Deepavali stalls , shopping and much more in Little India

I never blogged about Little India although that should have been the first post given the popularity of this place among Indians . I actually wanted to write in detail about this place but I never got the time to do so .

We end up going to Little India atleast once a month either for things which you won't find anywhere else or for the familiar food . Before going to India we went for a quick shopping for folks back home and hence this is going to be a quick and small post before we leave .

The streets of little India at this point is decorated with lights for deepavali . The decorations were in place one month before .
How can we not pay a visit to deepavali stalls specially set up for this occasion . But before going inside quench your thirst with some Thailand coconut .Here's naveen trying to eat every last bit of that delicious coconut.
The Diwali stalls are nothing compared to back home but hey you can't complain , people here atleast know what the festival is about. The stalls, with all thing Indian is colorful and yes crowded !!!!

It contains rows and rows of stalls of clothes and they are really beautiful but no trial :(
There are 3-4 mehendi shops . Some even advertised that the mehendi needs to stay only for 5 min to show up the color , usually it should be kept for atleast one hour .
These stalls have everything - clothes , shoes , mehendi , carpet ..... Except crackers .
Why so many carpets ??

There are no crackers . You know it's illegal to buy or sell them !!!!
The lanes of little India next to mustafa are pretty narrow . It's gets very crowded specially during weekends .
If you are a tourist and want to take back some Singapore souvenirs then this is the place to be . There are cheaper options also like the shop below where you have deals like 3 for 10 .
Whenever we go back to home we always take loads of chocolates and mustafa is the one stop shop for buying not just chocolates but anything .
The night view of the street .

Our fridge stuffed with chocolates !!! They are not for me although given a chance I would have had them all .

Deepavali , the celebration of lights

Deepavali ,also known as festival of lights is the biggest festival for hindus and is celebrated with equal enthusiasm throughout India. According to Hindu mythology Ramayana , the people of ayodya celebrated the return of their king Ram and Sita from their 14 yr exile after defeating the evil Ravana ,with firecrackers and Diyas (lamps) and thus Deepavali came into existence.The festivals marks the triumph of good over evil and effigies of Ravana are burned around this time in open grounds in many places in India.

Following Singapore norms - the eating out culture

We have been eating out a lot lately , it's not just during weekends but also weekdays . Now some people might wonder what's so great about that - isn't it common for a young couple like us to dine out frequently ?

There's is difference , back home eating out happens once in a month or so and it's a family occasion . We usually cook food at home and people are not used to having their dinner outside daily ,haven't anyone observed your Indian colleagues bringing lunch from home ?

Singapore Street Food (pau and carrot cake)

We are in Singapore and if I don't blog about food it's a shame so here it is . I have decided to start a series on our own take of Singapore culinary adventure . As in when we come across something new we will put it here but I am aware that being a vegetarian will reduce my options my half !!

Street food in Singapore is not your typical street food . Firstly you won't find them on streets instead you will find them in food courts or popularly known as hawker centers which can be found throughout the island , secondly they are clean .

The hawker centers are the heart of Singapore , it's a melting point of different cultures . A typical hawker center will have stalls selling different cuisines popular one being Chinese , Japanese , Korean and Indian .I have decided to start of this series with two snacks that I came across while browsing the hawker centers for my evening snack .

This is vegetable pau . It's basically a dough ball stuffed with cooked vegetable and steamed . It's available in different fillings but I prefer sticking to my vegetarian roots .
I kind of like it , it's fluffy and the outside dough has a slightly rubber texture with no specific taste.