Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Recent updates

  • Amigos; Western Food

    Amigos; Western Food

    When I moved to Asia I knew I was going to be giving up a few things. One of those things was easy access to cow meat. Singapore doesn’t have much in the way of cheap beef, or reasonably priced steaks. Or, so I thought.

    During my first visit to Singapore in March of 2008 I saw that a typical diet here consists of mostly chicken, pork, or fish and rice or noodles with a small portion of some green leafy vegetable. Soups containing those ingredients are also popular. That’s pretty much all I’ve eaten for the last year as well. Not that I’m complaining! A lot of those dishes are delicious! But, I had a craving for something a bit more solid than that, and the last time I had a good amount of beef was on my birthday in the Philippines in March of this year. Even then it wasn’t a steak dinner as most Americans would envision it.

    I had resigned myself to the belief that I would only have a good steak dinner when I was back in the US, so I wasn’t actively looking around for good deals. I didn’t want to break my budget to get something I can easily do without.

    When my wife and I first agreed to rent our current place in Pasir Ris, the agent that located the property for us gave us a short tour of the area. Well, actually we went on an hour long walk around a good portion of the neighborhood but it was so exciting that we hardly noticed the distance we covered until we looked at it on a map later.

    During this walk, we passed a small shop that was part of a hawker area. It’s called ‘Amigos; Western Food’ and doesn’t have a very impressive exterior, but the agent went into detail about how good the food they serve is. I smiled and nodded, but I wasn’t really convinced, and wasn’t in any hurry to try it. A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with a guy from Egypt, who also had nothing but good things to say about the place.

    Last night, my wife and I finally got around to checking it out. Good thing the place is open late, because we didn’t make it over there until about 1am! I think we were the only customers there. We took a look at the menu, and I was surprised to see that there was a steak available for only 13.90, so I ordered it. My wife got a plate of lamb chops, which was also reasonably priced at about 9 dollars or so. Still, it was cheap, so I wasn’t expecting much. I certainly wasn’t expecting something that looked better than the picture on the menu. That’s sort of a joke, where what you order rarely looks as tasty as the picture. This time, the opposite was true, and we were more than pleasantly surprised to find such great looking dishes at a hawker stall.

    The lamb chops.

    The steak.

    So, I suppose the real question is, how did it taste? That was the second surprise. The stuff was better than great! It was fantastic! In anticipation of a potential fail whale, we asked for Tabasco sauce, but we wound up not needing it. As you can see from the pictures above, both dishes came with a sauce. Each had a distinct taste that seemed appropriate to the meat. The potato wedges were also fantastic and the veggies used for the small salad were crisp and fresh. As for the meat, it was tender and had just the right amount of fat on it. My steak was a little undercooked, but it had been so long since I’d had a good steak dinner, and it tasted so good, that I didn’t care. I gobbled the whole thing down, then cleared the rest of the plate, and was very satisfied. My wife and I traded bites of lamb for steak, and her lamb was just as good.

    If anyone’s looking for a reasonably priced place to get a great steak or set of lamb chops, this is definitely the place to go!

  • Seashell Park

    Seashell Park

    When my wife and I first moved to Pasir Ris we noticed that there are lots of parks in the area.  That’s great, because we enjoy taking walks, or jogging.  Lately, we don’t seem to have time to just wander around on weekdays, but the last two Saturdays we’ve made sure to get out of the house for a while.

    Last week, we went to Pasir Ris Park, which was incredible!  That park is huge!  We’re looking forward to going back, but we also wanted to check out the other parks in the area.  So, this week, we decided to take a look at Seashell Park.

    DSC03034

    Seashell Park isn’t quite as big as I’d hoped.  We looked through it all in about 20 minutes, in fact.  It’s a small park nestled in behind the shopping center we usually go to for dinner.

    The first thing I noticed about Seashell Park is that it seems to be a bit rundown, at least compared to the other parks we’ve walked through in Singapore.  By rundown I don’t mean horribly run down though.  I just mean it hasn’t been well kept up.

    DSC03037

    As we walked into the park we were greeted by this fish head under the sign.  It’s a bit hard to read in this photo, but it says “Seashell Park.”  I looked at the fish head and the area around it, and it looks as though there was water flowing through it at some point.  I wonder if there used to be a constant stream of water that sprayed out of it?  As we walked up the stairs to the back of the fish head, we saw that it was fed through a channel from higher up on the hill.  It looked terraced, and each terrace had its own fish head and a channel leading down from the higher area.

