Where was b? - Singapore

I've been working on Nicholai's web page for a couple of weeks; I posted it on Angelfire this week. You can see from the site that Nicholai is an artist. I met Nicholai at a vegetarian restaurant.

Compassion Vegetarian Restaurant
The restaurant has since closed, but it was named "Compassion Vegetarian Restaurant." It was run by a mostly Chinese guy from Indonesia. His name is Marcus. Marcus was the chef as well as the CEO, owner, manager, bus boy, dishwasher and piss boy at Compassion Vegetarian Restaurant. I never told Marcus that "Compassion Cafe" was a catchier name; perhaps he'd sitll be in business. Anyway, If anyone wants to open a vegetarian restaurant serving delicate Peranakan cusine, let me know. I'll put you in touch with an unemployed master chef. He said vegetarian ingredients were too expensive in Singapore and it was too difficult to turn a profit. What I was thinking but wasn't saying was, "I know food's expensive that's why I eat here." When I asked him what he was going to do, he answered, "Daydream."

Peranakan is the unique fusion of Chinese and Malay food found in the Malaysian archipelago. Malay food is itself a fusion between Indian and local taste so Peranakan is quite exotic. It is not traditionally vegetarian so Marcus carefully adapts the recipes to bring the food in line with the Dharma. There are dharmas to suit everyone's taste. For Marcus it's a combination of Buddha dharma and ancient Chinese teachings about food.

Ancient Chinese teachings about food? One day I told Marcus that I liked his use of cilantro (corriander leaf). He explained that he had to rely on things like cilantro and red pepper to add flavor because onion, green onion, garlic and chives were prohibited by ancient culinary tradtion. He said they disturbed the mind and body in ways that were not healthful. I said that the Hari Krishnas didn't eat garlic either. He seemed pleased about this.

Onions
I said that the Indian Vegetarian restaurants like to use onion. He said, "We don't recommend those restaurants." Exactly who the "we" was, I 'm not sure. I was just happy to find someone with opinions about vegetarian cusine. I was thinking I'd just had an onion dosai in Little India and it was pretty damn good. Dosai or Tosai is a thin sour dough bread cooked on a griddle like a pancake. Dosai comes plain, or with onion, masala, or someting else. Masala is the most popular variety. From what I can tell "masala" is a kind of potato curry that is is wrapped up in the dosai. It comes out looking like a huge triangular burritto-like thing. The onion one is likewise a big onion burrito thing and does pack a punch. After hearing that onions were bad I quickly reviewd the state of my health and determined that I felt pretty good after the onion dosai. I didn't challenge Marcus, after all, his food spoke for itself!

Indian breads
Dosai or Tosai is just one of many Indian breads that is available in this former British outpost. I compared masala dosai to a burrito, but that is not very accurate. Chapati is more like a flour tortilla. Chapati is the flat bread we often made in the Vegetarian co-op at Duke. Tosai is, like I said, a thin sour dough pancake. Nan is oven baked and popular in North India. Roti is the South Indian version and is lightly fried rather than baked. It comes out sort of white, yellow, golden. Chapati comes more earthy, brown and gray.

Roti Chanai - Malaysian Breakfast
When I first landed in Malaysia and I asked the Chinese guy at the hotel if he could recommend something cheap, good and vegetarian. His face lit up because roti chanai is all of these things and more. It's is a almost a way of life in Malaysia. It is very tastey and very cheap. It's roti bread served with a spicky brown curry sauce (often of fish stock). It's the perfect way to start a day in Malaysia with a dark coffee served in a beer mug. With brown froth on top the coffee looks a bit like Guiness.

Back to Marcus - Beans
I had found someone with an interest in ancient culinary /medical knowledge so I wanted to see if he could offer any any information on a subject that had long occupied a crevice of my mind. I was wondering about beans. I knew that some ancient Greeks (Pythagoreans I think) didn't eat beans. And I'd noticed that East Asians didn't think much of beans either apart from processed soy products and red bean paste. Pythagoras was reputedly a vegetarian and so were East Asians of old. Why then, this abscence of beans, which are now considered in the West as an essential source of protein in the vegetarian diet.

I asked him why some people in ancient Greece thought beans were bad and his response was immediate and very matter of fact, "People could float in ancient times. Beans keep you from floating." I was thinking quite to the contrary, "Beans make you float."

Marcus introduces Nicholai
I met Nicholai at Marcus' restaurant. Marcus knew that Nicholai and I were both English teachers, vegetarians, Westerners, and that we usually ate unaccompanied so he introduced us. This was back in December. We immediately began discussing the inhospitable nature of Singapore. He'd been here two years and hadn't been invited to anyone's home. He'd eaten at the same restaurants daily with hardly a greeting from the workers or customers etc. We agreed that the fella who ran this particular restaurant was more friendly than usual. We both patronized him for that reason. Nicholai explained that the restaurateur was from Indonesia (ie not Singaporean).

