Week Three.
January 10th - 27th This week was mainly getting adjusted to my schedule and finding time to relax and do things with my friends. We spent a lot of time exploring downtown Singapore a little bit more. On Tuesday, we went to the Maxwell Hawker Center to try other local Singaporean cuisine and we got to try Aic Kachag literally translating to "bean ice" which is a Malaysian dessert common in Singapore. Also another fun fact! The Maxwell Hawker Center was one of the first hawker centers I visited back in 2017. It was really nice being back and remembering the memories of my travel with my brother and mother. Then on Thursday some of us decided to eat out at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant called, Sushiro, where we collectively (as a group of four) were charged a bill of S$130. Sounds like a lot I know but the sushi was so delicious! I wasn't expecting the quality to be so high but it caught me by surprise. This weekend is also the public holiday, Chinese New Years Eve! I was fortunate enough to truly experience a CNYE with my local Singaporean friend Jordan and his family! Traditionally Chinese families gather and reunite at one of the family's households for a dinner. I was invited over to Jordan's grandparents’ house and on my way, as I was on the MRT I saw so many couples and families traveling to their CNYE with dishes and fruits to bring. I was very heartwarming seeing how in touch they were with their culture and to see how much they value family. Jordan's mother really wanted me to experience CNYE so when I arrived at dinner I brought over mandarins and offered them to Jordan's grandparents. In return, they gave me a red envelope which symbolizes good luck for the new year. The night went on and we had all sorts of dishes for dinner! Roasted pork, herbal chicken, ginger and green onion stir fry fish, broccoli and scallops, some sort of abalone/Chinese mushroom and sea cucumber dish, and probably my favorite dish of the night salted egg prawns! As we were waiting for Jordan's auntie and uncle I had the chance to talk to his older brother Joel and learned a lot about Singapore's housing situations and how they work. Afterward, we moved on to the Lo Hei also known as prosperity toss which a colorful salad dish that has 8 ingredients that all resemble some sort of good luck or wealth for the new year. My favorite part was after all that I got to watch Jordan's mom and auntie make dumplings by hand which they learned from their mother at the age of 8. We soon later left and went to the River Hong Bao which is an event they hold for Chinese New Year. This year it was held at the Float by Marina Bay Sands. Surprisingly it wasn't too busy but I then realized that the third victim of the Wuhan virus actually visited Marina Bay Sands which made sense why there weren't many people considering it was a big event. (Reason why I have a face mask.) Hong Bao was really cool! They had performances, educational information on different traditions of CNYE, and a small carnival with game stalls where Jordan and I won a couple of cute plushies haha! Once it hit 12 AM they started the firework show, t was so colorful and exciting! It was the most amazing and beautiful firework show I had ever seen! On Saturday my friends and I took a visit to Haji Lane which is a neighborhood called Kampong Glam. Haji lane is well known for its many shophouses, fashion boutiques, middle eastern cafes and street art. We walked around for a good hour window shopping looking at different stores and ended up eating at the Kampong Glam Cafe for dinner. For dessert we went to an ice cream shop called, OVERRUN. Their main product was their soft serve chendol ice cream topped with palm sugar syrup and pandan jelly. Chendol is an iced sweet dessert that contains droplets of green rice flour jelly, coconut milk and palm sugar syrup! It is definitely now on my top five favorite ice cream flavors! As our night went on we spontaneously decided to walk all the way from Haji Lane to the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands Float for the firework show for CNY! |