ke ice cream,
Bagel Varieties
Everybody worldwide knows bagels. New York bagels. Firm outside and soft, chewy inside. No longer a surprise. We have them in London. We have them in Singapore.
American? Actually from Poland. back in the 1880s. I know from researching Europe where my ancestors came from for a family history which turned into a novel to make it more exciting to read.
I learned that bagels had a hole in the middle so that the seller could put them on a pole - raised visibly in the air. As a buyer could hang one, or a second one, on a string around your neck for travelling.
But like so many modern things, it is the Americans who have spread the good ideas worldwide. Bagels are no longer a novelty. But very welcome.
Ice Cream Varieties
In the Sixties I travelled from London, England to the USA for the first time. I was impressed by 24 hour restaurants,
Now we have 24 hour McDonalds all over Singapore, often with an advertisement in the nearest MRT station. Then you have somewhere to meet your friends. Of, if you miss your last train home, you know where to go to eat and drink and doze or sit and call a cab.
Singapore McDonalds 24 hours or open until late.
Ice Cream Flavours
Another thing which impressed me in the good old days in the USA was that the restaurants themselves offered huge choices. For example, the dozens of varieties of ice cream. Now we have ice cream parlours with numerous flavours worldwide.
Bagels, too, come in many varieties. Poppy seed. Sesame seed. Those are the savoury ones, Sweet one, too. Cinnamon with sultanas.
After you have eaten you want the toilet. You may want to wash the crumbs and mayonnaise off your fingers. But what about washing your hands before eating!
Toilets
What surprises you about America? Yes, I agree with others who have commented on toilets. I visited the USA years ago and in Dallas with a group of international travel writers I was shown the schoolbook depository where the assailant shot Kennedy. I was interviewed by a reporter from Dallas Morning News about what a British visitor noticed about America. I mentioned the toilets, the low partitions with gaps underneath.
My punchline was, 'it's not something you'd want the Queen to have to cope with'. I still have that news cutting on the wall of my home in London England.
What has changed? Not much, regarding toilets, if visitors from overseas are still surprised by American toilets.
American flag
AMERICAN TOILETS
The toilet cubicles with flimsy board partitions with gaps under the walls are annoying. No privacy.
On London railway stations they say mind the gap. The same in Singapore. They should say mind the gap in toilets.
Gaps under partitions and doors have spread worldwide. A water leak in one cubicle flows over all the others. You can see the reflection in tr floor or the shadow of the person next door taken the toilet paper, entering and leaving. It's like being a character in a spy movie.
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A refuge worldwide is old fashioned buildings and hotels which still have solid walls. Spread to London, England. Same in Singapore.
Now, let us look at bread.
Plain white bread, sliced, toasted, at many hotels.
AMERICAN BREAD
Doorstop white bread sandwiches.
Union Jack, flat of the United Kingdom, currently, in 2019, comprised of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
I won't even mention that Scotland has salt in the breakfast porridge. You have to travel. I was teaching English in Singapore. One of my Chinese pupils got the English words and grammar correct but the facts about Scotland wrong. Her sentence was: Scottish people in Scotland grow rice. No, they don't.
UK BREAD
The best bread/ Rye bread in B & K.
B & K salt beef sandwich from Hatch End or Edgware, in London, England.
Proper brown bread is available in supermarkets in London. Come to Tesco and look for seed breads, sliced seed breads. They make great sandwiches. You can buy made-up ready to go sandwiches with brown bread as well.
Tesco corners are in supermarkets in Singapore. I see Tesco wines but not Tesco seed bread sandwiches. Boo-hoo!
SINGAPORE BREAD
The local breakfast favourite is thin white bread with kaya jam, yellow coconut jam, toasted.
Toasted kaya sandwich and coffee for breakfast or elevenses, as we say in London, England. (Elevenses is a mid morning snack at around eleven o'clock).
I love it. But I know it is unhealty.
But too much thick white bread in Singapore, even in hotels, such as the Sheraton Towers.
At club events in Community Clubs, huge white bread sandwiches with peanut butter filling.
Peanut butter - that reminds me of the USA.
Let them eat cake. Green pandan cake.
I love the way in American restaurants the food is always wrapped to go. You don't have to ask. They ask you., "Would you like it wrapped up to go?"
AMERICAN SIGNS
And I love the signs in the USA. Drive up the mountains, as we did along the empty east coast hilltop road which runs parallel to the busy coastal road below, nobody for miles, nothing but you and the birds and the clouds. But stop your car at what might be a viewpoint and you see signs to parking, toilets and - the best place to take a photo.
Flag of Singapore
SINGAPORE SIGNS
The same applies in Singapore at reservoir walks. Signs warn, do not feed the monkeys.
Back in the city centre, the trains run frequently, every three to five minutes. With free public toilets outside the entrance to every station.
See my previous post about toilets around the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Oh, the joys of travel. Even if you do nothing more exciting than going to the toilet in the city, or standing alone on a mountaintop, there's always something to marvel at.
Even if you never leave the airport.
Jewel Shopping mall with its giant central waterfall, opened 2019 at Changi airport, with shuttle train to other terminals.
Useful Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-6856507/Tourists-reveal-things-surprised-visiting-US.html
USA
visittheusa.co.uk
UK
visitbritain.com
CHINA
http://www.travelchina.gov.cn/en/index/index.shtml
SINGAPORE
visitsingapore.com
Airline, often voted the world's best.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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