by Ovidia Yu
1. Kampong Buangkok. Singapore’s last “kampong” or village. This is what Singapore looked like when Aunty Lee was growing up, with zinc roofs and red mailboxes and open doors. It makes Aunty Lee nostalgic for the calm and quiet (except for birdsong and insect buzz) of old Singapore. But she doesn’t visit often because despite their openness, these are people’s private homes and lives.
2. Indri Collection in People’s Park Complex. They have a large collection of ready-made Peranakan embroidered kebayas and batik sarong skirts (and batik shirts for men). Indri is really more a stall than a shop, and doesn’t have a unit number. It’s on Level 1 of the People’s Park Complex, just off the central atrium and next to the security guard counter. (And if you make it there, Aunty Lee suggests you take a quick detour to the basement food court of People’s Park Complex to try their noodles.)
3. Arab Street. One of Singapore’s oldest and most beautiful mosques is found here. Sultan Mosque was built in 1826 by Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor. If you wish to enter the mosque, and are not appropriately dressed, robes are provided. Arab Street is a rich bazaar-style mix of cafés and shops dating from the 1950s selling textiles, carpets, and souvenirs. Aunty Lee also recommends Haji Lane around the corner, where pre-war shop houses showcase the latest up-and-coming fashion designers.
4. The German Girl Shrine and Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin. Pulau Ubin is Singapore’s second largest offshore island, but completely different from Sentosa. The German Girl Shrine, also known as the Barbie Doll Shrine, is a yellow hut beneath an Assam tree. Legend has it that it commemorates a German girl who fell to her death in a granite quarry during World War I and some believe she brings good luck. Chek Jawa is Singapore’s only surviving multiecosystem site—sandy beach, rocky beach, seagrass lagoon, coral rubble, mangroves, and coastal forest—and protected from development until 2012. Now, in 2014, its time may be running out.
5. And finally, the Mustafa Centre in Little India (Syed Alwi Road). This is a huge department store that sells everything from refrigerators, jewelry, tea towels, and mobile phones to plasters and painkillers. In operation since 1971, it is open twenty-four hours a day, every day (including Chinese New Year) and also has a foreign currency exchange. Aunty Lee suggests you take a look around Little India while you are there and explore the ayurvedic medicine shops, fortune tellers, henna tattoo artists . . . and of course sample the roti prata, thosai, dhal, and kebabs!
Aunty Lee’s Top 5 Food Favorites
1. Katong laksa with homemade barley water. Fierce debate rages in Singapore over the most “authentic” katong laksa. It consists of rice noodles served in a rich, spicy gravy with fish cake, prawns, and cockles and garnished with laksa leaf.
2. Kaya toast with soft eggs. A delicious sweet coconut jam. Kaya toast and eggs are a standard breakfast set available all day at most “kopitiams” or corner coffee shops.
3. Fish head curry. The head of a red snapper stewed in a sweet and sour tamarind curry with okra and eggplant and ginger flower buds. This is best eaten with fingers off banana leaves but also tastes good with cutlery.
4. Kueh lapis. Multilayered, multicolored, traditional steamed cakes made of glutinous rice flour, coconut, and sugar. Kueh lapis legit is made of layers of rich batter, each spread over the previous layer and grilled separately, creating the brown lines in the buttery cake.
5. Tau suan. A sweet hot dessert soup made of split mung beans and flavored with pandan (screw pine) leaves. Though widely available at dessert stalls, this is a favorite comfort food . . . and full of protein and soluble fiber. It’s healthy as well as delicious!
Also by Ovidia Yu
Aunty Lee’s Delights
Credits
Cover design and photograph by Laura Klynstra
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
AUNTY LEE’S DEADLY SPECIALS. Copyright © 2014 by Ovidia Yu. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-233832-7
EPub Edition August 2014 ISBN 9780062338334
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