After a 7 hour flight from Singapore, we arrived in downtown Sydney just before 8am. What better way to begin our stay in Australia than by having breakfast at one of the city’s excellent cafes.
My wife’s order is shown in the photo below: eggs benedict with spinach and bacon on sourdough toast, with balsamic drizzle.
I ordered smashed avocado on sourdough toast, with soft poached eggs. I especially liked the addition of crumbled feta and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
These were accompanied by a couple of long blacks (what we in the UK would call an americano) with milk.
There is a very strong cafe culture in Australia, and standards are high. The making of a cup of coffee is something of an art form.
Singapore also had a distinct culture in its kopitiams (coffeeshops). One very popular dish there was 2 lightly boiled, and still runny, eggs, served cracked into a shallow bowl, making a dip for kaya toast – toasted bread sandwiches with coconut jam.
Also a little different was kopi (white coffee made with condensed milk), and kopi C (white coffee with evaporated milk). Both had a pleasant enough taste, and seemed to work as part of the overall quirky kopitiam experience, though I can’t see either catching on back in the UK.
Or Australia for that matter – I shudder to think what the barista’s reaction would be if I asked them to open a tin of Carnation milk, and pour it into that long black they’ve been carefully crafting for the past 10 mins.
After breakfast, we’ll be picking up a hire car and heading out past the Opera House (see my main photo above) and Sydney Harbour Bridge into New South Wales. There really is only one song to be played when setting off on the start of an Australian road trip, so it’s time to add this track to the ADK Playlist: AC/DC with Highway to Hell.
Satay by the Bay is one of Singapore’s many hawker centres – places where a variety of independent food and drink outlets congregate around a central area with tables and chairs. The idea is that you buy as much or as little as you wish from any of the stalls, then take a seat to eat it.
Access is through Gardens by the Bay, a beautiful and lush green park built on reclaimed land between the Marina Bay area and the waterside. It has two vast domed greenhouses, each of which maintains a bespoke climate to suit plant life that would not thrive here otherwise. It’s a bit like Cornwall’s Eden Project, but set in 30C year round temperatures.
The vast pipe outlets that help maintain the indoor climate of the domes have been dressed up as Supertrees. A 22m high walkway connects them, and gives terrific views over the Gardens with a backdrop of the glass and steel of the CBD.
Some of the many walks allow views of Marina Bay Sands, the vast triple-towered Hotel with a viewing deck across the top. Its design reminded me of my visit to Stonehenge a few months back. It also looks like a huge cricket wicket. Howzat.
In the evening, the Gardens are the venue for an impressive sound and light show, with the Supertrees choreographed to light up to the rhythm of classical music.
All of which makes a pretty good after dinner show for the diners at the hawker centre.
We chose plates of chicken and beef satay, that are cooked to order over hot coals.
The skewers are then served with a spicy peanut dipping sauce, as shown in my photo at the top of the post.
Now, sat here in Singapore’s Changi Airport, our flight is being called, so it’s time to stow my laptop and get to the departure gate.
We have had fun and eaten well in Singapore, but it is time to move on to our next stop. To find out where in the world that will be, check back here this weekend.
Keeping up the current international theme on the ADK Playlist, here’s Transglobal Underground with the catchy Temple Head.
Here in Singapore, the district of Kampong Gelam (also spelt Glam) is the traditional heartland of the city state’s Malaysian community. Our visit there, in search of some traditional Malay food, coincided with the start of Ramadan, the period where people of Muslim faith fast during the hours between sunrise and sunset.
We hadn’t been in this part of town during the daytime – that was spent in Chinatown and the Botanic Gardens. Due to the fasting though, I’m guessing that daylight business might have been a little slow for the local catering sector.
However, as Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys once (nearly) said, it changes round here when the sun goes down 🙂 .
As we arrived, the wailing sound of the call to prayers was all pervading, booming out across the network of tightly packed streets from the local Mosque.
The religious service inside was being broadcast live on a large screen, and very well-attended it seemed to be. After a day of fasting, it’s no surprise that the hungry worshippers were ready for some great food, as they spilled out on to the streets afterwards.
And how well served they were! There was traditional Malaysian food, like Satay…
…alongside a range of Turkish, Lebanese and Middle-eastern outlets.
The already numerous restaurants and takeaways were supplemented by the Gemilang (meaning Glorious) Festival, bringing even more food options through abundant market stalls.
I was keen to try a Malay dish I had read about called Nasi Lemak. We found it in a small restaurant that has made it their signature dish, and earned themselves a Michelin star, no less, in the process. For the record, the place is called Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang, and you can look them up in the Michelin Guide.
