Westworld Alberta

June 2012

Westworld Alberta

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East West train line, is popular with foodies. It's also Singapore's red light district, where little side streets called "lorongs" are lined with government-licensed brothels. (With its strict rules on gum chewing and litter, many visitors make the mistake of thinking Singapore is a moralistic nanny state. In fact, the government is obsessed with order. Gum chewing can be stopped, so they stop it. Prostitution cannot, they reason, so they license it.) A hawker hawker's markets market can draw customers who are serious Geylang eateries are usually bright and open to the street, with the sort of modest decor one associates with 10-minute oil-and- lube jobs. Many offer cafeteria-style displays of ready-made food, but I prefer the spots that cook to order. On Geylang Lorong 9, I fi nd one, with large, round tables spread out to the neon-lit sidewalk. Groups of friends, working girls on break and communally seated strangers fi ll the plastic chairs. Unable to read the Chinese name on the sign, I order something at random before my tablemate intercedes. He introduces him- self as Wei, a local importer/exporter. The restaurant's name, which he translates for me, is "King of Char Kway Teow," referring to the house specialty, a popular dish of broad noodles fried with sliced beef. So I order that. It's savoury, it turns out, but not spicy – a sort of Asian beef stroga- noff. And at 9 Singapore dollars (about $7 Cdn.), cheap. Not Asia cheap – in Bangkok you could eat for three days on that – but pretty good for a town that can be Southeast Asia's most expen- sive destination. h of So I ut The next evening I stumble across a hap- pening spot just a few Geylang lorongs away. According to the menu, No Signboard Seafood acquired its name when the own- ers, Mr. and Mrs. Choo, started selling crab in a hawker's stall that had no sign. Today there are six Singapore locations, including a Geylang branch. Still busy at 10 p.m., it's a bright, lively outdoor plaza, featuring a cen- tral covered area with outdoor carpeting, ceiling fans, metal chairs and actual waiters. It's so popular that the staff is busy rolling out extra tables, and I'm seated off to the side on a plastic chair, open to the elements, near the entrance to a parking garage. But the Singapore elements are kind, and it's n- hap- ongs oard still a step up from the King of Char Kway Teow esthetic. Step up in price, too – pepper crab, a signature Singapore dish, costs 50 Singapore dollars a kilo; crayfish 80. I decide to branch out, ordering deer meat with ginger and spring onions (around $12 Cdn). Also kang kong. This local specialty is made by plucking a giant gorilla off a sky- scraper and slicing it into a pan with garlic and ginger . . . or not. Kang kong is actually a leafy green, and the name translates to "water spinach." It's typically stir-fried with sambal, a chili, garlic, ginger and shrimp paste. And as prepared at No Signboard still a step up from the King of Char Kway 34 WESTWORLD >> JUNE 2012 ten v Seafood it's a real discovery – tender and just nicely spicy. The venison, stir-fried in a thick brown gravy with green onions, is just as good. HAWKER'S MARKETS, POPULAR in Malaysian destinations such as Penang and Kuala Lumpur, are essentially open-air food courts, streets or plazas full of independent stalls, each offering a differ- ent specialty and clustered around a com- mon seating area. While Malaysian hawker markets are usually located on streets or in large, open-air lots, the Singapore variety is typically a self-contained shopping plaza dedicated entirely to food vendors. And unlike a typical food court, a hawker's market can draw customers who are serious about their cuisine. su Lu food co independent ent specialty Tekka Centre is a big one in Little India. I arrive in the morning to fi nd that a crowd has already converged on the centre's wet market, which specializes in crab and other seafood. The hawker's court, where rows of (Little India, deer meat) Steve Burgess

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