punk rock since 2003
Food is politics, history, culture. It's also the best lens I know for learning about the world. I've eaten extensively across the world, worked on cookbooks, photographed a lot of food for money and for fun, and I write about food often on Mastodon..
Sept 22, 2023
It was my first full day back in Singapore. Here's what I ate, and where.
Excellent scallion pancakes and fried dumplings from 喬記面館
Mee hoon kuay from China Whampoa Homemade Noodles
Excellent coffee at Kurasu. Today, they had a coffee bean from Yunnan. I had to try that since I’ve never tried Chinese espresso beans before. Very fruity!
Rock salt macchiato oolong bubble tea with daily special pearls at Hollin
Family hotpot at Hai Di Lao
Noyah La Maison, Changi Airport T4
One of the best things about being back in my part of the world, is that breakfast foods now make sense.
No more pancakes, syrup, waffles, badly made eggs for brunch. Definitely no donuts. No sugar in general for breakfast for me, except a little bit in my kopi.
6am at Changi Airport was a routine for me for many years. I was typically catching a 7am flight to Indonesia, Thailand or Myanmar a few times a week in the last decade and a half.
There are lots of kopi spots and while airport franchises aren’t as good as what you’d get in the city proper, it’s still whole lot better than donuts!
Kaya butter toast, kopi, soft boiled eggs are usually sold in a ‘breakfast set’. I was also able to add on halal siew mai.
It’s going to keep me happy until I land in Surabaya in two or so hours.
Here are some food thoughts I'm excited about as I pack for my annual visit home. What's home? My passport says Singapore. But in practice, it's the entire region of South and Southeast Asia that I miss and think of as home. I've lived in, and eaten in, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Myanmar; and spent substantial amounts of time in other countries in the region.
I'm interested in food culture, food ways, migration, food access, the impact of our colonial past, new food trends, enduring traditions, what people eat and don't and why.
I'll be in Singapore, then Surabaya, and I can't wait because (1) I love tropical weather (2) I love the food from these two cities.
Things you can expect in the coming weeks:
Along the way, I'll meet interesting people. I plan to interview some distant family members who run food stalls. I hope to discuss some historical family recipes with people. I want to talk to my friends, who between them know more than I can ever hope to know.
Hopefully, I'll be able to share a sense of what 'food' and 'home' feel like to me: delicious, warm, and happy, and when I return to the Bay Area I'll be able to reconfigure this space to also showcase Asian, Mexican and other immigrant foods in a similarly meaningful way.