Passe is the new Posse

The steamboat is a traditional old fashioned 'must have' for every Chinese New Year reunion dinner. Piping hot broth cooked to perfection with pork bones (and MSG if you are having it outside). You then dump raw veges and yam in it while cooking your own servings of meat, fish, quail eggs or whatever you fancy in a netted ladle dipping it in to the bubbling soup.

That was the classic way, and rarely eaten outside of reunion gatherings. There then was a period in time when fish head steamboat became popular. This was where fish head and sliced fish formed the main dish to be cooked in the steamboat. Recent years have seen a resurgence of the steamboat. I am not sure if our candid and friendly migrant workers from China had anything to do with it - since they were the main patrons of steamboat eateries sprouting up along Geylang and Chinatown - but the young and happening don't call today's versions 'steamboat'anymore. They go by import sounding names like Shabu Shabu and Korean hotpot. Many even offer a choice of soup in 'yuan yang' (yin yang?) settings, where a pot is split into halves, each having different broths. So now those allergic to seafood or intolerant of spicy tom yam (like me) can enjoy the meal with other so called more normal friends.

Balestier has always been known as a diverse and culturally rich, yet poorer cousin of Novena. Light shops, seedy budget hotels and good food abound, with a splattering of beautiful conservation shophouses and terraces here and there. With the new Zhong Shan Park and branded business class hotels under construction, interest has been returning to this vicinity the past year. Both pure residential and mixed commercial projects proved to be hot cakes. One Dusun was sold out in a mere 2 days (http://sg-realestate-sg.blogspot.sg/2012/08/another-successful-launch-one-dusun.html). And shoeboxes have even been pushing 2000psf lately. We are going to see a gradual rejuvenation of the entire stretch with new projects topping out along nicely. Finally, the old dame has awoken with a whole new dress, and we might not even be seeing her full potential just yet.