October 12, 2022 • 36 mins
In this episode, I talk with Caroline Kelly, a freelance writer who has been to several countries, including Singapore. We talk about her foodie adventures in the countries she's visited.
This episode is part of Foodies Take Flight, a series where Jess talks with world travelers, expats and citizens of countries outside of the United States about their global food experiences. Whether you have wanderlust and want to get inspiration for your next trip, or you're a homebody who just wants a mental vacation, Foodies Take Flight will take you up and away.
Caroline Kelly
Website: https://carolinekellywriter.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinekelly_writer/
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The Flaky Foodie
Website: http://www.theflakyfoodie.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jess (00:10):
Hi, it's Jess and you're listening to another episode of
The flaky foodie podcast. Theonly show where the discussion
is delicious and there's chatterto chew on. Now this episode is
a foodies take flight episodewhere I talk to people from all
over the world who have been allover the world about their food
experiences. This is a seriesthat I started in season one,
(00:34):
and it's going to carry over offand on in season two. So after
the break, we're going to talkwith Caroline Kelly, she's been
to Singapore and a bunch ofother countries, you won't want
to miss it. Stay tuned.
(00:55):
In may only be October but I'malready prepping for the holiday
season. And I want you to helpif you have a fun, interesting
or unique holiday food memory ortradition. I want you to share
that with me. It can be from anyholiday that you celebrate from
the end of November all the wayuntil the new year the end of
(01:18):
December. So that means thatyour food memory or tradition
can take place during Christmas.
It gets a place duringThanksgiving or Hanukkah or
Kwanzaa, or Festivus or anyother holiday that's outside of
my American way of thinking aslong as it takes place. From the
end of November to the end ofDecember or into New Year's to
(01:39):
submit your holiday stories.
Just go to my websitewww.theflakyfoodie.com. That is
theflakyfoodie.com. Those whosubmit a story will be entered
in to win a raffle. And thewinner of the raffle will be
(02:00):
announced at the end of theyear. Thanks so much. And let's
get back to the show.
Today with us we have CarolineKelly. She's a copywriter and
has a background in journalismas do I. But she continues to
(02:21):
write to this day and welcome somuch to the show.
Caroline K (02:25):
Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's an absolute
pleasure to be here.
Jess (02:28):
Yes. So tell me a little bit more I kind of about
yourself. And I know you had alot of different travel
experiences. How did that begin?
And how did that start? Sure.
Caroline K (02:38):
Well, I initially I never wanted to go anywhere. I
was completely fine in my littlehometown. But my husband got a
job, basically in Switzerland sowe will decamped from the UK. I
was heavily pregnant, and I hada toddler. So I was all kind of
like already pretty, prettyburdened down with family life,
but got to go to GenevaFestival, which I don't know if
(02:59):
you know much about I heard yourSwiss podcast. Yeah, about that.
Yeah, the snack gourmet snacks.
So that was a real eye opener,just to kind of getting into
European food a lot more. Imean, you know, in the UK, we
love Italian food. We loveFrench food. But Swiss food was
a bit of a bit of a differentdifferent start for us.
Jess (03:18):
Well, what did you find most different? Did you find any
dishes that you enjoyed? Or wasit? Oh, yeah,
Caroline K (03:24):
that's the problem is just I mean, if you love
cheese, Switzerland is yourplace. Everything is just melted
cheese. I mean, I kind ofthought before we left, maybe,
you know, maybe it's a bit morecomplicated than that, you know,
what did this this fondue, youknow, maybe there's a lot more
to it. I mean, maybe there isbut it really is a lot of melted
cheese, a lot of different meatsas well, a very seasonal kind of
(03:46):
place. So you have the kind ofhunting season. So you'll get a
lot of game at certain times ofyear. And if you I don't know
how you feel about eating horsemeats, but that was something
that I hadn't come across toomuch before. Not much of a fan
of the horse meat, I've got tosay, but I love the idea of
seasonal foods as a great agreat element to Swiss eating.
Okay,
Jess (04:05):
and how long did you stay in Switzerland?
Caroline K (04:07):
We were there for four years. Yeah. So four years
in Geneva?
Jess (04:11):
Okay. And what other countries have you visited?
Yeah.
Caroline K (04:15):
So after that we I mean, I was never going to leave
Geneva It was amazing. TheOutdoor Life is incredible. If
you love skiing and running, andyou know, all this kind of
thing. But we ended up moving toSingapore in 2016, which was a
massive I mean, if you likeexpensive countries beginning
with S That's this is basicallyour what what we're doing we're
heading to a really anotherexpensive city. Very different
(04:37):
culture, hugely differentculture. I hadn't been to
Southeast Asia before. So thiswas a real eye opener for me.
Yes, we and we were there fortwo years. What city in
Singapore? Well, I mean, it'sstill kind of island state. So
we were down in the kind ofcentral area a place called Ang
Mo Kio. Anglo means foreigner.
So we were really kind of withina fun foreigner enclave there
but actually See, I was in theFrench enclave. So we carried on
(05:00):
speaking French carry on, youknow, meeting French people
eating French food, but also hadthis incredible culture of food.
I mean, Singapore loves to eat.
Jess (05:11):
What are some of the dishes that were like the first
time you tasted it? You're just
Caroline K (05:17):
Yeah, I mean,
Jess (05:19):
it's true eating the truth.
Caroline K (05:21):
I mean, Singaporeans, they they love
eating. And I mean, I'm not I'mnot I wouldn't claim to be like,
I don't understand the fullcultural, the full history. And
I would, I would hate to kind ofput words in anyone's mouth and
be kind of like, this is how wedo things in Singapore. But if
you love food, you are going tobe absolutely fine in Singapore.
The big cultural kind of elementis the Hawker centre. So these
(05:42):
are food courts. They've beenthe hawkers, the food peddlers
have been in existence sincearound the 1800s. When it was
when it was a major seaport andyou hadn't Chinese influence,
Malay influence, Indianinfluence, British influence,
all coming together. And inaround the 1960s, the government
wanted to regulate the hawkercenters. So all the street food
(06:04):
stalls were placed under oneroof, or several roofs, there's
probably well over 100 hawkercenters in Singapore, and you
have different stalls. And youcan get an amazing three course
meal for like $3
Jess (06:17):
so wonderful street food is there it was a dish that now
that if you could go backtomorrow, and just get a dish or
something like that, you again,
Caroline K (06:28):
you're making me so hungry, I think it would be
higher nice chicken, which is Imean, it's it's incredibly
simple. And this is the realbeauty of the food is that it's
you know, there's a lot of ricedishes, a lot of noodle dishes.
And this is just a very simplechicken dish with a broth in
some amazing fresh cookednoodles. And you usually would
get a kind of a soup as wellalong with that, like a kind of
(06:49):
chicken broth to start with. Andthey would and there'll be
little bits of additions onthere. There'd be some parsley
and some that maybe some samplesauce or something kind of spicy
to go with it. And you'd haveyou know, the option of food is
is incredible. Lots of the tonof national dish I would say is
Singapore chili crab. I don'tknow how do you do it? Are you a
(07:10):
seafood fan?
Jess (07:11):
I am not I'm a pescetarian so I choose to eat fish
occasionally. But I'm still I'mstill not into the crabs and
Mollison.
Caroline K (07:25):
You're not sold on the on the actual kind of
shellfish stuff. No, no, no.
Okay, so Singapore really lovesloves that. My husband is
allergic to prawns. So, youknow, you have to be you have to
be so careful because a lot alot of the sources are just even
if they don't have prawns inwill be made with prawn shells.
And so you know, you're alwayshaving to kind of watch, watch
what you eat. But, I mean, it'ssuch a I mean, laksa is what is
(07:47):
another lovely dish. It's kindof spicy prawns in coconut sauce
with noodles. And it's abreakfast dish, and it's just
super spicy. And you're justlike, it's just heaven.
Jess (08:00):
And I have to cut in to say for all of our American
listeners, prawns or shrimp,
Caroline K (08:05):
shrimp, sorry, yeah.
Okay, I should say this. Sure.
It's a shrimp noodle dish. Andit is and it's absolutely
amazing. And if you like, youknow, you don't you don't need
to have like, oatmeal forbreakfast. You can have spicy,
spicy shrimp for breakfast inSingapore.
Jess (08:19):
So what about customs? Are there any, like unique customs
that you had to learn inSingapore or anything that came
up to where there was like aculture shock to you?
Caroline K (08:30):
Sure. I mean, the thing about if you go to the
hawker centers, which everyonedoes, you need to know this one
tradition and it's calledchoking. If you don't know,
cheeping, you're gonna get toldoff by an auntie or uncle at the
center and you're gonna feelterrible for doing it. If you
walk into a center, and you seea tissue, you know, a
handkerchief on a chair or apacket of like tissues on a
(08:52):
table, that table is reserved.
