An acquaintance asked, "Don't you miss Chinese food?" Her question reflects why she is an acquaintance. Most friends will know I'm not too fond of Chinese food per se. I like century egg porridge, mushrooms, steamed fish and vegetables- that's about it. I'm pretty happy here without Chinese meals.The foods I do miss are nasi lemak and mee siam.
Besides hummus and brown bread which we know Aunt E loves, we wanted to tapau freshly cooked vegetables for Aunt E, so we had to make a trip to Chinatown.
The moment we stepped into Chinatown, we genuinely felt out of place. The servers immediately spoke to us in Cantonese, making the man go 'huh' and reply in English. Many of the staff at restaurants spoke Cantonese and sad to say, the English translation on the menu didn't quite accurately reflect the sort of food to expect. Like 'flat noodles'- it took us a while to realize that it meant 'hor fun'. If the menu says 'brown noodles', it can be ee-fu noodles or soba or something queer.
After paying for the packed food at the various places, we beat a hasty retreat from Chinatown.
That feeling of displacement is still very real. It's the same all over the world at any Chinatown we visit. This feeling is echoed by many friends. We don't feel any sort of connection with Chinatown anywhere. In fact, we take great pains to avoid them. We feel more at home at the British pubs/New York bars/Thai and Japanese restaurants, rather than at Chinese eateries.
Such is the conundrum with Chinese Singaporeans I think, at least among the circle of friends. Our education, lifestyles and outlook are essentially cosmopolitan. Many of us aren't 100% ethnically Chinese anyway. There is little connection with the Chinese part of our culture. In fact, there're many points in this culture I completely reject.
To foreigners and new non-Singaporean friends, I cannot emphasize this enough- while our Government says that Chinese is my mother tongue, I feel neither an iota of love nor loyalty to China. And China isn't my frigging motherland. Singapore is NOT like Hong Kong. Not really.
And in that couple of minutes, I've never been so glad to be Singaporean.
13 comments:
i believe dat dere are still friggin lotsa ppl who tink dat SG belongs 2 part of China..so wat if our ancestors came frm the mutherland..? (hey! read the SG's history properly lah!) wat amused me are tos who wrk in chic restaurants yet dey cant speak an ounce of proper Eng n explainin e menu.. =S I'm proud 2 b a S'porean but not glad to see everi corner has a loud chinaman..it's not discrimination but if our own popularity gona overrun by e cheena-rians, SG will soon become mini-China..hah..imagine our own skools n fave dishes become bland.. =S I wan our own unique traditions back..!!
I have to say - food is one of the things I don't really miss. There are things I want to eat when I am in Singapore, but I don't crave anything when I am away.
PS I can see the man trying to speak Mandarin! Worse, Cantonese!!!!
now that you mentioned it, the most chinese thing i've ever eaten gotten be stir-fry mushrooms. so far.
It's funny how when you are in ang-moh land, one tends to want to see "chinatown". But I really beg not to.
The only chinese food I miss will be soup. And stir fry vegetables.
hurhur of all Chinese land, I will only prefer to travel to Taiwan instead...most of all,I will onli crave 4 MOS and Carl's Jr burger meals hahaha =P
Actually I'm Singaporean and I love London's chinatown! They do have restaurants serving Malaysian food there, which is pretty close to Singaporean food by my standards.
Also, many of the workers at Chinatown also speak good Mandarin, apart from Cantonese. And you tend to get better service if you speak in Mandarin/Cantonese to your server.
Kelise: ahh well. i hope they watch tv a little more or surf the net longer. we're too small i guess. sgp is unique because we're not english and not quite chinese. therein lies the paradox. gaah.
dawn: DHAAL! tell me you wanna eat DHAAL! hahha. he can't understand cantonese lah. he didn't even try!
jazzgal: right. not very chinese wat. Japanese teppan also has that. let's put it down to asian shall we?
lms: ahh! soup! so many people love chinese soups. that nice? i'm scared of soups cooked with pork bones or chicken. there's this strange smell....
mochalatte: i'm terrified travelling to taiwan. i think i'll just die there. the food in beijing nearly killed me. i doubt i'll survive long in taiwan.
J: i think i'll have to live in London for a while in order to appreciate its Chinatown. My Mandarin also cannot make it. So we rather stick to English. Though after a while, I gave up and spoke in Cantonese.
famous chinatowns in all western cities have a fossilized feel to it. i stay away from them too.
I find the Chinatowns *fake*.
And in any case, the best Canto roast duck is not even in London's Chinatown. hah!
For me, Chinatown is good for only one or two things: supermarket essentials like veggie variety (for making Thai sauce blends) and and won ton/spring roll skin supplies.
sinlady: agree. very strange sometimes. too inward looking as well.
kachunknorge: HEH. your bayswater roast. and good for Lingham's chilli sauce.
I want to eat the Man's dhaal - that's different. I can get pretty good dhaal here too though not as good as the Man's of course.
I guess I'm just not much of a crave-r for food except for desserts and I like my desserts sweet and chocolatey. That pretty much rules out most Chinese desserts - and beans are never meant to be eaten sweet. Ever.
dawn: you are most definitely a dessert monster!!!
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