Singapore, Food and Me...

I have not always been such a finicky eater, but living in Singapore has made eating more difficult for me. It is not that the food is bad, in fact, most of it is quite good. It is more a mind game with me I think. The food here is so very much different than it is in the states. It is not different in just one way - but in many ways. The Malay's do this, the Chinese do that, the Indonesian's something else, the Indian's... the Thai's... the Arab's... the list could go on and on.

If I just had to get used to a change or two I think I could do it quite easily, but not only am I trying to adapt to the food changes, I am also adapting to the sweet, pungent smell of the country, the multitude of the languages, traveling on the other side of the road, grocery shopping... yeah, this list could go on and on as well. Food though is difficult for me.

The last couple of days, I have gone to a couple of gatherings and of course, food was involved in both. One was a neighbor getting together with her Singaporean friends. We had such a wonderful time visiting and sharing stories. They had just come back from the states and were asking questions about what went on there and of course, that opened us up to questioning them about Singapore. What a wonderful exchange of information!

While chatting, we snacked on a wonderful array of food:

Dim Sum (literally meaning "touch the heart") is the name for a Chinese cuisine, a pocketed steamed bread, which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. Yum cha (literally "drinking tea") is the term used to describe the entire dining experience, especially in contemporary Cantonese. It is usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants (or at Debbi's house).

Dishes come in small portions and may include meat, seafood, and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate.

The smaller dim sum's at Debbi's were filled with a pork bbq - quite different than what we serve in the states but nice. The larger ones were filled with seasoned pork, though that was definitely a different texture than our pork in the states...

Behind the Dim Sum you will see smaller pockets of food. The girls told me these are called 'paws' (pronounced pows in the states) and are a won ton type of wrap filled with meat and also steamed. All of them were quite good, though texture is still a problem with me.

Yesterday, I went to a meeting with friends of the SSA. There are many nationalities represented there and the food showed the variety of flavors:

Lynda shared a Malaysian dish that I couldn't quite bring myself to try. It was a rice dish served with anchovies and a mashed fish patty and steamed in a leaf - pandan I believe, though I could be wrong:

If you look closely on top of the rice, you will see a fish. Linda assured me that I could just try the rice - it only had anchovy juice in it... "quite nice" she said. I didn't, but I could surely imagine the 'niceness' of it. She said this is a traditional Malaysian breakfast. Yum.

Living in Singapore definitely has its challenges. Food seems to be my challenge. After a few weeks of acclimating to the different smells and textures, I am usually able to brave it up and start trying new things. Today is not my day though and I will leave you with a few sights so you can imagine the smells that our bodies are adjusting to:

And with that, I will leave you with a moon pie - probably filled with egg, but I have not had the heart to break it open and see. Isn't it cute? It sits politely on my counter waiting...

Steve and I have agreed we are in quite a funk and still adjusting to the time changes. Today we are off to play - we don't have a plan yet, but I am sure it will come :-)