Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Fish Balls, Tanglin Village and the Botanic Gardens

This morning I got on the MRT (subway) and took it from Bedok to Queenstown (you can see the map if you're interested). I got off and realized it was 12:30 and should probably eat lunch, since I tried yesterday at 2pm and most of the food stalls were closed. I went to the closest hawker center and got in line at the stall where the line was the longest. I figured I would eat whatever everyone was excited about. I don't know how to call any of the food, and I couldn't read the menu (Chinese), but everyone was getting some combination of noodles and fish balls. I just asked for what the guy had ordered in front of me. I got some spicy sauce with egg-looking noodles and some scallions in one bowl, and then I got clear soup with a bunch of little fish balls. They're sort of a mixture of matzah balls and gefilte fish in that they are balls of fish and they go in soup, but they were much tougher and sort of rubbery. It was good, but not the best food I have ever had. I'm getting pretty good with chopsticks, though...

I then walked for many house. This included a visit to a super expensive organic grocery store with everything imported from Europe or the US, and a whole bunch of furniture stores. I saw a great rug store, and it inspired me. Maybe we should replace our $5 IKEA rug in our living room? I also walked along a road called Sweetenham Road, which had the biggest and fanciest homes I have seen in Singapore. Whoa.

I wound my way to the Botanic Gardens (is there a difference between Botanic Gardens and Botanical Gardens?). Of course it was super built and manicured, but it was really nice to get out of the city. I saw turtles with really long necks (see picture), swans, pretty trees with large roots (see picture) and some nice flowers. I was EXHAUSTED by the end (it's just a little hot here, and the sumbrella helps a bit, but come on!), so I took a double decker bus home.

1 comment:

Harry said...

Ok random fact I learned in the Amazon about why those types of trees have such huge roots above ground. In the rainforest, most of the nutrients are contained in the first few inches of the soil and the decomposing forest floor. The soil itself is very poor, so instead of going down to search for nutrients, these big trees go wide. A humongous tree 100 meters tall might have roots that extend another 100 meters along the floor, but only go a couple feet underground, making them easy to topple. Ok, enough random facts.