Final day. It's 4:00 in the morning and it was a big day. Let's get started.

Susan had to go down to the club for some gear maintenance, so we headed to Boat Quay. While she worked, I visited a few stalls in the street behind the club, which is basically several blocks of food vendors. At the first stall I had:

-roti prata
-winter melon tea

Roti prata is a sort of chewy, oily Indian pancake with a curry dipping sauce-perfect for breakfast. The ingredients listed on the can of winter melon tea were: water, extracts of winter melon, sugar, permitted flavorings, permitted food additives of non-animal origin. One wonders what they list if they use non-permitted ingredients.

Then I moved up the street to the BK Eating House, which is an open air food court. These are everywhere. They're sort of a cross between a food court and a hawker center, and they usually have five or six stalls. Here I finally had:

-fish ball noodle soup

This is soup stock (chicken?) with fish balls, which are about the size of golf balls, sliced fish cake, lettuce, scallions, vermicelli, flat noodles, and chilli infused oil for dipping. The two-handed utensil routine is essential, with an added technique. To eat the fish balls, you skewer them with two chopsticks, dip them in the chilli oil, and have your way with them. This was a very satisfying dish, especially when accompanied by a Tiger beer!

Susan was spending some time practicing at the club, and I needed to rest up, so I hopped on a randomly chosen double-decker bus, plopped myself into the front seat on the upper level, and let myself be transported around the island for awhile. This is a great way to see some sights, and they also had a TV screen that was playing local soap operas. I rode out into the suburbs, took an hour walk that included an exploration of the music conservatory, and then rode a train back into town, straight to the heart of Chinatown.

In Chinatown, preparations were underway for the coming New Year celebration, and the streets were even crazier than a few days ago. Suddenly from out of nowhere came a rainstorm. These tropical rainstorms can be furious, but they usually end as quickly as they start. There's nothing to do but find some cover and wait it out, and there's no better way to do that than to duck into a street stall for some:

-roasted duck noodles

This dish was fantastic. Vermicelli with savory duck, greens, gravy, and bits of crispy duck skin, along with a side dish of broth. When a hawker came over to ask if I'd like a Tiger, what could I say?

I keep forgetting to mention the incredible cost factor in all this. Most of the dishes I've been describing cost three Singaporean dollars, which is just a little over two US dollars. Even if you pig out the way I have, it's a bargain!

After a rest and a shower at the hotel, it was time for a trip to the Tekka Centre in Little India. This is the biggest hawker centre I've been to, and the grittiest. There are hundreds of food stalls, and it's wrapped around the "wet market" which is a huge collection of stalls selling all manner of fresh meats and veggies. Here I had:

-carrot cake
-sugar cane juice

The thing about carrot cake is that it's not a cake and it contains no carrots. It's a fried hash of white radish and egg. The best way I can describe it is to say that it's like a cross between chewy noodles and home fries. Even though I'm not an egg fan, I enjoyed this a lot. The Tiger beer probably didn't hurt.

I watched the sugar cane juice being made and it was very simple-sugar cane run through a juicer. No need to add sugar to this one! It was actually quite tasty, with just a bit of citrus tartness.

Before going to Susan's gig I checked out a singer I had met who was working at a trendy spot called Oosh. All I had to eat here was some potato chips (they came with my Heineken) but it's worth mentioning because of its location. It was in the suburbs, in a complex called Dempsey Village, which was a collection of ultra-chic restaurants. It struck me that this was like a hawker centre on super-trendy steroids.

Finally, at Susan's gig we had some good old bar food! The fried chicken wings had a bit of curry flavor, and were quite tasty. We also had some pizza-always good at 2:00am.

Which reminds me that I need to get up in a couple of hours and catch a plane. There's a food court at the airport, so this may not be over yet...

Cheers