One Degree North

New adventures in Singapore!

[hawkyc]

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Casual Saturday night, watching a few #cocktails being made! This is a speciality of the bar, which aims to capture the spirit of Sapa in northern Vietnam. Vietnamese rum is heated in the kettle and distills into the chute, representing the many waterfalls in Sapa which power mechanical contraptions to remove the husks from grains of rice, like this miniature example. The dry ice symbolises the clouds. #asyoudo #hanoi #dryice #flaming #lasiestatrendy (at La Siesta Trendy)

[hawkyc]

Exploring Penang

I sometimes develop a massive soft spot for a particular place I’ve travelled to, either linked to fond memories or perhaps an irrational feeling of attachment.  

There’s Berlin - the first trip I planned with school friends (and without adult supervision!), and probably the city i’ve returned to most over the years, excluding Dortmund of course.

Boston - with it’s beautiful buildings, rich heritage and AMAZING lobster rolls, I remembered how much I loved it when I returned for a flying business visit and have been longing to go back ever since.

Paris - cliched, I know, but for someone who’s pretty obsessed with food it’s an easy weekend get away to munch on macaroons, galettes and proper, crispy baguettes with saucisson and cheese.  And then try and carry as much back on the Eurostar as you can.

By the end of my first full day in Penang, I was pretty sure I’d be adding Georgetown to my list.

I arrived at my guest house on Friday night after a short flight from Singapore.  After checking in and asking where I could go to grab a quick bite, the lady on reception pointed me in the direction of some street food carts a few blocks away.  Twenty minutes later I was tucking into a plate of Char Kway Teow, fried noodles with seafood, all for the princely sum of £1.

The next morning I’d booked to go on a cooking class with Pearly Kee, a local Peranakan cooking teacher.  I had a simple breakfast in the hotel and in the daylight was able to appreciate the industrial chic interiors of where I was staying!

Pearly picked me up from the end of the road and we went to the E&O (posh hotel) to pick up the other guests.  We stopped off at a local market for a quick tour, a few snacks and to learn about the local ingredients such as different types of fresh ginger, herbs, vegetables, fish and meats.  There was butchery going on in the market, which was a bit too graphic for one of the other participants (my opinion being, if you don’t like how it’s raised and killed, don’t eat it).  Luckily we swiftly moved onto the coconut stall where they were making shredded coconut in what looks like a mini wood shredder and fresh coconut milk.

After the market we drove to Pearly’s house where there were individual cooking stations set up for all of us.  We started off making a pineapple and brinjal (a thin purple aubergine) patchree, which is similar to a sweet curry.  I chopped up fresh tumeric, onions and chilli, and whizzed it up with some cloves, coriander powder and chilli powder to make the paste.  We cooked this in a claypot over the gas hob until it darkened and smelt great, then added coconut milk and the pineapple and aubergine and left it to cook.

Whilst we were waiting for that, we also made pork rolls called Lor Bak, which were filled with water chestnuts, spring onions, chinese 5 spice, wrapped in bean curd skin and then deep fried.

We also made a sour prawn soup, flavoured with assam (tamarind), lemongrass,  garlic, shallots, galangal and shrimp paste, garnished with prawns and a bright pink ginger flower - something I’d never come across before!

After the morning’s excitement i was dropped off back at the hotel, where I had a chance to plan my next activity - a walking tour of Penang’s street art.  I was staying on the edge of the heritage centre of Georgetown, so the majority were all within easy reach.  Which was lucky, as it was scorching!

I took lots of snaps along the way.  This would be a fun thing to do with a friend and then you could pose for pictures at some of the 3D ones!

I headed back to the hotel to get ready for my evening food tour.  There were 7 of us on the tour and we piled into a minibus and headed off to our first stop for Penang Laksa and Cendol!  Now, as you know I’m very fond of the creamy coconut Singapore version of Laksa.  Truth be told, I’m not really big on savoury sour flavours so the Penang version made with tamarind wasn’t really floating my boat even though it was pretty tasty.  Next we tried cendol, which is a traditional dessert made from shaved ice, coconut milk, palm sugar (gula melaka), green rice flour jelly flavoured with pandan leaves and...red kidney beans.  Despite the slightly random ingredient list, I actually really enjoyed this and can see why it’s so popular.