The food arrived as shown in my main photo at the top of the post. The undoubted star of the show was the mysterious green parcel to the side of the plate.
The wrapping is a pandan leaf, used in south-east Asian cuisine to add fragrance to food. It is secured at either end by bamboo skewers. These are unpinned, and the parcel unfurled to reveal steamed, soft, fluffy jasmine-scented and coconut-flavoured rice.
The rice is served with tender chicken that falls off the bone and a spicy peanut sauce. There is a side of crispy peanuts and anchovies, and soft roasted aubergine.
An interesting and satisfying meal was rounded off with a glass of fresh, chilled coconut juice, that complemented the food well.
There’ll be another post from Singapore in a few days. In the meantime, let’s have some more suitably themed music for the ADK playlist. Here’s the mighty Asian Dub Foundation with Fortress Europe.
I’m off on my travels again, and hoping to post about some excellent world cuisine over the next little while. First stop is the city state of Singapore, home of the Merlion I snapped in my main photo above.
After a 13 hour flight from London, my wife and I were hungry and ready to explore the local neighbourhood where our hotel is located, in the city’s district known as Little India. It is so-called because, since the 19th century, workers and their families travelling here from India have made this district their home.
Consequently, a walk around the local streets is an experience to behold. They teem with garish gold jewellery shops and the lingering scent of incense. There are spangly market stalls packed with colourful saris and dress shirts, at which industrious tailors sit by their sewing machines, ready to customise a garment to your precise fit.
The lanes are sided by canopies and known as five-foot ways. Originally designed to afford residents fresh air with shade from the hot sun, they now provide alfresco seating for hungry diners at the many restaurants and food stalls selling authentic Indian food.
We settled at a corner establishment and ordered the selection below: chicken and vegetable birianis, which came with a raita and selection of dipping sauces.
The side of vegetable samosas was unlike any I have had before. I am used to a filling wrapped up in a deep fried, triangular parcel of filo pastry, but these were pear-shaped, in a crispy pastry that had the sweet, coconut flavour of peshwari naan bread.
It was authentic, no-nonsense fare, cooked and served with cheer (check out these guys, and their cool t-shirts, below).
I’ve read that this is generally an expensive city, but this food came at reasonable prices (less than S$20 per head, which is about £10/US$20, and that included the Tiger beers).
There’ll be more to come from Singapore, so watch this space. If anyone wishes to send me recommendations on local places to eat, or food to try, please post in the comments below.
I’m keeping the Indian vibe going with this track from Monsoon added to the ADK Playlist: Ever So Lonely.
As a massive music fan (the blog tag line here being Good Food, Great Music), I’m excited to say that this week’s live music experience (see The Lexicon of Love) has continued.
There I was in the ADK Kitchen, working on my next post about a nice vegetarian soup, when a friend called with the offer of a spare ticket to see The 1975 at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham. I hadn’t heard too much of their music, but am always game to see a new band play live, especially one as globally successful as The 1975. Apologies – that soup recipe will have to wait until this weekend, folks!
With my apron hung on its peg, and the spatula in the dishwasher, we headed off in my friend’s car towards the M40.
We weren’t disappointed – The 1975 were very good.
The stage was set extremely stylishly (see my photo above), all in white and, for the first part of the show, decked out like the cool interior of a chic apartment. Warmly illuminated in changing pastel shades, the coffee tables, lamps, armchairs and TV sets created a relaxed feel, against which the band played great music and their engaging frontman, Matty Healy, acted out his inner angst.
I am still not sure whether Matty really is the chainsmoking, hip flask swigging, tortured romantic soul that comes across on stage, or whether this is just a character portraying the emotional vulnerability that runs through the lyrics of so many of the band’s songs. The answer, I suspect, is somewhere in between.
Track after track of their brand of soulful pop rolled out across an adoring audience – some of their biggest songs, like Oh Caroline and I’m In Love With You, included.
They’re clearly a band that like their performance art, and this is stepped up in the middle part of the show. With the band off for a break, Matty, alone on the stage, sinks to his knees before a bank of TV sets, fizzling with snippets of newscasts reporting global issues of concern. I won’t say any more for fear of spoilers, but what happens next is fascinating.
Some people in white coats swarmed on to the stage. No, not to take Matty away – it was the stage crew, who proceeded to rearrange the set for the second half of the show while the band played on. It reminded me of how the road crew build Talking Heads’ set from the floor up, track by track, during the great concert movie, Stop Making Sense.
The final hour of the set was a joyous celebration of the band’s best music, including Tootime, The Sound, Love It If We Made It, and People. It brings pleasure to the whole of a packed arena. Heck, it even brings a smile to Matty’s face.
