My wonderful Italian (er, Singaporean) colleagues



Fish head curry @ Ocean Fish Head Curry (original name, I know...) on Telok Ayer



I mentioned in a previous post that I'm concerned I'll gain 20 pounds very quickly. This fear is even more near now that my colleagues have made it a priority to ensure I'm eating all sorts of local specialties. All the time. They're the Italian family I don't have here.



Much of this comes about through the lunch hour, a work custom that fortunately has held pretty firm here. My first few weeks, I often brought lunch or ran downstairs for some takeaway to bring back to my desk. I was puzzled by how positively quiet the office becomes from about 1145 - 130 p.m. Then I realized that people actually take lunch, often with colleagues. So once I stopped dashing out for takeaway, I was around to actually be invited!

I've had some really terrific lunches so far. Highlights:

Shanghai style xiaolongbao (dumplings with that yummy "soup" inside), "Chinese pizza" and many other Shanghai specialties at this old shophouse near the office. It was very fun going with a group of 10 or so, where the heavy majority of the people are and speak Chinese and kept putting food on my plate to try. They're often pleasantly surprised when I enthusiastically agree to try whatever they recommend, as their impression of Westerners is that they're not adventerous in their eating. Have they met my friends?!

One of my favorites -- fish head curry at the famous Ocean Fish Head Curry shop. This is not nearly as strange as it sounds and is, with chil crab, probably the signature local dish. It stems from South Indian cuisine and involves the head of a fish that is similar to red snapper stewed in a spicy curry with vegetables. Over rice and with mantou (a fried or steamed bun), it's really good. I can't wait to take Louis there, and then recreate (maybe with red snapper fillet) at home. With a collection of other, smaller dishes and fresh lime juice to drink (refreshing!), each of us paid about $10USD. Everyone insisted I have the last bite, even though I also had been awarded the first and continuously had my plate re-filled. Not going to lie -- it was good.

One table from dinner. Way too much food. Awesome.

We also had an office dinner after paintball (alas, I didn't actually play paintball due to some pressing deliverables) at Ah Yat, a Chinese seafood restaurant near Bukit Timah. More chili crab (YUM), along with cold Tiger beer, sauteed kailan (similar to kale), lightly fried prawns, scallops fried in yam (hard to explain -- but good) and various rices and mantou.

On top of the lunches...and the dinners...a few colleagues are convinced I need to eat between meals and hence bring me little Chinese sweets (including this yummy rolled cake that tasted like a gourmet Twinkie), "real" French breads and muffins and other goodies. It's so thoughtful of them! I think they're sincerely excited to meet ex-pats who want to dig into their food.

Come visit! We need to show them we Westerners are adventerous eaters!