the meals I had in Portugal

it’s been more than a year since I’ve returned from Portugal but never quite got down to recording it. thought I’d better do it before potentially changing phones. this post features some of the meals I had in chronological order. I can’t say that Portugal is a food haven – food was edible, but not quite what I’d consider delicious. I distinctly remember feeling disappointed with the food while I was there…but it could just have been depression clouding every thing.

Lisbon

near the mosteiro dos jeronimos, i found a cafe (flor dos jeronimos) serving the prato do dia: grilled octopus

I originally meant to spend Christmas in Porto, but somehow, when I reached Lisbon, the depression was so overwhelming that I felt I needed to get home earlier. the flight couldn’t be changed online, so I had to go to the booking window at the airport to get it changed. I shortened my trip by a whole week. it seems extremely wasteful, but it was the meaningful choice at that point in time. this was the first meal I had after the fact, where I felt the trip was a lot more manageable.
from the supermarket: roast chicken and quiche

Fatima

this was a great hot meal at lebre churrasqueira after a morning of exploring Fatima.

it was the down-season in winter, so many places weren’t open in the evening. I was rather relieved to find Combo Caffe open serving hot sandwiches. it was my reward after doing the stations of the cross + reaching 16 in ingress. somehow, I remember texting rhodenbarr while I was having this meal. he was the only one from Singapore who was up that late.

Sintra

I had the seasonal special from hamburguer real: goat cheese, walnut and honey hamburger.
the burger itself was good, but the goat cheese got a bit much and I kinda regretted my choice. should have ordered the normal burgers hahah.

casa piriquita is the most famous sweets shop in sintra, possibly all Portugal. by sweets, I do mean all manner of sweets, from hot chocolate to pastries. I really wished I had company for this meal. I ordered the shop’s specialties, but they ceased to be enjoyable after a few bites because they were too damn sweet. sharing it with a friend or two would have been nice.

this fish diner was recommended by our guide of the free walking tour of Lisbon. I happened to hit it off well with a couple on the tour so I had company for this meal. the diner itself is kinda non-descript, and they run out of daily specials pretty quickly!

my last meal in Portugal was a bacalhau (cod) sandwich for breakfast at O Trevo. it was rather strange eating fried cod in bread (kinda dry?). it was rather early in the day, and it was a pity that they didn’t have the bifana (pork sandwich) ready yet, or that would have been my first choice.

ended the trip with hot wine at the Christmas market, with the winter sun finally showing its face.

now I have a craving for hot wine!

What the living do during the Hungry Ghost Festival

I’m guessing some foreign readers had their interest piqued by my mention of the Seventh Month in the previous post – quite a number of clicks for the wikipedia link!

You may be interested to see how it is celebrated then. (I’ll admit, I don’t know much – a lot of it are just practices I observe year after year without understanding the symbolism behind.)

There’s usually entertainment put up for the visiting souls – the traditional one being Teochew street opera on make-shift stages.

When there are seats laid out, the first row would be left empty for the ‘good brothers’. In this case, no seats were laid out, but there were decorated joss candles (sustenance for the spirits) and offerings being burnt.

There would be a big (again, make-shift) altar for deity worship –

The gods depicted on the banner are FuLuShou – Prosperity, Status and Longevity. This particular ceremony was organised by the Redhill Market association. The evening would begin with prayer and invocation of the spirits for their blessing and continued support, thereafter the hawkers gather for dinner and a very noisy auction of auspicious objects.

Those objects would have been blessed earlier at the altar and include things like deity statuettes made of gold and pots of blessed rice that you can choose to display or cook. The proceeds from the auction will go toward funding entertainment like the street opera and getai (lit. song stage) for next year’s seventh month.

While the living enjoy their food, nobody forgets about the invisible guests. Dinner is set aside for them too –

Note the joss sticks sticking out of the rice bowls. This is why we Chinese, no matter what religion we may subscribe to, think it rude (some say inauspicious) to stick chopsticks into rice bowls. It is customary to lay them flat on the rim of the bowl.

Hope you enjoyed this slice of old Singapore, with rituals that have since died out in China under communist rule.