All in all, a thoughtful, considered, ever changing, engaging and very entertaining performance. I now consider myself a fan!
Here’s one of my favourite tracks that they performed live. The 1975 with It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You).
The Lexicon of Love by ABC had been playing for several days in the ADK Kitchen, in anticipation of this long-awaited live rendition that I attended this week.
2022 was the 40th anniversary of the iconic album, no less. Where did that time go? The occasion has prompted band leader, Martin Fry, to go on the road on a UK concert tour, performing the work in full. He’s ably supported by the current members of ABC and the Southbank Sinfonia, an orchestra with full strings and percussion sections, conducted by Anne Dudley. Anne was responsible for the orchestral backing arrangements on the original album. She is also known for being part of experimental 80s band, The Art of Noise, along with the album’s producer, Trevor Horn.
To justify such an extravagant tour, an album really needs to hold a special place both in pop heritage, and in the hearts of its audience. That certainly apples here, with a full house of now, somewhat more mature fans still able to sing along, word perfectly, with every track.
Martin takes the audience through the album’s running order, track by track. He reminds us of the days when music was experienced by removing a vinyl disc from a cardboard sleeve, and putting it on a turntable. You placed an arm with a needle on the outside rim and let it run for about 15 mins of joyous sound, until it reached the label in the middle. Then, you flipped it over and did the whole thing again with Side 2. Concepts like streaming, mobile phones and online playlists with shuffle option, were still the stuff of science fiction.
Consequently, the band started with the opening track on Side 1, Show Me, and played the album in its proper running order, right through to the final track on Side 2, the instrumental reprise of The Look of Love. Along the way, every track, including the hit singles Poison Arrow, Tears Are Not Enough, The Look of Love Pt. 1 and All of My Heart received a rapturous welcome.
I was one of the many who played the original (on my little stereo turntable – what else?) more or less on repeat for quite some time when it was first released. It was a time when the New Romantics and Bowie Kids were emerging from the underground nightclubs and beginning to take over what, in those days, were popularly referred to as ‘The Charts’.
The Human League were showing us that electronic pop music was the future, with the Dare album. Spandau Ballet were sporting silk shirts and tartan cummerbunds, later becoming soul boys, embracing funk. Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Visage, Ultravox and others would join them for what became known as the Second British Pop Invasion of the US (the first being the era of The Beatles and The Stones), providing a fresh, colourful and youthful soundtrack for the newly emerging world of 24/7 music television, MTV.
ABC’s masterpiece held a special place in the hearts of this generation.
A trip down memory lane, for sure, but the music still sounds as great as ever, brought to life here on the stage with a great band and the perfectly performed orchestral backing. Martin Fry’s voice holds up fine, and the intricate wordplay of his lyrics still sounds clever and witty. A performance that leaves a warm glow in the heart.
In a nice closing touch, Martin dedicated the performance to both the New Romantics and the Old Romantics in the audience.
Wherever I can, I try to be an ethical food shopper – conscious of the environmental and social impact of the produce that ends up for sale in our shops and market stalls here in the UK.
This means I have an issue with the black cherries that appear in our supermarkets this time of year. Nothing to do with their taste – they are every bit as delicious as they look. So what’s my problem?
Well, one look at the January frost on the ground in the UK will remind you that it is not exactly the season for luscious cherries to be blossoming on the trees. Just like Paddington Bear, they have travelled here all the way from South America. That is way too many food miles for my liking – the Earth could well do without the energy consumption and carbon generation associated with that amount of transportation, and the refrigeration needed to ensure they arrive here in fresh condition.
However, it’s never that straightforward, and this presents me with lots of dilemmas. Ok, I hear you say, so they’ve been shipped here from half way around the world, but isn’t it preferable that they have been grown naturally in a seasonal, sunny climate? Isn’t that better for the environment than the fruit, tomatoes etc that are grown out of season in a heated glasshouse closer to home, here in the UK or northern Europe?
And how is this different from the bananas, pineapples and other fruit and veg that we import? Or longer life items like tea, coffee and cocoa? If we boycott certain items, aren’t we damaging the trade of countries with less well-developed economies?
Aaagh! See – I told you it was a nightmare.
Over time, I’ve developed a few rules of thumb to navigate my way through this ethical minefield.
Firstly, as far as possible I buy and cook with food produced locally and in season.
Secondly, I’m fine with fruit and veg, and store cupboard foods, that we just can’t grow in our climate, like tea, coffee, bananas etc being brought here. When fairly traded, this creates jobs and helps the producer country develop and maintain a sustainable economy.