    DSC03041

    My wife’s theory is that these fish heads are just an artistic way of setting up a good drainage system.  The majority of the park sits at the top of the hill, and it rains a lot in Singapore, so erosion is definitely an issue here.  It makes sense.

    One of the best parts of the park is that it has a 400 meter track that runs around the top of the hill.  It’s not completely even, which is nice in a way, because it provides for some variety in your run.  Also, there’s a great view all the way around.  We’ll probably go back there in the future to give it a go.

     

    DSC03049

    There is a playground in the park, but I didn’t include any photos of it because it was littered with garbage when we passed through.  I’m sure that’s not common, but … well, even Singapore can become dirty if people don’t take care of things.

  • Cults in Singapore

    Cults in Singapore

    Cults can be dangerous, socially disruptive elements in society.  As such they should be treated with extreme care, to ensure that they’re not planning anything crazy, like blowing something up or destroying the local playground.

    When in Singapore, be aware that the following cults have been spotted hanging around a bakery in Pasir Ris:

    The Yam Bis Cult

    The Suji Bis Cult

  • Auntie Wants Her Coffee

    Auntie Wants Her Coffee

    (Image Source: Coffee in Malaysia)

    This is just something short that I wanted to mention.

    Last night my wife and I went up to the shopping area at around midnight to pick up a few things.  There’s a 24 hour Shop ‘n’ Save there!  Afterwards, we dropped by the hawker so I could get a cup of iced Kopi O.  I’m addicted to the stuff.  My wife had some juice.  She likes the Kopi O, but had to get up early for work today, so she had guava juice instead.

    Anyhow, as we were sitting there chatting we noticed this little old lady walking up the aisle between the tables.  She must have been about 70 years old and used a cane to help get herself around.  I was surprised that she was out so late.  Like I said, it was around midnight!  Still, it seems like people in Singapore stay out later than anywhere I’ve ever lived.  It has to be because the country is so safe!

    This little old lady walked up to a table of young guys next to us and started speaking in Chinese.  I’m not exactly sure what she said, but I picked out the word Kopi O, and I recognized her tone.  She was asking the young guys drinking beer to do an old lady a favor and get her a cup of coffee.

    I started imagining the worst case scenario, where the guys would ignore her, or blow her off, or, worse yet, say something rude to her.  That would’ve been quite a scene!  I bet that old lady would have gained retard strength and gone to work on them with her cane.

    Instead, it caused a lot of indulgent smiles, and one of the guys got up right away to go get her the coffee she wanted.

    I suppose I wasn’t really that surprised.  Asian culture is different from Western culture after all.  There’s a lot more emphasis placed on respect for elders here.  And, in the end, it was somehow satisfying to see this little old lady smiling and laughing over something as simple as being treated to a cup of coffee at the hawker.  I’d like to think I would have done the same for her, if she had asked us instead.

  • Drinking From A Bag

    Drinking From A Bag

    When you move abroad you expect to run into things that are different from what you’re accustomed to.  Things like the types of food you’ll find, the language, the customs, and the way people dress.

    One thing I didn’t expect however is that “to go” drinks are usually given out in plastic bags.  The first time I saw this was in the Philippines in March of 2008, when I was visiting Margee’s family.  I thought it was really amusing.  The bags are mass produced and shops buy them to put the drinks in.  When you buy a drink, and say you want it “to go” they will open it and pour it into a bag, along with some ice.  Then they’ll drop a straw in, pull the drawstring tight and pass it over to you.

    I asked my wife about this and she said it’s because it’s cheaper.  I didn’t get it.  I asked her, “In what way is it cheaper for them to have to hand out an additional plastic bag?”  So she told me that there are deposits on the bottles and cans.  If you get a drink and take the bottle or can with you, you have to pay for the deposit as well as the drink, and it’s inconvenient, or sometimes not possible, to return the container to get the deposit.  So, to avoid that, the stores pour the drinks in bags and handle the return of the containers themselves.

    I later found the same to be true in Singapore at hawker centers.  When you get a drink to go, it’s most often poured into a plastic bag.  The hawker centers use the bags not only for drinks from cans or containers, but for the drinks they make themselves, like the local iced Kopi.  I imagine it’s cheaper for them to use the bags than to use paper cups.  I also imagine it’s more about being able to put ice in the drink than having something to do with a deposit in Singapore.

