Oh jeeze and a tour

Well, since I last blogged it's been hell on a biscuit here.

My son has been sick and very miserable with it. Flu, I think. Basically it didn't matter what we did, he wasn't happy or comfortable. It makes for a long hard week. Thank fully he sleeps through the night, but oh god, the days are heel. We have been living on a diet of......well pizza and other healthy choices.

Hush! I know pizza isn't healthy or a food group in it's own right.

I have been so shattered that instead of sitting down to write, I have been doing the thousand yard stare. Seems to be my natural look these days.

Instead of date night this week, we headed to the pool for pizza and red wine. It was the best evening. Armed with the laptop, the iphone (hubby's), the boring phone (mine), two buckets for the wine (just really large glasses) and pizza (I wonder how many time I can write that in my blog?), we made our way to the pool. It was empty and peaceful, just what we needed. No hustle and certainly no bustle. It were bliss.

Saturday dawned bright and full of promise. Every morning is like that. Off to the markets. I am loving the markets. Good chicken, good veges and nice flowers. I always feel so domestic after filling up the fridge with yummy fresh food and flowers on the table make it complete or something like that. And I got a photo, not a great one, but one nonetheless.

See, there it is.  I am standing by the fish section and looking back to the fresh chickens.

Hmm, I might have to have a chat with Hubby and see if he can give me some of the footage he has shot on his wanderings. Later.

Today was epic. We had a visitor who had spent years here, but hadn't been back for about 20 years. Honest to go this place is totally un-recognisable compared to then. It was the compulsory walk down the river to the new Marina Sands. It is rather impressive. See, I stole a photos off the net for you and also one of the performing arts centre, otherwise known as the Durian (you will see why).

The Durian

Marina Bay Sands.

That was more than enough for the day, but nope, wasn't quite done yet.

It was a wonder down Little India. Little India, is usually packed on a Sunday afternoon. There is a real vibrancy and liveliness. It's great. Trawling through the shops and discovering all the little goodies that are on offer. And the food, yep back to that again. I had an exquisite palak paneer (home made cottage cheese in a spinach sauce). Yum. And the bit that made it taste better was using ones hands. Soooo good.

I have a couple of photo's which I took. See, I am trying to get the hang of this visual aid.

Colourful buildings in Little India (actually the place we had lunch)

Now I am done. Well almost. Hubby has just dashed off to the local food court to get some soup dumplings. Oh goodie.

Son had one final meltdown to finish off the weekend, but that was solved by early to bed. Hubby went for two bike rides (YES, two) this weekend and it only rained on one of them. That's some kind of progress.

Right, that's me over and out.

Meat and more meat

I was a wake bright and early this morning, with excitement tingling through my toes. Could have been pins and needles.

Anyway, I met a lady at the egg stall at the market the other week and she informed me of the best place to get meat in Singapore. Everyone has an opinion on this subject. Even the chicken man at the market can tell you where to get the best angus beef in town. "Go to Novena Square. Look for the building behind it and go up to the 4th floor and look for MMM butcher. He best for Angus beef in town." See, I was paying attention! No, I haven't tried it yet.

Food is integral to life in Singapore.

So the Egg lady, as she will forever be known, texted and set up a date for this morning to go and find her hidden gem. There is nothing like an adventure. Armed with my camera, the one on my phone, I stood and waited for my ride. I got a call 5 mins before I was to be picked up, asking what my address was, as Egg lady had deleted the vital piece of information. With my vast knowledge of Singapore, I proceeded to giver her directions. "You know that shophouse that you looked at and decided not to rent? Well, I live right opposite that." Clear and concise. Funnily enough she found me.

We drove for about 20 mins. I am not sure where, we were to busy meeting each other. We had chatted briefly and swapped numbers over eggs, but beyond that we knew nothing of each other. So we were having the obligatory girlie meet. "What are you doing here? How long do you think you'll stay? Are you enjoying it? What have you found hard about being here? Wow, it's cool to be driving in a car. You get to see different parts of Singapore." That inane chatter. It was fun! I felt like I had been let out for good behaviour.

