Arab Street (nope, that’s not in New Zealand)
If anyone is still actually reading this blog, you're probably waiting to hear more about our trip to New Zealand. Sorry, but a few interludes of completely unrelated-to-New-Zealand posts may make it in scattered here and there.
Yesterday (that's the 7th of Jan, I think) , Carly and I made our way (for the first time) down to Arab Street late in the afternoon because we were starving, had no groceries, wanted something to eat, and had been meaning to get to that part of town for a long time, but hadn't quite got around to it yet. Armed like a tourist (aka with my "Best of Singapore" Lonely Planet guide tucked away in my man-purse) we set out.
Now, thanks to some handy street navigating by yours truly, we made it to Arab Street without a hitch after a few minute walk from Bugis MRT. What I noticed about Arab Street right away is that there are, um, a lot of fabric shops around. We were looking for a place to eat, and as much as I'm sure eating silk and carpet could potentially be considered a high-fibre diet, I much prefer, well, meat.
So after we passed the fabric shop, we passed the fabric shop. After that, then the fabric shop followed by the fabric shop. After that particular fabric shop, we passed 8 more fabric shops followed by a carpet shop followed by 19 more fabric shops, a silk shop, a carpet shop and then a fabric shop. After that fabric shop, across the street, we saw a fabric shop, and a shop that imported and exported fabric. After that, we saw a fabric shop, a silk shop, a carpet shop, and then 4 more fabric shops. For a change, we saw a couple more fabric shops (Are you getting the picture here?). Now, I don't have anything against fabric shops whatsoever, but I was bloody starving by this point, so you can imagine my sigh of relief when after passing a few more fabric shops, Carly with her ninja-eagle like eye-balls spotted Cafe Le Caire (the place we were looking to get some grub).
This place was stellar. Kind of an Egyptian cafe with little wicker chairs and super-yummy and cheap eats. To start with we had some Arabic salad, bread and hummus, and some fried eggplant in some kinda yummy spiced yogurt. I had a wicked-awesome beef and lamb Scharwarma (sorry Elliot, I don't think I can send you any) and Carly had something called Shish Tawouke which was some kinda chicken kebab marinated in some spices and tasted super-awesome. We packed all that away along with a couple ice coffees for about $30SGD ($20CDN give or take), which was a welcome change from NZ prices where our pita and hummus cost us $8.50NZD (which is about $10.50SGD) at a Greek place we ate at in Christchurch.
So um, yah. Cafe Le Caire - highly recommended, and if you need some fabric, I highly recommend Arab Street.