If you sit on a chair, thatchair is reserved and you do not
move it you don't do you don'tremove the the tissues that the
handkerchiefs from, from thechair or the table. And that's
called choking. You know, you goin you buy you can buy these
packets of Kleenex or whatever,and you place them wherever you
need to go. And you kind ofthink, oh, you know, it's like
(09:12):
someone's just lesson with sometrash it you know, get rid of
it, but do not touch it, you'llget shouted out by an auntie at
the store
Jess (09:21):
where the packs of Kleenex
Caroline K (09:23):
because they mean a lot. And you know, this is a
tradition that's been you know,this is how Westerners get
really like, you know, stand outby being sort of not respectful
of this kind of thing, you know,not knowing that. There's
another thing as well, there's aDo you know that Do you know,
the durian fruit? Yes, the kingof fruits. Yeah. There's,
there's signs everywhere tosaying basically do not open
(09:45):
these fruits anywhere in anenclosed space because although
they're a massive delicacy, theyreally smell like you know, like
a sewer sewer.
Jess (09:55):
Oh, wow. Did you taste it the flavor there's a smell kind
of permeate A lot of labor.
Caroline K (10:01):
It does, but actually, it's not as bad like
the taste is is pretty good. Andit is. I mean, it's called the
King of the fruits. So it's anincredibly popular dish. But you
know, it's an acquired taste. Itreally is. And the smell is just
you can't acquire that. It'sjust It's hideous.
Jess (10:16):
So I'm guessing you can't get dairy from a street vendor
then since you can't
Caroline K (10:21):
or can't you? Well, there's wet markets, there's a
lot of wet market so a lot offresh fresh food and fresh
seafood especially. So anythingif it's in season, you can buy
it, you can buy it really anddurian. I mean, never seems to
go away. It's just always there.
Jess (10:35):
Now, in my episode, where I talk with my friend who, from
East Asia, she mentioned wetmarkets, what what actually is a
wet market for those who may notknow what it is?
Caroline K (10:46):
Well, I think it's mainly for I see it a lot is
fruit and vegetable and freshseafood. There's not so much
meat on the on the island.
Poultry there is but there's nota lot there's not much farming
space. So you don't you won'tfind a lot of beef or pork. If
you do find it that's usuallyimported into straight into the
supermarkets. So the wet marketsare where you find the freshest,
(11:08):
the freshest seafood and thefreshest fruit and vegetables.
Jess (11:13):
So did you cook a lot in Singapore? And how is the
grocery store situation thoughpeople mostly just kind of eat
at the hawkers or the streetfood vendors? Or do most people
cook because I know in certainplaces, sometimes it's more
economical to eat the streetfood they have to actually cook
a big meal. Yeah, no,
Caroline K (11:33):
that's a great point. And actually it is it's
more economical to eat, you caneat three times a day, or Hawker
center and you're you're eatinggreat food as well. Most people,
most people have a certainincome have a helper who lives
in the house and cooks. So thehelper goes to the wet market,
the helper goes to thesupermarket the helper does
pretty much all the cooking andcleaning. I didn't I didn't have
that, for lots of reasons, butit wasn't it wasn't something my
(11:55):
family was was gonna ever be apart of. So we so I cooked all
the time. And because it's sohot outside, you know, you step
outside and you're into sort oflike 80 90% humidity, the idea
of carrying like bags aroundjust was too much. So we had
home delivery much like youknow, you get everywhere. And
they were kind of Yeah, theywere different. Like you have
(12:16):
probably, you know, pretty mucheverywhere. There's different
levels of supermarkets, you getsome pretty cheap and cheerful
kind of stuff, ranging right upto the, you know, French
supermarkets and various veryspecialized kind of supermarkets
as well. It's such a melting potof cultures that every kind of
nationality has built a youknow, a kind of production point
(12:36):
within the island that you canaccess and get your favorite
foods from.
Jess (12:40):
So in terms of kind of eating, and day to day dishes
from Singapore and Switzerland,I'm not saying which one is the
best, but which one? Did youkind of prefer eating on a day
to day basis?
Caroline K (12:54):
You know what I have to say the Hawker food, I would
take that any day. Just thosenoodles. Give me those noodles
and the dark noodles. Oh mygosh. Another thing, there's a
long side, the hawker centers,there's these like coffee shops
you can go to and they're likethey're like hawker centers.
They're outside seating, and youhave to enter but there it's
called coffee. So you can kindof ask for copies is like very
(13:17):
highly sweetened coffee withcondensed milk. And you have
that and he has your ducknoodles. And you are you're set.
Honestly, it's amazing.
Jess (13:26):
Did you have a lot of guests? Or did you go kind of
visit other people? Locals inSingapore? And if So were there
any kind of customs there anykind of interesting experiences
that you've had?
Caroline K (13:39):
Sure. So I have Chinese neighbors we lived in we
live in the French area, but wehad a lot of a lot of Chinese
neighbors. And on Chinese NewYear. I mean, I hadn't realized
just how big a deal Chinese NewYear was. But it's as big as I
don't know, like Thanksgiving orChristmas or you know, it's huge
custom. And my neighbor's turnedup on our doorstep with with
(14:01):
oranges and red envelopes andsome kind of like dried beef
really chewy and covered inbarbecue sauce. It's just it's
just insane. Like it's so good.
So it was porque I thinkactually. And so I really I
really kind of really lookforward to new Chinese new year
every year because it was justevery island closes down
everyone's at home with theirfamilies. And they call it the
(14:23):
reunion you know all thefamilies coming together so
you'd see lots of lots of sonsand daughters and daughters in
law are turning up to the to theChinese to Chinese neighbors.
And they were always so great atincluding us and every kind of
condo would have a Chinese NewYear dragon dance as well and
there'd be lots of people justcoming out and really enjoying
(14:44):
it and I loved I love that Ilove the kind of family nests
and togetherness of Chinese New
Jess (14:50):
Year. Did you have any other kind of experiences
communal food experiences?
Caroline K (14:55):
Yeah, my condo was was really it was really good at
laying on different differentkinds of events. So we would
have like Chinese New Year, theLunar New Year, the French
community would have their owntheir own events. So we would
would often kind of sneak overto the French to the point where
the French were having a party,because they'd always have,
like, amazing, like crepes, andeverything like that. So getting
(15:19):
to, to kind of being within oneculture, but experiencing lots
of different cultures was, waswas such a great, such a great
blessing. It was great.
Jess (15:27):
So you can have keep mentioning the French area. So
there's a huge kind of Frenchpresence there in Singapore, and
kind of what other communitiesare there with that as you know,
right? Sure.
Caroline K (15:39):
Yeah. So Singapore is a real amazing hub for
travel. So you once you're inthere, you can get to, you know,
pretty much that's like theairport feeds every part of
Southeast Asia so you can get toVietnam and Thailand and
Malaysia and you know,everywhere like that pretty
quickly, which is which isgreat. So within Singapore,
there are lots of communities solots of European communities,
(16:01):
Irish had a lot of Irishfriends, Australian. And yeah,
Chinese, but also it's a placewhere a lot of immigrant workers
come like us I guess, and in alot of Indian families there as
well. So you kind of the foodhas kind of taken on a lot of
different flavors to it andsometimes it becomes Singaporean
(16:22):
rather than Chinese or Indian itkind of takes on different
flavors and traditions andbecomes a kind of hybrid
version, I guess. And that's andthat's thanks to the amount of
people living and working there.
Jess (16:35):
Did you kind of go on any kind of adventures around to
other countries aroundSingapore? And what are some
dishes that you may have had ifyou kind of you know if you go
to Hawaii they call it Islandhappened but if you go cuz
Caroline K (16:50):
it is it it feels like that because you could get
on a like a ferry for an hourand you're on an Indonesian
island. So it is it's islandhopping. That's exactly it. So
yeah, we went to Indonesia. Westayed and had some amazing
Indonesian carriers. I think Ican't remember what it's called.
But there's some some lovelyIndonesian flavored curries just
(17:11):
really lovely flavoring andreally just are so addictive. We
also went to Vietnam that wassomewhere I really wanted to go
to. I hadn't been to Vietnam, Ikind of was weighing up Vietnam
or Cambodia and ended up inVietnam and had fo lots of pho
noodle phobot I think is thebeef noodle. And again, I I love
all the restaurants but it's thestreet food that really says so
(17:33):
much about about the people andabout kind of like the local
food and the local availabilityof crops and you know, seasonal
produce. So street food,Vietnamese noodle fo are just so
good.
