Singapore: Day 26

Today was another long day at work. I will try not to include details of my work life-- it is quite monotonous in that I run the same protocol for an unbearable number of genes and cell lines. Well, after I first finish normalizing with GAPDH of course, whenever that may be. It is a bit annoying having to tweak the odd expression by adding an extra 0.1 micro-liter of DNA, only to find it over-expressed, then to at last found it under-expressed. However, I will get through this soon enough!

I was jealous of the attendees of the ASTAR conference; Emily, Laney and Janes intern at ASTAR and they had a conference full of exciting science talks and delicious food while I played around with GAPDH. Science and food, what else do you need in life?  Thankfully, James saved me a couple of sweets (my favorite being the cheesecake), which satisfied my long-lasting craving for Western sweets. I have been craving cheesecake for weeks but my less-than-ideal experience with the blueberry cheese has made me hesitant to buy Western sweets again. The cheesecake from the conference was perfect though and I was immensely happy.

At 6 PM, we all met up for dinner in Chinatown. Many have told me that the food in Chinatown is amazing, so I was excited to finally have a meal there. Once Angelo, Emily, Laney, Nelson, Nicole, and I assembled at the MRT entrance facing Pagoda Street, we headed to Smith Street Food Centre (Angelo and Nelson work in Chinatown, so thankfully they know most of the food places in the area.)

Pagoda Street, Chinatown

Smith Street Food Centre

After wandering around the large centre, I decided on chee cheong fun and soon kueh. The woman serving the foods was very hospitable and explained what soon kueh was. Our conversation took place in Cantonese, which added a layer of familiarity. She even gave me a free sample of turnip cake! Now onto my dinner. Chee cheong fun is a Cantonese dish as well as one of my favorite foods, so I definitely wanted to try it in Singapore. For those that are unfamiliar with Cantonese foods, chee cheong fun is a thin roll of rice noodle and eaten with soy sauce and hot sauce. Soon kueh was foreign to me as well, but according to the web it is a steamed Chinese dumpling made of rice flour skin with chopped turnips strips in the inside. Both were very interesting for comparison, because back at home, my mother would make chee cheong fun and dumplings for a Chinese style breakfast. At home, I ate chee cheong fun with soy sauce, but the Singaporean chee cheong fun was served with sweet dark soya sauce and chili paste. Both the chee cheong fun and the soon kueh had the same dressings, which doubled the overwhelming sweetness of the entire meal. I have a huge sweet tooth, and even I could barely handle the puddles of sweet soya sauce combined with the sweet turnips inside the soon kueh. It was indeed overpowering, and I felt as though I could never eat sweets again. 

Chee cheong fun

Soon kueh

Of course, my initial conclusion turned out to be false because a few minutes later I found myself standing before one of the bakeries at the food centre. Who can resist? 

Perfection

I am a huge lover of black sesame, so I could not escape the lull of the black sesame bun. I purchased one black sesame bun (for now) to enjoy for tomorrow's breakfast. The bun was extremely tasty and soft. The entire bread was flavored with black sesame, and the filling was also black sesame and included walnuts. It is definitely the best bread I’ve had so far, and I can’t wait to go back to buy more! The meal was immensely filling. After dinner, we headed back to PGP and separated ways. I continued working on my applications, but I headed to bed a bit earlier because I was tired.