Day 21 - Singapore (in New York) - The brilliant government of Singapore held a Singapore Day for Singaporeans living abroad. It was held in Central Park and featured some of the best food from the actual hawker stand vendors who were flown in courtesy of Singapore Airlines. The event was brilliant with 26 degree celsius sun, great music, and of course, the awesome food.

Char Kway Teow is the seafood noodle dish shown to the right and
Nasi Lemak, below it, is my father's personal favourite. Nasi Lemak is “Rich Rice” cooked in coconut milk with the classic toppings of deep fried fish, sunny side up eggs, cucumbers, fried crispy anchovies or ikan bilis and a lemony sweet chilli sambal. Fried chicken wings and spicy grilled fish paste or otah is also added.

Can't say enough of how well the government of Singapore has done to make Singaporeans abroad feel connected, via their craving for their unique street food.

Day 20 – Brooklyn. We’re on something of a Brooklyn run right now, having been or planning to go there for five of six weekends. A study in the diversity of what Brooklyn has to offer can perhaps be inferred from our reasons to visit:

• A “dinner event” hosted by a bookclub mate of mine that is half cozy restaurant where you know the owner and half dinner party.
• A baby boy’s first birthday party in Cobble Hill
• An invitation to hang out with friends from Massachusetts who were visiting his parents’ home off Ditmas
• A single woman’s big birthday bash replete with Williamsburgites who have turned casual slack hipster into a studied art form
• Moving extraneous stuff from our cramped Manhattan closets into its own special space in a storage unit in DUMBO
  

Day 19 - (dreaming of) Dublin. Prior to our babymoon, I spent a critical hour browsing the Web and the Barnes & Noble Union Square buying books. While I expected that I might buy one or maybe two, I surprised even myself by selecting four off the shelves. There was no way I would take them all; I left the thickest hardcover behind and it still remains unopened. On the beach I breezed through the first, A Changed Man by Francine Prose, a well-plotted, witty satire set in New York with a great premise and crisp, intelligent writing. The second, The Summer Guest was a small gem of a book, the type I usually don’t buy. But the author Justin Cronin surprised me with the story’s quiet elegance. But the charmer of the lot was the third book which I just finished, weeks after the trip. An Evening of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray is set in Dublin circa 1999 amidst the city’s economic transformation. I’ll save the book review editorial for another time and instead focus on the city itself. The last time I visited Dublin was during was around 1997 so it just preceded the emergence of the Celtic Tiger as the darling of the EU. The city was certainly on the upswing as was witnessed by the redevelopment taking place in the wealthier South Dublin and in the central core but it didn’t quite have the earmarks of the makeover that caught the imagination of Murray. So where is it now? By all counts, the property prices have shot up, retail prices are higher than most of the eurozone, and the general standard of living has virtually overnight flipflopped from being a country where emigration has made way for immigration. The famine is over; long live the IDA, tax breaks, Eurobenefits, and offshoring. Come to Ireland, or at least offshore your non-critical business processes. Heck, shift your IT, manufacturing, development to Dublin: you won’t regret it. And the message to the 50%+ of Americans who claim some Irish heritage: if you’re looking for a fresh start in a familiar place, come home.

This is marketing of the highest order. We’re talking Apple levels here. And Ireland has backed it up by following through on the expectations and actually becoming a vibrant city. It’s writing tradition is undisputed and with authors like Paul Murray (born in 1975) emerging, the arts scene should complement nicely the economic miracle making Dublin one of the most desirable places to live.

It’s about time I went back.

Day 18 - Todos Santos, Mexico. This town, whose name you may not know, actually has a place that you have heard of, the pictured hotel, memorialized forever by a song which serves as an anthem for the elusive near-past. Booming with a property craze fuelled by nirvana-seekers, Todos Santos is now clearly on the map and may one day lose the very quality that made this backwater so special, so permeating, a place “you can never leave.” But for the time we were around, it did a decent job of showing its appeal. We sampled the mix of galleries, some of which where atrociously bad, some of which were passable. The food, served in an unpretentious bodega was done with panache even though the place was semi-packed with gringo tourists. The hotel itself was kitsch and capitalistic and managed to still retain its rock star status. Finally, the place slowed down and emptied out after the last day tour bus left and we found ourselves alone or at least just surrounded by the city’s real inhabitants, which was really quite nice. If I really wanted to unwind and buy a villa in the town’s environs, I’m sure we would find it idyllic. Nonetheless, TS has all the charm of going to an Eagles reunion concert: you’ll have a great time but you know that you’re seeing something repackaged, dated, and yet classic.