I came back from tutorial today wondering what to have for dinner. And then I remembered, I had half a can of chicken stalk left in the fridge. It had been sitting there since Friday when I made chicken rice. So at that thought, something welled up inside of me: it was time to retry cooking the ever elusive Wat Dan Hor Fun (a type of hor fun, 河粉).

Wat dan hor fun is another one of my favourite noodle dishes, probably up there with char kway teow and Hokkien mee. I suppose, it's one of those few Singapore-based dishes that I was exposed to as a kid growing up in Canada.

And given my favourable results cooking Hainanese chicken rice the previous week (I think it's all due to the fact that I acquired a jar of proper chicken rice chili from my last visit home), I was spurred on to give my hand a try at wat dan hor fun again.

Gathered all the ingredients I could from the four corners of the kitchen, washed, sliced and chopped stuff. There wasn't all that much slicing and chopping needed actually.

It's probably one of the more expensive meals I'd be capable of cooking here in Waterloo though, as it consumed pork, fishballs and prawns (and I was even missing squid). Usually, I'd just have one type of meat for a meal.

At any rate, boiled the hor fun noodles, and as soon as they were done, threw them into a well-oiled pan. Fried with dark and light soya sauce until I could see some of the noodles becoming burnt - quite necessary indeed. A bit too much dark soya sauce though - the noodles started to look like char kway teow instead

Then on to the sauce... this has always been the source of failure for me. I just can never get a handle of cooking with corn starch and egg at the same time. When everything is combined, they somehow just become a big clumpy mess.

But somehow this time, maybe the merlion was with me and things didn't go so poorly. As the sauce mixture came to a simmer, I held my breath and poured in some corn starch premixed with cold water. Mixed it in, covered the lid and waited. Washed some dishes, for good measure.

And finally it came time to add the eggs. Held my breath even more this time. Cracked two eggs and threw them in. Stirred them around a bit. Things looked like they were starting to get clumpy, and I thought I had met my match. However, the thought crossed my mind to maybe let the eggs cook from the heat of the sauce, rather than the heat of the stove.

And so I turned off the stove and moved the pan to an empty element (yah, I know, I should probably be using a gas burner, no?).

And... the egg stayed separate in the sauce. It actually looked, something like wat dan hor fun.

Now, in terms of appearance, I guess maybe I could fool some distracted passer-byer into thinking it was actual wat dan hor fun. Maybe I could even fool myself. But I know that since I'm no hawker, it probably isn't that great at all. Taste-wise, it's ok. But I have no standard here in Waterloo - where else can you find Singaporean cuisine?

At any rate, this is why perhaps I term today's version of wat dan hor fun the kiasi version. I'd imagine that if you placed my rendition beside some authentic hawker rendition, people would stay clear from mine. Why?

... Kiasi lah!

 

我在新加坡工作的时候每天晚上看电视。 新加坡政府的MediaCorp有很多有意思的电视节目。 英文、话语、马来语都有。 还有都是新加坡制造的。 那时候有一台好可爱的节目名称叫“书包太重：My School Daze”

这台节目关于新加坡学生的生活。 关于父母给小孩们子的压力。 还有社会给父母的压力。 特别是新加坡人生活的压力。 很像”小孩不笨“的故事。

我最近发现上网能看这台节目（在tudou.com）。

虽然我没在新加坡长大，看这样的电视节目让我记得我是小孩儿的时候。 那时候我妈妈买了许多新加坡math assessment课本。 记得有时候我不懂一些maths的问题。 我自己和我妈妈都觉得很烦恼。 我很烦恼因为真的不懂那种的问题。 妈妈很烦恼因为他也许想我的努力不够。

看书包太重的时候觉得这样的想法是在新加坡很平常的。 哈哈有一点儿nostalgic的感受

It's always all for our own good. At least, as far as 我们的父母 understand it. 当然不是他们总是决定对的。 可是这是他们的爱。

I received an email today from Get Your Sexy Back:

Thank you for supporting "Get Your Sexy Back" - Singapore's first youth-led responsible drinking programme. Get your GYSB Friends Card and start enjoying exclusive discounts at partner merchants' outlets today!

