Sunday, February 10, 2008

Gung Hay Fat Choi



After wandering round Little India, and with it being Chinese New Year, I thought I'd head down to Singapore's Chinatown to see what the crack was.


I'd missed the celebrations by a few days but there was still a buzz about the place. Teams of brightly dressed Chinamen in full dragon get-up were tootling around in flatbed trucks as if they were ready to be deployed at a moment's notice, like crack commandos.


Throughout the day they would appear from nowhere and do a merry dance in front of the many restaurants to bring them luck throughout the year. Not so lucky for some people sat out front trying to eat their won-tons in peace. Bloody hell those drums are loud.


Speaking of restaurants, I thought whilst I was there I should probably sample some local cuisine. In my head, I was thinking beef in black bean or maybe some chow mein. Closer inspection of the menus revealed I was wide of the mark. It's interesting to note differing Eastern and Western notions of what is considered appetising.


Thus scanning the many restaurants' offerings, I had a choice of dishes like pig's intestines with cucumber, cow's spleen and fishhead curry and my favourite, sweet and sour frog. I am not joking.


Don't think the Capital Chinese Restaurant in Uttoxeter has this on the menu.








1 comment:

Giacomo said...

yah, I mean how many chinese people do you know get really excited about Steak and Kidney Pie, Fish finger sandwiches or Deep Fried Fish in batter with chips?

We gave the world deep fried mars bars too and how do they thank us? By not sending their delicious cuisine round our way, instead we get instant dim sum from horrible chain stores called ping pong and not a single sweet and sour giant chinese dragon anywhere.