Christmas in America

I was lucky to spend three weeks back in the US visiting colleagues, friends, and family. It was a fantastic time! I made it to Dallas, Austin, Lake Brownwood State Park for an good old friend's wedding, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Santa Fe for my annual Hearts Game (Webb lost), back to Amarillo and then back to Dallas. Along the way, I saw friends from high school, college, and post-college days. I went to a Cowboy game and bought two pairs of cowboy boots (I have no idea when I will wear them in Singapore). I hung out in the Driskill Hotel in Austin, the rim of the Palo Duro Canyon, and all kinds of places in between. I enjoyed weather from sunny 70 degrees to snowy (and blowy) 25 degrees, sometimes within just a day or two of each other (in the same place!). I listed to a ton of great Texas music. And I got to eat good ol' American food: cheese fries at Snuffer's in Dallas AND Southlake, CFS at Porch in Dallas, Babe's in Roanoke, and the Stockyards Cafe in Amarillo, burgers at Hut's in Austin, Coyote Bluff, Wendy's and Sonic in Amarillo (don't laugh - we don't have those over here) and Del's in Tucumcari, biscuits and gravy at the Wagon Wheel in Goldthwaite, Lucky's and Original Market Diner in Dallas, and Alex's house (with my homemade gravy) in Amarillo, pizza at Louie's and Fireside Pies in Dallas and Luigi's in Amarillo, steaks at Bull Ring in Santa Fe and (my favorite) Bob's in Dallas, and - of course - Mexican food! Mi Cocina in Southlake, Abuelo's and Leal's in Amarillo, tamales on the Square and Los Potrillos in Santa Fe. No wonder I gained 10 pounds!

Of course, the best thing about being back was seeing my family. I spent time with them in Amarillo, and we wen to spend some time with my cousins in Albuquerque before making our first visit to Aunt Beverly's gravesite since her death in September. She is interred with Uncle Bill in the beautiful setting of Santa Fe National Cemetery.

It was a great three weeks.

Travel: Taipei - Night Markets

I intended to seek out some of Taipei’s temples during the weekend, and I decided to start with Longshan Temple, which dated to 1738. It is just off of an MRT stop (named, conveniently, Longshan Temple). When I arrived, my sense of direction failed me, and I ended up spending the dying moments of the day wandering around, looking for the temple (it ended up being in the one direction I hadn't actually looked). This was fine, however, as I got to see a little bit of the local neighborhood. And little did I know that the area transformed into a night market as the sun set. I stumbled upon dozens of street vendors setting up their food stalls, and I was brave enough to taste some of the goodies (on the meat front, I stayed exclusively with chicken, asking for help from the locals; some of what I saw would have taken real guts – pun intended – to stomach). My favorite dish was a Taiwanese version of flatbread, a doughy pancake with vegetables and spices, cooked with an egg and brushed with soy and chilli sauce. You fold it over and eat it like an Asian tortilla. I later found other vendors making the same thing – one deep-fried his, another called it China Pizza. It is my new favorite. And it probably has 2000 calories a serving.

After sampling the food, I realized the temple was right beside the night market, so I made a quick visit. It was buzzing with activity, but the light was fading for some good photos, so I decided to save a longer visit for the next day. I was off in search of another Taiwanese favorite – the beer hall. More on that later.



After a quick break at the hotel, I headed out to try another night market, the large Shilin Market, housed in a huge building in the northern part of the city. It is like a carnival – games of skill/chance, trinket and knick-knack shops, and lots of food stalls. You name it, they were cooking it – all kinds of seafood, massive sausages, a Taiwanese-version of blood pudding, and stews that looked like they contained every part of the unfortunate creatures that served as the base. And the place was packed. Not only inside, but also around the area. It looked like it would go all night.

Again, I stayed safe, having beef and onions, cooked teppanyaki-style on the grill top right in front of me. It was quite tasty, but the cool part was that it continued to cook as I ate it - the meat and veggies were served on a piece of foil right on the grill-top. I guess it gives the diner the choice of how exactly he wants his meat cooked - it just depends on how long he takes to eat it.




I did take an interest in the other foods being served, but my curiosity was limited to questions about ingredients and the snapping of photos. I was too full, and I just wasn't going to make the leap in some cases.

By the time I had finished eating and playing shooting games (I won a deck of cards by shooting 8 out of 10 balloons in a clearly fixed game), it was late, and I was tired. So, back on the MRT and off to the hotel.

Food: Kaya

Along with their excellent kopi, Singaporeans (and other southeast Asians) enjoy kaya toast. Kaya is coconut jam, made with coconut, eggs, pandan leaf, and sugar. It is a rich, sweet spread used mainly on buttered or French toast. The jam is either golden or green in color, depending on the amount of pandan and carmelization of the sugar. It is often eaten for breakfast, but you will see people eating kaya toast at all times during the day in certain coffeeshops. If you ever have a chance to try kaya, by all means do!

Food: Kopi (Coffee)

I know I have written about kopi (the Malay word for coffee) previously, but I wanted to highlight it here. Coffeeshops provide very cheap coffee, usually about one Sing dollar. The coffee is very strong and very good, true to the Turkish proverb about coffee (I'll leave you to find it). I am pretty sure, however, that it isn't all that healthy for you. Not only is the coffee served normally with sweetened condensed milk or a full dose of sugar, the beans are actually roasted in butter before brewed. Heavenly!

Food: Chicken Feet

So, I finally tried chicken feet. I had lunch in a hawker stall on Sunday, and I got a plate of them for two bucks. Tasted like chicken. It actually was the skin of the chicken feet, which had the expected texture - a little chewy, with a rough outer "shell". There was a little cartilage left in there, but it was okay. I didn't really care for the sauce it was in, so I didn't finish the plate, but all in all, not bad. For a one-time snack.

Makan!

A self-professed pastime of Singaporeans is eating. "Makan" is the Malay word for "eat" or "food". Singapore is a city of many races, and its food reflects this. Singapore is the culinary birthplace of a number of delicious dishes including Bak Kut Teh (pork ribs simmered in pepper and garlic broth), Indian Rojak (a collection of fried stuff like dough fritters, prawns, chilli potatoes, fried coconut dough and squid, served with a sweet potato and chilli dip), Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles (thick yellow egg noodles and rice vermicelli stir-fried in pork-seafood stock with pork, prawns, and squids), Laksa (Peranakan rice noodle dish with garlic, shallots, dried shrimps, and coconut milk), Chicken Rice (the Singaporean national dish), and Fish Head Curry Soup (a whole huge snapper head cooked in a spicy, tangy tamarind curry with ochra and tomoatoes). Makan is such a serious endeavour that there is a guidebook of local eateries called Makansutra ("sutra" being Sanskrit for "guide"). It is great! I have found all kinds of fantastic places with unbelievable food, from golden pillow curry in Geylang (as close to a red light district as you will get here) to chicken noodles in Chinatown to Laksa in Katong. The nice thing is that the guidebook focuses on food hawkers, the (mainly) open air food stalls and stands that serve excellent food for around US$3. Of course, you always have to leave room for a Singaporean coffee (kopi), which is made with a healthy dollop of sweetened condensed milk. The coffee is made by pouring hot hot water through a coffee "sock" which contains "coffee powder." The coffee is then poured through the sock (essentially a filter, although it looks like a sock) again, making it very strong. The final drink is made by cutting with water and adding the condensed milk, or you can get kopi-o, which is black coffee with sugar. It is generally too bitter for no sugar, and having just the coffee (not diluted with water) will keep you up for 48 hours.