What?!! They are selling burnt bread!

They are all burnt at the top! Are they still edible? Can they be sold? Yes!



These are the traditional bread that is being sold in Singapore. Only a few shops produced these now. The black crust is taken off, and inside they are the softest bread you can ever get!

To see more pictures of these bread, how they look and the shop, visit my Singapore Food Daily Blog.

The Blood Suckers! 3 tubes of my blood!

Since I posted about doctors yesterday, (that's not really a medical doctor, but a restaurant) this is a  photo of my blood test I took.

The medical assistant took the photo for me, the nurse said I have to stay still and not move my other hand.

They took 3 tubes of my blood. I am now waiting for the results.



The above is the picture of the 1st tube being taken. The 2nd tube is available at my Singapura Daily Makan Blog.

A visit to Doctor Cheng

Well, if you visit Doc Cheng, it's not because you are sick, but because you are hungry!
Doc Cheng's a restaurant situated at the Raffles hotel in Singapore.



now this advertisement is cheeky isn't it?

Grasshopper Eyes, view of durian from Swissotel Stamfort

The other day a good friend from Penang came over. Booked him a hotel at the tallest hotel in town. So when I gave him the keycard to the room when they arrived, took the opportunity to take photos. (DP job hazard?)

Here's a view of the Bay Area from the room. Below is the Esplanade. Instead of looking like a durian from this angle, it looks like grasshoppers eyes right?

Singapore is one of the world's busiest port. So you can see lots of ships behind.



If you want to see more picture of the Esplanade that has been posted, click on the "label" thingy below this tag, blogspot will retrieve all posting here with the Esplanade tag.


p/s: Mr & Mrs BA, hope you all liked the room.

Tossing up food, high, higher in the air!

This was taken yesterday, our office had our annual chinese new year celebration lunch.

The first dish in most 'eating gatherings' during this season is called 'Yee Sang'. The fun part is to toss it high up in the air before eating it. At the same time, you are suppose to shout out auspicious chinese proverbs.



Oh, what a mess we have created! More of these pictures and description at my food site.

Singapore Flyer - It's not a full circle yet.

Here's an update to the Singapore Flyer that's being built. The wheel is building up. It's now more than a quarter of a wheel.

When ready, a full circle 'flight' will take 37 minutes. $29.50 for an basic adult ticket. Although it's not completed yet, but bookings are now opened!



This is back to my old post, where the wheel's not even there! ;-)
http://keropokman.blogspot.com/2007/01/singapore-flyer-singapores-version-of.html

Singapore Flyer Website

Clarke Quay Bum Boat Rides

These boats are the river taxis that bring you to various stops along the Singapore River.

If you are not in a hurry, take a boat ride and slowly absorb the lights of Singapore. After the boat ride, enjoy a drink or some food along Clarke Quay or nearby Boat Quay.

Clarke Quay Lotus Pods

These structures that looks like lotus pods provides shelter for eating places along Clarke Quay.

See those 2 poles that are litted behind? They are the reverse bungee jump.



Clarket Quay is situated just along the Singapore River.

Clarke Quay Alien Spaceship

Just got back to Singapore today, and have been back posting last 2 days picture. hehe.. Just had a huge dinner too. It has been feasting these few days!

---------------

Visitors to Singapore will usually visit Clarke Quay. It's a place where those are daring can do the reverse bungee jump. Others go there to visit the pubs, and others to eat.

Well, if you are there, you will not miss these. The whole place is covered up with these to make the whole place cooler. I really mean cooler as in lowering the temperate not the 'oh yeah, its cool' kind of cool. :-P

Freshly Roasted Chestnuts!

Chestnuts! Chestnuts! 500grams for $3.

This vendor is serving his customers a pack of chestnuts. Look how quick he is filling up the bag. haha..



These are the roasting machines used nowdays, gone are the days when the vendor will be using his hands to stir them. It's all machines nowdays.



Like to see how raw chestnuts looks? Visit my Daily Makan (Food) Site to see them ;-)

Wan Shi Ru Yi

It's Chinese New Year today.

Those Chinese characters says "wan shi ru yi". Meaning, all thing you do will have success.

Loud hailer shouting: Lai ah Lai ah..

Posting from outside Singapore. Thank goodness parents have broadband.

Wishing all Chinese people reading this, have a great reunion dinner.

Chinese all around the world, would rush home to be with families, yes, a whole big clan like thingy, all your uncles, aunties, cousins, nieces, nephews, all eating together and spending time catching up and giving/receiving 'ang pows' (Red Packets filled with money).

Got to rush off soon after posting this, going to travel around 45 mins to Grandma's place. It will be a fabulous time!

---

This is a vendor shouting "Lai ah Lai ah, jing pee" (come, come, very cheap) to people in Chinatown. He said, I can take his picture, but as long as the police to not look for him, its ok. haha...



