Ms.C introduced us to some new friends at the pool, a mom and her 2 young daughters. They moved here a week ago from Switzerland, and speak Swiss-German. Ms.C asked if they were speaking Mandarin, informing them that she does not want to learn Mandarin. Their 5 year old is going to attend the Swiss International school. Her mom’s concerned it may be a hard adjustment for her as she doesn’t speak English yet. I didn’t catch the Mom’s name, but she will be staying home with her 2 year old. They’re house hunting in Tiong Bahru, which is an area people keep suggesting to us. We will likely ask to view some condos there.
Tiong Bahru is considered a hip part of town with older walk-up condo, and some newer high rises. It’s full of shops, cafes, and bakeries with a bit of French feel - There’s even a gluten free cafe here. The buildings are low with many curves and wall murals. There’s also a hawker centre and wet market. A wet market sells fresh fruit, vegetables and meat from vendor stalls. The floors are often wet from washing the produce or fish, hence the name. Wet market’s are open in the morning so we knew it would be closed at dinner time. A quick peek at the first floor showed what an amazing market it must be. From the front you could see the bright orchid and flower stalls.
Upstairs the Hawkers centre was bright, clean, and with dishes clearly labelled in English. At 7 pm it was quite empty. Mostly adults, about 2 families with one child. The vendors were very friendly with us and our children. Ms.E requested “Chicken and Rice” - her name for Red Thai Curry. For $11 we got one set of Red Curry with rice and bean sprouts and one set of Ginger Fried Beef with rice. Adding one more set probably would have completely fed the 5 of us, but at the moment we’re ordering light as it’s hard to know if the kids will eat what’s ordered. The red curry was too spicy for Ms.C, but surprisingly she all the bean sprouts along with the white rice and Ms.E was standoffish because it looked different, but eventually ate chicken pieces and white rice.
Ms.C wanted to try a dessert stand. The pictures looked very inviting. For $2.50 we got a large bowl of Mango Ice Kachang (topped with no condensed milk because of allergies). It’s a Malaysian shaved ice dessert, that comes with different fruit syrup flavorings with sweet beans and other candied fruit underneath the ice. We liked the shaved ice, but weren’t so sure about the beans.
Ms.E wanted to try a Happy Blueberry Aloe Vera on Shaved Ice. It looked odd. I felt certain she wouldn’t eat it. She cried as while the rest of us ate the Kachang. Finally I realized how silly I was being - none of us know what we will like or not here, and this whole experience is about trying new things. Ms.E loved her dessert and the new rule is that if someone wants to try eating something new, we should let them try it.