Slightly Undone

A couple of weeks ago, I went to get my hair cut. (It is really more of a trim.) At the end of the cut, my brilliant hair stylist, Coby, decided to braid my hair. I noticed a section of the salon stop and watch her do it. She said that if I slept on it, the braid would get wispy. So I skipped yoga class for a day - I did not want to sweat - and this is what it looked like at the end of the second day. I loved it.

Whittemore House

45 Grove Street

New York, NY 10014

(212) 242 8880

Meepok

I just finished reading Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan's memoir, "A Tiger In The Kitchen," and it made me think longingly of the trip The Husband and I took to Singapore last autumn. Really, a few days are not enough to get through all the childhood dishes I love. And the list does not include the famous Fish Head Curry nor Chili Crab, dishes we did not eat often during my childhood. I think it would take a few weeks to cover it all. I know I would need a few repeat meals. We gave all a good try, though.

The things I used to take for granted when I was growing up... Bright, warm, sunny days... Amazing food (almost anywhere I went)... Sigh...

Towards the end of the book, Tan writes about the Teochew noodle dish, Meepok. She even goes and eats the dish in Shantou, China - it is not the same as the one you eat in Singapore. On the last day of our trip, we were taken to have Meepok for brunch. It was one of those dishes I had not yet managed during the trip and really, really craved. Not having lived in Singapore for a lot of years, I had no idea where to go. Our friends D and P came to the rescue and took us to the MacPherson Mince Meat Noodle Stand. The Husband was thrilled - this was really not a part of Singapore a tourist would normally go to. He was the only Caucasian. My sister, and all the other people in the hawker centre, found great amusement watching him gamely order all our noodle dishes, mimicking as best as he could my sister's Chinese. He did well. The dishes arrived as asked for.

I opted for the flat thin noodles, not too spicy. What can I say, other than that it was perfection? Light, springy noodles, a salty, sour and mildly spicy sauce, topped with minced pork, tender liver slices, earthy mushroom slices and springy (again) fishcake slices. All the tastes and textures were calibrated flawlessly. The dish is really much, much greater than the sum of its parts. I would have been tempted to eat another bowl, but we had to go eat another dish at another hawker centre down the street.

Hello Again

Wow. I really didn't expect the little lull in blogging to go on this long. Four months went by very quickly. The Boyfriend and I eloped to City Hall. Then the Christmas / New Year's Holidays were upon us. Then I had a very bad case of the flu, which set the tone for the winter - a very, very cold winter - and I hibernated until spring. (Even having lived more than half of my life in New York City, I am still a girl from the tropics whose body cannot really process temperatures below 75 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Now that the nicer weather is finally here, I've emerged and more regular blogging will resume.

I'm signing off for now with a photo of the Andy Warhol sculpture currently next to The Factory in Union Square - I really love that he has his Polaroid camera and his Bloomingdale's shopping bag with him:

The Thrill Is Gone

The Boyfriend had to see the Raffles Hotel once. So on an afternoon when I was struggling with a cold and jet lag, a lovely restored hotel seemed just the amount of sight seeing I could muster. We arrived about a half hour before they started serving afternoon tea. I thought we would walk around the hotel and work up an appetite for another meal.

Off we went:

I enjoyed the Leica shop, the APC shop and we both enjoyed the Raffles Hotel Museum. There were some lovely old memorabilia and letters from the hotel's heyday. Photographs of the restoration work really showed how much the building had deteriorated and needed the work. Funny that the museum was the only part of the hotel in which I could feel what a lively place the hotel had been. A model of the hotel also showed that there was now a rooftop swimming pool. I imagined the hotel guests lounging around or splashing about in the pool as we padded quietly around the museum.

After the museum visit, we were just not ready for another meal. I wanted to leave. As soon as possible. As we wandered the galleries all afternoon, there was barely anyone else around. I was sad that the restoration had done away with all the bustling life I remembered of the old hotel.

Raffles Hotel

1 Beach Road

Singapore

(6337 1886 / fax 6339 7650)

Mannequins

The Boyfriend spotted this great fabric shop in the Arab Quarter. The fabrics are really beautiful. For whatever reason, this reminds me of Mario Bava.

Night Time Skyline

Taken on the night we went for a walk along the Marina Promenade with our friends, D and C.

Tranquility

Our friend, also D, lives in a house with a koi pond just off the front sitting room. After a stressful day at work, he finds it soothing to sit by the pond with his fish. Each fish has a distinct personality. When he feeds them, one or two will come and eat out of his hand.