Jess (17:47):
So kind of how did your travel experiences you mentioned
that you cooked at home a lot.
While you're in Singapore? I'massuming that you still kind of
do that back home? What I knowthe feeling waking it's our what
is every every single day.
Exactly. What is What are theyany kind of practices that you
(18:10):
learn from when you were inSweden when you were in
Singapore where you were kind ofisland hopping to all these
different countries? Is thereanything that you kind of tried
to recreate at home or it'ssomething that you do?
Caroline K (18:21):
I mean, I do try like singing Singapore noodles I
bought I bought a few kinds ofrecipes and things that with me,
my my kids are a little bit atthe time they loved it. But now
they're back in the UK, they'rea little bit more like perhaps
less adventurous than they were.
But we did bring back our fondueset and our raclette grill. So
we're very like cheese. I mean,raclette is great if you have
guests, right? Because you justsay you cook your own meat, you
(18:43):
melt your own cheese. It's suchan easy thing to do, but so
communal and such a nice way ofsharing food. So I love the kind
of so we do fondue regularly. Iknow you're supposed to eat it
in winter, but we eat it allyear round because it's just so
easy. You know, I don't have todo too much cooking. It's not
much involvement.
Jess (19:01):
So whether you normally serve when you do
Caroline K (19:03):
reckless, so I recollect grill you put the
cheese underneath and on top iswhere we cook the meat. So we
have different that we havestrips of lamb strips of beef.
We also do some vegetables. Sowe'll have pepper red peppers,
and then you kind of match thatup with some sauces and with
some pickles like gherkins andand you can set that on little
(19:25):
new potatoes or just crustybread is just great. And it's so
easy once you've cut everythingup. You just really just ready
to go.
Jess (19:32):
Do you ever recreate any dishes from Singapore?
Caroline K (19:35):
I have tried. I have tried. I've got like these lists
of like try and make some fishhead curry and try and make some
ones on me. I like to Yeah, onetimes I really I've been trying
to try and get good at makinglittle ones but I mean they're
fiddly and I'm really notpatient enough to to do it. Any
justice, unfortunately.
Jess (19:52):
Okay, so somebody was going to go to Singapore
tomorrow and they say hey,Caroline was what do I have to
do? fryer was something that Ihave to eat before I leave.
Caroline K (20:03):
Okay, that's a really good question, I would
say, go down to satay by thebay, head down that way and
you'll find a massive Hawkercenter it's pretty touristy but
there are rows and rows and rowsof satay being cooked and you
can you can choose some porksatay beef satay or lamb satay,
and it is the best set ate onthe island. And you'll have that
with some amazing spicy peanutsauce. There's a bar in the
(20:26):
middle, grab a Tiger beer, andyou've got the you've got the
best meal and it's going to costyou like less than $10 for just
an incredible, incredible meal.
Yeah, go there. There.
Jess (20:37):
Okay, now the same question. If we went to Island
hop, you mentioned one place inIndonesia. Do Can you name the
specific Island? And what wasthe dish to Anna curry that you
enjoy
Caroline K (20:51):
the chase. So there had to been tan Island, it's
it's very low key. It's not it'snot a metropolis. It's extremely
rural. Go to the Bintan IslandResort, hang out in the pool for
a couple of days and eat I thinkit's called Rangan curry. And
it's just absolutely delicious.
Any any Indonesian curry youwill not be disappointed? It's
(21:12):
so good. Yeah, with coconutrice. Amazing.
Jess (21:17):
So how does a curry necessarily differ? Because I
know being British, I know anyfood is popular there. And so.
Yeah. So how does kind of anIndonesian curry kind of differ
from what you may get from kindof British or Indian British
kind of curry?
Caroline K (21:37):
Yeah, I mean, I think I think British cars, I
think we've actually created ourown Indian dishes. You know? I
think it's probably again, Ithink it comes back to seasonal
food, you and what's available.
Whereas an in you know, inEngland, we've got you know, for
so much stuff that just getsfrozen for for months on end.
But, I mean, I guess it's to dowith also a lot of coconut milk
that you'll get more in Thai,Thai and Indonesian food, you'll
(22:00):
get that much more than in UKcurries. Which, which is which
is so lovely. And lots of salaryflavors as well. So lots of
interplay with soy sauce andlime and really sort of sour
tasting curry which Julie whichif you like is so good. But
anything kind of from thatisland, you're just going to get
(22:21):
such great flavors. And you'regoing to know that it's not the
same as the stuff that you'd getin the UK is yeah, it's
definitely definitely adifferent a different
experience.
Jess (22:30):
Do you have any new travel plans or any? Anything coming
up?
Caroline K (22:36):
It's been a while.
since anyone can make plans.
It's so good. It's so good. SoI'm gonna I'm what I've cut.
I've just come back from a trip.
Another eye opening culinaryexperience in Texas. Yeah, I
went to Austin, for work. And Imean, like, you know, I didn't
even know I liked barbecue. AndI mean, I thought I knew what
barbecue was. And thencompletely different. I had no
(22:59):
idea. It was like, why are allthese people queuing like,
that's in Singapore? You know,in Singapore, the rule is join
the longest queue because that'sgoing to be the best. And I
think it's the same inAustralia. Because you know, at
the end of it, it's somethingthat everyone's so the guy in my
taxi driver was saying, like,you know, you're going to keep
for three hours, but it's goingto be worth every every bite.
Jess (23:23):
Three hours. Wow. Yeah,
Caroline K (23:25):
there was some places that definitely,
definitely kind of commandedthat kind of attention. But I
really loved the whole vibe ofof like barbecue and live music.
I love that intersection of youknow, you could go to a bar,
you're gonna get amazing food,and you're gonna get some really
good life music as well. So Ireally enjoyed that. Coming up.
I'm off to I'm off to Barcelona.
Yeah, in August. Yeah, I've beenbefore but it's, I love it. I
(23:51):
love that again, if you're aseafood person, you're just
gonna get some great seafood.
It's just good second fantasticcourse as well, which is
amazing.
Jess (24:02):
So what about your experience stateside? Was this
your first time stateside? Orjust your first time in Austin?
Caroline K (24:08):
First time in Austin? I've been along the east
coast before so I've had the NewYork experience and then
Washington and Boston and aroundthat area Baltimore kind of but
yeah, I mean, I you know, Iunderstand I don't know this for
a fact but I understand thatAustin is not Texas. Like a lot
of people say they that's what Iwas told. So what's a little bit
(24:31):
different
Jess (24:31):
there? Apparently a lot more a lot more different. non
traditional in terms of what youthink when you think Texas from
what I from what I hear. I'm inFlorida, so I'm always away.
Caroline K (24:42):
Yeah, yeah. If you've been if you've been to
the internet,
Jess (24:46):
I have not Texas is kind of on my to do list particularly
Austin for the reason that it'skind of supposed to be kind of
quirky and wonderful and weird,which is what the place type of
places that I like.
Caroline K (24:58):
That sounds exactly what works for So last thing
was, but then, you know, everytime I come over to the US, I'm
just so surprised at how, youknow, even a neighboring state
can have a completely differentcharacter. It's like being in
Europe, you know, it's just it'scrazy.
Jess (25:12):
Is if a lot of land, so yeah, no I can I can. We're
planning on going to FortLauderdale pretty soon. And
that's the eight hour drive St.
State
Caroline K (25:24):
State Drive. Yes, it's crazy. Eight hours would
take you to a different countrythat would take me to Scotland.
Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. But sobut so interesting that I mean,
I can imagine why you could justtalk to us. Couldn't you just
doing your like show? Where'syour favorite, favorite place to
be? Like, Favorite eating placein the US? Oh,
Jess (25:45):
I have so many. Where did I have the best food experience
right now it's been just becauseit's accessibility in terms of I
could go back there. I lovedAtlanta, we took a trip there
for our anniversary a couple ofyears ago. And this is before
like, there's been some changessince the last time we went. But
(26:07):
there are so many just gymsthere. And it's kind of
international as well, too. Theyhave a lot of international
places. But I like to eat veganfor whatever reason, if it's if
it's available. And they havesome amazing vegan restaurants
like more than one like, yeah,probably I probably 10 I could
(26:28):
probably count for you. Andyeah, and it's like everything
from kind of like quick bites,low cost of vegan. And then
there's a place we went to urbanfix where it's very fancy. And
it's very kind of unassumingfancy, because you will walk in
and it's just very bright andairy. But she kind of looked at
(26:49):
people in the dress very nice.
