Love, Hate, Name Something You Ate by jima

Welcome to a new and hopefully regular feature of our blog! It's a short interview about our lives here in Singapore. The questions were inspired by a conversation we had while exploring the botanic gardens this morning. I get to take the first turn, so here goes!

• One thing I love about living in Singapore is...
  the maps! Since all of the public transportation is done through one of two companies (which we think are both run by the government), all of the maps match! This means that if you look at the bus guide on-line, it will show a small section around the bus stop that matches (down to the colors) the map you have in the big map book. Also, the bus stop numbers will match on all maps AND will be marked on the bus stop itself! This really makes it easy!
  
  
• One thing I hate about living in Singapore is...
  the heat. There. I said it. I know you were all thinking it. Yeah. It's hot here. It's really hot and humid. It's generally in the 90-100 F range with 90% humidity. Just when I think we're starting to get used to it, I walk out of the grocery store (or the office...) and get hit with the heat again. It will take more "getting used to".
  
  
• A new thing I ate recently is...
  Popiah. It's a chinese spring roll, made with a very thin flour wrap that has a paste of garlic, chilis, and sweet soy sauce. The roll is filled with vegetables (bean sprouts, roasted garlic, ginger, and stewed turnips and carrots) and is cut into a number of pieces (ours had six). It was a bit spicy, had a little crunch, and was really quite tasty. For $1.50 Sing (about a buck US), it was a bargain!
  
  
• A new thing I bought recently is...
  A wireless router so we can both use the internet at the same time! I got the same one we have in FtCollins, only this one was cheaper!
  
  
• Something I recently discovered is...
  that many of the Indian food stalls in hawker centers and food courts name their foods with Malay words. Turns out that the Malays, many of whom are Muslim, look for places that are halal (Muslim version of kosher). Most of the Indian places are not actually certified halal, but meet most, if not all of the requirements. Many of them are vegetarian, or at least have lots of vegetarian dishes. Therefore the Malays tend to eat at Indian places frequently. Because of that, you end up with dishes like Nasi Biryani. Nasi is the Malay word for rice and Biryani is an Indian dish (I think it's the set of spices used to flavor the rice, but I'm not sure - just sure I like it!)
  
  
• Singlish o' the day:
  blur - meaning confused. Usage: "I'm totally blur after staring at my computer all day".