He's selling nuts. Those packets are packs of nuts. It's also the same stall selling the various melon seeds and other nuts in the last few day's posting.

It's a Big Lemon! No, it's just a yellow pomelo

Back to Chinatown today, and it's the eve of Chinese New Year's eve. (confused? haha)

Pomelos are on sale, lots and lots of it.
The writing says it has 'red meat pomelo', meaning the fruit has red flesh inside.




Now, what is this? Big oversized lemons? No, they are Yellow Pomelos!



I am out of Singapore until next week. Visiting my family for the Chinese New Year.

I shall be back, but meanwhile, I hope that I have access to the Internet to provide you daily updates.

Lilies for St Valentine's Day

It was V day yesterday, and I bought this bunch of flowers for my sister. She likes lilies and I thought she might like it.



Haha. After telling sis the price when she asked, she said the same shop sells it 6 times less on normal days! Haha... too late. At least our home will smell of lilies for the next few days.

Back to driving you nuts again in Chinatown

This is the guy that we bought from. You can see the pistachios being weighed on the scale.

If you want, you can like the lady try the stuff, before you buy them. Like it, then you buy. Free tasting. The man will scoop a bowl for you try! It's the festivities, and they are generous as well!



The black stuff you see are melon seeds. They are delicious. So are the white ones in the container, just a different colour and different melons. haha....

p/s. Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Austrian Sausage man in Chinatown

One thing that you seldom see in Singapore's Chinatown is an 'ang moh' hawker. You see lots of 'ang moh' as tourist, but this guy is different.

He sells western sausage, and they are popular. There's a queue too!

Mr Erich hard at work.


He was featured in a newspaper before and he has it on his stall.


A few more days to the Lunar New Year, I am already munching on Jam Tarts! yummy...

Going Nuts over it.

If you visit a chinese home during the Lunar New Year, you'll be served with lots of tidbits to eat. People will be catching up with one another while munching on stuff. Melon seeds, pistachios, different assortment of cookies (eg pineapple tarts, peanut cookies, cornflakes cookies, etc), sweets, assortment of pickled or preserved fruits and the list goes on.

Here you can see that this man is selling pistachios like hot cakes. It was the 3rd time he was re-stocking his pistachios.

The different nuts and seeds were selling like hot cakes.


Aunt who was with me bought 1kg of it. Actually, it seems like the prices in Chinatown is really cheap.

Madame Tussaud's in Chinatown, Singapore

Madame Tussaud's displays wax figures of famous people. This chinatown version also have wax figures, but they are wax preserved food. LOL.

I tell you, I can't stand the smell of it. To take yesterday's photo and this one today, I have to hold my breath! haha...



Sorry for this post that might offend some.

Chinese sausages galore!

Sausages here, sausages there. It's everywhere.

Chinese sausages are popular in manay chinese food. There are also many varieties of it. Some are made from just meat, others are made from inards of animals, eg liver, etc. The darker ones in the photos are the ones made from liver, etc...

Goodness gracious. I only eat the normal meat ones, the rest have taste that puts me off.

These sausages are displayed across the wall of the stalls that sells them. There was a few stores that sell them.



The Chinese likes to give them as gifts as well. When we visit relatives, we bring a gift and the recipient will then 'return a gift'. This is what we do here in Singapore and Malaysia. (Not sure if other chinese in other countries do the same).

Yes, gifts are always accompanied by mandarin oranges, and they are always given in pairs.

Time to buy the decos.. head to Chinatown quick...

Are you one that will decorate your home with all the festive stuff? The shops that sells them are all decorated nice and bright, just like this shop in Chinatown.



As you can see, everything's red again. I just realise there's a piggy right in the middle of the pix! hahaha... See those stuff hanging that looks like pineapples, yes, they are suppose to represent pineapples. They symbolise something too. Some the commenters will fill in the blanks :-)

Sneaking into the Backstage

Yesterday you saw how the puppets are manipulated by 2 humans. Well, here's a backstage peek. These two ladies are the ones in charge. They are also the one telling the stories.

The rest of the crew are playing the musical instruments that makes all the 'tong tong chiang' sounds. You can also see some other characters.



If you wonder if anyone's watching? There is! Young and old, standing, sitting, squating, eating, etc...

Hokkien Puppet Show in Chinatown

One of the interesting thing I saw at Chinatown was this puppet show. It was all in Hokkien (a mandarin dialect). The pupputeers sure were enjoying themselves, it could be heard thru their voices.

Come down to the Chinatown Heritage Centre if you wanna listen to it.



If you want to find out more about it, read this.

lim chee guan bbq meat - the prices are rising!!!

Bak Kwa is barbecued pork meat that is one of the most eaten excessively during Chinese New Year in Singapore. haha..