Where you all Yeah. And then youget your plates and everything
is services amazing. And it wasan amazing place to be. But
since then, you know, you have aplace called seletti Vegan
that's kind of taken off. Andthey make these big, huge vegan
burgers and chicken sandwichesand like everything milkshakes,
(27:10):
and all that type of thing thatwasn't as big of a thing when we
were there. And it's just, Iwould love to go back to
experience that and there's justso many gems because I really
went on that particular tripwith the goal to eat
Caroline K (27:27):
the mystery ever.
What's Florida what's good inFlorida?
Jess (27:30):
Oh, Florida is so different, like where I am is
country. So you think like ruralsouthern Georgia and northern
Florida and lower Alabama, we'reall kind of the same. But you
know, and so a lot of peoplethink Florida think the palm
trees at Disney World andOrange, orange groves and that
(27:53):
type of thing. And that's forthe style. So it's a little
different. And then you get morelike Latin American influence,
the further you go down, morekind of Caribbean and Latin
influence the further you godown as amazing. Yeah, so you
know, there's Cuban sandwichesand all that type of thing. But
as far as what I eat, it's a lotof kind of southern food my mom
(28:21):
makes but my family isvegetarian. So it's like a
vegetarian twist on soul food.
When I eat out, I just, I justlike to eat kind of all over the
world. But you know where I am.
So yeah, favorite restaurants isactually kind of based on what
you probably ate in Singapore islike street food type. Yeah, so
(28:43):
it's called jays, Asian streetfood. So
Caroline K (28:47):
say it. Yeah, street food, I think is where the soul
of the places you know, whereyou get, I think a lot of
particularly Westerners, they goover to places like Singapore,
and they are a bit scared. Youknow, you're kind of like, I
don't know if this if I'm gonnado the right thing. Or if I'm
gonna like, you're going to betoo spicy, am I going to like
make a fool of myself and youjust think you've got to go for
it, you've got to try. Try thattry this, you've got to go and
(29:08):
do this experience. Because onceyou've once you've got it is
going to enhance your timethere. It's going to enhance
your cultural experience andyour culinary experience like
100%
Jess (29:18):
Because I'm really feel like a kind of not as
knowledgeable as I would like tobe in terms of like Asian
especially, like Indian food.
Like, because there's kind of abig Mexican American population
where I grew up. I feel prettyfamiliar with kind of Mexican
and Latin American cuisine. Butwhen I go to like the Indian
(29:43):
restaurant, there's wonderfulone here in Tallahassee called
me a URI that I liked to go tooccasionally it's a it's a big
buffet and you can kind of tryeverything. You know, I have my
found myself walking up like, Idon't know, but this is just
gonna try new Not in Spanish,which I can kind of read through
education policy Yeah, type ofthing. So I'm just like I have
(30:04):
flipped his aloo. You know, whatis this? Well, it's always
delicious. And I love going tothe Indian market where I live
to. So it's, you can get thingsthat are wonderful for
vegetarian cooking like you canget like, chickpea flour, which
is becoming more accessible. Youcan get things like all the
(30:25):
different dolls and dry beansand rice and so I love it.
Caroline K (30:33):
So it's so good. I went to India for two weeks,
many years ago. Yeah. And I hadto say the vegetarian food that
I found in the veggierestaurants was just out of this
world who's so good. Like wewere in Kerala, which is way
down the south. And just likeagain, like the fresh fish was
was amazing. Like you could useyou saw the catch being brought
(30:54):
up and then it was on your platewithin like a few minutes. So
good. Yeah, I love that. I willsay you
Jess (30:59):
were there a lot of street food in India that you tried as
well. Did you not get it?
Caroline K (31:04):
I didn't get to try so much. We weren't near too
many, too many places where wecould access that. But we did
eat and a lot of kind of locallittle restaurants and just try
to try to everything absolutelyeverything because you know when
you're when you've traveled thatfar, you need to you need to try
everything. Yeah, that's good.
And actually alcohol wasforbidden. So you would it was
like a dry state at the time.
(31:26):
But they would find ways aroundit by giving you a like a
teapot. And on your like on youron your bill, it would say Happy
tea. And inside the teapot waslike laser beer. So you can find
a way you could find a wayaround it.
Jess (31:43):
as well. Yeah, so if you ask for happy thieves to get
some beer,
Caroline K (31:47):
yeah, cold beer in a teapot. Because
Jess (31:52):
that's amazing. I love it.
Are there any other kind ofthings that you kind of bring to
your home cooking besides youknow, you say just try some
Singapore food now we know thatyou've been to India you've
you've been to the US is thereanything kind of outside the
norm for British cooking thatyou find yourself? Making? Yeah,
no, I
Caroline K (32:11):
think I think British cooking has become such
a mix. Like we're so we're suchwe're so close to Europe. So
we've we've all been to kind oflike France and Germany and
Italy and Austria and you know,because because it's been easy
once you're in especially ifyou're in Central Europe, like
if you're in Switzerland orFrance or anywhere like that you
can travel so easily around it'syou'd be crazy not to so in
(32:31):
Switzerland, you can get intoItaly within an hour or two. And
from there you can go on and youknow so and catch ferries and
boats to various islands. So weI mean we eat a lot of Italian
food because we have Italianfriends here and because it's
easy and accessible. So I thinkare probably for us are European
(32:52):
influences. A huge split in theUK. You know, Italian food is
become comfort food to a lot ofpeople you know is nothing
better than like a big bowl ofpasta and you know, we we feel
like that. Yeah, exactly. It'sjust so great. And you just
can't go wrong with that kind ofthing. So I don't know if it's
because it was British fooddoesn't really seem to have much
(33:13):
of its own identity. It'sassumed identities from other
countries. We just eateverything in sight you know
really everything and I lovethat I love that we embrace all
those different flavors andcultures. It's great.
Jess (33:26):
Oh, something I will mention that I enjoy right up
the street within walkingdistance from my house is a
place where they serve isconnected to a gas station it's
very it's very much a hole inthe wall. Okay. Oh. Which is
what we call you know,restaurant that very sketchy was
(33:47):
there's a great food. Yeah. Andthey're I think they're I think
the owners are Italian by way oflike through New York. So you
know, maybe second generation Idon't think first generation but
they make pizza that peopleeveryone says here that that's
basically Brooklyn pizza, butdown here. So I eat there's a
(34:08):
lot Yeah, well,
Caroline K (34:09):
I'd be there every day. bringing
Jess (34:11):
me the pizza. The thing is we have a food face group group
here and they really like theycall it a swarm when they go to
these different places. And itreally is because the business
are just boom out of nowherefrom people mentioning it. And
I'm just like, stop spilling thesecret. Yeah, you
Caroline K (34:29):
don't want you don't want to be competing and Ally do
waiting for hours for somethingreally, really good. waiting
Jess (34:34):
longer than I normally have to.
Caroline K (34:36):
Yeah, yeah, I mean even I mean I'm right by the
sea. So even in my littleseaside town we have we yeah, we
have a lot of little littlepizza places like that. And lots
of Indian restaurants and lotsof places to choose from and
it's not a particularly bigplace, but we do like that kind
of Yeah, Italian and Indian foodhere is just everywhere. It's
(34:56):
it's a good
Jess (34:59):
man very thoroughly hungry.
Caroline K (35:02):
Like what made dinner now I'm thinking watch my
make maybe
Jess (35:06):
I think I did my job here, which is if you're listening and
watching a hope that you're ashungry as we are right now I'm
hungry. It's currently lunchtimefor me probably dinner time for
you. But thank you so much forbeing a part of the show. We
(35:26):
played a little game of tagtrying to get trying to get her
here. But we happy that I'm sohappy that you finally made it.
So thank you very much.
Caroline K (35:34):
It's been an absolute pleasure. Yes. So
Jess (35:36):
if people want to find out more about you, I know you are
copywriter freelance writer,they want to find more about you
and your services. Where wouldthey go?
Caroline K (35:44):
Oh, head over to my website, which is Caroline Kelly
writer.com. I'm also onInstagram under Caroline Kelly,
writer as well. And on Twitterat CAST Kelly 123.
Jess (35:53):
All right. And is there anything that you're working on
that you don't mind like sharingabout?
Caroline K (35:58):
Oh, I'm, you know, I work on podcasts. So I'm writing
scripts for podcasts, many kindsof business side of things. So
with the work week team who arejust incredible. And I'm also I
write for a feature of magazinecalled Breathe, which is a good
old fashioned print magazine.
And it's lovely, if you likekind of mindfulness and taking
care of yourself. Check that outas well. Okay,
Jess (36:18):
amazing. So again, thank you so much, Caroline, thank you
so much for listening or viewingus on YouTube. Feel free to
like, subscribe. If you wouldlike to be on the show. Maybe be
a part of this series youtraveled or you have some story
to share. You can always leave acomment and let me know and I'll
follow up with you or send me amessage at Jess at the flaky
(36:42):
foodie.com Thank you so muchagain, have a wonderful week and
make sure you eat somethingdelicious. Treat this episode
like gossip for the gospel.
