Real Estate Stalking: Singapore

One of our favorite architectural styles we saw in SE Asia was the shophouses found in Malaysia and Singapore. We were drawn to their colorful uniformity, large windows, and the dual uses of shop and home.

There was a lack of clutter, lack of trees along the avenues and a lack of plants and adornments out front, which we found refreshing. Allows the shop fronts to be visible.

Even though most of the shophouses were all uniform in size, height and shape, some still managed to add colorful touches.

These shophouses are vastly different from the homes and lifestyles of us Americans. It's not uncommon to live in homes with shared walls or spaces, but these shophouses brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "love thy neighbor". We found it admirable. Chinese shopkeepers operating and living next to their Hindu and Muslim neighbors with an understanding of communal space and sense of respect.

Shophouses can be found in older areas of Singapore and cities in Malaysia, where the cultural areas were, as well as being close to the city centers and along rivers. We loved wandering around trying to imagine what the inside of these houses must look like. Were they dark from being sandwiched between homes and what seemed to be windows only in the front and back?

We weren't able to see an actual shophouse residence. We did go into several shops, but they were extensively converted making imagining what the residence portion of the house looked like difficult. However, we did visit a traditional clan house that was converted into a museum, which gave us an idea what some of these homes look like on the inside, as well as the rich history that led to the architectural style.

While daydreaming through innovative and highly acclaimed SE Asia's Architecture/Interior Design firm Ong&Ong on the interweb we came across their design work for several traditional shophouse/cluster homes in Singapore. We were in awe. The interiors of these shophouses were beyond what we could have imagined were behind the shops. Modern Asian aesthetic with lots of wood, tile and glass. Minimal use of the lush tropical flora such as bamboo and banana trees. The green cinder block detail in the kitchen and dining room to main room is spot on!

These images of the second story windows and finally a glimpse into the second floor. The ornate iron spiral staircase is classic Singaporian style.

What really blew us away was the courtyards. Singapore & Malaysia has beautiful consistent weather being right on the equator - the sun rises and sets at the same time basically all year round. The weather is warm and sunny, so outdoor living is essential. These modern courtyards make use of minimal amount of space and light, and still manages to squeeze in pools to keep cool.

These modern updated shophouses have us yearning to live in a tropical balmy location, especially if our home could look anything like these.

Final Meal and Thoughts: Singapore

Due to the diversity of Singapore's population there are many national Singaporian dishes: chicken rice from the Chinese population, roti prata from the Indian population, fish head curry from the Malaysian population, sambals from Indonesia, and cheese mayonnaise fries from the British, as well as Singapore's own culinary developments such as barbequed stingray and black pepper crab. Interesting enough the curry spiced glass noodle dish Singapore noodles found the US can not be found in Singapore. The numerous dining options in Singapore is staggering, from restaurants to coffee shops to food courts to hawker centres to street vendors to newspaper kiosks, serving up all the dishes mentioned before to new ones we will undoubtedly return to taste. But before catching our flight to Bali we were determined to eat one last national Singapore dish - Chili CrabLucky for us the local neighborhood restaurant also served happy hour dim sum!At our Cookery Magic cooking course we were given the secret to black pepper crab, but we opted for the chili crab, which was delicious. A perfect final farewell to our culinary time in Singapore! Don't worry we'll be back to try that black pepper crab soon!

Cooking Course: Singapore

We were unable to find a cooking course while traveling through Malaysia, so we were very excited to find the Cookery Magic courses in Singapore that taught regional cuisine, including Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and Malaysian. Several different regional cuisines were offered during our time in Singapore and we decided to join the Malaysian cooking course offered later in the week. By this time we have had taken 5 different cooking courses and each were so very different in class structure, teaching style, and methodology that we weren’t sure what the course would be like. But we did know one thing – Singapore is hot and humid and tiring and by the time we made our way across the city and walked from the MRT to the class we were exhausted and not very excited about the course. The class was held in a residential area of Singapore and as we walked through the front gate to the front door we quickly became more excited about the class. The front yard of the house was lush, tropical, serene, and tranquil.The personal-spa-front yard had a small koi pond with fish we could pet like a dog and would suck on our fingers. It felt very strange.

We were immediately greeted by the cooking instructor Ruqxana. Soon everyone arrived and we were ushered into the kitchen.And to our utter joy and relief we were all given seats along one wall of the kitchen where we remained and watched Ruqxana discuss Singapore’s unique cuisine

introduced us to exotic spicesshowed us how to bring out flavorsand introduced to new flavors and tools

Ruqxana reminded us of our Japanese cooking course instructor Elizabeth Andoh. Both Ruqxana and Elizabeth are incredibly knowledgeable of the history of local ingredients, as well as fascinating medicinal facts, cultural significance, and unique culinary techniques. We were definitely able to take away plenty of inspiration.

Cultural Singapore

Another day of sightseeing and we’re back in Little India.

What can we say – we are in love with the culture, food, and people of the SE Asia Indian population.We did a little more research and wanted to see the temples in the area, both Hindu and Buddhist. First things first, we were looking for another great lunch and a local merchant suggested we try an unnamed banana leaf restaurant up the street. As we walked up we noticed the lunch crowd was heavy with Chinese, Malay, and Hindu seated at tables on the sidewalk surrounding the corner shop. We grabbed an empty table and flagged down a waiter and order a plate of crispy veggies.Although heavier than expected due to the chickpea flour, delicious nonetheless. Soon our banana leaf lunches arrived and we dug in.Not knowing what vegetarian items will be served with banana leaf lunches is the half the fun of ordering, the other half is eating it. Lucky for Anne her favorite okra-potato curry was included in the meal.

And Mike got his favorite tandori chicken.

We may be jaded since we have had several banana leaf meals, but this particular lunch was very heavy and we quickly found ourselves full and couldn’t finish even half of it.

So we simply sat back and enjoyed the yummy pulled teaand watched the procession of tourist rickshaws.

We quickly made our way to the Sri Veeramkaliamman Temple, which was filled with worshippers.All the Hindu Temples we have visited were always packed with worshippers who never seem to notice us and usually invited us to participate and take pictures of ceremonies that take place with little fan fare and among a lot of chatter and activity which never seen to take away from the shaman’s sermons.Which to be honest made it easy for us to stand and watch, but not feel awkward about walking around the temple as people prepared offerings and bathed statues in milk.Out of the numerous Hindu Temples we have visited, the Sri Veeramkaliamman Temple’s statues were by far one of the more morbid ones.We walked along the beautifully colorful colonial housesto several Buddhist templesWhat looked like a small neighborhood temple held a large seated Buddhaand the most interesting collection of small buddhasWe walked up the street to several more templesWe visited several more hindu temples, which were by far the most ornate buildings we have ever seenBy this time we were tired from the heat and walking and wanted to find a place to have a beer. Cousin Peggy suggested before we left that morning to check out Chinatown, especially for souvenirs. Singapore's Chinatown turned out to be a long alleyway right at the top of the Chinatown rail stop.Touristy and full of souvenir shops and stalls, Chinatown turned out to be the perfect stop for a beer, a little shopping, and people watching at the end of another great day.