And if it's not Wednesday...

Then I usually get my vitamins by having a delicious freshly pressed, squeezed or pureed fruit juice from this nice lady:

The 'ordering process' is usually something like this:

Me: good morning!

She: hey, good morning. What do you want today?

Me: ... [ ...and before I can say anything:]

She: let me see, what about.... kiwi and apple? Is good, is sour!

Me: ...ooookay, but red apples...

She: Noooooo, green apples. Is sour, is healthy! I make for you, you see...

Me: okay...

But I must say, I've loved all of the mixtures she came up with. ABC (apple, beetroot, carrot), dragonfruit and pineapple, starfruit and green apple with a pinch of salt. And last Friday I actually got to choose: mango and strawberry - to celebrate the weekend!

And yes, that's my new orange handbag... Just to set off the green of the drink!

Btw: she's just across from the guy preparing the paratha from this post.

 

 

Five a Day...

Just had to post this...
Every Wednesday there are free fruits delivered to the office. While they might sometimes be bananas or pears (not too exotic / unusual), there might be fruits that I've never seen - and can't recall the name just now.

But today ... We have COCONUTS !!!


First you drink the clear water, then you scoop out the flesh. So probably counts as two out of the five a day?

When Venus meets Jupiter on the Capitol... under a New Moon...

Just had to take this photo and post it. The New Moon is always special (!), and this month he had company. Venus and Jupiter. Though I know for a fact they have started to drift apart.
Mum, this photo is for you...

Meeting Venus

And since I just LOVE night shots, here's another two.

Raffles Hotel

St. Andrew's Church with the Stamford Tower

And no, I haven't had an original Singpore Sling at the Raffles Bar yet (that's where it was invented), but I'll definitely go there soon.

Sweet (Sunday) Morning....

It's Sunday and I went out for breakfast. Not asian, but soooooo good!

French toast, made with home-baked Brioche toast, stuffed with mango, served with berry compote and mascarpone.

It definitely deserves its name: Sweet Morning.

Phuket Island, Thailand - more pictures...

... and not too many words.

The Hotel ... light, water and a soft breeze everywhere...

 A fisherman off to work... that's probably the way to dress!

 Dinner at the beach....

 with THIS view!

And of course: friendly, nice people, and English spoken if needed!

Phuket Island, Thailand

Just some photos... I flew out to Phuket for the weekend, will be back in Singapore tonight...

National Orchid Garden

It's Saturday again and I got to the Singapore Botanic Gardens rather early and this time I walked through the Orchid Garden. Lots and lots of wonderful Orchids within a beautifully set Garden. Definitely worth the visit!

And I'm glad I got there early - it was not yet too hot, and the tourist groups started flowing in when I was leaving. And it also started raining the moment I left. So, great timing!

Funny facts and observations in Singapore

Well, of course those things I observed are funny to me - probably not to the Singaporeans....

1. Like in many former british colonies, people in Singapore drive on the left side. But escalators (as in moving stairs) are usually 'ridden' on the right side.... like 70% of them. Which means the other 30% are still 'left-driven'... seems like they couldn't really decide? And I keep trying to step on the wrong escalator ...
2. Women use every opportunity to look at any reflecting surface to straighten their hair. That's normal. But I'm used to women trying to do this very inconspicuosly. Not here - take the elevator (as in 'lift') in my office building: the doors are mirrors. A dozen people in the cabin, all going up to the 14th floor. EVERY woman looks into the mirror and keeps straightening her hair. All the way up to the 14th floor.... ok, not every woman, not allways... but most of the times.
3. This one I really love: when people hand you something like a buisness card, they always use both hands to give it to you. Also the cashier in the supermarket when returning your credit card. This is of course a sign of respect - I only always try to do the same when giving my card to the cashier - but I just don't have two free hands (with my handbag and purse and everything). Oh well, I guess the thought counts...
4. Singapore is multi-national, both regarding the Singaporeans as well as all the expats working and living in S'pore. So from time to time I hear somebody talking German, French or another European language I understand. But SOMETIMES... there's some people speaking Mandarin and I could swear I catch a few words, a piece of the conversation and it just sounds like Swiss German. Like actual Swiss German words.... can be quite creepy...
5. Last but not least for today: Chewing gum is forbidden, but contrary to what I believed first smoking is actually not. How does that make sense???

There are some more Funny Facts and Observations, but I'll leave them for another post...

Japanese.... hmmmmm...

Second food post in a row.... ,-)

Last Friday a colleague from work invited me for lunch and she took me to this gorgeous Japanese Restaurant. This is what we ordered:

 ... as you can see I'm verrrry happy!

Food, glorious Food...

I was asked by a friend to post some photos of the wonderful food around here - I would have posted about food anyway, but it's definitely nice to be asked. Makes me look less like a glutton... ;-)

Just to make it clear from the start: Singapore is a foodie's paradise!

First, you have all the different cultures and people offering there traditional food - chinese, malay, indian, japanese, indonesian - and of course any fusion out of these. Singapore is a rich country, so many Singaporeans travel (often to Europe or Australia) and are looking for the 'exotic' food at home as well. And then there are also many Expats living in Singapore, so you'll find just about every kind of cuisine you could imagine here. I've walked by several German Breweries and 'Biergärten', and also a food stall that sells Würstel and Sauerkraut -  right in the middle of Chinatown!

The second thing that makes Singapore such a food heaven is the fact that the people here usually eat out and don't cook at home - so you need a lot of restaurants. I had lunch today with a colleague from work and she said she doesn't cook at all. Doesn't know how to. She's married and a mother of two teenagers. Not what you'd see in my neck of the world.

But that's probably also due to the third point - you can get great food for small money. I every shopping mall, shopping street, convention center and even underground station you will find a very nice and good quality 'food court' (and you already know that there are lots of shopping malls around).

Here are some pictures of one those 'food courts'. It's in the basement of my office building, so I often go there for lunch.

One stall next to the other...

... choose your 'flavor of the day'...

Yong Tau Foo - pick your food to go into the soup

Hainanese Chicken Rice - see the chicken?

My lunch - Biryani, Daal, Mango juice

And hopefully this video works... Preparing Paratha:

A paratha/parantha/parauntha is an Indian flat-bread. It is one of the most popular unleavened flat-breads in Indian cuisine, Pakistani cuisine and Bengali cuisine and is made by pan frying dough on a hot plate. Parathas are usually stuffed with vegetables and/or paneer (South Asian cheese).

I've tried the vegetable version (very good), but I definitely have to taste the Banana Paratha as well..

Sooo... anybody hungry???

I guess that was only the first of many food-posts for me...