Share it tell a friend and justput it out there. Alrighty,
thank you. Bye bye
Caroline K (36:57):
bye. Thank you
Hi, it's Jess and you're listening to another episode of
The flaky foodie podcast. Theonly show where the discussion
is delicious and there's chatterto chew on. Now this episode is
a foodies take flight episodewhere I talk to people from all
over the world who have been allover the world about their food
experiences. This is a seriesthat I started in season one,
(00:34):
and it's going to carry over offand on in season two. So after
the break, we're going to talkwith Caroline Kelly, she's been
to Singapore and a bunch ofother countries, you won't want
to miss it. Stay tuned.
(00:55):
In may only be October but I'malready prepping for the holiday
season. And I want you to helpif you have a fun, interesting
or unique holiday food memory ortradition. I want you to share
that with me. It can be from anyholiday that you celebrate from
the end of November all the wayuntil the new year the end of
(01:18):
December. So that means thatyour food memory or tradition
can take place during Christmas.
It gets a place duringThanksgiving or Hanukkah or
Kwanzaa, or Festivus or anyother holiday that's outside of
my American way of thinking aslong as it takes place. From the
end of November to the end ofDecember or into New Year's to
(01:39):
submit your holiday stories.
Just go to my websitewww.theflakyfoodie.com. That is
theflakyfoodie.com. Those whosubmit a story will be entered
in to win a raffle. And thewinner of the raffle will be
(02:00):
announced at the end of theyear. Thanks so much. And let's
get back to the show.
Today with us we have CarolineKelly. She's a copywriter and
has a background in journalismas do I. But she continues to
(02:21):
write to this day and welcome somuch to the show.
Caroline K (02:25):
Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's an absolute
pleasure to be here.
Jess (02:28):
Yes. So tell me a little bit more I kind of about
yourself. And I know you had alot of different travel
experiences. How did that begin?
And how did that start? Sure.
Caroline K (02:38):
Well, I initially I never wanted to go anywhere. I
was completely fine in my littlehometown. But my husband got a
job, basically in Switzerland sowe will decamped from the UK. I
was heavily pregnant, and I hada toddler. So I was all kind of
like already pretty, prettyburdened down with family life,
but got to go to GenevaFestival, which I don't know if
(02:59):
you know much about I heard yourSwiss podcast. Yeah, about that.
Yeah, the snack gourmet snacks.
So that was a real eye opener,just to kind of getting into
European food a lot more. Imean, you know, in the UK, we
love Italian food. We loveFrench food. But Swiss food was
a bit of a bit of a differentdifferent start for us.
Jess (03:18):
Well, what did you find most different? Did you find any
dishes that you enjoyed? Or wasit? Oh, yeah,
Caroline K (03:24):
that's the problem is just I mean, if you love
cheese, Switzerland is yourplace. Everything is just melted
cheese. I mean, I kind ofthought before we left, maybe,
you know, maybe it's a bit morecomplicated than that, you know,
what did this this fondue, youknow, maybe there's a lot more
to it. I mean, maybe there isbut it really is a lot of melted
cheese, a lot of different meatsas well, a very seasonal kind of
(03:46):
place. So you have the kind ofhunting season. So you'll get a
lot of game at certain times ofyear. And if you I don't know
how you feel about eating horsemeats, but that was something
that I hadn't come across toomuch before. Not much of a fan
of the horse meat, I've got tosay, but I love the idea of
seasonal foods as a great agreat element to Swiss eating.
Okay,
Jess (04:05):
and how long did you stay in Switzerland?
Caroline K (04:07):
We were there for four years. Yeah. So four years
in Geneva?
Jess (04:11):
Okay. And what other countries have you visited?
Yeah.
Caroline K (04:15):
So after that we I mean, I was never going to leave
Geneva It was amazing. TheOutdoor Life is incredible. If
you love skiing and running, andyou know, all this kind of
thing. But we ended up moving toSingapore in 2016, which was a
massive I mean, if you likeexpensive countries beginning
with S That's this is basicallyour what what we're doing we're
heading to a really anotherexpensive city. Very different
(04:37):
culture, hugely differentculture. I hadn't been to
Southeast Asia before. So thiswas a real eye opener for me.
Yes, we and we were there fortwo years. What city in
Singapore? Well, I mean, it'sstill kind of island state. So
we were down in the kind ofcentral area a place called Ang
Mo Kio. Anglo means foreigner.
So we were really kind of withina fun foreigner enclave there
but actually See, I was in theFrench enclave. So we carried on
(05:00):
speaking French carry on, youknow, meeting French people
eating French food, but also hadthis incredible culture of food.
I mean, Singapore loves to eat.
Jess (05:11):
What are some of the dishes that were like the first
time you tasted it? You're just
Caroline K (05:17):
Yeah, I mean,
Jess (05:19):
it's true eating the truth.
Caroline K (05:21):
I mean, Singaporeans, they they love
eating. And I mean, I'm not I'mnot I wouldn't claim to be like,
I don't understand the fullcultural, the full history. And
I would, I would hate to kind ofput words in anyone's mouth and
be kind of like, this is how wedo things in Singapore. But if
you love food, you are going tobe absolutely fine in Singapore.
The big cultural kind of elementis the Hawker centre. So these
(05:42):
are food courts. They've beenthe hawkers, the food peddlers
have been in existence sincearound the 1800s. When it was
when it was a major seaport andyou hadn't Chinese influence,
Malay influence, Indianinfluence, British influence,
all coming together. And inaround the 1960s, the government
wanted to regulate the hawkercenters. So all the street food
(06:04):
stalls were placed under oneroof, or several roofs, there's
probably well over 100 hawkercenters in Singapore, and you
have different stalls. And youcan get an amazing three course
meal for like $3
Jess (06:17):
so wonderful street food is there it was a dish that now
that if you could go backtomorrow, and just get a dish or
something like that, you again,
Caroline K (06:28):
you're making me so hungry, I think it would be
higher nice chicken, which is Imean, it's it's incredibly
simple. And this is the realbeauty of the food is that it's
you know, there's a lot of ricedishes, a lot of noodle dishes.
And this is just a very simplechicken dish with a broth in
some amazing fresh cookednoodles. And you usually would
get a kind of a soup as wellalong with that, like a kind of
(06:49):
chicken broth to start with. Andthey would and there'll be
little bits of additions onthere. There'd be some parsley
and some that maybe some samplesauce or something kind of spicy
to go with it. And you'd haveyou know, the option of food is
is incredible. Lots of the tonof national dish I would say is
Singapore chili crab. I don'tknow how do you do it? Are you a
(07:10):
seafood fan?
Jess (07:11):
I am not I'm a pescetarian so I choose to eat fish
occasionally. But I'm still I'mstill not into the crabs and
Mollison.
Caroline K (07:25):
You're not sold on the on the actual kind of
shellfish stuff. No, no, no.
Okay, so Singapore really lovesloves that. My husband is
allergic to prawns. So, youknow, you have to be you have to
be so careful because a lot alot of the sources are just even
if they don't have prawns inwill be made with prawn shells.
And so you know, you're alwayshaving to kind of watch, watch
what you eat. But, I mean, it'ssuch a I mean, laksa is what is
(07:47):
another lovely dish. It's kindof spicy prawns in coconut sauce
with noodles. And it's abreakfast dish, and it's just
super spicy. And you're justlike, it's just heaven.
Jess (08:00):
And I have to cut in to say for all of our American
listeners, prawns or shrimp,
Caroline K (08:05):
shrimp, sorry, yeah.
Okay, I should say this. Sure.
It's a shrimp noodle dish. Andit is and it's absolutely
amazing. And if you like, youknow, you don't you don't need
to have like, oatmeal forbreakfast. You can have spicy,
spicy shrimp for breakfast inSingapore.
Jess (08:19):
So what about customs? Are there any, like unique customs
that you had to learn inSingapore or anything that came
up to where there was like aculture shock to you?
Caroline K (08:30):
Sure. I mean, the thing about if you go to the
hawker centers, which everyonedoes, you need to know this one
tradition and it's calledchoking. If you don't know,
cheeping, you're gonna get toldoff by an auntie or uncle at the
center and you're gonna feelterrible for doing it. If you
walk into a center, and you seea tissue, you know, a
handkerchief on a chair or apacket of like tissues on a
(08:52):
table, that table is reserved.