We bundled back into the minibus for our next stop by the clan jetties, so called because each of the 6 remaining jetties were established by Chinese immigrants who shared a name or lineage.  Here I tried Lor Bak (for the second time in one day) and other fried things, with a chilli sambal dip made with calamansi limes.  We walked back along the jetties and stopped off at another wooden hut selling Nian Gao, or fried yam cake.  For reference, 1 RM is roughly 20p.

Next we drove to a HDB housing estate, which housed a number of fixed stalls and carts in the centre.  We got to try chinese pancakes, some traditional sweet sponge cakes as well as a few other bits and pieces.

For our fourth stop, we headed back across town to Lorong Baru which was starting to get busy with the dinner trade.  Here we stopped for a while, sat in the kopitiam and waited whilst our guide ordered dishes from several of the stalls there.  I tried nutmeg juice here, which was pretty sweet although nice and refreshing.  We tried chicken wings, mee goreng, hokkien mee, char kway teow.  By this point I was getting rather full!

For our final stop we headed to an indian restaurant for some lime juice and a glorious towering dosa, which was quite the spectacle!  

After the tour I decided to go off in search of a well deserved drink.  There was a heritage festival on in Penang the weekend I was there, so I chanced across a shaolin martial arts performance by local school kids, wielding all kinds of weapons.  I finally wound up in China House in their cocktail den and ordered myself a negroni to cap the night off. 

The next day, after a slow start and a decidedly bad brunch choice, I decided to take the tourist ‘hop on, hop off’ bus to the other side of the island.  It followed the coast road so I got some very scenic shots from the top of the open deck bus.  I was headed for the Tropical Spice Gardens and when I got there they doused me in insect repellent to help me avoid being bitten.  It worked.  To a certain extent.

Armed with my audio guide I toured the garden and saw pineapples, kaffir limes, lemongrass, bananas, pepper, kaffir lime and all sorts.  There was the odd pot with a few dead twigs in, so I used the audio guide and my imagination to picture what should have been there.  It was a pretty chilled out way to spend the afternoon.

After that it was time to go, so I headed back to the hotel to pick up my rucksack and headed off to the airport after a gloriously foodie weekend.

Goodbye Penang, until next time!

[hawkyc]

Had fun at #geylangseraimarket this morning buying Asian produce. Can you name the ingredients I picked up? Bonus points for guessing which dish they're all for! (at Geylang Serai Market)

[hawkyc]

Highly possible.

[hawkyc]

An afternoon at the Botanic Gardens

A couple of weeks ago there was a mid week public holiday in Singapore to celebrate Hari Raya, or Eid as we tend to call it in the UK.  This meant a day off work and a chance to do a bit of sight seeing - and this time it wasn’t even related to food!

Seeing as the weather was nice, I decided to take a trip to the Singapore Botanic Gardens which is a short bus ride away from my apartment.

My first impression was that it was a lot larger than I imagined and like most attractions in Singapore it didn’t disappoint.  It’s immaculately kept, interesting and well thought out.  There were lots of families and groups of friends playing sports and tucking into picnics, so it had a lovely atmosphere.

Within the park are mini gardens, each showcasing a specific category of plants such as gingers, fragranced plants and even bonsai!  It’s also home of the National Orchid Garden, which is what I had come to visit.

Who knew there were so many different types and in so many shapes, sizes and colours!  Apparently it’s very easy to create new hybrid varieties of orchid, and they have a ‘VIP’ section in the garden where they have planted and dedicated new hybrid varieties to important visitors to Singapore (heads of State etc).  The orchids were beautiful and I couldn’t believe how easily they were all growing.  

I’ve tried several times in the flat to look after a single plant, but each time it slowly dies and all the flowers fall off!

Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Singapore!

[hawkyc]

Adventures in Bali

As some of you will know, my jet setting friend Laura came to stay with me for a week in May.  This meant it was definitely time to tick off a typical European fantasy destination... Bali!  

