Singapore Street Food

I was in Singapore the last week of March. The city-state has a deservedly authoritarian, straight-arrow reputation, but it is at the equator, so it is too hot, lush and tropical to be that uptight. And it is an hour or two plane ride from many exotic beaches and jungles in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Singapore also has an interesting diversity, quite different than what you would see in the West. Signs on the subway/MRT are in English, Indonesian, Malay and Tamil. And the street food there is great.

Chinatown, Oakland, California

This past weekend I spent some time in Oakland Chinatown. The Berkeley culinary school Kitchen on Fire was doing a food tour there, so I tagged along with them for a few minutes. I was able to procure some Szechuan peppercorns at the Silver View market on 10th Street for $7.50 a pound. If you want to know why Szechuan peppercorns (they're not related to real peppercorns, piper nigrum, at all), read this.

A great place for cheap Dungeness crab, in season, is Lucky Seafood Market #2 on 8th Street. I'm certainly wary of buying processed seafood in Chinatown, since it might have come from some toxic fish farm in China, but live dungies and ling cod should be fine.

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is have a Taste of Asia culinary event Fri/Sat April 25.