If you sit on a chair, thatchair is reserved and you do not
move it you don't do you don'tremove the the tissues that the
handkerchiefs from, from thechair or the table. And that's
called choking. You know, you goin you buy you can buy these
packets of Kleenex or whatever,and you place them wherever you
need to go. And you kind ofthink, oh, you know, it's like
(09:12):
someone's just lesson with sometrash it you know, get rid of
it, but do not touch it, you'llget shouted out by an auntie at
the store
Jess (09:21):
where the packs of Kleenex
Caroline K (09:23):
because they mean a lot. And you know, this is a
tradition that's been you know,this is how Westerners get
really like, you know, stand outby being sort of not respectful
of this kind of thing, you know,not knowing that. There's
another thing as well, there's aDo you know that Do you know,
the durian fruit? Yes, the kingof fruits. Yeah. There's,
there's signs everywhere tosaying basically do not open
(09:45):
these fruits anywhere in anenclosed space because although
they're a massive delicacy, theyreally smell like you know, like
a sewer sewer.
Jess (09:55):
Oh, wow. Did you taste it the flavor there's a smell kind
of permeate A lot of labor.
Caroline K (10:01):
It does, but actually, it's not as bad like
the taste is is pretty good. Andit is. I mean, it's called the
King of the fruits. So it's anincredibly popular dish. But you
know, it's an acquired taste. Itreally is. And the smell is just
you can't acquire that. It'sjust It's hideous.
Jess (10:16):
So I'm guessing you can't get dairy from a street vendor
then since you can't
Caroline K (10:21):
or can't you? Well, there's wet markets, there's a
lot of wet market so a lot offresh fresh food and fresh
seafood especially. So anythingif it's in season, you can buy
it, you can buy it really anddurian. I mean, never seems to
go away. It's just always there.
Jess (10:35):
Now, in my episode, where I talk with my friend who, from
East Asia, she mentioned wetmarkets, what what actually is a
wet market for those who may notknow what it is?
Caroline K (10:46):
Well, I think it's mainly for I see it a lot is
fruit and vegetable and freshseafood. There's not so much
meat on the on the island.
Poultry there is but there's nota lot there's not much farming
space. So you don't you won'tfind a lot of beef or pork. If
you do find it that's usuallyimported into straight into the
supermarkets. So the wet marketsare where you find the freshest,
(11:08):
the freshest seafood and thefreshest fruit and vegetables.
Jess (11:13):
So did you cook a lot in Singapore? And how is the
grocery store situation thoughpeople mostly just kind of eat
at the hawkers or the streetfood vendors? Or do most people
cook because I know in certainplaces, sometimes it's more
economical to eat the streetfood they have to actually cook
a big meal. Yeah, no,
Caroline K (11:33):
that's a great point. And actually it is it's
more economical to eat, you caneat three times a day, or Hawker
center and you're you're eatinggreat food as well. Most people,
most people have a certainincome have a helper who lives
in the house and cooks. So thehelper goes to the wet market,
the helper goes to thesupermarket the helper does
pretty much all the cooking andcleaning. I didn't I didn't have
that, for lots of reasons, butit wasn't it wasn't something my
(11:55):
family was was gonna ever be apart of. So we so I cooked all
the time. And because it's sohot outside, you know, you step
outside and you're into sort oflike 80 90% humidity, the idea
of carrying like bags aroundjust was too much. So we had
home delivery much like youknow, you get everywhere. And
they were kind of Yeah, theywere different. Like you have
(12:16):
probably, you know, pretty mucheverywhere. There's different
levels of supermarkets, you getsome pretty cheap and cheerful
kind of stuff, ranging right upto the, you know, French
supermarkets and various veryspecialized kind of supermarkets
as well. It's such a melting potof cultures that every kind of
nationality has built a youknow, a kind of production point
(12:36):
within the island that you canaccess and get your favorite
foods from.
Jess (12:40):
So in terms of kind of eating, and day to day dishes
from Singapore and Switzerland,I'm not saying which one is the
best, but which one? Did youkind of prefer eating on a day
to day basis?
Caroline K (12:54):
You know what I have to say the Hawker food, I would
take that any day. Just thosenoodles. Give me those noodles
and the dark noodles. Oh mygosh. Another thing, there's a
long side, the hawker centers,there's these like coffee shops
you can go to and they're likethey're like hawker centers.
They're outside seating, and youhave to enter but there it's
called coffee. So you can kindof ask for copies is like very
(13:17):
highly sweetened coffee withcondensed milk. And you have
that and he has your ducknoodles. And you are you're set.
Honestly, it's amazing.
Jess (13:26):
Did you have a lot of guests? Or did you go kind of
visit other people? Locals inSingapore? And if So were there
any kind of customs there anykind of interesting experiences
that you've had?
Caroline K (13:39):
Sure. So I have Chinese neighbors we lived in we
live in the French area, but wehad a lot of a lot of Chinese
neighbors. And on Chinese NewYear. I mean, I hadn't realized
just how big a deal Chinese NewYear was. But it's as big as I
don't know, like Thanksgiving orChristmas or you know, it's huge
custom. And my neighbor's turnedup on our doorstep with with
(14:01):
oranges and red envelopes andsome kind of like dried beef
really chewy and covered inbarbecue sauce. It's just it's
just insane. Like it's so good.
So it was porque I thinkactually. And so I really I
really kind of really lookforward to new Chinese new year
every year because it was justevery island closes down
everyone's at home with theirfamilies. And they call it the
(14:23):
reunion you know all thefamilies coming together so
you'd see lots of lots of sonsand daughters and daughters in
law are turning up to the to theChinese to Chinese neighbors.
And they were always so great atincluding us and every kind of
condo would have a Chinese NewYear dragon dance as well and
there'd be lots of people justcoming out and really enjoying
(14:44):
it and I loved I love that Ilove the kind of family nests
and togetherness of Chinese New
Jess (14:50):
Year. Did you have any other kind of experiences
communal food experiences?
Caroline K (14:55):
Yeah, my condo was was really it was really good at
laying on different differentkinds of events. So we would
have like Chinese New Year, theLunar New Year, the French
community would have their owntheir own events. So we would
would often kind of sneak overto the French to the point where
the French were having a party,because they'd always have,
like, amazing, like crepes, andeverything like that. So getting
(15:19):
to, to kind of being within oneculture, but experiencing lots
of different cultures was, waswas such a great, such a great
blessing. It was great.
Jess (15:27):
So you can have keep mentioning the French area. So
there's a huge kind of Frenchpresence there in Singapore, and
kind of what other communitiesare there with that as you know,
right? Sure.
Caroline K (15:39):
Yeah. So Singapore is a real amazing hub for
travel. So you once you're inthere, you can get to, you know,
pretty much that's like theairport feeds every part of
Southeast Asia so you can get toVietnam and Thailand and
Malaysia and you know,everywhere like that pretty
quickly, which is which isgreat. So within Singapore,
there are lots of communities solots of European communities,
(16:01):
Irish had a lot of Irishfriends, Australian. And yeah,
Chinese, but also it's a placewhere a lot of immigrant workers
come like us I guess, and in alot of Indian families there as
well. So you kind of the foodhas kind of taken on a lot of
different flavors to it andsometimes it becomes Singaporean
(16:22):
rather than Chinese or Indian itkind of takes on different
flavors and traditions andbecomes a kind of hybrid
version, I guess. And that's andthat's thanks to the amount of
people living and working there.
Jess (16:35):
Did you kind of go on any kind of adventures around to
other countries aroundSingapore? And what are some
dishes that you may have had ifyou kind of you know if you go
to Hawaii they call it Islandhappened but if you go cuz
Caroline K (16:50):
it is it it feels like that because you could get
on a like a ferry for an hourand you're on an Indonesian
island. So it is it's islandhopping. That's exactly it. So
yeah, we went to Indonesia. Westayed and had some amazing
Indonesian carriers. I think Ican't remember what it's called.
But there's some some lovelyIndonesian flavored curries just
(17:11):
really lovely flavoring andreally just are so addictive. We
also went to Vietnam that wassomewhere I really wanted to go
to. I hadn't been to Vietnam, Ikind of was weighing up Vietnam
or Cambodia and ended up inVietnam and had fo lots of pho
noodle phobot I think is thebeef noodle. And again, I I love
all the restaurants but it's thestreet food that really says so
(17:33):
much about about the people andabout kind of like the local
food and the local availabilityof crops and you know, seasonal
produce. So street food,Vietnamese noodle fo are just so
good.
Jess (17:47):
So kind of how did your travel experiences you mentioned
that you cooked at home a lot.
While you're in Singapore? I'massuming that you still kind of
do that back home? What I knowthe feeling waking it's our what
is every every single day.
