A weekend of Indian goods & Thai foods

Horse for your display case 

Avoided all the exhibitions of Indian goods last season. Me thought it was a waste of money and since we are on foreign shores, why not invest in the local stuff? But the shopping bug and the marketing strategy they employed got the better of me, so went along with a friend to the Swimming Club "just to see what they have". Just that morning we discussed among friends that any amount of material goods will not give a person happiness till he is happy inside. Well I am happy inside, so I shopped wisely I daresay!










Useful zip bags for saree storing at SGD 10 each

An Indian kurti at a reasonable price

I remember the time when we landed here two years ago, when I shopped at the Singapore Expo Halls for gift items for Diwali. The prices were quite competent, contrary to our expectations. Looking forward to go there again to bring you more updates...

Friday evening was Cinderella time...A Family Movie package at Filmgarde Kallang costs SGD 56 with two bags of popcorn and a choice of two drinks. Though people would claim they are going for their kids, its heart-warming for the adults too, to see how a poor little girl grins and bears it all, with "kindness and courage". Two words that stuck to me for an entire day...

Then it was Thai time. Down the stairs at Thai Express. While the kids are not very experimental with Asian cuisine, we ordered our usual favourites, vegetarian of course.

The first order was tender coconut water, quite distinct in flavour from our Indian variety.
Followed with fried Taro with cashew nuts. Then came pineapple rice, finished with a dessert of Mango with sweet glutinous rice and coconut milk. We never feel overfed or bloated with vegetarian Thai food, what do you think, do write in.

Presented in style: The humble coconut water

I am reminded of my trip long ago, to beautiful Baden, Switzerland. There was a Thai restaurant opposite to the Hotel I stayed. The restaurateur, a pretty Asian lady welcomed me and I had a dinner of rice and piping hot Thai style curried vegetables in a coconut gravy. Slurp! And that too in the cold wintry Swiss evenings. But alas, it was only when I tried being more adventurous the next night and asked for a chicken dish that I had to tell her I was suddenly not hungry and could she pack it?
"Not nice?"
"Uhm, its ok..."
And her face fell...she packed the food and I ran out to the restaurant of my Hotel, and managed to get some dry bread and cheese. He charged me peanuts maybe because that was hardly a meal...oh the travails of Indian diners travelling out of India!



All our lives, we South Indians have had coconut water sold mostly on the roadside, where we parked our cars after hot journeys, waited while the coconut seller hacked away at the coconuts, put the straw in with his not-so-clean hands while we haggled for a discount based on whether the water was sweet or bland. He then hacked out a 'spoon' for us, off the shell, to eat the flesh of the coconut. Then for the first time in the stylish Alkapuri, Baroda, we saw chilled coconut water since Gujarat was mostly hot throughout the year.

Never thought Taro or our "Arbi" in Hindi was so versatile!  What you see here is Taro, roasted cashew nut and bell pepper, all tossed in a flavourful sweet-hot sauce, with fried red chillies.



Fried Taro with cashew nut: Pueak Himmapan

Pineapple rice: Khao Phat Supparod Phak

 We loved the combination of the Taro dish with the rice dish. The dessert was passable since the Mango was not sweet and we felt that the coconut milk could have been chilled instead of warm. Whenever we order their coconut ice-cream we wonder why we never make it in Mysore, with its abundant coconuts. We once had their signature dessert - a combination of coconut ice-cream, roasted peanuts, orange sweet-potato and glutinous rice. Yum. Do they still have it on their menu?

Our dessert of mango, sticky rice and coconut milk: Khao Niao Mamuang

 Sunday was a day of engagements after Tweetie's Gymnastics by the beach, followed by a rushed lunch and a birthday party where kids frolicked in the pool, inside what is called 'Hamster Balls'...oh what can they think of next, in the kids' entertainment world...remember our own childhood where birthday parties meant cake and snacks for most?

But the highlight of the weekend was a soulful rendering of Carnatic classical music, by a very talented lady visiting Singapore. Again a trip down memory lane since the songs were what we learnt as kids.
It was because of this revelry that I forgot that today they are going to hack down and renovate our kitchen, first thing in the morning...