Singapore Day 4-- Little India, Mustafa Centre, Indian Food, Bugis, Afternoon Tea (2008-12-03)
After stuffing down some Delifrance rolls in the morning, we set foot to Little India by MRT.
The tickets for the subway are no longer the same kind we used
10 years ago, now all their tickets are in a sense like the "Octopus"
cards in Hong Kong, which means one can top up the card's value by
paying through the ticket machines.
Single-trip ticket carries a one-dollar deposit fee
which is refundable upon returning the card to the ticket machine to
ensure passengers return the cards, otherwise it'd cost the subway
company too much money if they lose those cards.
The moment you step outside Little India station, the smell of
incense and flowers bombard your senses. There are many stalls
that sell strings of flowers and leaves and stuff in side streets and
alleys. Unfortunately famous Tekka Market was closed for
renovation till mid next year, we missed a great chance to visit an
Indian wet market and hawker centre.
The 4-storey Mustafa Centre on a side street off Serangoon Street (the main
street) is to say the least, MIND-BOGGLING. It's like a Costco
and Walmart and Macy's rolled into one. The merchandises are
stacked high up, sometimes all the way to the ceiling, the aisles are
narrow because they have crammed 50 shelves on the floor instead of
a comfortable 20. I reckon they sell everything under the sun there,
except
maybe cars and ammo; the problem is whether you can find what you're
looking for. I could spend a whole afternoon just in the kitchen
department alone.
The things in Mustafa Centre is cheaper than other stores and it is
open 24 hours! If you like to shop, you could definitely find
something you want there. I reckon 3 in the morning would be a
pretty good time to go if you hate crowds.
The restaurant nextdoor looked like a pretty clean and decent place
to grab lunch. KL got the Briyani Mutton set and I ordered the
Chicken Dosa set. The mutton had no dreadful "lamby" taste but a
tad tough, but overall quite delicious with the rice. My dosa was
made to order that's hot and crispy when brought to the table.
The chicken curry stuffing was spicy but yummy.
I saw another diner order the paper dosa set with a huge crunchy
dosa that came with curries to dip into. Wanting to try that, I
went to the counter to order one plain dosa. Sadly, the dosa, though
freshly made, wasn't the crispy paper kind, but the normal doughier
kind. Although written as plain dosa on the menu, it did come
with three dipping curries, the whole thing was only S$1.8!! (平到震) @_@!
After lunch, we decided to check out Bugis. There's now a mall
inside the station leading to a glass covered area outside full of
little stalls selling trinkets and whatnots. We found The Coffee
Connoisseur, tcc, a coffee shop chain there with comfortable seats,
so we went in to rest our
tired little feet and stayed till we headed to Chinatown.
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