Singapore

Singapore

Yesterday we got about 6 inches of wet, heavy snow, so today we head for warm, exotic Singapore. Okay, I actually wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but when I was deciding what to post today, I liked the look of this one.

The only thing I really remember about Singapore is that chewing gum was illegal there back in the 90's. At least according to my junior high literature teacher. She passed through Singapore on her way to Malaysia. At some point during her trip she discovered ,much to her dismay, that her daughter had stashed some chewing gum in her purse. At least that's the story we heard. Either way, she didn't get caught, so that's why I say that chewing gum was illegal there in the 90s.

Singapore is the second smallest country in Asia. It consists of a main island, along with several smaller islets. All told, its area is slightly larger than 3.5 times the area of Washington DC. While it was once covered with rain forest, only a small portion remains along the coast. They have 4 official languages with English being the predominant language of government and commerce, and Mandarin Chinese being the most widely spoken language. 

While this is one of the many countries where bubble tea is popular, we will actually be hopping on the next big trend. Tea with fruit. Why, you ask? Because I really don't view bubble tea as actual tea. Yes, there is a little bit of tea in it, but it's a big, foofy drink with lots of sugar and additives that really make it into something other than tea (in my opinion). I've heard reviews of it being cloyingly sweet, and the tapioca pearls being snot-like in consistency. The big tapioca pearls also come with warnings about choking, and being careful when you consume them. That just creeps me out.

Since there were some good sales on fruit at the grocery store this week, we're having strawberry, mango, lime tea.

Here are the stars of the show! The sign at the grocery store said this was a honey mango (but the sticker on it said "champagne"). I also scrubbed up a lime, and fell for the early season strawberry sale. They still taste good, especially after a (seemingly) long winter!

Everything gets cut into pieces, and place a few of those fruit pieces into your cup. Then I brewed up some green tea, and poured it over the fruit.

I thought this was really pretty.

I mean, look at the colors. It looks like I should be sitting by the beach sipping this. I think this is served cold, but I preferred to drink it warm (the fruit does cool it down quite a bit. The longer it sits, the more fruity it gets (but I did remove the lime slice after a bit because the peel was starting to make it taste bitter).

This is a tasty trend I can get behind.