Back to the tale. Basically we headed to the ports and in a huge industrial warehouse we found Ben Foods, http://www.benfoods.com. They have a selection of goodies on offer. There were your pasta's and  tinned goodies. Olive oil, canned tomatoes, frozen bacon (I am assured it is the best brand you can get in Singapore and at a hugely reduced rate compared to the supermarkets), butter, cheeses, wines.

The next section is your meat. There is pure Angus beef, vacuum packed fresh from NZ. There are frozen lamb chops, marinated ribs and all sorts of other goodies at reasonable prices. The catch is that it is all prepackaged and you have to take it how it is. For a small family like mine that is a bit daunting, but then, I have a freezer and will just have to re package into small portions.

Now, I have just been off on a quick tangent. In all my excitement I forgot to take photo's while out shopping, so, I have just taken photo's of the goods I bought. I will put them on the bottom and also for the hell of it I am going to compare the prices that I paid at Ben Foods with the ones at Cold Storage.

Actually I am going to get on with that right now.

Purely for baking and my son. Not for me. I paid S$2.60 for 250g. At Cold Storage butter ranges from S$3 to S$6 for 250g. 

I am not going to comment about this buy. I paid S$2.50 for this. At Cold Storage it is S$3.45.

Hubby and I LOVE good ribs. They better be good. US Marinated back ribs. I paid S$14.80 per kg. At Cold Storage Ribs are S$30.50 per kg. Cold Storage ones are Australian and not marinated. 

Meat, glorious meat. NZ Pure Angus Beef. I paid S$26 per kg. Cold Storage is about S$59.90 per kg.

Bacon. Oh, how I have missed you. I paid around S$10.00 per kg. In Cold Storage bacon is between S$20 and S$30 per kg. 

Thought I'd try this for lunch. I paid S$4.60 and at Cold Storage it is S$7.50.

Gotta have ya lamb chops. I paid S$15 per kg. The only lamb on the Cold Storage website I could find to compare it to was lamb french rack at S$69.90 per kg. I did see these at Ben Foods and I think they were around S$25 a kg, but were frozen.

It looks remarkably cheaper. But I haven't tried any of it yet. Although Egg lady swears by the meat. The only other downer about this is that you really have to have a car.

Anyway, we now have enough meat to feed an army. I think we'll have ribs tonight, followed by bacon for breakfast tomorrow and then maybe a lamb chop for lunch followed by a steak for dinner.

Happy eating.

Discovering a market

Whenever I have asked anyone who has been here for longer than me, which is most people, where they do their fruit, vege and meat shopping. The reply is the same. Tekka markets in Little India.

Now, my experience of markets hasn't always been favourable. In NZ I find that the fruit and vege markets are cheaper, but that the goods don't last as long as the more expensive produce from the supermarket. Here in Singapore, I have trawled through many a wet market with my son excitedly trying to touch the live frogs or search for Nemo. To be honest I find the markets overwhelming and feel rather out of my depth.

Today was a revelation and confidence builder for me. Tuesday and Saturday are the days that the fresh produce is bought in. The best days to go, as I am reliably informed.

I have been struggling to find good chicken, and have been repeatedly told to go visit the Tekka markets. So, today I bit the bullet.

The first thing I saw when I arrived was the food court, hawker stalls. I took note for a later date. I was on a mission today.

Then there was row upon row of fresh fruit and veges. I couldn't identify most of them, but was totally intrigued.

My theory is look around before buying. Get a sense of what is there and what looks good.

After my circuit of fruit and vege, I moved onto the meat and chicken. This is when I got rather overwhelmed. There was butcher after butcher selling beef, lamb and goat. The same for the chicken stalls.

My fear with these places is that if I get the wrong stall then the food is not good and I'll give us all a bad tummy. But hey, you don't know until you try. So try I did.

I found a nice man who talked me through the chicken's.  I was told if they have their heads and feet on and a tag around their necks, then they are fresh and haven't been frozen. I have probably been had and need to research this a bit more, but I feel for his chatter and bought chicken breasts from him. The best thing is that he boned and skinned them for me. How can that be bad.

So, with fresh chicken breasts, fresh stir fry veges I headed home feeling happy with my adventure and proud that I have overcome a silly hang up about markets.

I haven't cooked the food yet, but if it is good as it promises to be you'll find me at this market every Tuesday.