Day 7 was a day of very important business: I attempted to open a bank account...
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When you look up "hawker centre" on Wikipedia (you can try this one at home!), the first photo you see is of Lavender Food Square, one of the region's most iconic hawker centres, located in Singapore's Kallang district. That much-loved hawker centre (a complex with stalls where food is freshly cooked and served to diners who sit in the middle of it) closed in September 2014, but maybe the closest I have ever come to touching a piece of Wikipedia history was when I had dinner this evening at one of the smaller food courts that have popped up around Lavender since then and which have absorbed some of the old stalls.
Adorned with my new face mask, I took the bus for the short trip into Kallang district, the one adjoining Geylang. Kallang is a much more urban place than Geylang, which is not surprising given that it is on the cusp of Marina Bay, the mega-rich heart of the city. In particular, I needed to visit a development in Kallang called Lavender, which houses the local branch of the bank where I want to open an account. There are many shops, businesses and offices that stay open until very late indeed in Singapore, with most shopping centres trading on past 9pm. And I can only conclude that bank managers must need quite a bit of retail therapy, because the banks close at half past four! Not knowing this, I came along half-an-hour later to find that a floor-to-ceiling glass panel had been erected just inside the door of the bank, to safely separate the ATMs from the tellers. So I will have to try again tomorrow after I have experienced yet another round of health & safety talks, this time at the mercy of Fusionopolis...
In the meantime, there was I, in Lavender, holding $500 of banknotes and with nothing to do. So I wandered around the MRT stop and the nearby shopping centre. Shopping centres are not a rare sight here. You can walk out of one and scarcely get across the road before the next one pops up! There are many devilish ways by which businesses attempt to make the fool part with other people's money, and this is a rather simple one. Most people are happy to oblige, of course, because there is one significant advantage that the shopping centres have over, say, the parks: they are air-conditioned.
Anyway, it was getting on towards dinnertime by the time I finished exploring Lavender's three shopping centres, and I called in at a Chinese stall for my evening meal. You always take your chances at these places, because I'm never quite sure how seriously they attempt to keep pig items separated from the normal food. This food court seemed okay, though, because they had separate collection areas for halal and non-halal dishes. In any case, you're better off not worrying about it or else the food prices become exorbitant! I had spiced prawns cooked in soy sauce, served with pak choi on a bed of olive rice with a bowl of soup, all washed down with a refreshing glass of iced lemon tea. The soup seems to be served with every Chinese meal, whether requested or not. I'm not sure what it is, but I always see spring onions floating it. I'm generally not a fan, but it's okay between mouthfuls of something else.
Having spotted a sweet stall while walking around, I was never going to be sated by mere spiced prawns. Given the affordability of the main meal, I decided to treat myself to dessert. One item in particular caught my eye, a "choc ice kacang". The photo of this dessert looked like chocolate ice cream served with mixed fruits, from which I convinced myself of the health benefits of eating it! However, the "choc ice" bit was rather more literal than I expected: it was a mountain of nothing but ice slush on top of the fruit, with a garnish of chocolate powder, and decorated with a few hundreds-and-thousands (more like tens-and-twenties, really). Still, it tasted okay in the end, once some of the ice had melted and dissolved the chocolate powder.
My culture shock tip for today is that you must never ever underestimate the Southeast-Asian predisposition for the humble soya bean, whether it be as a sauce, as a replacement for dairy, as the main course of your dinner, a side dish, part of a salad or soup, or even...in a dessert. The soya bean will be with you from the start of your meal right through to the end and beyond! I couldn't get all the way through my ice mountain; there are only so many syrup-coated soya beans you can eat in one sitting, especially when accompanied by syrup-coated sweetcorn. But it was nice enough!
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By
The Imperial Orange,
6th October 2015
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