But as for foods we can grow here in summer (like cherries), I don’t see why we in the western world have to be so spoiled as to expect them to be shipped to us from wherever, all year round, regardless of the impact this has on the planet. If we really can’t do without cherries in our winter, we can preserve part of our own summer harvest, or put them in the freezer.
But wait – there is yet one further ironic twist that highlights the futility of this episode of global trade. This week in Sainsbury’s, the packs of South American cherries were all yellow stickered with massively reduced prices. They had reached their sell-by date without anyone buying them at normal price. Were my fellow shoppers taking an ethical stand and refusing to buy them?
It was too tragic a thought that all this beautiful fruit, having been carefully cultivated by South American farmers and brought all this way, would now begin decomposing on our shores, as soon as the yellow stickers expired later that day.
So I bought a pack – at a ridiculously reduced price that cannot possibly reflect the true economic cost of the whole enterprise to Sainsbury’s. I reckoned the loss-making exercise will have taught them a harsh commercial lesson, and that importing practices might now be changed.
For the record, I lovingly washed, chopped and de-stoned the cherries, mixing them with some cocoa and other long life, store cupboard ingredients.
I baked the choc cherry muffins shown in my main photo above. They were delicious, but I will wait to the summertime to post the recipe, when cherries are properly in season here!
But hey, here’s an idea: what if, for a couple of months this time of year, we get by with our native apples and the soft fruit we’ve grown through the summer, having preserved it or frozen it to see us through the winter. The planet can be spared the pointless exercise of transporting cherries half way around the world, and our lovely friends in South America can be left to enjoy their own fresh produce.
Now what’s wrong with that? Comments welcome!
In the meantime, here’s The Jam with All Around the World.
Some people find January a tough month to get through. The buzz of Christmas has fizzled out, and the first payday of the year still seems to be an age away. It’s cold and frosty, and there are a few coughs and sniffles out there to navigate our way around.
So, what better way to blow away those winter blues, than starting the day with a Great British Breakfast! That’s the name given to the signature dish at our local Garden Centre Restaurant. Popular at the best of times, the queues are currently even longer than usual as, in a stroke of marketing genius, the Restaurant has decided to make the GBB available half price for the month of January.
Yes, this titan, ten item tray (see my photo above) can be yours for just £4.99 (North American friends, that’s just over $6). Those ten items are: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 back bacon rashers, grilled tomato, fried mushrooms, baked beans and a hash brown. There are vegetarian and vegan options. In case that’s not enough to fill you up, there are also two slices of toast and butter. Oh, and a pot of tea.
We walked there early to beat the rush. The Restaurant was warm and bright – the winter sun streaming through the windows – and the atmosphere lively with tables filled with chattering local diners. The food was hot, tasty and filling, and set us up for a winter walk home afterwards, our boots crunching on the frost-encrusted paths.
If ever there was an illustration of how good food and service can perk up the community’s sense of wellbeing, this is it.
You see, we visited on the day the internet and social media would have you believe is the most depressing of the year. I don’t buy into that socially constructed nonsense at all, I’m afraid. Positivity in life is there for the taking – you just need to look for it and grab it (or, in this case, go out and eat it).
I say it’s a time of year to celebrate the wonderful music of New Order, including the appropriately named track below, that I’m adding to the ADK Playlist.
I saw them play live at the Ally Pally in London a few years ago. It was after Peter Hook had left, which I thought would be a fatal blow to the band, his low-slung bass playing having always been such a distinctive part of their look and sound. However, I think their last studio album, Music Complete, is actually one of their best, and that it’s given them a new sense of purpose. They encored with a tribute to Ian Curtis and their music as Joy Division, playing Love Will Tear Us Apart and Atmosphere. A memorable evening.
So if anyone’s feeling a little down this time of year, here’s my advice: treat yourself to a Great British Breakfast! And play some New Order, starting with this excellent, uplifting track: Blue Monday.
My New Year’s Day this year was notable for 3 things.
Firstly, I used up the last of the puff pastry and mincemeat from the festive supplies, baking the final batch of mince pies of the season (see my photo above). When this point in the season is reached, you really do know that Christmas is officially over.
Secondly, my wife and I joined a beautifully scenic group walk along our local section of the English Coastal Path. The walk leader explained that it has now been renamed the King Charles III Coastal Path, reflecting our new monarch’s aim of promoting access to the realm’s green and pleasant land. Well done, sir! I did wonder whether he and Camilla might surprise us somewhere along the route, popping up with some mince pies of their own, to wish us all a happy new year. It was not to be, however.
