A Dash of Culture: Hindu Festival, Little Thailand, Australian Visitors, Korean Barbecue

So here's a bit of an update on my whereabouts for the last couple of weeks. These photos are from January 29th to February 6th. (No, this is not the Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day post, that will come in a few days. I'm trying to go in order!)

So a couple of weeks ago it was not yet CNY, but it was a different local festival--Thaipusam! This is a Hindu festival of repentance...or something...where people peirce themselves with a billion tiny needles and then walk around in a big parade. Hmmm...

Actually I had forgotten about it, but I was lucky because sometimes I go out to breakfast with my boss, Mohanan, and his friend Chandra (both Indian of course), in Little India at one of their favorite breakfast places. So I actually caught the whole parade action on accident! Nice...My friend Kathryn was like "I had to plan to go see that!" So here are some pictures. If you're easily queasy-fied you might want to skip to the next section...

The top part is always very pretty, and their family and friends all walk with them to support them. I got more details on the backstory from the hostess at the breakfast place, but it's still kind of confusing. Something about penance, but also it's very desired because it washed your karma away in this life so you don't have to deal with the consequences in the next...something like that. Can't really see what's going on? Well, how about another picture then...

 

Yes those bells are hooked individually into his chest. And check out the face/mouth gear. Eeek...

Eesh. Again.

Okay, new topic. Dan and I were in the mood for Thai food, and since the Internet is THE BEST INVENTION EVER, we could look up "authentic Thai food Singapore" and get lots of results. Little did we know just how authentic this Thai food would be. We drove to a mall near the center of town which Dan had never heard of, and when we walked in it was like Little Thailand, for real. All the signs were translated into Thai, there were advertisements for phone cards to Thailand, a Thai supermarket...and every single restaurant was a Thai restaurant. We didn't think to write down the exact name of the place before we went in because we figured "it'll say Thai restaurant on it"...oops. I THINK we ended up at the right one...but no matter what it was super awesome. And I'm pretty sure it was authentic! Everybody in their looked Thai. So, food pics:

 Dan finishing up the Pad Thai.

Chicken wrapped in some sort of leaf, banana or pandan or bamboo or something...mmmmm.

Green curry. Super spicy and super tasty, although I wish we'd had a bit more rice to go around. The Thai beer (Singha) and the spring rolls were also good, but I'm tight on picture space.

We also strolled through the Thai supermarket afterwards and actually bought a few things. I didn't buy this, but I thought it was a great picture. This is chewy candy, probably like taffy, in four flavors that are just so unexpected to the pre-Singapore me, and yet very expected in Singapore, and especially in the Thai supermakert in Singapore. It wasn't even until I saw the candy the second time when I was checking out that I realized a picture was in order.


Dan's sisters were both in town recently, visiting from Autralia! Xiaoyi, his second sister, was in town from December 29 to January 20something, and Xiaozhen, his oldest sister, was only here for about two weeks, end of January/beginning of February. I don't have a pic of Xiaoyi, but here's a cute one of Xiaozhen and Dan.

Well, it's cute of Xiaozhen at least! haha. This was when were were eating ramen at a Japanese restaurant downtown right before she went back.

Speaking of Autralian visitors, Dan's cousin David was also in town for the first half of February. We went with him and our mutual friend Eun Jung, from Korea, to go see Body Worlds and then eat at a Korean Barbecue buffet.

Body Worlds was AWESOME, but you're not allowed to take pictures. So let me skip to the second awesome part of that trip, the food. Eun Jung said it was pretty authentic, and I would sure hope so because it was amazing. Words cannot adequately describe it. I will show you.

 

Yes, those are pictures of entire counters of raw, seasoned meat, ready for cooking. Mmmmmmmmm. The way it works is that you take it back to your table which has a built in barbecue and cook it yourself and then dip it in sauces. Nom nom nom. (There were also some prepared dishes, but those pictures aren't as cool.)

 

Dan and David approaching food coma. See the barbecue in the center? That grey cheetah print-clothed arm is Eun Jung, turning the meat.

One particularly interesting dish? Raw beef salad. Yes, you read that right. 

Doesn't look too appetizing right? I only ate that tiny serving (that bowl is a little sauce holder), because I didn't see it until the end of the meal and I was already stuffed, but I figured I owed it to you guys to try it--and it was actually really good! Surprsingly sweet. The beef was really soft and not too strong tasting. Highly recommended.

That's all for now, folks! There were yet more visitors from Australia who were here for New Year's, so look for more of them, and the general holiday activities, sometime soon. Hope you enjoyed the little cultural journey of today's post!