Monday, September 15, 2008

TBA Day 3: Laksa, Duck, and Marrow Bones...

All right, Stanley... You win. Enough with the football talk (for this week). Back to more important matters, like the food of Singapore...

Morning Laksa Quest:
I set out again this morning on a quest for a specific laksa stall... and (again) I failed. This was not such a horrible thing in the end, as I ended up at a different laksa place that was pretty darn tasty. The broth was much more subtle/delicate than what I've had in Australia, but in a really nice way... I would say this was probably the least awesome dish I've had in Singapore, but it has some pretty steep competition, so that's not necessarily a bad thing... Topped it off with another delicious iced coffee and was ready to get on with my day...
My day started a little earlier than I would have liked (4am), but at least the in-room wi-fi allowed the Bucs to aggravate me from the comfort of my bed. Yesterday was pretty eventful for a kid like me and, with the early morning today and my early train tomorrow, I've decided to take it fairly easy today. Lots of hanging out in the room watching some of the NFL action that took place while I was sleeping, a little book-reading... and, of course, a couple trips out into the world to find yummy food...

Lunchtime Duck Epiphany:
Wow. Just... wow. I took a random turn wandering home from a bit of shopping and stumbled upon a little place with a row of beautiful roast ducks on display.
I'd been having a hankering for duck lately, and it certainly seemed as though the culinary gods must have made me turn down this side street for a reason... I ordered up a plate of Roast Duck Noodles and... wow. The picture may not look like it was anything special, but (again) looks are often deceiving...
Let me qualify this by saying that I eat a lot of duck. A lot. I've had duck that's been prepared in many different ways, including roast duck from display cases that looked exactly like the one at this place. That being said, I have never in my life had duck that tasted this good. For reals. Duck was already one of my favorite foods, and now I find out that it can actually taste far better than I'd ever imagined. I have no words. One of the best-tasting things that I've ever eaten... served up from a nondescript hole in the wall on a small side street... for less than US$2.50. Gotta love Singapore.

Dinner As Seen on TV:

The other No Reservations food item I wanted to try in Singapore was Soup Tulang: braised mutton/beef marrow bones in a bright red sweet/sour/spicy sauce. I ventured out to Golden Mile Food Center for this dish, since that's where they ate it on TV... It's a bit more sprawling than Maxwell Road was, with a couple floors of food stalls arranged in a more circular fashion rather than several packed rows...
I stopped to get an iced coffee while I was searching for the soup tulang stall, and the woman asked if I had come from Australia. This is the third person to randomly ask me that... I'm wondering if I have a tell or if Aussies are just the most common white people around here... Anyway, she was super-nice and seemed to think it was pretty awesome/amusing that I'd come to Singapore from Australia just for the food.

When I found the soup tulang place and ordered, the guy didn't quite believe that I wanted to try it. In the end he decided to give me a sample-sized portion with the offer to make me more if I wanted. This was actually sort of ideal, since I wanted to try it but had also spotted another place to try while I was hunting for this stall... I was a bit disappointed (just from a shock value standpoint) that my soup tulang (pictured below) wasn't as fluorescent as the stuff on TV, but that's actully just a sign that less dye was used so I suppose it's all good.
To eat this dish, you basically pick up the bones with your hands, gnaw off the meat, then suck out all the marrow with a straw. It's quite delicous, if rather messy. There were several locals sitting around smiling as they watched me eat it, but at least with this dish I knew my procedure was OK from watching TV. ;-) I'd never sucked marrow out of a bone with a straw before, but it was sort of fun and really tasty. Definitely something I would want a full serving of on a day when I had more space available in my stomach. It brought me back to something else I've been wondering about here, though: In all the places I've eaten, there hasn't been a single napkin. I figured this was either because it's too windy or because Singaporeans are so sophisticated in their eating technique that they never need napkins (although I challenge anyone to eat soup tulang without getting your hands messy). There are sinks around, so I guess the key is just to use the only-one-messy-hand technique and then go wash up after you've finished eating... but I still wonder about the napkin situation...

I still had one more place to stop before heading home. I had seen somebody eating some seriously tasty-looking duck when I came in, and I was curious if the mind-blowing duck I'd experienced at lunch was due to the fact that most duck in Singapore is amazing or if it was just a case of that specific place making the most amazing duck in the history of the world... So, yeah... I ordered the duck rice at this stall and it was great... but didn't come close to the duck I'd had for lunch. In a way this is good because it means the place I went for lunch is something special, and makes me extra-glad that I found it, but in a way it's bad because now I have to worry that my amazing lunch has ruined all other duck for me forever...
I was realizing as I left Golden Mile that I've been feeling extremely content here. That's not something I feel (at least not for extended periods of time) very often. I'm not sure if it's a side effect of being a woman a leisure, a result of eating such amazing food at every meal, or the buzz of traveling and exploring new places... Whatever the cause, I hope it continues as I move on to Malaysia. I'm packing my bags tonight, then catching the early train to Melaka. I'm looking forward to checking out a new city, and I'm so glad I had the chance to experience Singapore (even briefly) and to begin to fall in love with this city just a bit...

2 comments:

Midge said...

I got to tell you marrow gives me the creeps. I don't care how good it is, I just can't get my mind around it.

emmo said...

I think the key (with marrow or with any potentially icky-seeming food) is to just not think about it... Once your mind gets involved it's too late. ;-)