Thyme In A Bottle

By Wendy Chan 

 

Singapore offers a kaleidoscopic range of flavors derived from a multicultural heritage blending Chinese, Malay, Indian, Arab and the deep, rich and spicy Nonya cuisines. It’s the kind of food worth working triple time on the treadmill for. From simple kaya toast to alluring bakkwa (grilled minced pork pieces), heavenly meaty Sri Lankan pepper crabs, and hearty, fragrant laksa noodles, I always find myself having too little time, with too much to savor.Your olfactory senses easily lead you to delicious foods that await you in every corner of this island of just some 270+ square miles. Temptation is everywhere – hawker centers, food courts, fancy restaurants, bakeries, uberchic cafes. Scents of curry, cinnamon and other aromatic spices saturate the air in a specialty shop in Arab Street, probably like it has been for years. But wait, you can even enjoy food on another level.

A tour of the Singapore History Museum during a culinary trip amazingly transported me back in time, to my early childhood in Asia. It vividly brought back sights, sounds, and even smells of a bygone era, before the birth of the super-market and CuisineArt. The multi-sensory interactive exhibit in this food history section has ancient vendor tricycles, stacked tin food containers (for lunch to go), primitive mortar and pestle sets, intricate wooden cake molds, stone grinder, an iron wok crowning a clay pot stove with a metal casing – common kitchen appliances circa the fifties and early sixties both in Singapore and Hong Kong where I grew up. The time-capsule exhibits even have digital clippings of sounds that replicate the holler of street hawkers going from alley to alley, their tricycle clanking away, ringing the bells, eager to attract customers to the latest thing – soda pop in glass bottles.

I was mesmerized by a wall lined with a neat collection of beautiful modern-style bottles. They are there for people to inhale on demand, to enjoy the smells of different spices, roots, beans, leaves, nuts and fruits – all clearly labeled, some with a story or a quote such as from local famous cook and author Sylvia Tan. There is something magical about the whole experience, something that provides a sense of wonderment about the food we eat, even if you’re not longing to reconnect with your past. For those of us living busy, hurried lives – it’s time for us to smell the, er…. pandang leaves!

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