My friends Kevin and Tasha stopped by Singapore on their way to Bali so we met for dinner. After work I took a taxi over to meet with them. My taxi driver was a bit odd. The first question he asked me after I told him where I wanted to go was “Do you go to church on Sunday?” and when I answered No, he asked “Why not?” so I told him because I was a foreigner and didn’t know where to go. I didn’t want to outright say that I’m not religious because I didn’t want to offend him. So he goes on to ask me if I’m Korean, or Japanese, or Vietnamese and do I live here now? Etc, just asking away… then he asks me if I like Singaporean food and we get on the subject of “hot pot”. He kept on asking “What’s hot pot? It’s called steam boat! In Singapore we call it steam boat.” He was very insistent. He said while in Singapore, I should learn Mandarin because everyone here speaks Mandarin, even the Malay can learn to speak it. He kept on talking all the way to my friend’s hotel.
But it was strange, once my friends got into the taxi, he stopped talking. At least he stopped talking to us, he started mumbling to himself. My friend was wondering if he was talking on the phone but he really was just mumbling to himself.
A bit weird.
But we did finally arrive at Newton Circus to have dinner. My co-workers recommended some specific things to try there:
1. Sugar cane juice with lemon
2. Chili crab
3. Satay
4. Oyster omelette
5. Chicken wings
6. Sting ray
We tried all. Just the three of us.
The stall owners there are a bit irritating though, they try to lead you to their stalls, called “touting”. You really don’t know where to go, you just sit and they bring you food.
The sugar cane juice with lemon was refreshing ($2SGD). The chili crab was not bad, actually spicier than I’ve had ($30SGD for a small crab). Chicken and beef satay ($0.50SGD per skewer). The oyster omelette wasn’t that good, a bit fishy tasty ($6SGD). The chicken wings were crispy but not much meat ($1SGD each). The sting ray was quite tasty with a nice sauce ($8SGD).
We called it a night after dinner as they were leaving for Bali in the afternoon and going to head to Sentosa before they left Singapore. I have meetings to attend this weekend given by our visiting expert so was also ready to head home to rest.