Exactly. What is What are theyany kind of practices that you
(18:10):
learn from when you were inSweden when you were in
Singapore where you were kind ofisland hopping to all these
different countries? Is thereanything that you kind of tried
to recreate at home or it'ssomething that you do?
Caroline K (18:21):
I mean, I do try like singing Singapore noodles I
bought I bought a few kinds ofrecipes and things that with me,
my my kids are a little bit atthe time they loved it. But now
they're back in the UK, they'rea little bit more like perhaps
less adventurous than they were.
But we did bring back our fondueset and our raclette grill. So
we're very like cheese. I mean,raclette is great if you have
guests, right? Because you justsay you cook your own meat, you
(18:43):
melt your own cheese. It's suchan easy thing to do, but so
communal and such a nice way ofsharing food. So I love the kind
of so we do fondue regularly. Iknow you're supposed to eat it
in winter, but we eat it allyear round because it's just so
easy. You know, I don't have todo too much cooking. It's not
much involvement.
Jess (19:01):
So whether you normally serve when you do
Caroline K (19:03):
reckless, so I recollect grill you put the
cheese underneath and on top iswhere we cook the meat. So we
have different that we havestrips of lamb strips of beef.
We also do some vegetables. Sowe'll have pepper red peppers,
and then you kind of match thatup with some sauces and with
some pickles like gherkins andand you can set that on little
(19:25):
new potatoes or just crustybread is just great. And it's so
easy once you've cut everythingup. You just really just ready
to go.
Jess (19:32):
Do you ever recreate any dishes from Singapore?
Caroline K (19:35):
I have tried. I have tried. I've got like these lists
of like try and make some fishhead curry and try and make some
ones on me. I like to Yeah, onetimes I really I've been trying
to try and get good at makinglittle ones but I mean they're
fiddly and I'm really notpatient enough to to do it. Any
justice, unfortunately.
Jess (19:52):
Okay, so somebody was going to go to Singapore
tomorrow and they say hey,Caroline was what do I have to
do? fryer was something that Ihave to eat before I leave.
Caroline K (20:03):
Okay, that's a really good question, I would
say, go down to satay by thebay, head down that way and
you'll find a massive Hawkercenter it's pretty touristy but
there are rows and rows and rowsof satay being cooked and you
can you can choose some porksatay beef satay or lamb satay,
and it is the best set ate onthe island. And you'll have that
with some amazing spicy peanutsauce. There's a bar in the
(20:26):
middle, grab a Tiger beer, andyou've got the you've got the
best meal and it's going to costyou like less than $10 for just
an incredible, incredible meal.
Yeah, go there. There.
Jess (20:37):
Okay, now the same question. If we went to Island
hop, you mentioned one place inIndonesia. Do Can you name the
specific Island? And what wasthe dish to Anna curry that you
enjoy
Caroline K (20:51):
the chase. So there had to been tan Island, it's
it's very low key. It's not it'snot a metropolis. It's extremely
rural. Go to the Bintan IslandResort, hang out in the pool for
a couple of days and eat I thinkit's called Rangan curry. And
it's just absolutely delicious.
Any any Indonesian curry youwill not be disappointed? It's
(21:12):
so good. Yeah, with coconutrice. Amazing.
Jess (21:17):
So how does a curry necessarily differ? Because I
know being British, I know anyfood is popular there. And so.
Yeah. So how does kind of anIndonesian curry kind of differ
from what you may get from kindof British or Indian British
kind of curry?
Caroline K (21:37):
Yeah, I mean, I think I think British cars, I
think we've actually created ourown Indian dishes. You know? I
think it's probably again, Ithink it comes back to seasonal
food, you and what's available.
Whereas an in you know, inEngland, we've got you know, for
so much stuff that just getsfrozen for for months on end.
But, I mean, I guess it's to dowith also a lot of coconut milk
that you'll get more in Thai,Thai and Indonesian food, you'll
(22:00):
get that much more than in UKcurries. Which, which is which
is so lovely. And lots of salaryflavors as well. So lots of
interplay with soy sauce andlime and really sort of sour
tasting curry which Julie whichif you like is so good. But
anything kind of from thatisland, you're just going to get
(22:21):
such great flavors. And you'regoing to know that it's not the
same as the stuff that you'd getin the UK is yeah, it's
definitely definitely adifferent a different
experience.
Jess (22:30):
Do you have any new travel plans or any? Anything coming
up?
Caroline K (22:36):
It's been a while.
since anyone can make plans.
It's so good. It's so good. SoI'm gonna I'm what I've cut.
I've just come back from a trip.
Another eye opening culinaryexperience in Texas. Yeah, I
went to Austin, for work. And Imean, like, you know, I didn't
even know I liked barbecue. AndI mean, I thought I knew what
barbecue was. And thencompletely different. I had no
(22:59):
idea. It was like, why are allthese people queuing like,
that's in Singapore? You know,in Singapore, the rule is join
the longest queue because that'sgoing to be the best. And I
think it's the same inAustralia. Because you know, at
the end of it, it's somethingthat everyone's so the guy in my
taxi driver was saying, like,you know, you're going to keep
for three hours, but it's goingto be worth every every bite.
Jess (23:23):
Three hours. Wow. Yeah,
Caroline K (23:25):
there was some places that definitely,
definitely kind of commandedthat kind of attention. But I
really loved the whole vibe ofof like barbecue and live music.
I love that intersection of youknow, you could go to a bar,
you're gonna get amazing food,and you're gonna get some really
good life music as well. So Ireally enjoyed that. Coming up.
I'm off to I'm off to Barcelona.
Yeah, in August. Yeah, I've beenbefore but it's, I love it. I
(23:51):
love that again, if you're aseafood person, you're just
gonna get some great seafood.
It's just good second fantasticcourse as well, which is
amazing.
Jess (24:02):
So what about your experience stateside? Was this
your first time stateside? Orjust your first time in Austin?
Caroline K (24:08):
First time in Austin? I've been along the east
coast before so I've had the NewYork experience and then
Washington and Boston and aroundthat area Baltimore kind of but
yeah, I mean, I you know, Iunderstand I don't know this for
a fact but I understand thatAustin is not Texas. Like a lot
of people say they that's what Iwas told. So what's a little bit
(24:31):
different
Jess (24:31):
there? Apparently a lot more a lot more different. non
traditional in terms of what youthink when you think Texas from
what I from what I hear. I'm inFlorida, so I'm always away.
Caroline K (24:42):
Yeah, yeah. If you've been if you've been to
the internet,
Jess (24:46):
I have not Texas is kind of on my to do list particularly
Austin for the reason that it'skind of supposed to be kind of
quirky and wonderful and weird,which is what the place type of
places that I like.
Caroline K (24:58):
That sounds exactly what works for So last thing
was, but then, you know, everytime I come over to the US, I'm
just so surprised at how, youknow, even a neighboring state
can have a completely differentcharacter. It's like being in
Europe, you know, it's just it'scrazy.
Jess (25:12):
Is if a lot of land, so yeah, no I can I can. We're
planning on going to FortLauderdale pretty soon. And
that's the eight hour drive St.
State
Caroline K (25:24):
State Drive. Yes, it's crazy. Eight hours would
take you to a different countrythat would take me to Scotland.
Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. But sobut so interesting that I mean,
I can imagine why you could justtalk to us. Couldn't you just
doing your like show? Where'syour favorite, favorite place to
be? Like, Favorite eating placein the US? Oh,
Jess (25:45):
I have so many. Where did I have the best food experience
right now it's been just becauseit's accessibility in terms of I
could go back there. I lovedAtlanta, we took a trip there
for our anniversary a couple ofyears ago. And this is before
like, there's been some changessince the last time we went. But
(26:07):
there are so many just gymsthere. And it's kind of
international as well, too. Theyhave a lot of international
places. But I like to eat veganfor whatever reason, if it's if
it's available. And they havesome amazing vegan restaurants
like more than one like, yeah,probably I probably 10 I could
(26:28):
probably count for you. Andyeah, and it's like everything
from kind of like quick bites,low cost of vegan. And then
there's a place we went to urbanfix where it's very fancy. And
it's very kind of unassumingfancy, because you will walk in
and it's just very bright andairy. But she kind of looked at
(26:49):
people in the dress very nice.
Where you all Yeah. And then youget your plates and everything
is services amazing. And it wasan amazing place to be. But
since then, you know, you have aplace called seletti Vegan
that's kind of taken off. Andthey make these big, huge vegan
burgers and chicken sandwichesand like everything milkshakes,
(27:10):
and all that type of thing thatwasn't as big of a thing when we
were there. And it's just, Iwould love to go back to
experience that and there's justso many gems because I really
went on that particular tripwith the goal to eat
Caroline K (27:27):
the mystery ever.
What's Florida what's good inFlorida?