A brief reflection on the Prime Minister’s National Day Message 2015

For the 8th of August, 2015 – PM Lee shares…

“My Fellow Singaporeans

50 years ago, on this very night, Singapore was on the eve of a momentous change. The Cabinet had already signed the Separation Agreement. The Government Printers were busy printing the Separation Agreement and the Proclamation of Independence in a special Government Gazette. The Commissioner of Police and the Commander of the army units had been told by the Malaysian Government to take orders from the new government the next day. But all this happened in strict secrecy. Our forefathers went to bed oblivious of what was about to happen, still for the time being citizens of Malaysia.

Then morning came. The 9th of August 1965. Our world changed. At 10 a.m., a radio announcer read the Proclamation. Singapore had left Malaysia and would “forever be a sovereign, democratic and independent nation”. The Republic of Singapore was born.”

(Read the full transcript here.)

I found this particular portion to be the most poignant of all –
“Year after year, we have kept the promises that Mr Lee Kuan Yew made on the 9th of August 1965: that we will be “one united people, regardless of race, language or religion”; that we will always have a bright future ahead of us.”

* * * * *

The stuff that makes the news indicates a world filled with people who are not very friendly towards someone of a different race, someone who speaks a different language, and particularly someone who worships a different religion. After seeing for myself how the Christians and the Muslims are restricted from practicing their religion in China, after being a victim of racist comments and rude gestures on Australian streets – I consider myself glad to come from a society that celebrates unity despite race, language or religion, and considers it sacred enough to be enshrined in the National Pledge. I feel thankful that, as a Singaporean Chinese, I have close friends of different races and differing religions. I feel proud that I teach students of varying races, nationalities and religions, but who nevertheless live, study and play together (but with the occasional non-malicious racist joke).

Case-in-point: After the recent National Day Observance ceremony in school, my class gathered to bid farewell to another teacher of my class who is leaving for maternity leave. Someone made brownies. While serving them out, she suddenly exclaimed in mild anguish, “OMG! I am so sorry – I just realised that my brownies are not halal! Halal ingredients but not baked in a halal kitchen. I’m so sorry, can you still eat it?” The Muslim students politely declined, but they hung around to socialise anyway. I thought that was a brief and beautiful slice of inter-faith, inter-racial interaction in Singapore.

Of course, there is still an embarrassing amount of ignorance about other cultures and each racial harmony day brings much cultural (mis)appropriation. People still commit faux pas in these matters, but we are not in conflict, and I think we are continuing to learn with each day, with each year.

Happy 50th, Singapore. I am so proud to call you my country.

The Black Knights celebrate SG50!

I’ve always been a fan of the Black Knights, Singapore’s very own aerial display team. Became even more of an avid follower after realising an acquaintance flies for them! Check out the awesome livery for this jubilee year
(most photographs in this post taken from news sources) –

So beautiful and patriotic! They performed today and people turned up to watch despite being drenched in a torrential rain –

(my dad took this. omg omg omg fangirling because they look startlingly close!)

Here’s what’s planned for this weekend leading up to the grand Jubilee –

And here’s the super exciting special formation that I’ve watched over several rehearsals –

20 planes in salute to this young 50 year old nation! My breath is taken away whenever I watch it. So proud of the Black Knights!!!

Much Beloved Singapore Buildings and Monuments

I visited one man’s passion project for Singapore today and was enthralled by it. Teo Yu Siang, a designer and an accountant, decided that he didn’t like the self-congratulatory tone of many a government-initiated SG50 project, and decided to create his own birthday card(s) to Singapore.

Here are my personal, sentimental favourites from his website, Building Singapore.

You may want to check out my post on Bukit Brown.

I spent a lovely holiday interning as a docent at the Old Supreme Court before it was shut for renovations. It is now the National Gallery – many local works of art have been transferred here from the collection of the Singapore Art Museum. I loved exploring the Old Supreme Court with my colleagues then – we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves during breaks, and we explored various nooks and crannies, including the dome! The National Gallery opens this year on 24th November and I am looking forward to seeing both the art and the conserved building.

Well, the Esplanade. I guess I chose this for sentimental reasons – the greatest love of my life my ex and I took a walk along the Esplanade waterfront on our first date together. Yes, a complete cliche, and now a bittersweet memory.

But enough of me, now. Do head over to see all the buildings that Teo Yu Siang has painstakingly drawn! The drawings are also available for sale as postcards – this sounds like an interesting gift!

