Oh, sugar sugar

[austin_dern]

Almost the only English on a pack of Kurozu Candy I picked up at the co-op: ``Black Vinegar Candy -- No Strong Vinegar Taste.'' Well, thanks, but I was really feeling more like getting some caramels that didn't have a strong caramel taste to them, or a marshmallow that didn't have that strong puffy sugar hint to it. There are times I suspect Japan decided to just start being weird to mess with other nations' heads, like a character from Real Genius or something. I can't read the nutritional information, past ``16 kcal', `0g', `0g', `3.9g', and `4 mg'. The ingredient label put on by the Taysun Gen Trading company, importers: ``Maltose, sugar, brown sugar, black vinegar, black vinegar powder salt, citric acid, natural colouring (caramel), brown sugar flavoring.'' It tastes like a caramel-licorice hybrid.

More from the Brush with Lions: an anonymous lion -- the identifying plaque was broken off somehow. There seems to be a storm theme to it. Located at Merlion Park. The stairs lead to the Singapore River. The real attraction of Merlion Park is Merlion and Merlion -- they're merlions. The left one is around thirty feet high, sprays water from its mouth, and is often in pictures of the skyline. The right one is about human-sized, a model until last year placed in a slightly different part of the park. I don't know why they moved. Neither of these is the Sentosa Island merlion, a ten-storey concrete version that shoots laser beams (at night) and is apparently featured in Cowboy Bebop at one point.

Trivia: The MR-1 Mercury capsule flew twice. Its first flight, on 21 November 1960, reached an estimated altitude of up to five inches. Source: This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury, Loyd S. Swenson Jr., James M. Grimwood, and Charles C. Alexander. NASA SP-4201.

Currently Reading: Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis.

Comments

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Oh lord. My stepfather's family used to annoy me by trying to drag me off to this restaurant that served this odd kind of local fried fish recipe. The pretended virtue to this stuff was that it didn't "taste fishy". That was actually their advertising slogan, on the sign out front. So far as I know, they're still in business.

To be fair, the relatives meant well, but still...

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's why I can't stand tuna fish packed in water. Everyone tells me that way it tastes less fishy. Well, I want tuna that tastes fishy, thus my preference for oil even if it's not appropriate.

I guess I wouldn't mind a bit more vinegar taste, as well.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

In that case, try obtaining some fresh salmon fillet, slicing it into nigiri-sized tabs, and placing them into a mix of vinegar (whatever varieties come to mind - plain malt would work as well as any, but rice would be fine too), soy sauce, water, possibly a dash of sugar, and plenty of fresh chopped dill. Leave that to sit in the fridge for a few hours, up to a day or so. You may want to play with the ratios, of course, but the acidity and the dill work so well together on the salmon - one of the best things Kioku Sushi in Newark (the one next to Fremont, that is) did. Either just enjoy it on its own, or as nigiri sushi.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That sounds oddly like cooking, but I'll see what I can arrange next time I have a kitchen.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I know about the merlion because it's one of the special items you can get in Animal Crossing. There's a seagull that washes up on your beach now and then and if you talk to him he gives you items representing places he's traveled to. When I got the merlion from him, I thought it was really cool but I didn't recognize it. So I looked it up on the Web and discovered that it was from Singapore.

It's one of my favorite seagull gifts in AC, alongside the Mouth of Truth. Unfortunately we wiped our game a while back and started over, and I haven't gotten those two gifts yet.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Ooh, neat. spengler didn't tell me about that when she was making up the Animal Crossing icons for everyone. I like the pictures of the seagull, though I can't seem to find one of the merlion token.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I can't find a picture of it online either, but it looks pretty much like the real one only it's about the size of your character. It even spits water, which magically vanishes (there's no basin to catch it).

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Too bad about the picture. I don't know any versions for sale here that spit water, although I wouldn't be surprised if there were. My siblings have enjoyed the pillows, though, which are ... not quite puffed out enough to sleep on, but are fine for throw pillows or for cat beds.

[musewoozle.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

Black vinegar candy? Mmmm.

I'm still boggling over your posts. On one hand, places like the "Peanuts Cafe" make me think Singapore is very Westernized. Then you post that you can't get a pizza anyplace, and I have to re-think all that.

