Pulang Kampung

We've just returned from a lovely 6-day vacation to Jakarta. For Derek, it was his fourth trip to Indo. For Dewi, it was her first. Dewi met most of her family at her first birthday. Our master event planner was my cousin, Cheryl. She did such an amazing job from picking a very fun venue, to decorating the party area. We had the party at Tamani Kids Kafe in Kemang, a really cool place with a big play area for kids that catered to both crawlers and older kids. Dewi absolutely loved it there. She crawled around the soft play area, and hung out in the ball pit with her second cousins. She was ecstatic the entire afternoon, happily babbled in the long car ride home, and immediately passed out as soon as we got home. Other notable things we did this week were:

1. Drinks with Mira & friends to the 3 House, a very cool rooftop bar that reminded me of KuDeTa in Bali.
2. Birthday lunch with my girl cousins at Din Tai Fung at Pondok Indah Mall
3. A birthday night out with Mira (my ultimate nightlife and foodie guru) to Social House in Grand Indonesia (seriously, these malls keep getting bigger and more luxurious)
4. An afternoon at the spa with Derek to get massages and creambaths (scroll towards the bottom for the description and warning: Derek's hair still smells like chocolate so whatever you do, don't get the chocolate kind. By all means "splurge" for the hair spa treatment) followed by lunch and cocktails at Potato Head at Pacific Place.
5. Eating amazing cheap local ribs at this awesomely cheap place that shall remain nameless for the sake of keeping the prices low for our next visit.

Now we are back in Singapore and had a lovely afternoon at a friend's pool party. This coming week starts our new routine of my going back to work and Dewi going to daycare. Wish us luck!

Sometimes you need a little slice of home...

A wonderful new friend in Singapore invited us to brunch today at this cute restaurant called PS Cafe in the Dempsey Road area. Another friend in Indo had glowing reviews of this place, and after brunching there, I understood exactly what she meant. This place was amazing. Great ambience, great feel, great food, great drinks, great dessert, and most importantly, it reminded me of home and all the fun brunches we enjoyed in DC. Yes, we are in the food capital of the world with cuisines from all over, but sometimes you just need a little slice of home. Sometimes you just need a caramelized onion and bleu cheese quiche to make your morning brighter. Even better is when that quiche comes with iced lemongrass tea, definitely not something that I can easily find on brunch menus in DC, but a nice treat to remind me that we are in a new home in the tropics. Welcome home.

Gongxi Fa Cai

We're in the midst of Chinese New Year here, aka Spring Festival, and enjoying the two days of public holiday (though, like Christmas in the States, it can be tough going for those wanting to go to the store, a restaurant, catch a cab, etc.). Celebrating in Singapore is different than what I've experienced in China, though the core elements are the same-- family gatherings at the elders' homes, big sumptuous meals, lots of oranges and other auspicious items, and little red envelopes, or hongbaos, for the young ones. For not having any family in Singapore, Dewi still did pretty well in the hongbao department this year, thanks to some nice "aunties" and "uncles." And we were lucky enough to join family friends in their New Year's Day dinner, which was a lot more exciting than eating pasta in our apartment (read: chilli crabs, pepper crabs, crab soup).

We'd talked about buying Dewi a little qipao-- after all, baby-size anything is cute, and she is one quarter Chinese. But it would have been kind of lame to dress her up only to hang out at home because we don't really celebrate. Still, we're going to be here for a few more years, so at some point we'll have to really do it up, decorate our house, stock up on oranges, hand out hongbaos, and maybe even buy one of those dried pig legs hanging in the markets. Ok, the pig leg would be going too far...

Grocery Stores

Right now, as I am attempting to cool down my body temperature and working the kinks out of carrying heavy bags on my shoulders on the public bus, over the hills, through the woods, and into the apartment- I am missing my car (Jackie) and our Sexy Safeway on 5th and K. Though grocery shopping here in Singapore is quite easy to do, I do miss the convenience of writing my weekly grocery list, putting Dewi down for a nap, jumping into Jackie, driving to Safeway at 9 in the morning when no one else is around (but late enough that I can buy alcohol, since Safeway won't sell me my wine at 8:57 a.m.), finding everything I need, and then driving back home.

Although Singapore makes getting around town quite easy to do (with public buses frequently coming by and courtesy shuttles from nearby plazas), I have found that in order to find everything that we want on our list we have to make a couple of stops. Here are the stops:
1. Nanyang market- if we don't want to go that far and just need a couple of snacks, fruits, or a bottle of shampoo, we can head to this mart, right in our apartment complex. They have a lot of things, but not as much selection as a big grocery store. I like their selection of dried Chinese snacks: dried prunes, dried plums, and other assorted dry and sour stuff. But for formula, wipes, and other things you want for your kitchen, you have to leave the campus.
2. Sheng Siong- this is quite a hidden gem. One of of the moms in our meetup group told me about this 2-level Asian market. Wait a minute, aren't they all Asian markets, you may ask? After all, Singapore is in Asia (right?)? The answer is yes, these markets are all in Asia. There are markets and there are ASIAN markets. If any of you have ever been to a 99 ranch market, H-Mart, or GrandMart, you'll know what I mean. Sheng Siong is hectic, chaotic, in your face, and smells like dead fish, but the prices are reasonable and they carry a lot of things. This includes Dewi's favorite Baby Bites (this link isn't exactly it, but it's pretty close), a nice selection of pasta, and Mexican products. Though I love the Mexican section, I will probably never purchase any of them during our time here since it's so expensive. For example, a box of Old El Paso Taco Shells is 10 bucks! But Sheng Siong doesn't carry much meat or grated parm. Which brings us to...
3. Cold Storage- This is a nice, smaller version of the sexy Safeway. It is not as hectic and feels like any Western grocery store (just 1/5 of the size), but one has to spend some time comparing labels in Cold Storage. You can leave there spending a lot of money or an average amount. Cold Storage does carry grated parm (which is pretty pricey here), and other things you may need for your western meal or superbowl party (Cheeseheads, please note that Johnsonville brats are 10 bucks a pack here). They also have deli meats, beef and turkey bacon, and a little Swiss bakery right outside of it in case we are craving a nice loafy bread.

After those three stops, I trek to the bus stop, get on the bus, then head back home. By the time I get into our apartment, I down three glasses of cold water and sit still for about 10 minutes so that I can cool down. Oh yeah, and did I mention the fruit stands and wet market as well? I could use a nice bottle of beer right now. Oh yeah, those are expensive too :)