    I’ve seen people carrying everything in these little bags: juice, soda, coffee, and even beer (in the Philippines).  It took a while to get used to, and it was a bit strange to carry one around myself, but I’ve become accustomed to it.

    Oh, and one other thing about “to go” orders.  Here in Singapore it’s referred to as “take-away.”  When I first got here I would sometimes ask for something “to go” and the person taking my order would just give me a blank look and ask again if I wanted my order “for here” or “take-away.”  In the Philippines, it’s referred to as “take-out.”

    Sometimes it’s small things like that, that remind you of how far from home you are.

  • Two Tiered Bicycle Stands

    Two Tiered Bicycle Stands

    Everyone knows that in Asia, bicycles are used quite frequently as a means of transportation.  It’s even used in jokes occasionally, but it’s true.  People do use bikes quite a bit, for quite a few reasons, here in Singapore at least.  It’s cheaper, as opposed to buying, fueling, and maintaining a car.  It’s also smaller and easier to park or store.  In fact, there are some foldable bikes here that you can take on the buses with you.  That could be perfect for a family outing to a nice park that you want to bike through, but that’s too far away to bike to.  Plus, it’s a great way to get where you want to go and get some exercise at the same time.

    The problem with having so many bike riders is that there’s rarely enough room to accommodate all of the parked bicycles, especially in major traffic hubs or around the malls.  For example, if you go to the Tampines MRT area, you’ll see bicycles jammed in at the bike racks, but you’ll also see bicycles chained to poles, fences, gates, or basically anything that’s stuck to the ground.  In some extreme cases you’ll find bicycles that aren’t chained to anything at all, but just have a chain through the wheel spokes instead, because there’s just no space available.

    It all seemed crazy and amusing to me and I never really gave it any thought.  Apparently, someone did though.  At the Pasir Ris MRT station there are also bike racks, but the bike racks there are two tiered.  I guess they figured that if there wasn’t enough horizontal space to accommodate all of the bicycles, they could go vertical with them.  It looked like it worked well too.  There was more space to park bikes, and as a result, the area looked a lot nicer and neater, which seems to be something Singapore as a whole looks highly upon.

    This isn’t the only measure I’ve seen to accommodate the bicycle riders in Singapore, but it’s definitely the neatest.  There are also bicycle only lanes that run parallel to sidewalks on most major roads, as well as Park Connectors that run between major parks in different regional areas.  Also, there is a wide path that follows the MRT tracks that seems to get used pretty heavily by cyclists.  I think I noticed a bicycle lane there as well.

  • Pasir Ris Park

    Pasir Ris Park

    My wife and I enjoy getting out of the house when possible, and we’re interested in finding new ways to get some exercise.  It was only natural that we would find ourselves in Pasir Ris Park sooner than later, considering how close it is to our house.

    When I looked at the map of Singapore, Pasir Ris seemed to be such a big area.  I was sure that we would have to take a bus to get anywhere.  That doesn’t seem to be the case though.  We can walk to either of the two malls in Pasir Ris in about 15 minutes and there are two parks close to us.  One is the Pasir Ris Town Park, which is just around the corner.  We’re planning on checking it out in a few days.  The bigger one is Pasir Ris Park, the one that borders on the water.  That’s about a 25 to 30 minute walk from our house, but it’s well worth the trip.

    We entered the park through one of the larger walkways and we were greeted with the fantastic sign pictured at the top of the post.  We didn’t get to see everything, not by a long-shot, but we really got to stretch our legs.  Don’t let the map fool you!  It’s bigger than it looks!

    What stood out to me the most about the park wasn’t just it’s well manicured appearance, but how lively it was.  The place was packed with people, all engaged in their own activities.  I saw groups of friends rollerskating, couples walking under the trees or sitting on benches, joggers, bikers, people walking, kids playing, and even one football (soccer) game.  Oh, and there were campers and fishers too!  Everywhere I looked there were people, out having a good time!

    It gave the place a very lively feel that made walking through it a joy, despite the heat.  In fact, my wife and I have decided that it will be our primary jogging location in Pasir Ris.  It looks like you could spend weeks going to the park to jog and rarely cross the same path, other than the main junctions where the bridges are.

    Below are some great photos I got of the park!

  • Is Starbucks Really That Great?

    Is Starbucks Really That Great?

