The Siglap Connector

Matt and I went to the expat grocery store and then the normal grocery store today. The expat grocery store had flour, sugar, vanilla, apple sauce and other stuff that we can't get in the regular store. It's all really expensive, but at least we can get it. I had been tempted since last week to try out our oven, so I had to bake a banana cake. Done. It's good.

We walked up this thing called the Siglap Connector. It goes from the MRT down to the beach through neighborhoods. I'm remembering that I actually have written about this before...but I can't find it. Anyways, it's a park-like path, and it's beautiful. The houses along the connector are classic Singapore. They're actually homes. 90% of Singaporeans live in public housing. 6% lives in condos. 4% lives in homes (god forbid someone is homeless...). These homes have little corner markets, and they have personality and just feel nice. Our complex feels like a resort. It has no personality. It was a really nice place to walk.

Another interesting grocery store note is that our corner market in New York was called Sing Sing. Here, our (my) favorite market is called Sheng Siong (pronounced Sing Song). I think that's funny. I don't want anyone to get confused, though. Mani Marketplace was clearly way better than Sing Sing. Sing Sing just happened to be our emergency store, because it was closer.

A little bit more about Sheng Siong (other than my favorite game): When you walk in, you feel like you're in the sea. There are fish, crabs, shrimps, everything that should be in the sea. But they're all in tanks, and they're all still alive, and it's weird. There are tons of different kinds. I think there must be eight different kinds of shrimp/prawn.

All fruit and veggies are downstairs. Anything that is labeled by the piece is easy, but if something is measured by the kg, you have to get it weighed and labeled at a weigh station. (The weigh station lady knows me and says hi). The aisle with peppers, tomatoes, beans, zucchini and a few other things is always so busy that I have to do it as quickly as I can. Otherwise I lose my patience. People take a long time to choose their tomatoes! Fruits and veggies are amazingly affordable, though Matt said that prices are going up because of China. I'll have to ask him to expand on that and write about that another time. Basically, we can get five apples for $1.50 ($1 US). We can get about six tomatoes for $.75 ($.50 US). We got a huge watermelon today for $2. It's heavenly.

All dry goods are upstairs. You can get tons of dried fish, as I mentioned yesterday, you can get about thirty different kind of oil, fish sauce, fish in a can, candy (they have great candy here!), and you can also get wine, but you have to pay for that separately.

I think I probably spend more time in Sheng Siong than any other place other than my couch.

Tonight Christian and Lee Fong came over to play tennis and play settlers. We had a great time. Tennis is great. We also had amazing Thai food from around the corner. I love Thai food. We all won one game of settlers but Lee Fong. She'll win next time.