Last week, I shared a post about something that happened to me while on vacation with my family in Singapore.
In this post, I want to tell you a little bit more about Singapore.
Specifically, I want to tell you about the two sides of Singapore.
Spago Dining Room
The Spago Dining Room is a restaurant that's located at the very top of Marina Bay Sands.
For context, Marina Bay Sands looks like this:
To get to the restaurant, you need to take an elevator to the very top of one of those three buildings, then walk to another elevator that takes you to the very, very top.
You then get welcomed and taken care of by several very friendly staff.
The Spago Dining Room looks like this:
As you might imagine, the menu has a few items that require you to do that thing where you ask your server to "tell you more about this," because the truth is you didn't know that thing was a word until you just read it a few seconds ago.
The restaurant—being where it is—looks out over all of Singapore.
It's stunning, it's fancy, but it's performative.
It's not the real Singapore.
Westlake
Westlake is a restaurant that's located on the 2nd floor of a public housing unit (referred to in Singapore as a HDB), in the central part of Singapore.
To get to the restaurant, you need to ... walk up a set of stairs.
From the outside, Westlake looks like this:
When you get there, you have to hold up your fingers to indicate the number of people in your party, then a table will be pointed out to you.
As you might imagine, the menu has a few items that you may not understand ... but luckily it's full of laminated photos.
The restaurant—being where it is—looks out over a parking lot.
It's straightforward, it's simple.
It's the real Singapore.
At times you are the Spago Dining Room and at times you are Westlake.
The key is to know when you're being one or the other, and why.