Simply email us at info@getyoursexyback.sg with the following details: Name + Gender + IC Number + Contact Number + Mailing/postal address

I wonder what partner merchants I could get discounts at?

I still don't really understand the appeal of the name Get Your Sexy Back. Maybe people lose their sexy by binge drinking? (I suppose they do, or maybe more than that... ahem).

Nevertheless, I wondered, so how again did I get on the GYSB mailing list? Oh I remember now.

In the large outdoor open area below the Central Library at NUS there are often mini fairs or bazaars. I suppose it's similar in concept to the various merchants you see passing through the SLC (at UW) throughout the term. Only, it's much better. They actually sell stuff you might be interested in buying ranging from electronics, to witty/cute/cool t-shirts, to Japanese snacks (yum, Pocky on the cheap). Occasionally they even have free stuff (the Milo truck is always a crowd favourite).

One day Jesse and I were passing by this area and we saw them giving out free cotton candy. Who could resist free cotton candy? So we get our cotton candy, and as we are about to walk away, someone motions to us informing us that we were actually only supposed to get free cotton candy after filling out some form. I can't even remember what I filled out on the form. All I remember was that it was something about supporting Get Your Sexy Back.

And so I guess penning down my information there entitled them to send me updates about the GYSB program.

Ok, that story didn't sound as interesting as it did in my head before typing it out.

Actually, the discount card sounds pretty cool. I just don't think I can use it here.

Oh anecdotes of NUS.

Another year has nearly passed. It's been an extremely eventful year, and perhaps it's beneficial to begin to try to take stock things. Perhaps a bit more after I finish my last exam on Monday.

On the night of December 31, 2008, I sat in my room in Oakville packing. I rummaged through my closet in the quiet of the night. The year prior to that night had been a massive build up of anticipation for what I would do on January 1, 2009. It was getting late (probably approaching 3 AM or so) and I think my mother was fairly worried about my packing, so she came in to try to help me pull things together. In the end, I over packed anyway. I finished up at around 5 AM, so history tells me. Remembering back now, I recall that it was my quasi-plan all along to stay up so late that night, in some crazy attempt to get over my jetlag before I even got on the plane.

But eventually, I got some sleep. And soon enough, my new year started with a drive to Pearson International Airport. The new terminal at Pearson is quite cold in appearance, yet, very modern. Arching metal supports hold up a vast ceiling with large pillars and yellow-green dot-matrix-like signs to indicate the different check-in counter rows. Checking in at the Air Canada counter, I was a bit disheartened to hear that they could only issue my boarding pass for the first leg of my journey. I would have to look for the Singapore Airlines counter when I arrived in Shanghai.

It was still early, and we hadn't eaten breakfast yet. But somehow, the check-in area of the terminal was fairly devoid of any attractive restaurants. There was a small make-shift coffee place. We sat there for a while. I swapped SIM cards with my sister. Someone had to make use of my wireless contract while I was away.

But soon it was time to head out.

Making our way over to the security checkpoint, we said our goodbyes as typically as possible. I hugged my parents and my sister and entered the secured area where they could not follow without a valid boarding pass. I quickly joined the screening line and then it subtly hit me that I would not see my family again for eight months. It was a bit of a strange feeling. Not entirely sad, as I knew I would be back here again. Just, strange. Granted, for a lot of you reading this, you may gawk at this sentiment, since you've probably lived away from home continuously for much longer periods of time. For me, however, four months (one academic semester or co-op work term) had been the longest I had ever had to do before that day.

I don't really remember all that happened after that. I may or may not have gone to the business lounge. Thanks to my father's company sending him on numerous business trips to Asia in the year prior, we had collected enough points to get me free business class tickets. Something that's quite a once in a life time thing. I never imagined that I'd be blessed enough to fly business class ever in my life.

Sometime soon enough, I boarded the plane. And of course, everything after that was a blur. I slept for most of the flight, feeling quite nostalgic the whole way. Thoughts about my friends crossed my mind quite a bit. UWCCF had become such a large part of my life over the two years prior to my departure. But of course, you cannot pack your friends in a suitcase (well, safely and/or legally at least).