Firstly, lets get this out of the way.  Yes, I went to Bali.  No, I didn’t see a single beach.

By chance our trip coincided with the Ubud Food Festival, a small grassroots festival and already a huge success in just it’s second year.  After a bit of research, we decided to spend our 3 nights in Ubud, at the Alaya Resort which turned out to be a pretty damn good choice!

On our first morning we explored Ubud on foot.  We came across monkeys, paddy fields and the Ubud palace in the bustling centre.

We then walked up to the Food Festival site, just outside of the main centre to take our tour to an organic farm.  At the farm, we filled our plates with cocoa, cashew and coconut samples and sat down to listen to Ben Ripple, one of the co-founders of Big Tree Farms.  He told us his story from starting as a curious backpacker to acquiring some land and the series of surprises and good luck which enabled him to start his ethical business.

We had the opportunity to sample some raw cocoa beans, roasted beans, nibs and the finished product.  All of which were divine and it was the first time I’d seen all the products from start to finish (you don’t see Cadbury World dishing out fresh cocoa pods!). 

We then got to don some sexy but hygienic hats to tour the factory!

After the tour we headed back to the festival site for some dinner and then called it a night, as we had a VERY early start the next morning...

Now, I believe this was my idea (egged on by Lonely Planet and far too many online blogs), but we decided that a 2am wake up call and then a hike up an active volcano in the dark seemed like A. Good. Idea.

We were picked up from our hotel at 2:30am and driven to a hotel near the base of Mount Batur for a rather eclectic breakfast of fruit, chocolate cake and coffee (I’ve had worse) at 4am in the morning.  By this point we were buzzing and couldn’t wait to get cracking.  This was the first time we saw who was in our tour group, and to our surprise they were all young, fit, twenty-thirty somethings.  The trip was starting to look more hardcore!

Armed with torches and drinking water we started our ascent with a local guide, who looked far more chilled about it than we did and apparently didn’t need a torch or proper footwear.  Initially you walk up through a forested area, with some gentle and not-so-gentle slopes.  Once you clear the top of the trees, the real work starts as the trek becomes a gravelly, rocky climb - ideally you need all four hands and feet to get you up!  On a particularly steep part, I lost my footing and afraid of losing the torch down the slope broke my fall with my fore arm, which stung quite a bit for a while.  However as the sun started to rise and we neared the top, the reason for our trip became clear.

Although it was cloudy, so we didn’t get a “proper” sunrise, to be above the clouds with such beautiful scenery was pretty awesome. There were a few novelty tricks at the top, including the guide baking some eggs and bananas in the steam from one of the craters, but mostly it was about taking a break to enjoy the view and recover from the hike up!

After an hour or so we started to make our way down, which was almost as difficult as the trek up and resulted in me sliding down the path on the side of me I hadn’t bashed up earlier, so at least that evened things up a bit.

At the bottom we said goodbye to the guide and were led to a hot springs resort, with geothermal waters.  This was a relaxing way to end the hike and also included a foot massage.  And again, the view wasn’t too shabby either!

After that we took our transfer back to the hotel and were all done by 1pm!  Having been up for 11 hours already at the point, we decided to indulge in some well deserved pool time!

On our final night we went out to The Elephant, a vegetarian restaurant in Ubud, with a friend we had made on the cocoa farm tour.  The food was great (the kind where you forget it’s vegetarian) and was a nice end to a long day.

The next morning we were pretty sad to be having our final breakfast, and spent the last few hours wandering around Ubud before spending a further couple in the hotel’s spa.  We both got a Balinese massage and a mini facial for a bargain price (one of the things I love about Asia!).

I’d love to visit Bali again, and maybe staying in Seminyak next time for variety (and laying off on the adventurous activities!).  Good weather, good food, good scenery and most importantly good company - what more could you ask for?

[hawkyc]

Turning 29 in Singapore

Last month, as many of you know,  I turned 29 just a couple of weeks after I arrived in Singapore.  I was pretty bowled over by the cards and gifts I received from back home; clearly I’m not out of sight and out of mind just yet!

