Hi Everyone,

  Randal and I joined Lang and Douglas for another eating/sight seeing adventure. We had a “progressive meal:” dinner at the Crystal Jade Kitchen and dessert at Swensons.

Crystal Jade had lots of good food, but the photo op went to the glass-walled part of the kitchen where they hand made all of their noodles.

That blob of dough became dumplings and noodles and and and………

Faster than a speeding bullet.  We had to try some of the noodles and they were very good.  Douglas had some pork dumplings with a bit of liquid trapped inside that explodes in your mouth if you are careful and don’t tear the dough getting it from serving dish to your plate and mouth.

Randal had an egg dish and I had Portuguese tofu. It didn’t remind me of any of the Portuguese food I grew up eating in New Bedford, but it was really good.   Amazingly it reminded me of the veal cutlets at the Bridge Diner in New Bedford with southern style oniony gravy.  I don’t know how you get tofu to taste like a breaded veal cutlet, but they did.  We all tried it and liked it and Randal and Douglas said the same thing.   Now, of course I would never order veal but I do like the mutton roti from Singapore Zam Zam Restaurant on North Bridge Street just off Arab Street. 

  Bad Ruthie, Bad Randal!!  I had a giant Jimmy cone that was real ice cream and really good. 

Randal had his usual, a banana split.

Lang and Douglas sacrificed themselves and had dessert too. 

Lang had mint ice cream but said it was too sweet.  Nothing can be too sweet for Randal or me.  Douglas had orange sherbet with the cherry from the top of Lang’s ice cream.  I always get the cherry from Randal’s banana splits. 

Then it was off to walk around Toa Payoh and burn off two bites of our desserts.

http://www.the-inncrowd.com/index.htm If you ever visit Singapore this is a really good site with several suggestions for walks through the different areas of Singapore.

“Almost 90% of the population in Singapore live in flats constructed by the Housing Development Board (“HDB”). These flats are located in the suburbs and are grouped into various satellite towns, each with their own town centre.   (A flat is what Americans call apartments.)

Few Singaporeans will think of taking a day trip to the suburbs, let alone foreigners. But, this is the only way to experience the “real” Singapore.

Journey to one of Singapore’s most mature town centres, Toa Payoh Central. Toa Payoh Central is also home to the HDB, which recently shifted its headquarters to a spanking new building called the HDB Hub, located above Toa Payoh MRT Station and the much-debated air-conditioned bus interchange. The decision by the authorities to air-condition bus interchanges then increase the price of public transport caused quite a stir amongst commuters, who prefer to pay less for their transport than to enjoy a few minutes of air-conditioned comfort.

With the sudden influx of a few thousand HDB employees, the already bustling Toa Payoh Central is now bursting at its seams. The coffee shops, hawker centres and shops are very crowded, especially during lunch time.   (On our very first adventure with Lang and Douglas we ate at food from the hawker stalls.)

Shopping here is excellent because almost everything is cheaper than in the city, and there are plenty of interesting buys too. At Cash Converter, a queue forms to sell their used items, which are in turn displayed for sale to others hunting for cheap, used goods. The S$0.80 and S$1.00 shops (i.e. shops selling everything at S$0.80 or S$1.00 apiece) are so well-stocked, it makes you wonder why you ever shopped anywhere else. Try a cup of bubble tea, an iced tea drink (with or without milk) with big, black, starchy pearls. It’s pretty addictive!

Take a look around you and you’ll see bamboo poles with wet laundry sticking out of the flats, housewives trading gossips, residents sipping their kopi-o (“black coffee”) and exchanging their views on the latest news.

Take a break at the Toa Payoh Community Library. Browse through the travel guides, books on Singapore’s history, or works of local writers. You’ll definitely learn something new. Or you could stop by Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre to catch a movie or amuse yourself at the games arcade.

To get to Toa Payoh Central, take the MRT to Toa Payoh MRT Station. It’s just 3 stops from Ang Mo Kio MRT Station.”  

http://www.the-inncrowd.com/index.htm  If you ever visit Singapore this is a really good site with several suggestions for walks through the different areas of Singapore.

  Cash Converters.

I had my eye on the white ceramic bunny on the top shelf.  How could anyone part with that?  It was a combination of Happy’s Flea Market and Play It Again Sports.

The Super Key Lady’s truck and the Super Key Lady sign.  I might have to go back just to actually read the whole sign and not just the part I caught here in the photo.

I think I even saw a key with Che’s portrait on it.  Lang doesn’t like the key lady because she says the prices are too high.  Douglas says the Key Lady can make a key that will work for you even if you don’t have the exact one to be copied.  At least I think Douglas said that…or I’ve made it up.

She posed for this one.

  The Toa Payoh Public Library.

This was taken on our first visit to Toa Payoh.  Lang has her motorcycle helmet in her hand.  That’s how she commutes to work which involves being a computer chip guru.  In Malaysia and Indonesia lots of women drive motorcycles.  Hermairdi’s wife in Belitung had one to commute to her teaching job.  I guess where you have no winter they can be more popular.  Seeing women in full Muslim traditional dress driving a motorcycle always seemed a contradiction to me which shows what I know.