    I used to be a pretty big fan of Starbucks.  I would stop by one when I had time, or when I happened to be near close-by, to get a cup of “fancy” coffee.  I didn’t go often, because of the price, and because there usually wasn’t one that close to where I lived.

    What did I like most about Starbucks?  Well, the coffee was decent, but it wasn’t really that great.  The atmosphere in the store is nice, but I never really hung around.  Most of the time I would go through the drive through, or, if I were in a mall, I would get my coffee and get out.  So… what was it?  After spending some time thinking about it, I realized that the only reason I really went to Starbucks is because of effective marketing.  It wasn’t for the cheesy atmosphere and it definitely wasn’t for the so-so coffee.  It was because of how I viewed myself when I was standing there holding a cup with the Starbucks logo emblazoned on it.  Starbucks managed to effectively market itself as a prestigious, premium coffee seller, and because of that, I felt as though I were treating myself to something nice when I purchased their product.  It’s not really bad.  I can’t call them evil for it.  It just means that they did their business the right way and used effective marketing plans.

    Having realized that, and having realized that there are far better coffees available than what they offer, I’m no longer as interested in going there anymore.  That’s right!  I’ve found a coffee that is far superior to what Starbucks offers, at a fraction of the cost.  It’s called Kopi O, and it can be found at any hawker center in Singapore.  You won’t be served by a fancy “barrista,” you probably won’t have air conditioning, and I doubt you’d find free wifi (though most wifi in the US locations isn’t free anyways), but you’ll get a damn good cup of coffee that will certainly hit the spot after a meal, or along with your breakfast.

    I’m sure those of you in other countries are wondering how that helps you, but use it as an example.  The best coffee, or really the best of anything doesn’t always come with the highest price tag.  So, get out there and take a few chances and explore smaller shops to see if they have a better version of what you’re interested in.

    As for myself, I’d take Kopi O over Starbucks any day, which is why I’m glad I found this fantastic little store in the Downtown East mall:

    It sells the same stuff as the hawker stalls that sell Kopi O, but it’s located inside the mall.  The prices are a bit higher, but only by about 30 to 50 cents, which is ok, considering its location.  When my wife and I visit the mall to see a movie, we can buy our tickets, have dinner, and then hang out at this little coffee shop while we wait for the show to start.  Oddly enough, this Kopi Alley store is located right next to The Coffee Bean ( a Starbucks clone for those of you not familiar with it), but that doesn’t seem to be hurting its business any.

  • Downtown East Mall, Pasir Ris

    Downtown East Mall, Pasir Ris

    [Edit: I found out later that the part of the mall that these photos is from is actually called E-Hub. Though I think it is part of Downtown East, there is half again as much mall as this that I completely missed. When I make an updated post I’ll leave a link here to it.]

    My wife and decided to stop by the Downtown East mall on our walk around Pasir Ris.  It was sort of on the way, and we hadn’t been there yet, so, why not?

    It looks like a great place.  As we came through the door we noticed a girl handing out free samples for premium yogurt.  I didn’t catch the name of the place, but the yogurt was nice.  It had toppings added onto it too that went along with the flavor.  It looked a bit pricey, but one of these days when I have money to burn I’ll probably get a cup to share with my wife.

    The mall as a whole seems to be tailored to young kids and teenagers.  I guess you could say it has a theme, including the types of stores in the mall.  It’s really not that big a place, as far as how many stores are inside it, but it does have quite a few restaurants and drink shops, plus an arcade, a type of paid playground for kids, an indoor Ferris wheel, some anime shops, and a movie theater.

    I suppose the best part of it all is that the mall is only a 15 minute walk from where we live.

  • Bizarre Ritual With Snake and Incense

    Bizarre Ritual With Snake and Incense

    My wife and I were walking down the street in Pasir Ris, intent on exploring the area.  We spent most of last weekend moving our stuff, so there wasn’t much time to do anything special.

    As we walked by these two guys, I heard a snapping sound, so I stopped to take a look at what was going on.  One of the guys was holding what looked to be a preserved cobra that had been turned into some sort of whip, with the head and hood and skin intact.  He would hold the snake over his head, as seen in the top picture, and then he would snap it out, to make the crack noise.  I also noticed that there was incense burning.

    I imagine this is some sort of religious or remembrance ceremony, but it’s definitely one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen during my stay in Singapore.  Perhaps someone can shed some light on exactly what’s going on here?  I didn’t want to disturb them, as it might have been improper and rude.