Alex was over, so we had a fun week being tourists in Singapore.  What’s better for curing jet lag, than getting up early for a rainforest hike in the sweltering heat!?  We took the bus north to MacRitchie, one of Singapore’s nature reserves and did a 6km circular walk.  The highlight of the hike is a 250 metre long suspension bridge, 25 metres above the forest floor.  From here we got a bird’s eye view of the tree canopy, and slighly terrorized by some inquisitive monkeys looking for food!

We spotted lots of birds, as well as several monkeys and a few lizards.  Judging by the warning signs en route, it’s also possble to see snakes!  It was a great walk, but it’s best to go early (before 8:30am) to avoid the crowds.

The next day we attended a half day cooking class at The Food Playground, lead by the delightful Lydia - a Singaporean Mum.  We started by making boxes out of pandan leaves to hold our Hoon Kueh, a kind of set sweet.  We then made the mung bean flour, sugar and coconut mixture to pour into our boxes and left them to set.  Next we started on our Nonya Laksa paste, by chopping and grinding all the herbs and spices including ingredients I’d never used before like Candlenuts, so called because of their flammable high fat content.

Finally we learnt how to make and roll vegetable spring rolls, before adding stock and coconut milk to our Laksa broth and plating up with sliced fish cake, prawns and cucumber.  Delicious!

On my actual birthday we took a trip to Gardens by the Bay, which had been on my hit list since day 1.  They have, hands down, the best biodomes I’ve ever been into, even though its a bit weird as a european walking around the Flower Dome thinking “this is all stuff I see in the UK or on holiday in Europe”.  The tropical stuff is all outside!  On the plus side, it’s a rather pleasant 23 degrees inside and without the 80% humidity!  

However, the Cloud Dome which explores the cloud forest environment is truly stunning, with the world’s tallest indoor waterfall as it’s centre piece.  I actually enjoyed it so much that I talked myself into getting an annual pass as a birthday present to myself!

That evening I’d booked a table at Labyrinth, recommended by a colleague at work.  I put on a dress and brushed my hair, so it was clearly a special occasion!  The food was outstanding!  We ordered the 11 course tasting menu, with a wine pairing which happily kicked off with a glass of LP.

Labyrinth is a fine dining place, which takes Singaporean classics and gives them the michelin make over.  It’s definitely a better experience if you’ve had the opportunity to sample a few Hawker delights ahead of your trip, but fear not, if you haven’t the staff will happily whip out iPads to explain the original dish.  Quite handy if you don’t know your Hokkien Mee from your Char Kway Teow.  Ahem.  

My favourite had to be their signature dish, an interpretation of Singapore chill and black pepper crab, made with soft shell tempura crab and a chilli and a black pepper ice cream.  To die for!

Definitely a birthday (week) I’ll remember for afew more years to come!

More updates coming soon, as I’ve been a bit slack recently!

[hawkyc]

Kopi lah!

Singlish, condensed milk in my coffee and carrying it around in a sling. I’ve practically gone native.

I’ll be updating the blog today (after some more coffee), with some long overdue updates!

[hawkyc]

Siem Reap and Cambodia

When I explain that I’m in Singapore on a short term assignment the response is always the same. “Make sure you travel.  Lots!”, followed by reciting flight times to Phuket, Penang, Bali or any of the other nearby destinations.

Slightly panicked before I left about ‘not making the most of it’, I decided to book a trip for my 3rd week here, which coincided with my birthday and a visit from Alex.  No time like the present.

We flew to Cambodia, and if I thought Singers was hot then Siem Reap took that up a level.  Top tip for arriving in countries where you need to get a visa on arrival: Bring a pen (school boy error on my part) otherwise you will be scrabbling around trying to find one.

We were picked up by our own private tuk tuk that I had booked as part of the hotel deal.  After a hot and dusty 30 minute journey to the other side of Siem Reap we were pleasantly surprised with an amazing tropical resort!  Perfect for a spot of rest and relaxation.