SG50 Celebrations at Promontory@Marina Bay

Mummy, Daddy and myself headed downtown to watch the fireworks for the national day rehearsal.

The city was awash in Red and White for the occasion. Check out the Sands –

There were people giving out badge pins –

Quite lovely, huh?
‘Majulah Singapura’ is Malay for ‘Onward Singapore!’

Hello, August and SG50!

I still have some stuff to post about my trip to Xinjiang but hey, it’s August, and I’m going to take a break from posting about China and spend the month celebrating SG50!
(photographs in this post do not belong to me.)

Singapore in a nutshell for non-Singaporean readers:

Singapore is an independent country and NOT part of China (sorry not sorry, had to get that FAQ out of the way).

We are an island city-state located in Southeast Asia, between Malaysia and Thailand to the north and Indonesia in the south.

We once were a British colony (thus the prevalent use of English) but we earned our independence from them in 1963. Thereafter, we merged with Malaya to form modern Malaysia, and there belonged a mere two years until we got kicked out in 1965.

This year, on 9th August 2015, we will celebrate 50 years of independence.

There is much worth celebrating (see the Singapore skyline above), and much more to work on, so hang around for more!

Xinjiang: Flirting on the Nalati Prairie

Meet Azhatae, my horseman and guide for his home, the Nalati Grassland.

I’m laughing hard here because my horseman was using some incredibly cheesy pick-up lines as he snapped away.

“Stay here with me; you can ride my horse every day!”
(I couldn’t tell whether that was a true innuendo because he sounded so earnest and he is keenly passionate about his six horses…)

Originally, we trotted along a well-trodden path. Then, slowly but certainly, we trotted away into grass plains.

He then asked, “Do you trust me?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“I want you to trust me.”
“Why?”
“Hold tight.”
And with a kick, the horse leapt into a quick gallop and I squealed across the plains.

(Then he completely spoilt it with more lame ‘pick-up lines’)
“Was I good?”
“Yea!!!”
“Come over tonight and I’ll show you just how good I am.”
“Umm…I’ll pass…”
“Come! I’ll take you to my home now!”
“Nonononono.”

And he took me safely back to base at the end of two hours. Haha.

Xinjiang: Nalati Prairie

This is the Nalati Grassland near the Sino-Kazakhstan border. This was my favourite place on the whole trip – it’s not difficult to see why.

Visitors to Nalati on a group tour have a few options to while away the time with… there are a couple of hiking routes, but as I didn’t try them out, I can’t give any recommendations or say how safe/well-labelled they are. Here’s the start of one trail though –

There’s also a sight-seeing jeep of sorts that takes you up to various scenic-viewing platforms. But the city girl has to opt for horseback-riding, right? What a rare chance – I was so excited!

The owner, Azhatae, let me take the reins for a bit after he taught me the basic commands…unfortunately I was not firm enough and the horse kept going to munch on juicy grass.

The experience costs RMB160 for two hours. They take you up a tourist trail to a spot where there’s a break in the trees and you see the endless grassland before you, and a trek back. (more about this in an upcoming post!)

These Kazakh men start riding at the age of 5, and the ladies by the age of 9, frequently earlier. I watched some teenagers race each other on a mud track – it was beautiful and thrilling to see it so up-close! More next time!

Xinjiang: The Bayanbulak Swan Lake (with no swans)

Grazing animals are lovely to watch.

China has a thing about fencing up natural wonders and charging (exorbitant ticket prices) for them. They do so for lakes, and prairies, and mountains… I understand charging a fee for landscaped parks and historical wonders, collecting donations for museums and places of worship, but charging for natural wonders is simply being opportunistic. Paying for services is acceptable, as is paying a fee for maintenance upkeep, but for a view…? Perhaps I am merely being naive and miserly.

(The descriptions in English can be read if you enlarge the photographs.)

Here, we were given some time to take a walk (uphill) to see a meandering river.

I was super cold, and luckily there were coats for rent (100RMB, 50RMB refunded on return of the coat). The domestic Chinese tourists had some good-natured fun teasing me, a foreigner, for wearing the Red Army coat.

Yes, I do look warm enough to hike the Himalayas, not some highland lake. Ignore my messy hair and check out the curvey river behind!

Given that there were no real swans around…are swans migratory? Or is ‘The Swan Lake’ merely a description of the graceful arches of the river?