When the Quotidien Isn't

    This morning, I'm headed off to the Indian Heritage Center.
     First, I wanted to muse on my good fortune at being here.  It is a delight to get up and go swimming every morning, with a almost 50 meter lap pool just a walk away. Then, breakfast,which is usually a salad---so healthy! Once a week, I indulge in the marvel of kaya toast and soft-boiled egg, or noodles.
     I'm in the midst of daily explorations both the gardens and the cuisine of Singapore.  At night, I delve into the extensive literature, scholarly and popular on these topics.  One terrific resource is from editor Ken Albala's Rowman and Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy: Eating Together: Food, Space and Identity in Malaysia and Singapore by Jean Duruz and Gaik Cheng Khoo.

     Here's what I'm not doing: Cooking. There doesn't seem much point when great food is available for S$3-6 a plate.
     Here's what else I'm not doing: Eating at the plentiful branches of western fast food. These are to be found in the shopping centers located at main transportation hubs.  But I am paying attention to the morphing of global chains to local/global tastes.  Here are some illustrations:

Pizza Hut does English Comfort Food for Australians?

Pizza Hut does Swiss and French?

    And this:

Starbucks Does Moon Cakes!

     Invention is everywhere!

You know you're craving a coloured flavoured soup dumpling!

     I know I'm craving plain Shanghai soup dumplings, an maybe, just maybe will try the truffle one.

     And speaking of Ken Albala and soup for noodles, here are the directions for making the Hokkien Meehoon Mee.  I begin to understand how the noodles get their flavor when this marvelous liquid is added back into the stir-fried egg and rice noodles.

      In a large saucepan bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add 1 and 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 lb pork butt. Stir in 3/4 lb shrimp, Unshelled, boil for 2 minutes, and transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Let the shrimp cool until they can be handled and shell them. In the boiling liquid boil 1 lb. cuttlefish or squid, turning it for 1 minute and transfer it with slotted spoon to a bowl. Let the cuttlefish cool until it can be handled and cut it into 1/4 inch rings. Continue cooking the pork in the cooking liquid at a gentle boil, turning it, for 25-30 minutes, or until the cooking liquid is reduced to about 1 cup. Transfer the pork to a bowl, reserving the cooking liquid.. Let the pork cool until it can be handled and shred it. 

      This is the recipe that Gourmet's Fred Ferretti and his wife, Eileen Yin Fei Low extracted from the Hyatt Regency Singapore in 1986 for Gourmet.  I suspect that Zanne Early Stewart tested it as well!