People queue up for a long time to buy these stuff.



Ok. the queue on the right towards the shop is the queue for the Bak Kwa. It goes longer. But the shop just beside it, selling the same stuff is so quiet..



Bloomberg News have an Bak Kwa index created too! LOL..

Prices has gone up for Lim Chee Guan's Bak Kwa. Prices for 1 kg of Bak Kwa.
5 Jan - $38
12 Jan - $38
19 Jan - $40
26 Jan - $42
2 Feb - $44

as they say in chinese, ren shan ren hai....

Around or less than 2 weeks to go to the lunar new year, everyone's visiting chinatown to get the feel of chinese new year.



The crowds are there. and thanks to changing weather patterns, it's windy and cool. no sweat walking aronud! One of the must eat is going to be featured in tomorrow's post. there's a queue at that shop! even Bloomberg News agency has an index based on it. Guess what's it?

Chinatown Express

Which is the best way to get to Chinatown? Take the SBS Transit trains. When we were there, we drove, and you go to wait very long to get a parking space.



Take the trains and alight at NE4. NE stands for the North-East line.

red red means good fortune, good blessings

I was at Chinatown last nite, and the next few days I will post some interesting pictures there. The weather's cooling and windy, so walking around was very comfortable!

This is one of the main arches around that has the Chinese New Year deco.



Lovely flowers eh? Yes, everything is reddish for red is colour that symbolizes prosperity.

wah seh, instant wall paper!

This is part of the Lunar New Year light up in Chinatown, on the wall of this building, they projected images on it. nice eh?



Instant wall paper.

Theme Day February: Arrghh. People who 'chope' seats with tissue papers.

It's Theme Day and February's Theme: What really annoys you in your city

I think something that annoys me is people who chope / reserve seats at hawker centres, food courts or anywhere with tissue paper packs!

You will then see people carry food around that needs a place to eat, but they find no seats. Either the tables have tissue papers, umbrella, mobile phones or anything you think can be used as a reserve token. sigh...

This picture is almost similiar to the post I had some time ago.



For people in Singapore, is this what annoys you too?

Well, if you want to find out what annoys people in 53 other cities, click on these links.

These Daily Photo sites are participating in the 1st February theme, "What really annoys you in your city", please use the links to below to visit them.

Due to time zone differences and other factors, the theme photo may not be displayed until later if you are viewing early in the day.

1. Porto (Portugal) ~~ 2. Stayton, OR (USA) ~~ 3. Albuquerque, NM (USA) ~~ 4. Tenerife (Spain) ~~ 5. Greenville, SC (USA) ~~ 6. Dubai (UAE) ~~ 7. Evry (France) ~~ 8. Jakarta (Indonesia) ~~ 9. London (UK) ~~ 10. Sequim, WA (USA) ~~ 11. Buenos Aires, (Argentina) ~~ 12. Seattle, WA (USA) ~~ 13. Minneapolis, MN (USA) ~~ 14. Stavanger (Norway) ~~ 15. Joplin, MO (USA) ~~ 16. Nelson (New Zealand) ~~ 17. Milano (Italy) ~~ 18. Singapore by KeropokMan ~~ 19. La Antigua (Guatemala) ~~ 20. Nottingham (UK) ~~ 21. Singapore by Zannnie ~~ 22. Budapest (Hungary) ~~ 23. Not Strictly Seattle, WA (USA) ~~ 24. Bandung (Indonesia) ~~ 25. Vantaa (Finland) ~~ 26. Hyde (UK) ~~ 27. Madrid by Dsole (Spain) ~~ 28. Oulu (Finland) ~~ 29. Saarbrücken (Germany) ~~ 30. St. Paul, MN by Carol (USA) ~~ 31. Sydney by Sally (Australia) ~~ 32. Tokyo (Japan) ~~ 33. Kyoto (Japan) ~~ 34. Trujillo (Peru) ~~ 35. Shanghai (China) ~~ 36. Rotterdam (Netherlands) ~~ 37. Chicago, IL (USA) ~~ 38. Nice (France) ~~ 39. Naples, FL (USA) ~~ 40. Hong Kong ~~ 41. Santa Clara, CA (USA) ~~ 42. Quito (Ecuador) ~~ 43. Cottage Grove, MN (USA) ~~ 44. Paris (France) ~~ 45. Manila (Philippines) ~~ 46. Brussels (Belgium) ~~ 47. Auckland (New Zealand) ~~ 48. Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) ~~ 49. Sydney by Nathalie (Australia) ~~ 50. Houston, TX (USA) ~~ 51. Cheltenham (UK) ~~ 52. Mumbai (India) ~~ 53. Anderson, SC (USA) ~~ 54. New York City by Ming (USA)