However, obviously we were here for the temples, so ate at the hotel’s restaurant and got an early night ahead of our 4am wake up call.  Our tuk tuk was ready to meet us and took us to the Ankor Wat ticket office.  Top Tip #2: Check your US Dollar bills are undamaged.  After picking over our notes and asking for newer ones they finally took our pictures and printed out our 1 day passes.

We arrived at Ankor Wat about 5:20am to watch the sunrise.  I dont know if it was a bit cloudy or something, but I was personally quite underwhelmed.  We headed to the temple to explore before it got too busy.  Up close, the sheer scale and ambition of the temple is what really left an impression.  The whole complex is 400km sq, so our day was really just the ‘highlights tour’.

Next stop was Ankor Thom, a city complex made up of several temples, the best known being Bayon.  Much quieter than Ankor Wat, it was my favourite as I found Bayon more interesting, with huge faces built into the rocks and mulitple levels.  After Bayon we completed the circuit through some other temples, although by this point it was starting to get uncomfortably hot.  The sun cream made a re-appearance despite being only about 9am as I was starting to cook. Top Tip #3, courtesy of a lady from work, Banana Boat Factor 50 sport sun cream.  I hadn’t really appreciated sweat resistant sun creams before!

Finally we visited Ta Prohm, which featured in the film Tomb Raider.  This temple has under gone some fairly impressive restoration to rescue some of it back from nature (obviously not the part below) and the huge trees growing up around and over it.

By now it was about 11am and the sun was absolutely sweltering so we decided to call it a day and head back for lunch and enjoy some pool time.

That evening we headed into Siem Reap for drink and dinner.  We got dropped off in the centre and headed to Miss Wongs - recommended by several guide books.  After a delicious Miss Wong Punch and Passionfruit Cosmopolitan we wandered through Siem Reap to The Sugar Palm for dinner to sample some local food.  Here we tried some beef skewers, green mango salad, fish amok (a kind of baked fragrant curry with a souffle like texture) and a khemer curry.  I suspect we got the tourist toned down versions, but it was all tasty and good value by Western/Singapore standards at least!

On the final morning we headed back into Siem Reap to look around the old market which was full of fresh food, jewellery, clothing and scarves. We cooled off and had a coffee and some food in the very good Sister Srey Cafe, recommended by a friend. 

Would I go back to Siem Reap? Absolutely. You could easily take 5 days or a week there exploring the Ankor complex and enjoying the sunshine. It’s fairly compact, easy to get around by tuk tuk and there seemed to be some great food on offer. The accommodation was cheap as chips for what you got and the people we met were all lovely. I was nervous that 2 nights was going to be too short, but in reality it was enough for a great taster to Siem Reap and the Ankor archeological park.

[hawkyc]

Singapore: Week 1

I can hardly believe I've been here a whole week.  I've still got an awful lot to explore but I’m starting to feel like I know my way around a little bit and have kind of got used to it being it hot outside ALL THE TIME.

The people here are really friendly and I've been made to feel very welcome.  Everyone has been great in offering tips and helping me figure out the basics.  Here’s a photo of me having lunch with a colleague. DB people might recognise this Sales lady!

I've been trying out the local (and super cheap) food in the Hawker Centre opposite the office called Lau Pa Sat.  It used to be a fish market and has some lovely colonial architecture and beautiful clock tower.

One of my favourite discoveries so far is a coconut jam called Kaya, which is made like a curd with eggs, butter and sugar.  It's part of a typical breakfast here consisting of buttered toast with Kaya, runny eggs and strong coffee with condensed milk and sugar.  All for £1.35!  You're supposed to crack the eggs into a small dish, season them with soy and pepper and then eat them with a spoon.  It would be a lot easier with an eggcup!

I tried another local dish, chicken rice, this afternoon which was also pretty tasty.  You often get lots of pots of mysterious liquids (sauces, broths, thin yoghurt) with your meals here, so I'm always watching other people to try and figure what to do with them.  Today, I just tipped it over and hoped for the best!

