When Freshening Can't Wait

Sometimes you end up having a drink at Harry's.

 One can find a Harry's (sound alert) bar just about anywhere in Singapore. I can assure you that almost every new mall, office building, or retail development that opened in the last four years has one of these corporate watering holes. The drinks are just on the wrong side of overpriced. The house wine is usually undrinkable. Harry's Premium Lager is a weak, stale brew. Yet multiple locations regularly host quality live music, and they will most likely have a television tuned to the F1 race, cricket test, or tennis final that you want to see.

Quick! Call the Freshening Singapore Hotline. We haven't a moment to lose.

More importantly, I had to show you all this towelette packet from the Harry's underneath the Esplanade theatres.  It came with some very specific instructions. However, if a freshening emergency does arise, you can call their hotline.

The parent company Harry's Holdings Ltd also operates a boutique hotel, a nightclub, and three restaurants.  They also have a catering business and the license for the Gymboree franchise in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Tokyo Food

A snack package of what appears to be hazelnuts in a Tokyo mini-mart.

The Passengers ate all sorts of goodness in Tokyo.  The Japanese take their food seriously in the same manner as do the French with serious refinement of standardized age-old recipes.  We didn't suffer a bad meal once during our travels. Here are some highlights, though they exclude our early morning sushi adventure.  That will be a separate post.

Ramen noodles with all the fixings.

We had ramen one evening at a small restaurant not far from our ryokan.  Diners are supposed to choose their dishes from a vending machine outside the front door.  After the customer pays money in, the machine spits out a ticket for his order, and he brings it inside the restaurant.  We tried our very best to match the Japanese labels on the selection buttons with the pictures in the window.  Finally we gave up, and we were kindly greeted inside with an English menu.  This bowl of ramen was as big as my head.  I could barely get through half of it.  Passenger H unwisely had her own bowl, too, which by the time she quit looked like she only managed to pick out the seaweed, the half-boild egg, and two pieces of scrumptious fatty pork.  The yummy noodles are underneath a big pile of extras that also includes corn, bamboo shoots, and bean sprouts.  I think we paid JPY 950 per bowl (USD 11.25/GBP 7.10).  More dishes after the jump.  Click below left to keep reading.

Cafe Culture in Vietnam

The terrace and outdoor tables of L'Usine.

During our weekend in Ho Chi Minh City the Passengers discovered a great little upstairs cafe/shop.  L'Usine occupies an historic shophouse overlooking Dong Khoi street, but access is through a small lane lined with parked motorbikes.  Inside the cafe features a full espresso service and impeccably chosen teas from Mariage Freres of Paris.

The alleyway seen from the stairway leading up to l'Usine.

The interior has been fitted out with old hardwood sewing tables decorated with tall vases of cut flowers. The cafe does great salads and sandwiches, the latter using delicious French-style bread.  That baking tradition and the affection for bouquets counts as positive colonial legacies.  A stylish shop adjoins the eatery with a fabulously curated selections of boutique European and Asian designers, a real find.

The counter at l'Usine stands in front of a large window at the top of the shophouse staircase.

Können Sie mir helpfen?

The lost and found at Oktoberfest in Munich sorts all the mobile phones they receive according to manufacturer. Also the Fundbüro keeps an inventory of all its holdings using typewritten index cards. Let us both praise and mock great national traditions!

York Beer & Cider Festival

Today was my first full day in York. Fortunately, my time in the North coincides with the York Food and Drink Festival. This weekend CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) held a gathering at the racecourse. A serious crowd gathered around the grounds and inside the tents to taste beers and ciders from all over Britain.

My samplings from this afternoon from Yorkshire outfits included Ryedale Best by Cropton brewery, Sabbatic Ale from Great Heck, and Muston Scarecrow made by East Coast Brewing Co. in Filey. Another personal highlight was the Copy Lane Stout offered by Stables in County Durham. Plus, the festival featured a choice handful of food vendors to explore.

The three words every man longs to hear, "Fresh Pork Scratchings."

Then, up from among the carnival rides next door came six hot-air balloons in time for a sunset voyage.

Another high-flying venture from Sir Richard Branson.

Hard to beat.

Saturday in East Singapore

This 328 location, in a traditional Peranakan shophouse building, attracts diners hungry for Laksa.

Saturday featured a very successful outing. The Passengers ventured out with a few Americans to Katong, a neighborhood in East Singapore traditionally home to Peranakans (Chinese families who have long dwelled in the Straits region). These streets gave birth to a spicy noodle and coconut soup called Laksa. We perched atop small plastic stools facing onto East Coast Road and ate at one of the areas's best known stalls (above). We also strolled by the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar temple (below). Chinese have lived around here for centuries, but this Hindu monument on Ceylon Road was built in 1875.

Three military helicopters cross the sky on exercises for the National Day parade 9 August.

Next, we hopped in a cab and made for the East Coast Lagoon Food Village where we sat at seaside picnic tables with pitchers of Tiger beer and a great view of the current maritime parking lot (below). The Food Village is another of the open-air clusters of food stalls, or hawker centres, found throughout Singapore. We heaped up plates of satay, stingray, and carrot cake. I took pictures of a couple interesting signs. Good food. Good chat. Good views.

