Posts tagged "singapore"
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My Singapore List
Food is extremely subjective, and in Singapore it's a national pastime and passion. The following lists are based on my tastes. Other people may disagree, and you may want to do further research based on your own dietary preferences. If you're from Singapore, resist the urge to tell me I missed your faves: I'm…
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Bukit Merah Days
When I'm back in Singapore it can be easy to fall into old habits: sleeping in till late, staying out late, doing all of those things I used to do. On my recent trips, I'm trying to remind myself that I've been away for so long my parents aren't getting younger. My parents' daily routine starts with: picking a…
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Tanglin Halt Memories
This neighbourhood is meaningful to me. I spent a lot of time here as a child, running about after church, going to eat all of the food, visiting people, going to get charcoal (from the back of a lorry here) and fresh coconuts (grated at the back of a little market here). I think my child's consciousness of the outside…
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Little Myanmar, Singapore
If the Burmese population in Singapore were a city in Myanmar, it'd be one of the top 10 cities. We have many Burmese grocers, restaurants services in Peninsula Plaza and Peninsula Shopping Centre, conveniently located across the street from each other. Here's what it looks like. Snacks. Menu. Offerings. Tea shop.…
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My Little India
Of all of the neighbourhoods in Singapore, I've probably spent the most time in Little India. Not only was I born in a hospital on its edges, I also lived and studied near here for several years. Every trip abroad had to start with a visit to Little India, for foreign currency, electrical adapters, or extra supplies at…
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Five Frames Chinatown
With motion picture film. There's a touristy bit of Chinatown Singapore (Smith Street-ish) and a less touristy part. Often, they're just side by side and you need to know which doors to duck into, or which alleys to turn off into, to see the less tourist bits. Since I grew up here, I think I have a pretty good handle…
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Mei Ling Street
Between 2013 and 2018, I lived near the Mei Ling Street estate. I felt like if I was a housing estate, I would be Mei Ling Street. It's old and crumbly, but it's also got fantastic third wave coffee, one of the best cheese shops in Asia, and a few of my favourite hawker stalls (Sin Kee, Shi Hui Yuan, Ah Pang Seafood,…
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Bencoolen Street
I lived in the Prinsep Street / Bencoolen neighbourhood in the early / mid 2000s. I've always enjoyed the vibrant street life. It is close to everything I love: Little India, Arab Street, Sim Lim Square, Sim Lim Tower, Burlington Square, and more. From early morning till late night, there's always something fun to do…
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Little India, Singapore
The last time I was home in Singapore, I did one of my favorite alone activities: I walked a lot, and ended up in Little India. I did a 7km walk starting at sunset, and wound up there just in time for all kinds of fun. Since Mustafa Centre is 24 hours, and my favorite naan shop (Usman, along Desker Road) is open till 3…
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Applying for Singapore Visa for your Friend
Citizens of some countries need a visa to enter Singapore. If you have friends or family that belong to those countries, you can do them a huge favor by applying as a local contact. As long as you are a Singapore citizen or Singapore PR with SingPass, or director of a Singapore-registered business, you can help your…
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Nearly Two Decades Ago
One of the things I love about film photography is how it gives me a good sense of my exact feelings at precise moments in time. Depending on the film stock and camera I used, looking at old film photos takes me back in ways that I don't experience with other types of photos I have taken in the past. I know, for…
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Kampong Glam, Singapore
When I was growing up in Singapore I loved going to Kampong Glam, the Arab quarter. The British colonials divided the country's ethnic population into different sections, keeping the best and most central downtown location for themselves and for their buildings. Everybody else had to cram into their own ethnic…
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Wives and Lives
Some thoughts on being a gaysian immigrant to California A scan of a black and white photograph of some Chinese calligraphy writing on a wall in a Chinese restaurant in Oakland, California Two weeks ago, I helped to plan and organize a Lunar New Year dinner for 120 queer and trans Asian people. It's a tradition that…
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A Singapore Story
I have been away from 'home' full time for almost five years now. Even though I've lived in other countries in the past, I never stopped seeing Singapore as 'home'. 'Home' was where my family, childhood home, friends, food, favorite places, and memories were. I was afloat, in that I was quite literally all over the…
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Five Frames: Chinese Gods
Singapore is technically a secular country. A large number of its ethnic Chinese population practices traditional Taoist rituals, though evangelical Christianity is encroaching quickly. As an ethnic Chinese person raised in Christian traditions, I felt surgically removed from these practices and I wanted to document…
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America is the restaurant that gives me food poisoning.
Sometimes I think of countries as restaurants. Every country has a different concept. Every country has something to offer. Some have menus, some do not. Some are large multi-concept food halls, others are exclusive white tablecloth places where people have to fight for the scraps—outside. My country, Singapore, is a…
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The Moving Calculus
Some time ago I read a tweet by a queer Singaporean asking why any queer Singaporean would move to San Francisco, citing the following shortcomings (not verbatim): San Francisco used to be a place where queer Singaporeans would move to, for safety reasons, but perhaps those safety reasons aren't that dire anymore San…
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Schrödinger's Lesbian
In 2018 I decided to leave my home country of Singapore even though I once thought I would lead my queer adult life here because it was not a bad one. I decided to leave because I had met the woman I would marry, and there was simply no path for us to lead the sort of life we wanted in both of our home countries. Being…
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A unifying theory of Singapore food that ends in a dream
'Singapore food' is a difficult term. It's hard to put national wrappers around a smorgasbord of different culinary influences. This is why we keep getting into fights about appropriating others' food. Singapore food is Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Hokchiu, Teochew, Malay, Javanese, Sumatran, Tamil, Kerala, Mamak,…
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Letter to my Eighteen Year Old Self
In my younger years, meaning when I was a tween, I became acutely aware that my life would be different. I dated boys because I was supposed to, but whenever they said they loved me or that they wanted to marry me, I just shuddered. I don't like it when men sweat, I told them. In hindsight, that was a big, red sign. I…
51 posts tagged "singapore"