I bought a cheap cook book this week for some Asian inspiration, and also to find out what on earth is actually in all these dishes i’ve been eating.  It explains how to make a bunch of pastes which can then be used for various curry or stir fry dishes.  The recipe for beef rendang looks especially good, as I've only ever used dried spices to make it before.  Once I've made the trip to Ikea (yes, they're everywhere) for some kitchen basics then I’ll be able to get cracking!

[hawkyc]

My neighbourhood at night! I've had a pretty successful expat week so far. I've got a new Singapore number (Whatsapp me for details), a EZ Link travel card which is much like an Oyster card and I have my appointment booked to get my Employment Pass issued from the Ministry of Manpower this Friday. I've also got a viewing lined up for another apartment down the road which I will have the option of moving to after the month here is up. To be honest, from the pictures they look very similar. The new one just has a better pool and is slightly closer to the MRT but further from the supermarkets. So far this week I've been trying out different commutes to and from the office, which as it turns out is a different beast to getting around London. Option 1) Walking. Although it's only 20mins before I can get underground, it's still too bloody hot when it's 32 degrees outside. It's OK in the evenings, but on Monday morning not only was I using my umbrella as a sunshade but I had a real fear of being burnt to a crisp on my first commute. And you turn up sweaty. Not a classy look. Option 2) Shuttle bus. This is the apartment perk and nicely air-conned, hassle free option where I barely have to walk a step to get from door to door as it drops me a mere 50 paces from my office. This means I arrive nicely chilled at 8:20am; a peaceful 40mins before the rest of the office joins me! Option 3) Public bus. Also a pretty quick option and also more flexible in terms of timings, but I made a blunder on my first trip tonight when I didn't realise you had to touch IN _and_ touch OUT of the bus. Turns out you're charged based on how far you travel. Having said that my journey should only have cost me about 65 cents (about 35p) so I'm not too worried about my incoming "tourist tax".

[hawkyc]

HELLO SINGAPORE! I've been in Singapore for just over 24 hours now. The final bits of cleaning and packing were a bit stressful, but thankfully the BA Lounge and open bar took care of that once I reached Heathrow! Firstly, the obvious. It's hot. And humid. However it's not quite as bad as I had built up in my head and so far it's not felt unbearable. Today I checked out where the new office is, which is pictured above (big, glass, shiny building!). It's roughly 25 minutes walk from my apartment, but mostly above ground so will need to see how hot it is in the mornings. There's also a shuttle bus from the apartment that drops me off close to work. Tasks for this week are to get a Singapore SIM card, public transport pass and figure out what to do about food. The kitchen in my apartment is spartan to say the least. From my quick trips around the supermarket it seems the western foods are quite expensive so it would be good to learn how to cook some Asian dishes.

[hawkyc]

24 hours to go! Today was my last day in the London office. I'm still pretty anxious about getting packed up and ready to go so today flew by really. Had a nice team breakfast and said a few goodbyes to my London colleagues. I don't actually know what the office looks like in Singapore, but I'm pretty sure it won't look like this... Or from the outside at least - I'm sure the inside will contain standard edition office equipment!

[hawkyc]

1 week to go!

✅ Employment pass approved ✅ Flights booked ✅ Accommodation secured ❌ Packing sorted I am feeling much better now that all the logistics are sorted! With one week to go, today is the designated packing day.

[hawkyc]

10 Days to Go...!

No employment pass. No flights. No accommodation. Nothing packed. Ah well, at least Masterchef is back on the telly.

[hawkyc]

My balcony is one of the things I’ll miss when I’m in Singapore. Admittedly I have a skill for cultivating the world’s smallest vegetables and my fingers certainly aren’t all that green, but there’s something pleasing about watching your plants grow and flower.

Currently I have a collection of Spring bulbs growing including narcissus, crocus, miniature iris and (hopefully) tulips.

[hawkyc]

Thumbs up to New Year Resolutions! In January 2015 I committed to learn to swim; although I dithered and didn't actually start lessons until early December. However, here I am 12 weeks later and looking forward to working on my front crawl in today's lesson! I'm hoping my travels in Asia will give me the opportunity to swim in some interesting and beautiful places. Fingers crossed!