Instructions

For the first (and possibly only) time, hello, Passenger H here. Today I will mostly be discussing that which brings Britain and Asia together, tea. Now I will concede that unlike the gorgeous photos Passenger J has been posting my photo looks like smeared peas, however it actually shows the wrapper from a tea bag (green tea obviously). Due to my photographic limitations I will have to transcribe the text below:

JASMINE GREEN TEA
Selected Premium Leaf
Preparation
1. Put a POKKA Jasmine Green Tea bag in a cup.
2. Fill cup with 150cc of hot Water.
3. Jiggle tea bag a few times and let it rest in cup for 30 seconds.
4. Jiggle tea bag again, then remove it from cup.
5. Now enjoy a cup of really good POKKA Jasmine Green Tea.
A Quality Product of Japan

Italics mine.
Jiggle twice, cup once. (Passenger J’s commentary)

Summer in the City

The Guardian just published a new travel feature on New York City with ten destinations to help visitors enjoy the summer weather and escape the oppression of warm asphalt and sun-baked dumpsters. The suggestions should encourage both NYC residents and those who need another reason/excuse to visit. I now want to visit Wave Hill Gardens, especially now that I finally have friends living in the Bronx. I would like to add a few endorsements and addenda to fill out the Guardian's well-conceived recommendations. The numbering below corresponds to the newspaper's list.

1. Water Taxi Beach: I am glad this summer institution is expanding, but the original Queen's location with its view of the Midtown skyline will be hard to beat. Speaking of beats, to make the most of a foray into this outer borough, go dancing in the afternoon sunshine at PS 1's Warm Up. The avant garde outpost of MoMA deploys its Young Architects Program to transform its courtyard into a recreational space where families and hipsters and locals enjoy world-class DJ's every Saturday throughout the summer. If dancing doesn't suit you, try the nearby Noguchi Museum and its gardens (above).


5. Rooftop Bars: I commend the Guardian for promoting a low-key, inexpensive alternative over the more outrageous rooftop bars of the city. I will add a this recent guide courtesy of New York magazine. I support all trips to Koreatown for a laid-back venue, and Bookmarks, atop the Library Hotel, offers an urbane spot to watch the flicker of city lights. I will take that crowd above the painfully hip choking the Meatpacking District any day. The Metropolitan Museum also has a roof (above) overlooking Central Park with drinks available.


7. The Cloisters: I am very proud that the Metropolitan Museum's medieval annex in Fort Tryon Park garnered a mention, not least because they have kept me in beer for now three years running. Garden Days at the Cloisters happen this weekend (6, 7 June) for all who appreciate the museum's stunning displays of plants and historical botany. I recommend the Cloisters to all who will listen, but I further advise everyone to expand your visit into a mini-break from Manhattan with lunch or brunch on the patio of New Leaf Café, also in Fort Tryon Park.

8. Brooklyn Botanic Garden: The New York Botanical Garden gets my pick over the smaller, more crowded BBG. Still, this garden makes for a nice day out, especially when combined with the fascinating and charming Brooklyn Museum (see McKim, Mead, and White façade atop the post, from Josh and Josh) and the idles of Prospect Park. King's County (i. e. Brooklyn) has built for itself a number of cultural institutions that would be nationally renown if it wasn't for those pesky, august bulwarks elsewhere in the city. For a look into Brooklyn's effortless appeal to families who somewho maintain adult lifestyles, visit the museum on a Target First Saturday.

And those are a few of my suggestions for how to take the New York Summer to 11. Don't worry, my nostalgia should pass quickly. The Passengers are spending this weekend stretched out on the Indonesian beaches of Bintan.

Kopi ≈ Coffee

Coffee to go in Singapore, that's “take away” in British, gets a nifty carrying sling. No awkward cardboard cartons to balance. This is not, however, a Singapore Sling.

Singaporeans like coffee. All the malls are saturated with coffee shops in the same way that London and New York merchants compete for those who crave a jolt of black liquid. But the mall outlets are mostly Asian or Australian versions of mega coffeetailers like Starbucks or Café Nero. Here, the favored local variety falls outside of the array of Italian and Italian-inspired beverages. The national way to ingest caffeine is called Kopi, a strong, thick brew served out of long spouted chrome pitchers that look a little like watering cans.

The most popular variety is Kopi Si, dark roast coffee mixed with a healthy dose of sweetened condensed milk. It can also be had as Kopi O – without the milk but still plenty of sugar. These recipes arose out of the drink's working-class origins. The sweet additives could cover up the faults of cheaper beans or inconsistent roasting processes. However, Kopi Koso roughly translates from Malay as “empty coffee” and it has no such sweetners. Currently, I am drinking Kopi Gao, a double-thick iteration of Kopi Si. Mine has a splash of sweet milk, and I am not sure I can contemplate the potency of undiluted Gao. This cup alternately makes my eyes squint and spin. Never pay more than S$1.50 (about 1.00 USD) for a cup.

British newspaper update: The Sunday Times has named Singapore a serious food destination.