Jess (27:30):
Oh, Florida is so different, like where I am is
country. So you think like ruralsouthern Georgia and northern
Florida and lower Alabama, we'reall kind of the same. But you
know, and so a lot of peoplethink Florida think the palm
trees at Disney World andOrange, orange groves and that
(27:53):
type of thing. And that's forthe style. So it's a little
different. And then you get morelike Latin American influence,
the further you go down, morekind of Caribbean and Latin
influence the further you godown as amazing. Yeah, so you
know, there's Cuban sandwichesand all that type of thing. But
as far as what I eat, it's a lotof kind of southern food my mom
(28:21):
makes but my family isvegetarian. So it's like a
vegetarian twist on soul food.
When I eat out, I just, I justlike to eat kind of all over the
world. But you know where I am.
So yeah, favorite restaurants isactually kind of based on what
you probably ate in Singapore islike street food type. Yeah, so
(28:43):
it's called jays, Asian streetfood. So
Caroline K (28:47):
say it. Yeah, street food, I think is where the soul
of the places you know, whereyou get, I think a lot of
particularly Westerners, they goover to places like Singapore,
and they are a bit scared. Youknow, you're kind of like, I
don't know if this if I'm gonnado the right thing. Or if I'm
gonna like, you're going to betoo spicy, am I going to like
make a fool of myself and youjust think you've got to go for
it, you've got to try. Try thattry this, you've got to go and
(29:08):
do this experience. Because onceyou've once you've got it is
going to enhance your timethere. It's going to enhance
your cultural experience andyour culinary experience like
100%
Jess (29:18):
Because I'm really feel like a kind of not as
knowledgeable as I would like tobe in terms of like Asian
especially, like Indian food.
Like, because there's kind of abig Mexican American population
where I grew up. I feel prettyfamiliar with kind of Mexican
and Latin American cuisine. Butwhen I go to like the Indian
(29:43):
restaurant, there's wonderfulone here in Tallahassee called
me a URI that I liked to go tooccasionally it's a it's a big
buffet and you can kind of tryeverything. You know, I have my
found myself walking up like, Idon't know, but this is just
gonna try new Not in Spanish,which I can kind of read through
education policy Yeah, type ofthing. So I'm just like I have
(30:04):
flipped his aloo. You know, whatis this? Well, it's always
delicious. And I love going tothe Indian market where I live
to. So it's, you can get thingsthat are wonderful for
vegetarian cooking like you canget like, chickpea flour, which
is becoming more accessible. Youcan get things like all the
(30:25):
different dolls and dry beansand rice and so I love it.
Caroline K (30:33):
So it's so good. I went to India for two weeks,
many years ago. Yeah. And I hadto say the vegetarian food that
I found in the veggierestaurants was just out of this
world who's so good. Like wewere in Kerala, which is way
down the south. And just likeagain, like the fresh fish was
was amazing. Like you could useyou saw the catch being brought
(30:54):
up and then it was on your platewithin like a few minutes. So
good. Yeah, I love that. I willsay you
Jess (30:59):
were there a lot of street food in India that you tried as
well. Did you not get it?
Caroline K (31:04):
I didn't get to try so much. We weren't near too
many, too many places where wecould access that. But we did
eat and a lot of kind of locallittle restaurants and just try
to try to everything absolutelyeverything because you know when
you're when you've traveled thatfar, you need to you need to try
everything. Yeah, that's good.
And actually alcohol wasforbidden. So you would it was
like a dry state at the time.
(31:26):
But they would find ways aroundit by giving you a like a
teapot. And on your like on youron your bill, it would say Happy
tea. And inside the teapot waslike laser beer. So you can find
a way you could find a wayaround it.
Jess (31:43):
as well. Yeah, so if you ask for happy thieves to get
some beer,
Caroline K (31:47):
yeah, cold beer in a teapot. Because
Jess (31:52):
that's amazing. I love it.
Are there any other kind ofthings that you kind of bring to
your home cooking besides youknow, you say just try some
Singapore food now we know thatyou've been to India you've
you've been to the US is thereanything kind of outside the
norm for British cooking thatyou find yourself? Making? Yeah,
no, I
Caroline K (32:11):
think I think British cooking has become such
a mix. Like we're so we're suchwe're so close to Europe. So
we've we've all been to kind oflike France and Germany and
Italy and Austria and you know,because because it's been easy
once you're in especially ifyou're in Central Europe, like
if you're in Switzerland orFrance or anywhere like that you
can travel so easily around it'syou'd be crazy not to so in
(32:31):
Switzerland, you can get intoItaly within an hour or two. And
from there you can go on and youknow so and catch ferries and
boats to various islands. So weI mean we eat a lot of Italian
food because we have Italianfriends here and because it's
easy and accessible. So I thinkare probably for us are European
(32:52):
influences. A huge split in theUK. You know, Italian food is
become comfort food to a lot ofpeople you know is nothing
better than like a big bowl ofpasta and you know, we we feel
like that. Yeah, exactly. It'sjust so great. And you just
can't go wrong with that kind ofthing. So I don't know if it's
because it was British fooddoesn't really seem to have much
(33:13):
of its own identity. It'sassumed identities from other
countries. We just eateverything in sight you know
really everything and I lovethat I love that we embrace all
those different flavors andcultures. It's great.
Jess (33:26):
Oh, something I will mention that I enjoy right up
the street within walkingdistance from my house is a
place where they serve isconnected to a gas station it's
very it's very much a hole inthe wall. Okay. Oh. Which is
what we call you know,restaurant that very sketchy was
(33:47):
there's a great food. Yeah. Andthey're I think they're I think
the owners are Italian by way oflike through New York. So you
know, maybe second generation Idon't think first generation but
they make pizza that peopleeveryone says here that that's
basically Brooklyn pizza, butdown here. So I eat there's a
(34:08):
lot Yeah, well,
Caroline K (34:09):
I'd be there every day. bringing
Jess (34:11):
me the pizza. The thing is we have a food face group group
here and they really like theycall it a swarm when they go to
these different places. And itreally is because the business
are just boom out of nowherefrom people mentioning it. And
I'm just like, stop spilling thesecret. Yeah, you
Caroline K (34:29):
don't want you don't want to be competing and Ally do
waiting for hours for somethingreally, really good. waiting
Jess (34:34):
longer than I normally have to.
Caroline K (34:36):
Yeah, yeah, I mean even I mean I'm right by the
sea. So even in my littleseaside town we have we yeah, we
have a lot of little littlepizza places like that. And lots
of Indian restaurants and lotsof places to choose from and
it's not a particularly bigplace, but we do like that kind
of Yeah, Italian and Indian foodhere is just everywhere. It's
(34:56):
it's a good
Jess (34:59):
man very thoroughly hungry.
Caroline K (35:02):
Like what made dinner now I'm thinking watch my
make maybe
Jess (35:06):
I think I did my job here, which is if you're listening and
watching a hope that you're ashungry as we are right now I'm
hungry. It's currently lunchtimefor me probably dinner time for
you. But thank you so much forbeing a part of the show. We
(35:26):
played a little game of tagtrying to get trying to get her
here. But we happy that I'm sohappy that you finally made it.
So thank you very much.
Caroline K (35:34):
It's been an absolute pleasure. Yes. So
Jess (35:36):
if people want to find out more about you, I know you are
copywriter freelance writer,they want to find more about you
and your services. Where wouldthey go?
Caroline K (35:44):
Oh, head over to my website, which is Caroline Kelly
writer.com. I'm also onInstagram under Caroline Kelly,
writer as well. And on Twitterat CAST Kelly 123.
Jess (35:53):
All right. And is there anything that you're working on
that you don't mind like sharingabout?
Caroline K (35:58):
Oh, I'm, you know, I work on podcasts. So I'm writing
scripts for podcasts, many kindsof business side of things. So
with the work week team who arejust incredible. And I'm also I
write for a feature of magazinecalled Breathe, which is a good
old fashioned print magazine.
And it's lovely, if you likekind of mindfulness and taking
care of yourself. Check that outas well. Okay,
Jess (36:18):
amazing. So again, thank you so much, Caroline, thank you
so much for listening or viewingus on YouTube. Feel free to
like, subscribe. If you wouldlike to be on the show. Maybe be
a part of this series youtraveled or you have some story
to share. You can always leave acomment and let me know and I'll
follow up with you or send me amessage at Jess at the flaky
(36:42):
foodie.com Thank you so muchagain, have a wonderful week and
make sure you eat somethingdelicious. Treat this episode
like gossip for the gospel.
Share it tell a friend and justput it out there. Alrighty,
thank you. Bye bye
Caroline K (36:57):
bye. Thank you
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