Singapore Midtown Lunch - Humid Spice

I just came back from my first "midtown lunch" here in Singapore.  Midtown Lunch was my favorite food site when working in Manhattan, so for lack of other coherent things to say at the moment about my new country of domicile, here is my imitation of Zach Brooks - my hero and passive mentor...

So for my first review, my new colleagues here invited to to eat lunch with them at a local hawker center called LaPaSa .  It will take me months to try all the "carts" in just this one food court...

The unassuming AS North Indian Cuisine stall at LaPaSa food court (booth #64 - felt like 50-60 of them) uses strong spices in its Chicken Biriyani - a satisfying meal of fried rice, two chicken thighs covered in a chili-based marinade, raita, and 2 small papadums with a curry-based dipping sauce.  The only thing lacking in the meal is missing for all the rest of the meals available in this abundant and varied food court - A/C.  By the time lunch was over, I had lost at least half a pint of water and my single tissue - I need to find out more about the napkin situation here - was sitting soaked tabletop emanating an evil vibe..  At SGD$2 (~USD$1.5) I have plenty of change for a SGD$3-bottle of Evian (Starbucks price) to replenish my reservoirs, but who's going to replace my sweat-ruined shirt?

Apartment Hunt - Day 1

We've been looking for apartments literally since two months before we even arrived here.  I contacted 2 real estate agents while still in NY with our arrival dates, estimated container shipment dates, our budget and set of priorities, which read roughly like this:

1) Condominium with a pool
2) 3 + 1 (this refers to 3 Bedrooms + maid's room) at > 1200 sq ft (really, we ended up figuring we need closer to 1300 sq ft minimum given extra space for utility areas and maid's facilities) 
3) Close to a North/South or East/West MRT station (trains with direct connections into work) with total commute times under 30 mins
4) Close to shopping 
5) Close to pre-schools (especially the Jewish school where we pre-registered Elizabeth even before getting our airline tickets confirmed)

I spoke with the agents about what they thought were good locations based on my criteria (Novena Square and East Coast, and some other possibilities in West and North areas), and they started to look around in general and give me ideas about specific available condos, that I could sort of research online (google maps/sattelite + street view, condo reviews and listings online), and I thought wow this is simple and it's going to be so easy to get a place just after stepping one foot down from the airplane...  And then we stepped one foot down from the airplane.

In our first apartment hunting trip around the city we saw 4 properties:

West
Commonwealth MRT - The Anchorage (over-budget, dark, and run-down)
Holland Village - Leedon (smelly and run-down with paint chipping off apartment walls and common areas)

North
Bishan MRT - Raffles Loft (weird built-in furniture, not really a 3 + 1, didn't really like the neighborhood)

East Coast
Tanjong Rhu (Stadium MRT) - The Waterplace (swanky, good condition, but a little too small, and with some built-in furniture that took up what space there was, and long walk to MRT)
Bayshore - ...

Didn't get to the next place, because Elizabeth was running a high fever and we were all jet-lagged, so instead we ended up at the Raffles Hospital Walk-In Clinic (more on that in another blog entry).

Summary Report: The Anchorage and Leedon were actually nauseating, and until we saw The Waterplace we were feeling like we made a big mistake moving!  At least we ended on a high note, and we got a better sense of how far money could stretch (and contract) in some of these areas.

Shalom Ni Hao

Our family just moved to Singapore from New York City.  We're eating a lot of new and interesting things.  Experiencing a new culture.  Driving on the wrong side of the road.  This is as good as any time to start blogging about the Garbourg family adventure in the great, wide world starting in a tiny lil' island in South-East Asia.