesh kind of disintegrated into the curry from there, leaving the eye and the skeletal remains looking balefully up at me.

Probably not a dish I’d put on my regular rotation (there are too many options here to consider developing a regular rotation yet!), but I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to order it again, and I think it’s going to be one of those must tries for anyone visiting, but I promise not to force it on you. It’s too early to scare anyone away!

We have arrived!

And boy, was that the way to travel! Long, but very comfortable flight, and we probably got about 7 hours of sleep total. The food was ridiculously gourmet and we ate way too much. Everything was served on china and with real silverware – including knives (surprising on a plane these days, no?). The champagne was lovely, as was the cheese course that we were served twice! Service was top notch, and we were constantly addressed by name. I could certainly get used to business class with no problem.

All of our luggage made it with us, and managed to fit in one taxi with a tiny trunk. We’re staying at the Grand Park City Hall in Singapore for the first week, and we’ll figure out in the next couple of days if we want to stay here longer or switch hotels. Our apartment lease in KL starts on December 1st, but the big question is how long it will take to get Grant’s Professional Visitor Pass. We’ll be hanging out in Singapore until then, since he can’t enter Malaysia while the application is pending. We’re expecting to be here for 3-4 weeks, and Grant will be working from the office here starting on November 14th.

That doesn’t leave him with much time to adjust to the 13 hour time difference, so the first order of business was to do everything possible to get over our jet lag! We figured our best bet was to get outside and stay active, so we headed off to the Botanic Gardens looking forward to a sunny walk and beautiful surroundings. Singapore is also known as the Garden City, and there is lush vegetation all over leaving no doubt that we’re in a tropical location. Well, the heat and humidity keep reminding me of that too.

The Gardens were gorgeous, and I think we only visited about a third of it. It covers over 150 acres, and we started off strong, with Swan Lake, the Ginger Garden, and the National Orchid Garden. I couldn’t resist taking lots of close up shots, especially of the orchids.

I could have stayed there for hours, but the rumbling that got louder and louder was two things: my stomach and thunder. It was lunchtime, and we made our way back to the gift shop at the entrance to the Orchid Gardens just as it began pouring. I’ll admit to this: at the hotel, Grant had asked if we could bring the umbrella, and I didn’t feel like being weighed down with it so I said no. Browsed the gift shop for a lot longer than I really wanted to, and finally we gave in and bought emergency ponchos and took off. Luckily, we timed it pretty well, and the rain got lighter, and gave us a few dry minutes to walk over towards Orchard Road.

I’d heard Orchard Road was the fanciest shopping street in Singapore, and in my head I’d been thinking of it as a version of Newbury Street. I was just a little off – more like a cross between Times Square and the Champs Elysées. Malls are huge here, both in terms of size and importance. Shopping and eating are the two national pastimes, and we’re diving right in! My new shopping quest is for the perfect umbrella, and I think it will get a lot of use. I think of a new food quest every time I pass anyone eating anything. The malls have good food courts, very different from home, more like sanitized street food vendors.

We managed to stay awake until 8 pm on our first day, although we were really dragging for the last four hours or so, and ended up having dinner at the nearest mall since we were too tired to go further afield. I think it was important to push ourselves though, and we were up bright and early this morning and feeling great. All in all, this was a great start for us and I’m excited to be here!

It’s time!

The house is packed up, and we’re ready to go.

Tickets were finally purchased yesterday, and this time tomorrow we’ll be enjoying business class on Singapore Air! Yes, that is a 48 hour turnaround, but we were ready for it. Also, I’m focusing on the free champagne. Goals are important to me.

Questions of Travel, by Elizabeth Bishop

Think of the long trip home.
Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?
Where should we be today?
Is it right to be watching strangers in a play
in this strangest of theatres?
What childishness is it that while there’s a breath of life
in our bodies, we are determined to rush
to see the sun the other way around?
The tiniest green hummingbird in the world?
To stare at some inexplicable old stonework,
inexplicable and impenetrable,
at any view,
instantly seen and always, always delightful?
Oh, must we dream our dreams
and have them, too?
And have we room
for one more folded sunset, still quite warm? (13-29)