There is no particular subject for this post, it's just a collection of reflections on life in this part of the world. Like having to keep almost everything in the fridge because of the heat. In Singapore keeping bananas in the fridge (normally a big no-no) means they spoil less quickly than if you keep them on the work surface. I learned this from my sister Alison - one of my regular readers - who lives in Oz, where fruit faces similar climactic challenges. Thanks, Ali.
Staying with the fruit theme, we are now in durian season. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the delights (or horrors, depending on your point of view) of the durian. I found this great piece written by a Singapore expat, in which he describes his love affair with the durian. http://web.singnet.com.sg/~tonym/durian.html. I do not share his enthusiasm, I'm afraid, having so far been put off by the smell. The durian is banned from all forms of public transport, for good reason. My Singapore friends keep encouraging me to try it in dessert or cake form, but I'm still not convinced.
Last night we went out to eat at Halia, one of the restaurants in the Botanic Gardens. It is set quite far inside the gardens, and the walk from the entrance is full of atmosphere and romance. It is up a wide path, bordered by trees and beautifully lit. There is a picture of the restaurant at the top of the post.
Unfortunately, the food was not as great as the place. The first course of black pepper soft shell crab was delicious (although the black pepper was a bit subtle for my palate, which is used to fierce amounts of chilli), but the lobster and mushroom risotto was really disappointing. There was no depth of flavour; it tasted as if the rice and stock had not spent all their life in the same pan, growing together and gradually becoming one, but more as if they had been introduced to each other halfway through the process. If that sounds a bit poncy I apologise, but those of you who cook will know what I am talking about. The restaurant made the mistake of leaving one of those happy sheets with the bill, the little card that asks for your comments on the meal. Wrong table to choose!
That said, as we walked back through the gardens to the car, we sat down on one of the wooden benches overlooking the lake and reflected again on how fortunate we are to be living here. This thought strikes me every day that I spend here, for one reason or another, but never more so than when I am travelling in other parts of Asia. People say that Singapore is "Asia 101" - the Asian experience for beginners. It is clean and prosperous, everything works, there is very little crime and none of its citizens seem (to me at least) to be living in poverty. The same cannot be said of much of the rest of the continent, and travelling in India, for example, really brings home to me the lottery that is the accident of birth. If the cost of rice goes up a few percent, it is still a very inexpensive commodity to us, but it becomes an unaffordable staple for some.
When I last wrote about India, the post featured a piece on mangoes. I have recently learned that mangoes are considered a "heatie" food, in the context of traditional Chinese medicine. Heatie (yang) foods, like ginger, red and green peppers, chicken, cherries, coconut, coffee, eel (yes, eel), garlic and of course mangoes, are said to create "hot" energy in the body, while "cooling" (yin) foods, like bananas, crab, grapefruit, lettuce, watermelon, cucumber, pears, radishes and yoghurt create cold energy. As with so much of life, it's all about balance, and eating the right balance of yin and yang foods for your own particular circumstances - taking into account metabolism and lifestyle for example - is apparently the thing to do. I wonder whether pizza is yin or yang..........
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