Today was Little India day!
I got up at 7.30am, had breakfast, showered, did some blog-typing and we got the bus from Sentosa over to Singapore when it was still pretty early.
The only downside was that it was pretty much raining all day, which made things a little complicated, and we had to occasionally take shelter when it got a little heavy.
We spent most of our time shopping around the market stalls, I got a new table runner, a tissue box cover and a new over the shoulder bag (which is now a touchy subject as I found the same bag for HALF the price in Chinatown only two days later!)
The sales people were pushy and, I’d go so far as to say, aggressive. It wasn’t a particularly welcoming place, and a lot of the time, shop owners didn’t give you an option, they blocked your path until you went in to their shop. Crazy – way too abrasive for my liking!
For lunch, we went to a restaurant (to shelter from the rain) called The Banana Leaf.
In case you can’t tell, the ‘plate’ you eat off, is actually a rather large banana leaf!
They come around with big ‘bucket’ type things full of rice, scoop it on and let you work away. It was fascinating to watch people around me eat (though I was tempted, I didn’t take pictures) most of them used their fingers – no knives and forks – for curry and rice!! I know it sounds alien to us, but, I guess for them, it’s the norm!
On one table, I watched three ladies scoop up clumps of rice with curry in their fingers and drop it delicately in their mouths – not spilling a drop. They made it look so graceful and effortless – if I tried that, I’d have been wearing more than I ate!
On another table, I watched two men enjoy lunch (yes, I couldn’t help myself, I found everyone there fascinating – and I promise, I tried not to stare!) What THEY did, was put their two slices of naan on their banana leaves, side by side and just tipped the entire little bowl of curry on top. Then, with only one hand, they tore sections of the naan bread (again, without spilling a drop) and folded little parcels of curry before popping them in their mouths.
I was astonished – tempted to try it, but too scared of looking like an utter idiot (and spilling my delicious lunch!) I had the butter chicken, hubby had the korma and we both LOVED it, it’s the one place I want to go back to again before we leave. It was delicious!!!
After lunch, we hit up the Mustafa centre – the place where Amee had been told to go and shop for spices. I don’t know how to adequately convey the size of this place, it was huge, at least four floors that I could see and covered at least two city blocks (and spread to other buildings across the roads in each direction, but we didn’t venture that far!)
Anything you could want, need, or not know you need is in this place. From toiletries and personal hygiene items, to household wears, clothing and food. It was immense! I came out of it having lost Amee and Colin, at least twice and reminding myself to take a GPS back with me the next time we go there!!
Back at the Vivo centre, we picked up a pastry treat in Bread Talk, dropped in to Giant for some pineapple juice for the house, before we enjoyed a cheeky wee Starbucks (courtesy of Amee) and ate our tasty treats.
At home on the Island, none of us could be arsed getting back on the bus to go in to Singapore for dinner, so we bummed-out and ordered a pizza from Sarpino’s.