A Cozy Nook

The whole time I've been here, I keep saying that Sing reminds me of a very hot, tropical, clean and Asian New York City. Tall buildings, excellent mass transit, and plenty of it, many different cultures, beautiful parks, food galore, and shopping that rivals 5th avenue. The only thing that was really missing to me, aside from bagel stands and bodegas every few feet, were the little neighborhoods I always loved about NYC, that almost seem hidden. You can take a turn and bam, you're in a tree lined neighborhood, with little grocery stores, people walking and chatting. Real life. I always loved that aspect of NYC, that when you're in a huge concrete jungle, there are still little nooks with character. Well, Lar and I think we found a cozy nook! It's about 10 minutes by cab from our house, and it's a neighborhood called Holland Village. I instantly felt at home, and said how much I love it about 8000 times, until I caught the thought balloon over Lar's head that read: " if she says that one more time, I might have to throw her out of the speeding cab". We went to find an electronics store Larry had heard about. We found so much more...cute little shops, a small wet market, a reasonably clean looking hawker court. And resturants! Lots and lots of cool little places. The first one we sampled was my beloved Pho (of course!) I almost knocked several tiny chinese women down when I stopped dead in my tracks and screamed: PHO!!! LAR! PHO!!! It was a really pretty day, slightly cooler, lots of sun, and a good breeze, so we walked around a little and explored. It's a little area, that seems to be situated in a circle. It's an European ex-pat area, but unlike the posh, razzle dazzle of our neighborhood ( that gets a little old) this has character, and is a little bit worn around the edges. We went into one of the shopping centers, and found a cool home store called Lim's. It reminds me of pier one, but cheaper, and cooler stuff. We bought some dried weed looking things for the living room, and a few Christmas presents. I think Larry even liked it a little. There are also lots of spas in the neighborhood, offering everything from massage,and reflexology to facials and nail services. The prices seem cheap enough to where I would consider checking it out occasionally.
We ended up having to go back on Monday night to return something, and we had planned on going for Pho again (because it makes me so deliriously happy), but at night, all the restaurants were lit up, so we ambled around and checked out the possibilities. There was everything from Lebanese, to Japanese, burger bars, thai, Italian, you name it. We settled on Cha-Chas...we're pretty sure the only mexican restaurant in Sing. We looked at each other, shrugged, and said, "What the hell!" It was pretty good! They aren't afraid of chillies in Sing, so it was pretty spicy, but we like hot stuff, so it was good. We were glad we stepped out of our safe little Pho box, and tried something new. We decided to pick a new place each week, in Holland Village, and check it out. I'm sure I'll let you know how they are in future posts. I have gone back on my own to run an errand, and I tried the local breakfast that is so popular in Sing. It's called Kaya toast, which is homemade bread, toasted, and spread with butter, then coconut jam, called Kaya. It is served with a soft boiled egg, and really strong, pre-sweetened coffee. I'm not a wiggly egg kind of person, but I was so inspired to keep stepping out of the box, I tried it. Not bad...not sure I'll get the egg portion again, but the toast and coffee were yummy.
So, that's what we've been up to....still doing the exlporing, touristy stuff. I'm missing everyone pretty bad, and even miss snow! It's so surreal here right now....christmas lights, and music everywhere, but it's still 98 degrees in the shade. Weird, and kinda hard to get in the spirit.
Hope you are all well, and enjoying the holiday prep!
xoxo!!