Oyako Don, ahh?

About My Life in Singapore and Why I call it “Home” now

My most favourite dish in Singapore is Japanese and called Oyako Don. It is a simple chicken egg rice bowl made out of chicken thighs, scallions, onions, egg, soy sauce and some other things. Oya means parent and ko means child. Chicken & egg, got it?

I am living in Singapore for 6 months now and came here all the way from Germany for an internship at a global company in order to finish my studies. My relationship with Singapore had its ups and downs.

Now I Know What A Culture Shock Might Be Like

My first day here was a light version of a typical culture shock. After a 16 hours flight, I arrived at the airport and took an Uber to my temporary accommodation. Arriving there, I could barely find the entrance. Retrospectively, it was a typical older HDB building in Hougang. Everything was grey. I was feeling like entering some depression-causing facility. You had to take the lift to enter the hallway, where 2–3 apartments were placed. This, times 100 and all looked exactly the same. You could just differ by looking at the typical bright shining rectangular building numbers at the corners. Anyway, entering the apartment, I sat there at the table, my suitcase blocking every way to walk and it was very dark and just a basic lamp hanging from the ceiling. Some Chinese guy walked in. He didn’t say a word and didn’t looked at me heading for the kitchen and disappearing. I was like, What is up with this guy? In Germany, you at least say Hi! or better introduce yourself. Later an Indian guy walked in, he said Hi! AND introduced himself. This did calm me somehow facing the fact I would spend 6 months here. I met the landlord later and she kindly told me, the room wouldn’t be available and I would need to follow her to another accommodation of hers. I did so and arriving there was quite delightful — at first. It was a new condo building with pool and everything. The building had 5 floors. Thing is, I stayed at the 6th. The rooftop. This sounds fancy. It was not. For two weeks, I had to take the stairs to the rooftop, living in a shoebox, which was barely big enough to be able to have a tiny bed inside. The first time I walked up the stairs to the rooftop, I had my suitcase with me, which was 30 kg in weight. Just like in a bad movie, I was facing the last stair and just right there, my suitcase handle died, broke into two, letting my suitcase fall all the way back down the stairs.

The Lion is Real

Since day one, I was and I am extremely excited about this place. This city. This country. I mean it’s extraordinary. Everything is just working (almost everything). Everything is well planned, organised, structured. It’s the safest place on earth. It’s the cleanest place on earth. And it’s getting better everyday. It’s growing like bamboo. At great pace and strong. During my internship I was working about 45–50 hours in a 5-days workweek and I enjoyed the long days at the office. Because I liked my work, my colleagues and I was in freakin’ Singapore. On the weekends there are always things to explore. After you have been to all the sights, you try out other things. Clubs, Bars, Cafés. I still have not seen it all. Actually, I am sitting in a café just now writing this story. Singapore has such beautiful locations everywhere. It’s a blooming city and all the places are just a couple of years in business, at most. This is why everything looks just perfect. Just like the city itself. Singapore is a perfect city. You are under surveillance 24/7, but if you don’t mind, it is a perfect place.

There are cameras on every corner. Sometimes it’s even hard to find a place without surveillance, if you would look for it. I once took a picture of one of these brand-new pillars they are placing currently at recently built corners. It’s a pillar about 2.5 metres high holding not less than 7 cameras in a perfect circle. Yes, it’s real. This is quite the extreme example, but that’s a proper symbol for the circumstances in Singapore.

Travel, Travel, Travel

There is traveling. Lots of traveling. You can go everywhere you want for little money. During my six months and additional three weeks as of next week, I will have been to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan and Taiwan. Yes, for real. I saw so many different cultures, took thousands of photos, saved so many rich memories. I have never been into traveling until Singapore pushed it quite massively. Now, I would like to travel more after returning to Germany.

Specialty Coffee in Singapore (No Kopi, lah!)

Since I love coffee more than anything, I tried all cafés and coffee shops I could catch during the weekends. At some weekends, I had six cups in two days, $6–7 each. So, yes, I gave it my best. If you are interested, here is my TOP5 list:

1. Nylon Coffee Roasters, near Outram MRT
2. Brawn & Brains Coffee, near Mountbatten MRT
3. Glasshouse, at Chijmes
4. Columbus Coffee Co., near Marymount MRT
5. Highlander Coffee Espresso Bar, near Outram MRT

In Singapore, the local people often drink Kopi. Kopi is a coffee, brewed with a sock filter (yes, that exists) with cheap beans. They put lots of sugar in it and add condensed milk. There is Kopi, Kopi C, Kopi O, Kopi Peng and some other variations. I wouldn’t call it coffee after all. If I drink a kopi, I see it as a kopi. It’s Signature Singapore, a kopi, not more, not less. I would say, a kopi is a special treat from time to time— Kopi C, ahh?

Lah & Ahh

Let me explain this one. In Singapore, there is Singlish. A combination of Singapore and English. It is a very distinct accent. You can recognise it right away. And the real local people use additional special phrases. For example, if you order some food, you would say “Oyako Don, please.” and they would respond with “Oyako Don, ahh?”. I would describe at as a reactive response to confirm your order. But it is also used for any other occasion you can think of. So don’t think this is somehow unambiguous. “Lah” on the other hand, is proactive. Yes, confusing but funny nevertheless. “Ahh?” is not even a question. They don’t expect any answer from you. The just say it out of habit.

I Love The Food

I love rice. As it turns out, I deeply love rice. I can eat rice every single day, which is practically what I do in Singapore. If I did not yet have rice at some day, I have the need for rice. Crazy. In Singapore you can eat just everything Southeast Asia can offer. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, Indian, Malay, Indonesian. It never gets boring. And it’s very cheap. At a local food centre, you can get a proper dish for just $4–6. Oyako Don I eat regularly near my condo in Kovan at the Kovan Market & Food Centre near the the historically known Simon Road. You can get it at a stall, which states with bold letters “Japanese Cuisine”. It is located in the last row of stalls, so quite hidden. I don’t remember when, but at some point, it was my favourite dish in Singapore.

I mentioned my relationship with Singapore had its ups and downs. In the middle of my adventure, after 3–4 months, I just wanted to get back to Germany. My girlfriend had a visit (no, that’s not the bad part) and I felt sick. Falling sick in Singapore is very exhausting, because it’s so hot here and the humidity is up high. In addition, all the time you know that the aircon is not going to make things any better. As my girlfriend came visiting, I was starting to miss Germany again. My friends, my family, my freakin’ stereo speakers playing my favorite Techno tracks. She was here a long time and after she left, I felt sick again of course. Being over 10.000 km away from my home town, sick and miserable, just made me want to get back. But there were still 2 months and 3 weeks to go.

Somewhat after 5 months, I felt like I had “arrived”. It was unlike the other months before. If you go to some place, it takes some time so the just-temporary-being-away feeling is totally gone. And after that has happened, you get into a state of really being present at this place. After 5 months, I was able to call Singapore, my “Home” and I am feeling “home” more than ever.

I am not happy, rather sad, about the fact that I am leaving this place this week. I am going to miss the food, the excitement, the everything-works feeling. The travels, the kind people, the baristas of my favorite coffee shops. I have been here for a long time and I love it here.

Last week after work, I took the MRT home to Kovan. Got into the hawker centre heading for my favourite stall offering Japanese. During the last 6 months, if I would need to guess, I would say I have been there like 20 times. I was standing there at the stall and before anything could even come out of my mouth, for the first time ever, the stall lady pointed her finger at me and asked me with the kind and familiar words — “Oyako Don?”

Thank you very much for reading my story! Feel free to leave a comment or a clap or two.