Singapore is a hard city to pin down. The best way to describe it to my Florida friends is Boca meets Hong Kong–an artificial, soulless, new, manufactured, wealthy, consumer-driven zone, yet one that does not totally lack the character and culture of Asia. It’s got green space, public transport, and street food but an Epcot…
Month: June 2010
A brief note on Kyrgyzstan
I just wanted to write a short note about the crisis in Kyrgyzstan these days. I spent some time there in 2004, and I spent four days in particular in Osh, which is now the epicentre of the violence. The events are described here. Osh is one of the crazier places I’ve visited. It can…
FOUSs (not ROUSs): Fruits of Unusual Size
If wild goose chasing were a sporting event, Josh and I could easily be world champions. We chased a lot of geese on Penang island, but luckily the ones we caught laid golden eggs. Penang Days 3 and 4 consisted of a lot of hunting proverbial wild waterfowl. First we seek what we both heard…
Low Expectations Yield High Results
I said I wouldn’t be caught dead there, and it is the most unlikely place we would have ended up watching the opener of the World Cup 2010 but there we were in seats suited for VIP at the Hard Rock Cafe. Some things are simply meant to be. Our first choice of venue, Bayernhaus,…
If MSG doesn’t kill me, it will make me stronger: Penang Day 2
1. We wake up, we get a caffeine injection. At about 11AM we walk about twenty minutes down the road to a nondescript one-way street because we have a solid tip on the town’s best white curry mee: noodles in coconut milk broth with the chili paste served on the side. On the way we…
The Good Thing About Chinese Food is that You’re Hungry Again Two Hours Later: Penang, Day 1
From Penang Ah, Penang. Where wafts of Chinese temple incense mingle with the stench of the nation’s best durians. Penang. Where curry mee comes white and you have to add your own chili paste to make the rich broth turn a sinister red. Penang. Where they throw fruit and squid together in a bowl, drizzle…
Love and Barley 