Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/107892
ious about their cuisine. has already converged on the centre's wet market, which specializes in crab and other seafood. The hawker's court, where rows of kiosks offer the likes of tandoori chicken and Indian vegetarian dishes, is right beside it. Garbage receptacles overflow with empty coconut shells that once held cold, sweet coconut milk drinks. I prefer to order a hot beverage: teh halia, or ginger milk tea, something I've never been able to find in Indian restaurants back home. Made from water boiled with ginger, the tea is sweetened with condensed milk. The result is creamy, with a solid kick of ginger that leaves a warm after-burn. Time for lunch. Not too far across town from Little India is the beautiful Sultan Mosque, heart of the area called Arab Street or Kampong Glam, just east of Raffles Hospital. In a way, Kampong Glam, sometimes called the Muslim Quarter, sums up the city. It's pretty, displays its heritage proudly and yet seems so tidy and orderly that you might think you've wandered into some sort of Singapore Disneyland. The narrow streets are lined with restored old shop houses containing carpet and souvenir stores and offices. Restaurants, too. Kampong Glam is the place to go for nasi padang, an Indonesian Muslim culinary tradition that combines Asian and Middle Eastern influences and makes heavy use of coconut milk and spices. It's represented in the Arab Street area by restaurants such as (Muslim Quarter) Robert Harding/All Canada Photos, (sugar cane juice) Steve Burgess, Singapore Tourism Board p24-29_Singapore.indd 27 (both pages, clockwise from far left) Venison with gravy and green onions; an open-air market in Singapore's Little India; alfresco dining in Kampong Glam, the Muslim Quarter, near the Sultan Mosque; a vendor uses a hand-cranked press to make sugar cane juice, a popular local beverage; zongzi (rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and tied with twine) at a hawker's market. the legendary Warong Nasi Pariaman. This afternoon it's my bad fortune to arrive as they are washing up, five minutes after closing early for a holiday. Disappointing, but there are other options. Encouraged by the crowd across the street at a deli-style restaurant called Sabar Menanti II, I head in. At the back, a glass case displays rows of dishes, most swimming in savoury curry sauces. Soon I am engaged in one of those acts of faith and surrender that are an unavoidable part of overseas dining. I don't recognize any of the dishes on display and no one can really explain them to me. So I turn myself over to the man in charge. "Spicy OK?" he asks. I nod, trying to Westworld >> s p r i n g 2 0 1 3 27 13-01-21 3:05 PM