Many hours later (probably something in the order of 14 or 16 hours), I landed in China for the first time in my life. Specifically, in Shanghai. More specifically, in the Pudong region. Yes, the air looked different. I was told more recently that it was probably blowing sand that I saw.

It was good to be able to step off the plane after so many hours. I disembarked and slowly looked around - I was tired from the flight. Perhaps I should have just kept on moving with the crowd. But I didn't, and eventually everyone had moved on, and I looked as lost as ever. Sometime close to midnight and everything in the airport looked closed.

Somehow through a combination of whatever really bad Mandarin I could force out and pestering people enough till I could at least get them to try to speak English to me, I managed to navigate my way through Shanghai Pudong Airport, and actually ended up outside the secure area. I learned later that this airport didn't have any baggage transfer facilities, which explains why I had to pick up my luggage (行李 as I learned that night), exit the airport, sleep with it through the night until the SIA counter opened, check it in again, and then re-enter the airport. (Incidentally, jumping ahead, transiting through Beijing on my way back to Toronto was much, much easier than transiting through Shanghai Pudong).

Regardless, I felt relaxed once I got my boarding pass and checked in my luggage. This time, I remember going to the lounge. I only wish the SIA counter opened 8 hours before my flight, rather than just 1. I sat in the lounge for a bit and enjoyed the free internet connection, as well as some light food. The terminal gate area was otherwise empty.

Soon enough though, I was able to board the plane for the last leg of my flight: off to Singapore.

The SIA flight was very empty. There was no one in the seat beside me. Not that it mattered anyway. I was so tired that I slept for most of the flight again.

Some hours later, I arrived in Singapore. It was something like 5 AM in the morning. It was very warm. And my thick UW-branded sweater was making me sweat. Regardless, over a year of preparation, and I had made it.

And the rest, I suppose, would set the tone for the next year of my life. And quite possibly, well into the future.

When asked what I like about Singapore, friends and family aside, I will almost certainly rave about the food. Some of my fondest memories of Singapore were eating roti prata when I was maybe around 6 or 7 years old. Moreover, growing up in Canada with a Peranakan mother and a Hokkien father meant I got to eat my fair share of bak kut teh (骨肉茶) with yu char kway (油條), yong tau foo (釀豆腐), goreng pisang, nasi lemak, popiah, laksa, bakkwa (肉幹) and the list goes on.

But over the past year I had the opportunity to try some foods in Singapore that I hadn't typically been exposed to during my holidays in Singapore when I was younger. In particular, the humble doughnut.

I suppose it's just something about being in Singapore on vacation that my parents would always try to maximize the amount of intake of food we couldn't easily get back home. So doughnuts just never came into the picture. And arguably, why would you want to eat a Boston cream-filled doughnut when you could instead have a nice tau sar pau (豆沙包) instead? And so my winters in Singapore were always filled with curry puffs, and other types of pau (包子) or Nyonya kuehs.

But since I was in Singapore not for vacation, but for school and work, inevitably the delightful doughnut came back to me.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like doughnuts. On the contrary, I love a good chocolate dip doughnut from everyone's favourite Tim Hortons. It's a Canadian classic. Or perhaps the maple dip is more of a Canadian classic. But you get my drift.

The doughnuts in Singapore, however, look a lot less humble than my familiar Tim Hortons doughnuts. Doughnuts in Singapore are a bit of an art form. They are dressed to the nines. They are so well decorated that I almost don't have the heart to eat them. The photo below is am example of this. And note that the doughnuts pictured there are actually of "Timbit" size, or doughnut hole size. But full-sized doughnuts are dressed in a similar fashion (or actually, perhaps even more).

They look so fancy.

Yet, after your first bite (if you've ever had a Tim Hortons doughnut), you will soon realize maybe it would have been a better choice to have handed over your hard earned cash to the hawker selling tau sar pau, rather than the glowing doughnut shop owner. I don't know what it is, but the doughnuts I had in Singapore just lacked flavour. They felt more like bread with fancy toppings. They lacked that sort of dense (for dense doughnuts) or fluffy (for fluffy doughnuts) feeling that the doughnuts at Tim Hortons have.

And so I came to my conclusion that I missed Tim Hortons.