Peranakan @The Blue Ginger

I think of The Blue Ginger Restaurant as the veritable grand dame of peranakan fine dining.

She is style.
She is refinement.
She is hospitality from a bygone era where the living was gracious.

To celebrate an old girlfriend's home visit during the Chinese New Year, we gathered at this lovely restored shophouse restaurant for an old fashioned meal of Straits Chinese cooking.

And the warm memories of growing up in a peranakan neighbourhood came flooding back.

I miss those days.

Paul Ropp (again)

We received the Paul Ropp email about their factory sale 5 days before the event. The man and I looked at the message in dismay and disbelief. What is wrong with the staff that they would wait till the last possible moment to disseminate information? It was like they sat around the workplace for months, and then suddenly decided that they should like, you know, have a sale because, well, just because it seemed like, well, duh, a good idea?

With a sense of righteous indignation, we said we were NOT going.

Because of the extremely short notice given.
Because we would be in Xi'an.
Because we would be rushing ourselves too much.

We held the moral high ground for all of 10 minutes. Then we broke down. In a matter of hours, we had shortened our Xi'an trip and made our airfare and hotel arrangements for Bali. We would rush in from Xi'an to transit in Singapore for just one night and then dash off to Bali the next day. We even cancelled chap goh mei dinner with friends (sorry you guys but we will make it up to you soon).

Yes, we did all that for Paul Ropp.


My haul was not as big as the last time. The man did alright for himself - he came away with at least 30 shirts that he could not not have.

Between us, we filled the suitcase. But it was just full, not bursting-at-the-seams full, you understand.

And look what the girlfriends have coming their way this time :)

Eating in Xi'an

We were not terribly adventurous with food in Xi'an.

For lunch, we stayed with basic dim sum, instead of the dumpling buffet which Xi'an is famous for. Some how, dim sum is, well, dim sum, no matter how one tries to stretch the imagination. Eating 60 baskets of dim sum is, well, eating 54 more baskets of the same thing as the 6 we happily put away.


For dinner, we stuffed ourelves silly on Xi'an Roast Duck.Yes, the entire duck is carved and served up. Yes, you wrap as many servings as you want. Since we were only 2 demolishing an entire duck, I'd say we ate to our heart's content. We love this departure from the Beijing Duck protocol where you get only the skin (with attendant lump of fat) while the rest of the duck gets made into soup, noodle, vegetable flavouring etc. I say when we want roast duck, give us the WHOLE roast duck!

Dinner is complete with familiar side orders of vegetables, fried rice and (why not?) jiaozi.

We really enjoyed the familiarity of comfort food in Xi'an. I know. We are such culinary bores.

On a street in Xi'an

you will find


1. The Bell Tower
2. Dong Dajie (the shopping street in Xi'an)
3. Medicine on the move
4. Just your everyday friendly roadside medical consultation
5. Ling-ger-ree (for Singapore readers), underwear (for everyone else)
6. It's a guy thing
7. Yu pay more?? Y??

Warriors, Horses and an Emperor

The man and I are not good tourists. We do not feel the need to visit cultural and historical landmarks in our travels. Rather, we much prefer to stay in the city and take in the street scene. Having said that, we still feel some small compulsion to at least visit the most important site of any new travel destination.

So, for Xi'an, we made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Museum of Qin terracotta warriors and horses and the nearby Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huangdi.

The day started at zero degree C and rapidly fell to -7C. Needless to say, we did not loiter. At the terracotta warriors site, we stayed long enough to walk through all 3 excavated pits. We climbed about 2 sets of steps at the Qin Emperor's mausoleum. We took enough pictures to show that we were actually there braving the bitter winter wind. My fingers turned blue and threatened to drop off. And I was bundled in a full winter coat complete with head cover and gloves. Two hours total of this cultural immersion was enough to last us a lifetime.

I don't get how some tourists want to hear every minute detail ad nauseam about the sites from taped recordings or worse, hire those irritating professional guides who yammer non-stop in your face.

I know. We are such philistines.

What to eat in Xi'an

Hard work is...

Our fare is...

Happiness is...

Local flavours of Xi'an.

It is as much a visual treat as it is a gastronomical delight.

Springtime in Xi'an

Xi'an, February 15 - February 18

It is spring time in the city. The highest temperature registered 3C for maybe all of two hours in the 3 days we were there. Most of the time it was -3C and we would be grateful it wasn't any lower.

A winter's tale

Xian, Saturday 16 February, 8am

Some incongruent noise jotted me out of my deep sleep. Reluctantly, I peered at the clock on the bedside table. 8am. I was not ready to get out of bed. I knew it was a dreary grey wintry morning outside, with temperature failing to even make zero degree C.

Then I heard it. Beyond my bed headboard. Coming from the room next door. Eck, eck, eck in 2- second tempo. That's her entire range of sexual noises! Then the eck, eck, eck stopped after 4 minutes. That's their entire sexual repertoire!

If I have to be woken from my precious sleep by love-making noises, I really wished that it would be the truly inspired, deeply felt, and earth-moving variety. The kind that would allow me to forgive myself for eavesdropping on somebody's private intercourse. And then be so crass as to tattle about it here.

Instead, I found it hard to forgive those people in the next room for so rudely interrupting my sleep with their insipid 4-minute eck, eck, eck routine.

I know. I am such a grouch in the morning.

Gone shopping

Sinlady has taken off for some much anticipated shopping and eating. She will be back on the 22.

Shanghai Night

Just one time in the year. During Chinese New Year. The man and I go all out to lay on a Shanghai dinner for the friends.

We do a lot of dinner parties at home throughout the year. Every one of them take time and effort. But cooking Chinese is just a lot more work for the two of us. For this reason, we can manage this menu only once a year.

This Shanghai night dinner has become a special annual reunion with the friends. Something we look forward to. Same time, next year.

The ang pow issue

Warning: scolding people ahead. Quit reading now if you think it is too early in the year for cross words.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the man and I readily handed out ang pows to the community of service providers who work in our condo year round. Namely the security guards, the grounds keeper, the supervisor of the cleaning crew, and especially the cleaners who take care of the floor we are on.

In the days that followed, faces we have never seen before started to show up, making sure that we notice them as we enter or leave the building. We decided that they probably do work in the condo too, so we also readily handed out ang pows to them.

Then last evening, our newspaper delivery service representative showed up to collect the monthly newspaper subscription. He mumbled something about ang pow as I handed him the money. I could not believe what I thought I heard, so I asked in a decidedly stern tone of voice, "What?"

He boldly repeated his demand, "Chinese New Year. No ang pow?"

I bristled and replied crossly "No!" And closed the door in his face.

I am not even sure he delivers the papers in the morning! And I certainly was not about to reward his extortionist strategy to get goodwill money.

Then I remembered the one time when this same man claimed to not have change when I handed him all ten dollar notes and he ended up pocketing the difference. These days I hand him exact amounts. What a detestable person!

I have a mind to lodge a complaint with the circulation department of the Straits Times.

Fortune in a pineapple

Wang Lai

(Hokkien for pineapple, which sounds like fortune comes your way)

I can go along with that too.

Upside down Fu 福到

fu dao 福到

it is so easy

Reds and Golds

All things red. And gold
All the things that light up
and blink and twinkle.

It's so ching-chong. In a Singapore-Chinese sort of way.

I love the festive cheery mood it creates even as the loud clash of colours assaults your senses.

Another year

of sweet prosperity

Dance of the Thousand-Hand Guan Yin

This performance is stunning by any measure.



It becomes incredulous when you realise that the dancers are deaf-mutes. They are part of the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe.

Video may be slow loading but trust me it is worth the wait.