Definitely an interesting read. It's quite an experience trying to get the feel of a totally different culture through your writings.

-- Jacob

P.S. Pssst! Ya gotta add me to your friends list! :)

[oliver-otter.livejournal.com]

No pizza? Even Japan has Domino's. (Though the most popular topping is squid, not pepperoni.)

[musewoozle.livejournal.com]

*Laughs!*

Ugh.

You could be right. Maybe I misread. My memory was never that sharp to start with, yanno.

The squid topping made me laugh, though. I studied in England in '91. I figured I'd escape the alien food and get a pizza. What toppings? Corn, prawns, taters...yeesh.

-- Jacob

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I should clarify, then -- there are pizzas sold in Singapore, including from Pizza Hut, which as part of the Tricon Global Enterprises conspiracy shows up ... not quite as often as Kentucky Fried Chicken, but more often than Taco Bell. But I didn't care for Pizza Hut Pizza to start with.

There are also local chains, like Canadian 2-for-1 pizza, which, well, sells you a second pie free with the first; or Pastamania. The thing is they sell, you know, reasonably upscale restaurant pizza, made with good ingredients and heavily topped and so on -- the kind you can eat with a fork and not feel absurd.. What I want is the sort of thin-crust, cheap, greasy pizza you get from the Italian place in any strip mall or student union. The kind you eat off paper plates because real plates make it absurd, and you order one or two slices instead of a whole 13-inch pie. That's what I can't find.

The really odd part is there's a company that makes the perfect cold pizza. It's crustless triangle slices with an ever-changing array of ingredients, cooked and then put in the fridge so it reaches you cool yet. And it is perfect. If they only sold it hot, too, I'd be delighted.

Now, toppings are another and somewhat insane selection. Corn and squid are not really all that bizarre, you know, even if I have decided I've eaten enough stuff with suckers on it for my lifetime.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Singapore's an odd state, in multiple meanings ... it is largely but not homogeneously westernized, and it draws big cultural influences from the U.S., the U.K., Malaysia, China, India, with a few wild cards like Japan, Australia, Vietnam, and France mixed in. (Have you ever seen a fast-food Vietnamese place?) A lot of it does mix together, so you get things like beef rendang burgers at Burger King, but you can, if you want, go out and live essentially an American lifestyle, or an Indian lifestyle, or a British lifestyle and ignore almost all the non-conforming elements. It's just not exactly the same.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

"Black Vinegar Candy -- No Strong Vinegar Taste.''

Isn't that from the same fellows who brought us Rat Tart - Now With Not So Much Rat In It?

Though, if you can find White Rabbit candies around (the packaging is fairly obvious), do try them; the original variety is still the best, I'd say, although through the kind graces of foofers, I did manage to try several other flavors of their making. Perhaps to nobody's great surprise, I thought the coffee particularly pleasant (labelled in a beautifully 70s font). I'd caution against the mango until you've tried some others, though - it's not unpleasant, but it is quite peculiar in its sheer chemical nature.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'll see what I can find. I actually have trouble shopping for candy, since stuff that looks too much unlike what I'd see in, well, the Rite-Aid on Hoosick just goes through my mind without being recognized. It takes an act of conscious will to see the labels. Camouflage experts may want to study this phenomenon.

[luckybunny007.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of writing to Tony Benavides, mayor of the great city of Lansing, Mich., and suggesting we build our own ten-storey merlion that shoots lasers. It might float.

[luckybunny007.livejournal.com]

Not to commit some big faux-pas of responding to my own post, but immediately after writing that I took the LJ RPG quiz linked to on Spengler's livejournal. Austin appeared as Partner, The Giggly, Flirtatious Magic User with Big Breasts and Talking Animal.

Way to go, Austin.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I'm glad I showed up on anyone's list at all; I never get mentioned in those things ...

A giant concrete mythical creature is a great way to spruce up, I think, any skyline. I'd be underestimating it however much I said the icon was used for T-shirts, posters, keychains, paperweights, Monopoly city edition tokens, and other consumer trinkets here. The only downside is they always show the merlion in the same pose; there's never, like, a cartoon of him swimming.