Singapore

  • rendevouz
    blog,  Indonesia,  Padang,  Singapore,  Travel

    Polemik Rendang Babi

     

    Kehebohan di tanah air dalam 48 jam terakhir adalah Rendang Babi. Berawal dari seorang pengusaha kuliner yang sepertinya kurang pemahaman dengan suku tertentu dan ingin berinovasi dengan bisnis kulinernya. Diciptakan menu seperti bawah ini:

    babi ambo

    padang babi

    Reaksi netizen berbagai macam, dimulai dari yang sinis ke pihak yang protes, pihak yang protes merasa dilecehkan, ada yang mencoba untuk open minded, atau ada yang menganggap netizen Indonesia hanya mempermasalahkan hal-hal yang remeh.

    Kebetulan, istilah babi rendang bukan kali pertama aku dengar, sudah dari beberapa tahun yang lalu sering mendengar teman-teman Indonesia di pusat ngejoke tentang rendang babi, hanya tidak sampai viral seperti Babi Ambo.

    Di tahun 2018, secara gak sengaja menemukan Restoran Padang dengan tulisan Mandarin di Clarke Q, Singapura. Tentunya hal ini menarik bagi seorang Minang yang sedang berada di perantauan negara orang. Aku tertegun, meski semua staffnya berparas Cina, dan juga tidak ada logo Halal dari MUIS Singapura, tapi aku tidak menemukan bahan-bahan yang mengandung daging babi di menunya. Kenapa??

    Pindah ke Singapura di tahun 2004, meski sering on and off antara Singapura – Indonesia, aku kenal negara ini dengan sangat baik. Racial Harmony sudah ditanamkan sejak dini, mereka mengerti kalau etnis Melayu itu tidak makan babi, dan babi merupakan hal yang tabu atau ‘disgusting’ bagi etnis Melayu. Sementara itu, etnis Melayu juga tau kalau daging babi itu Cina banget – mereka juga tidak mengolok-ngolokan pemakan babi.

  • medals
    Asia,  blog,  India,  Iran,  Singapore,  Travel

    2018 in Review – Reflection

    Hello 2018

    When I typed the title of this entry, I first typed 2008 in Review. I then gasped, no, It’s 2018, my dear! Not 2008. How could my life feel like just stuck in 2008 – I kept typing 2008 instead of 2018 in Review.

    It was a decade ago, but some or maybe many things in 2008 are special, and I feel like being trapped in that year or when Rahma was reborn. I have to move on and get used to the fact is, a decade had passed. Move on, welcome to 2019. One year to go to the 2020s. 

    2018 was like riding a roller coaster, it has its ups and downs. Living with the duality of happiness and sorrow, positive and negative energy, constantly come and go.

    As a child, we’d become so excited when grown-ups asked us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. We would reply: “When I grow up, I want to be an Astronaut or Doctor”. Life seems to be so easy when we’re still little girls or boys. We learn that children are very positive and dream big without fear of failure because they don’t recognize what failure is. As a child, we love to question everything and try something new.

    A few decades later after we need to work hard to pay our bills, and broke, or need to pay unexpected bills, we then say: “When I grow up, I don’t want to grow up!!

  • Asia,  blog,  Essay,  Europe,  Malaysia,  Singapore

    Funny Signages on the Road

    Discovering ‘awesome’ texts and graphics while traveling abroad might be one of my favorite activities. My Visual Communication background teaches me to be aware or critical of typography, logo, mascot, or whatever object I meet surrounds me.

    I see simple things closely and love to analyze them, secretly critiquing café menu, signs, billboard, ads, or whatever catch my eye. I collect some catchy signs and feel guilty if I never share them in the blog sphere.

    Most of this collection I found in the Netherlands, Germany, and Singapore a few years back. Are you similar to me or us??  Do you happen to love capturing ‘funny’ signs on the road?  Let’s join the club.

  • milk
    Asia,  blog,  Germany,  Indonesia,  Malaysia,  Singapore,  Thailand,  the Netherlands,  Vietnam

    A Coffee Addict on the Road

    I start my days with coffee, wake up and smell the coffee. If I didn’t drink a cup of coffee before noon, I’d feel very depresso and wrong.

    Wherever I go and travel I always drink multiple cups of hot coffee every day. I’d love to taste local coffee. Life feels very beautiful and perfect every time I sip my coffee, tell me I’m not the only one. I believe my fellow coffee addict around the world can relate to this!!!

    a cup of coffee

    Coffee in The Middle

    Local Coffee in Singapore

    yakun kaya toast

    Although there’s no coffee plantation in Singapore, they have a local coffee chain. Yakun Kaya Toast.

    At Yakun Kaya Toast, I first knew how the way Singaporeans have their coffee time. It is still my favorite local coffee, I like to watch the way they serve the coffee. It is always a middle-aged Chinese man (Singaporeans called him ‘uncle’) who prepares the coffee. Never have I seen a woman or girl handle this coffee-making job, I guess it is part of their ‘branding’ since the founder is Ah Koon from Hainan, China.

    In Singapore, it is very common to see people drinking sweet coffee with half-boiled eggs and Kaya Toast. The price is reasonable, around SGD 1.50 per cup.