Day 5 : Din

Because Hub and his younger bro are leaving tomorrow while Ming and I stay back, we gave in to BIL's request to have salty soy bean soup for dinner. Now, of all the Shanghainese food, salty beancurd soup (xen dou jiang) is my top dislike, plus sticky rice rolls (tze fun), which is Shanghainese sushi. The only thing that my MIL cooks which I don't eat (but my kids do) is chow doe jiang, which is firm beancurd, mushrooms, meat, bamboo shoots etc fried in a hot fermented bean curd sauce.

Years ago my older BIL found a Shanghainese restuarant called Yong He in Geylang, and since then whenever any of the family visits Singapore, he'd go there for a meal. But I won't even give you the address because I think the food's really horrible!

The xen dou jiang (top left) is beancurd jelly (or you can choose soy bean milk) with soy sauce, sesame oil, some spring onions and ja cai, a preserved veg. Because I'm used to eating sweet beancurd jelly, eating the salted version feels weird. The feeling is like eating salty ice-cream I suppose. In the front, wrapped in plastic, is tze fun (sticky rice) which has meat floss and ja cai. Nope, not for me. I spat out the first bite of the crullers (yew tiaw); it tasted and smelt of ammonia! It amazed me as my Hub and his bros continued eating the stinky bread.

This, would you believe it, is xiao long bao. As wrinkled as me on a winter day.



The most edible thing was the spring onion pancake. Ming and I looked at each other as the others ate, and we both decided to make a run; surely there's better food in Geylang! (Later that night, Hub whispered to me that the food was indeed bad, but he didn't want to upset his bro)

Geylang is the red-light area of Singapore. Yes, even squeaky-clean Singapore needs hookers. It was an eye-opener for Ming and I to see the girls standing by the roadside and soliciting business with any car (driver) that slowed down on the road. We were told that if we walked the side streets, the girls would literally grab any guy who walks by. There were streets of Thai girls, Indonesian girls, Filipinas, but most of all, there were girls from China. And these girls from China were very bold, sitting out having dinner at the restaurants, clinging to their 'johns' , very old dirty men. The girls aren't that young themselves. We were told (by the taxi driver) that younger girls don't walk the streets, they stay in apartments above the shops and you can tell they are there because they would light up red lanterns that dangle from the windows.

Ming and I were slightly afraid, for the first time in Singapore, and we didn't go very far. Geylang felt so dirty in every way. We ended up in a restaurant across the street from the restaurant where Hub and his bros were eating (made me feel much safer) and we ended up eating this, which, despite its looks, was a 1000x better than the food at Yong He:

Bak kut teh (herbal pork ribs soup S$5), with side dishes of beancurd skin (S$2) and preserved veg (S$2).

After dinner, we walked along the streets trying to get a cab. I was told that the girls would lay off if they see a female with a group of men, so I hung back a little, and sure enough, I saw a girl talking to Hub as he walked by. Ming was totally disgusted, but I felt very sorry for them, so far from home and doing what they were doing.

Ming brightened up when we came to a large durian stall. We chose a Buddhist-temple-sounding durian, the maw san wang which, as I look at the pic (and feel very proud that I can actually read 3 Chinese characters) really means 'cat mountain king' whatever that means (S$8/kg) and another one (S$12/kg) recommended by a guy who looks like a loan shark, or a robber. You know, the scary-face type.

When the durians were opened, I was taken aback by their color: a bright sulphuric yellow to a golden yellow.

Thick-fleshed, strong;y-flavored, creamy and sweet but slightly over-ripe and mushy. I was so full I had to seal my lips by pressing them close with my fingers to keep the food from coming out.