Thirdly, I fulfilled a New Year aim by launching a channel for A Different Kitchen on Instagram. Mission Control for the blog remains firmly here on WordPress, and there are no plans to change that. The tools on here for online writers are excellent, and I love the support, talent and inspiration within the WordPress community (yes, that’s you!).
However, people engage in different ways, and just as ADK also has an accessible Playlist on Spotify and a channel on X/Twitter, I thought it was time to open another on Instagram. I think of it like a restaurant chain, opening an outlet in a new town or community to meet another set of people. The concept remains the same – a personal view of the world through a lens of Good Food, Great Music. Whichever platform people choose to engage with, they will encounter the same style, attitude and values (oh yes, and the same jokes – thank you there at the back).
One week on, and so far it seems to have been well-received. I’ve had lots and lots of likes, comments and follows, and a few invitations to join groups and networks. It’s helped take my total follower count across all my platforms past 2,500.
If you are on Instagram, do please pop over to @differentkitch and say hello, so I can follow back.
All in all, a busy 24 hours to start 2024. Naturally, today’s musical choice is U2 with New Year’s Day. I saw them perform this live when it was still a relatively new track. I’d seen them in their even earlier days, and the main development of their sound by this point was the introduction of an electric piano. On stage, the Edge managed to play it with one hand, at the same time as playing the lead guitar slung around his neck. Oh, and he was also providing the backing vocals to Bono. What an all-round talented chap he is. I suppose these days you would call it multi-tasking.
We’re nearing the end of 2023. I’ve been fortunate to travel to many interesting places this year, and have enjoyed sharing my experiences of the local food, drink, culture and the music it inspires, in my posts here on A Different Kitchen. As the year draws to a close, there is one more fun place to tell you about.
In December I spent a few motorhoming days in the picturesque town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire. The place is actually made up of two distinct towns: my main photo above is taken in Low Town, by the banks of the River Severn, looking up towards High Town.
My photo below is then taken having climbed up to High Town, where there are great views looking out over, er, Low Town.
From the Middle Ages, traders’ boats travelled up the River Severn to unload their cargo at the Quay in Low Town. The goods were then wheeled up by hand cart to the market hall in High Town via The Cartway – a twisting, cobbled path. You can still walk this route today, see my photo below.
It is as steep and winding as ever, though many of the cottages along the way are now cosy, bijou holiday residences, judging by the number of lockboxes on the frontages.
The goods imported were mainly rum, spices and exotic foods from distant lands, and they were exchanged for local ceramics, metalwork and coal. The market hall still stands in the centre of High Town and hosts a market, though these days it features regional meats and speciality cheeses.
Trade continued until the mid 19th Century when, according to the Town Guide, it was overtaken by the arrival of the railways. My own alternative theory is that, after years of hauling their beautiful rum, spices and exotic foods up to High Town, to exchange them for a few of our pots, pans, and pieces of coal, the tired and hungry importers eventually realised they were getting rather the bum end of the deal.
Among the many curious features of High Town is the Castle Keep. It is all that remains standing of the Castle, which was largely destroyed in the English Civil War of the mid 17th Century. I say standing, but leaning is a more apt description – see below.
To borrow a word styling from American Football commentators, it is amongst the most leaningest structures in the world. In fact, it is 4 times more leaningest than the Tower of Pisa in Italy. How it hasn’t fallen over, I don’t know. Even though it moves a few degrees each year, it is reportedly safe – there are no cones or hazard warning tape to keep pedestrians at a distance. I can only assume the Town Council’s Health and Safety Department has a commendably relaxed attitude to risk. Still, I wouldn’t dawdle while going past/under it, if I were you.
Food options are many, varied and good quality. I stopped for lunch in High Town’s Coffee at d’Arcy’s, tempted by the seasonal vegan toasty – a hot panini filled with slices of nut roast and cranberry sauce. Delish!
I accompanied this with a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I have to confess to being somewhat late to the party with this concoction. For some time I have held the puritan view that, if the coffee beans are good quality, roasted with expertise and ground by a skilled barista, the drink should not then be ruined with a shot of sweet syrup. That was before I had the benefit of trying one, however, when I realised how great it tastes. I am now a convert who believes that, used correctly, a shot of syrup can complement and enhance a good quality coffee, rather than overpower it.
The unique geography of Bridgnorth kept reminding me of this track, which played a few times on my headphones as I walked around exploring. I am quite sure The Black Keys – those heavily blues-influenced rockers from Ohio – didn’t write this about a picturesque market town in Shropshire, but it’s a great song and the title fits well. Here they are with Lo/Hi.
Happy New Year everyone! Onwards to more travel, sounds, food and frivolity in 2024.
A Different Kitchen 