First stop: Baja Fresh. You’re free to judge me, but you’ll
never truly understand the sort of Mexican food deprivation I’m going through
out here. I stopped here before I even had a place to stay – not dissimilar to
my hopping off the train at 24th and Mission for an al pastor
burrito at El Farolito.
Amazingly, the tastes are almost all the same. The chicken
probably wouldn’t live up to U.S. standards – I didn’t take too long to ponder
it, but it seemed to be herbed (rather than simply grilled) a little mealy (so
probably had been frozen). The salsas tasted the same, though, which was great.
I made it to the top choice for both of the Hokkien Mie styles
listed
here. This is the wet version, and in my opinion is superior. Pretty straightforward
ingredients that you see there, and it was pretty rich and heavy – the little
citrus helped perk it up a bit. Not spicy at all, even with the addition of all
of that hot pepper paste.
On the topic of that little citrus, it (along with the
others you’ll see in subsequent pictures) was really juicy and tangy, which led
me to wonder what it is. I happened to run across something a day or so after I
got back to lead me to believe that it’s a calamansi. I think it’ll be the next
big thing in citrus, but probably only in juice form, as they’d be difficult to
peel.
Teh Tarik Ice Cream and Soursop and Pomegranate Sorbet
Teh Tarik is a strong, sweet, milky black tea that’s “pulled”
by pouring it into a cup from a couple feet away. Soursop is a fruit.
Heading back to the hostel after the ice cream, I stopped
off in a 7-11 for a drink, so naturally I went for Mountain Dew, which you can’t
get in Indonesia. I feel like the flavor isn’t quite as intense as you find in
the U.S. (and the same could be said for Mountain Dew in Uganda), but I’m
pretty far removed from my last U.S. Mountain Dew, so I could be wrong. These
Doritos also tempted me, but they – like all Taiwanese-made Doritos – were disappointingly
bland.
On the topic of Mountain Dew, consider this: When I was
in East Timor earlier this year, I noticed that a can of Singapore-made
Mountain Dew costs $0.45, which I remember very clearly because I was surprised
to see that a can of Indonesian-made Coke costs $0.50, although as I thought
about it more it makes sense. In Singapore, the lowest price I found was at a
supermarket outside of the city center for S$0.70, or about $0.55 – and the
supermarket charged an extra S$0.15 for a chilled beverage.
The hawker stall I was hoping to eat at was closed (and
helpfully had a sign explaining that they were on vacation) so since it was
lunchtime and I hadn’t eaten anything yet in the day I decided to pick a long
line for something that sounded delicious (sorry, fishballs – people seem to
like you, but I’m not particularly interested) and stand in it.
This was alright, but probably the least-good thing I ate. The roast pork wasn't particularly interesting, and the noodles were resting in a dark soy sauce that was a little too strong -- I took some broth from the dumplings to tone it down a bit. The dumplings were definitely the highlight. There were three or four in there, stuffed with ground pork and shrimp.
Perhaps the most famous Singaporean dish, I went to their
original, double-wide stall, which is pretty touristy – the food center is considered
quite touristy overall, as it’s located in is near Chinatown, which is
Singapore’s tourist epicenter. It was good – the chicken was moist – although
the flavors are mild. In hindsight, I wish I had taken up the offer of an
additional chicken leg. The dark soy sauce added a lot of flavor, and the chili
paste was nice and spicy.
This is the other one recommended by the site above. I
came up to it as they were closing down for the day, and a few guys were
loading a bunch of wrapped up packages into plastic bags. They offered me one,
so I bought it – I’m not sure where the others (as in ~50 of them) were headed.
Same flavors as above, but less rich. I preferred the sliced peppers in place
of the chili paste, as they were actually spicy.
You can find curry puffs elsewhere around the region, but
mostly in chains that originate from Singapore. This one wasn’t great – I’ve
had better at airports in Indonesia – but the construction makes it notable. I’m
not sure quite how they do it, but there are all those layers of pastry that
remain very crispy and usually shatter fairly easily. It’s definitely a cheap
way to fill up – this one was S$1.10.
Probably the tastiest thing I ate. Plain rice, fried
breaded pork (front left), braised pork belly (front right), and spicy eggplant
(back), lubricated with a curry sauce. There were a few other proteins and
veggies to choose from, too. This was the place recommended here, and while it
wasn’t life-changing, it was very, very good. Nice and spicy, in contrast to
everything else I ate.
Definitely the best noodle dish I had – which is really
only saying that it seems that I prefer it Hokkien Mie – from a random stall in
a random food center. A much richer flavor, which I think is a result of the
dark soy sauce that turns the dish black. Perhaps particularly notable
considering that the noodles are gummier and the sea-extracted protein is
cockles rather than shrimp, but overall just a much more full flavor dish. There
are actually a ton of ingredients, so stealing from Wikipedia, it includes “thick,
flat rice flour (kuay teow) noodles stir-fried in dark soy sauce with prawns,
eggs, beansprouts, fish cake, cockles, green leafy vegetables, Chinese sausage
and some fried lard.”
Not pictured are a couple meals I had with Steve a
high school friend, Steve, who now lives in Singapore – one at a tapas restaurant and a fancy hamburger. Also, I
had some extra Singaporean dollars at the airport, so I gave McDonald’s a try.
I had a spicy chicken sandwich which was legitimately spicy, based only on the
spices applied underneath the breading. More interesting, though, was the chili
sauce – which is the condiment that is commonly used for dipping fries (you can
ask for packets of ketchup, but there’s always a self-serve chili sauce pump
available) – it was pretty remarkably flavorful, with a strong garlic and
fermented seafood taste (like seafood or shrimp paste).
A couple additional points:
Overall I was a bit disappointed with the food. It was
very good, and far better than anything Indonesia has to offer, but not transcendently
good. Part of my problem was the lack of spiciness, which is perhaps a result
of focusing on Chinese-Singaporean foods, which originate from areas that are
less tropical and therefore don’t need to provoke cooling sweat the way an
indigenous Singapore cuisine would. I ran across
this Wikipedia page and the map
showing language groupings, which also happen to be the main Chinese ethnic
groups that migrated to Singapore – perhaps it’s not surprising that I enjoyed
the Hainanese dishes the most (the chicken rice is very mild on its own, but
the chili paste they provided was notably hotter than others). When I go back I’ll
definitely focus a bit more on Indian options and have some laksa.
I didn’t really put the hawker stalls into context, so
here are a couple pictures:
In the downtown areas they seem to be attached to malls
with lots of office buildings around. In residential areas you’ll find them
amidst clusters of high-rise apartment buildings, so they operate as community
meeting places, which is pretty cool.
And honestly, looking back at these pictures as I finalize this post, I kind of want to book a return flight so I can go back to Baja Fresh.
