Travel Sunday: Singapore Windows

Singapore Windows
Originally uploaded by thegreatplotnik.

These windows grace the second floor of a line of buildings in the Little India District of Singapore. Only a fraction of the originally sizeable neighborhood remains, since much of the island has been bulldozed for high rise development. But these streets still maintain their centuries-old feel, largely because prostitutes have traditionally used them to ply their trade. This was necessary because the ultra-conservative-ethnically-Chinese Singaporean government would not tolerate vice anywhere except in another ethnic group’s locale.

When you walk in Little India during the day the smells of curries, spices and ripe fruit predominate. At night, women stand in doorways or sit in windows wearing white, gauzy clothing. No one solicits – perhaps you have to know the secret handshake.

Most Singaporean Indians came from Bengal – so they eat Southern Indian food. In restaurants you sit down and are served on a banana leaf with no utensils. You must eat with your right hand. Or is it your left hand? You must taste everything. But that’s easy to do, for the portions are small and selection huge. Mmmmm, masala dosa. Mmmmmm, idli and pasam.

Perhaps the most wonderful dish in Singaporean Indian cuisine is paratha -- the breakfast of Kings. You sit in an outdoor café in the already numbing morning heat, and are served enormous crepe-like parathas, grilled from a layered egg batter on a stone griddle five feet in diameter, and then rolled up into a scroll. You dip your parathas in a bowl of curry sauce and drink hot, sweet coffee enriched with condensed milk. The rest of the day is taken up waiting for the following morning’s sumptuous breakfast of more parathas, more curry and more hot, sweet coffee.