Bok Choy, anyone?

This morning the Newcomer's group that I joined back in January took a field trip to the Little India wet market. The leader's son, Aaron, just graduated college as a chef so he met us there to educate us on all the local fruits and vegetables and how to cook them. Some day I would love to go back and look at the rest of the stalls as today we concentrated only on the produce - I will skip the meat stalls, though, as the smell is a little overwhelming! It was very interesting and I'm looking forward to trying some of the local produce.

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Egg noodles, anyone? These are used in stir fries. There were also bean sprouts (kind of hidden behind the lady on the left) and tofu. You can also purchase fried tofu - seems like that defeats some of the purpose of tofu but on the other hand anything fried tends to taste better!
This man was cutting up jack fruit. We all tried a piece and I wasn't too impressed. It's more of a melon-y flavor than sweet. We were told that it's better dried as the flavor is more concentrated so I'll try it that way first before I completely write it off. We also sampled some rose apple which was bland - not bad, though. The bright pink fruit behind the jack fruit is dragon fruit - it looks like a white kiwi inside but has a very bland flavor. Here is one of the fruit stalls - notice that there are a lot of recognizable fruits as well! There are mango's in the box by the lady with the pink shirt.

Aaron is explaining to our group the different vegetables and what they are used for. One that I want to try soon is called baby bok choy. I will have to post a picture because I'm not sure how to describe it. You steam it and than add an oyster sauce and dried shallots (type of red onion) to the top. I had it at a hawker's center once and really liked it...now it's time to try making it myself!
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I'm not sure if I already posted about a provisioner so if I have please forgive me. I had a man call me last week who is known as a "provisioner." He calls each morning, except Sunday, and asks if there is anything you need. He can deliver anything you can buy in a supermarket to your home - usually before 6pm that same day. He has been a life saver to me as he can usually get hard to find items - like Pillsbury crescent rolls:) I haven't used him every day but there have been times when I haven't been able to make it to the grocery store so I've had him bring milk, oj, spices, Coke, beef bouillon, applesauce (which I can't find), and Kosher salt. I also found an online butcher the other day where I was able to order brisket - a cut of meat that is hard to find here. Most things from back home are available here - you just need to know how to find them! We have pork ribs in the slow cooker for supper tonight:) YUM! Add some real mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and bakery bread and you have a good KC meal! Incidentally, slow cookers are very popular here - most likely because they save you from heating up the kitchen with the stove.
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This one is for Dad R - I can hear a thunder storm moving in:) Days that there is rain it's so humid that you find yourself taking a shower 3 times a day!

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One Last Note of Interest:

For those of you who have been following the news there have been several earthquakes in Indonesia (Sumatra, which is directly to the West of Singapore) this past week. It's possible that they are gearing up for another big one like the one in 2004 that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami. Singapore has been proclaimed by geologists as one of the safest places in the world, tectonically (safer, even, than Central Illinois should a big quake occur along the New Madrid fault line.) Since Singapore is a relatively young nation most high rise buildings have been built to withstand the tremors that we do feel from the bigger earthquakes. We haven't felt any of the past week's tremors.

If you are interested I posted a link below that will give you more information on Singapore and earthquakes.

http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=1199