Move from the hotel
I ran into Nicholai again and he explained that he was leaving for India soon. He would be there for 5 weeks. I asked about the possibility of subletting his apartment. He had just lost his job because his shady English school was having difficulties so he was anxious to have help with the rent. I would also be able to look after his plants while he was away. So, after he left for India, I moved in. His place was a grand improvement over the closet where I had been living. The windows alone were a great improvement, but he also had carpets on the floor, tapestries on the wall, sculptures from India and Indonesia, paintings of his own and a stereo. Indeed my living arrangements had improved.

After Nicholai returned from India he invited me to share his apartment. I had just lost my job so he arranged to give me a break on the rent and I would help him put up a web site of his artwork. He had bought a scanner but didn't know where to begin. I needed a place to stay and he needed a web designer so our relationship was symbiotic. We also get along as we have common interests in history, archeology, art, world religions, music etc.

Today I had my first tutoring session with Mr. Tang and Mr. Riu. They are anxious to improve their English with an American teacher. Mr. Tang is a high official in a city in Hebei province. His city has a population of 6 million people and a history of 3,000 years. His name means "Leader who loves people." Indeed he has an unusually kind and open disposition. Mr. Riu is an official in another city. They are part of a contingent of Chinese officials in Singapore to study management and economics. They have been here about 4 months and are anxious to improve their English. They had been waiting to find an American teacher; they felt lucky to find me.

Jamie met them Saturday at an English class. She called to tell me that she had found two potential students. We met and made arrangements over coffee. They wanted 11 hours per week at S$50/ hour. Jamie played no small role in negotiating the figures. She knew better than I what they could afford. The figures we reached approximate the salary of my full time job with the language school at 44 hours instead of 172 hours.

28 February - Monday - Art School Modeling Today I began a two week stint as a model at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. This modeling is portrait modeling, which means it's not nude modeling. Accordingly it doesn't pay as well. Holding the same position for 3 hours sounds tedious or boring, but it's a perfect time to develop mental culture. The instruction at this school is given in Chinese, so most, if not all, of the students are ethnic Chinese from Singapore, the mainland, Malaysia or Taiwan. The campus is rather makeshift spreading across 4 or 5 old buildings in the center of Singapore. None of the buildings were intended to be used as a school and it generally shows. The rooms are very messy. The instructors are very congenial but don't exude competence. The students seem to conduct the class as much as the teacher. They suggest when to take a break, when to resume etc. The school was recently up-graded (a most favorite term in Singapore) from a high school to a "University."

I suppose I should note the state of education in Singapore is pitiful. It's worth noting that Singapore is the shining star of SE Asia. When one applies for a job or work permit, the most important document is one's high school diploma. Yes, a college diploma without a high school diploma is useless. Why? I can only surmise that the education system is in a state of development that the West surpassed long ago. This is why American Universities are flooded with foreign students, especially from Asia.

An interesting adjunct to this is something I observed in China. Chinese Universities have noticeably more students from Africa than other places. In everything's-pre-meditated China it would seem that a relationship is being fostered. Workers of the world unite - Asia, Africa, Latin America. In related intelligence Peru recently honored the president of North Korea. Reality is much stranger than fiction.

Mr. Tang and Mr. Riu wanted me to join them for a night on the town after our lesson, but I told them that I had plans to play some music at the blues bar.

Steve at the Roomful of Blues has been waiting for several months now to get his license to host live music at his bar. Finally he got the bureaucratic go ahead. So he told me to bring my harmonica by on the open jam night.

And so I brought my trusty ol' C-harp to the bar and had a US$4 beer (Blues and Jazz bars, like Mexican food, are extravagantly expensive outside the Western Hemisphere). I wished the audience a "Happy Mardi Gras," a greeting which received a blank or bewildered expression from the largely Chinese audience. I proceeded to sing and play a traditional blues song or two with the band and we improvised a slowed down blues version of "Mardi Gras Mambo" - when I'm so far away from the Crescent City. I suspect it was a version like no one has heard.

At today's tutoring session with Mr. Tang and Mr. Riu I met a colleague of theirs from the home of kung fu. We finished a few bottles of dark beer, had special black (aged) eggs, smoked Chung Hwa cigarrettes (Chairman Mao's brand) and played some basketball before beginning class. They had just taken up basketball in Singapore and I told them I could teach them a few things on the court as well. We played some 2-on-2. There were puddles on the court and no nets on the goals. It doesn't take long to work up a sweat in Singapore. We didn't get too physical but it was good exercise for a change. Mr. Riu enjoys hoops, but ping pong is his forte.


1 March - Wednesday - Modeling with guitar Today I went to another campus to model with guitar. This proved to be much easier than the other campus. Here I could sit on the couch and play guitar while they painted. These are third year students so they are more skilled than the second year students in the other class. From the looks of the canvasses lying around I was proceeded by an unusually voluptuous Chinese girl who stretched out on the same couch in the flesh. In the right place at the wrong time, some would say.

Where's b?

Singapore