Crazy Rich Asians (15 page)

Nick and Rachel rolled their luggage carts toward them. “What are you doing here?”
Nick exclaimed in surprise as Colin squeezed him into a bear hug.

“Come on! Of course I had to welcome my best man properly! This is full service, man,”
Colin beamed.

“My turn!” the girl beside him declared, leaning over and giving Nick a hug followed
by a quick peck on the cheek. She turned next to Rachel, stretched out her hand, and
said, “You must be Rachel. I’m Araminta.”

“Oh sorry, let me make proper introductions—Rachel Chu, meet Araminta Lee, Colin’s
fiancée. And this, of course, is Colin Khoo,” Nick said.

“So nice to finally meet you.” Rachel smiled, shaking their hands vigorously. She
wasn’t prepared for this welcoming party, and after all those hours on the plane,
she could only imagine how she must look. She studied the cheery couple for a bit.
People always looked so different from their pictures. Colin was taller than she imagined,
roguishly handsome with dark freckles and an unruly shock of hair that made him look
a bit like a Polynesian surfer. Behind her wire-frame spectacles, Araminta had a very
pretty face, even without a stitch of makeup. Her long black hair was pulled into
a rubber-banded ponytail that reached down to the small of her back, and she looked
far too skinny for her tall frame. She was wearing what appeared to be a pair of plaid
pajama pants, a pale orange tank top, and flip-flops. Though she was probably in her
mid-twenties, she looked more like a schoolgirl than someone about to walk down the
aisle. They were an unusually exotic couple, and Rachel wondered how their children
might end up looking.

Colin began texting away on his cell phone. “The drivers have been circling around
for a while. Let me just make sure they know we’re ready.”

“I can’t believe this airport—it makes JFK look like Mogadishu,” Rachel remarked.
She stared up in wonder at the soaring ultramodern structure, the indoor palm trees,
and the immense, lush vertical hanging garden that seemed to make up an entire length
of the terminal. A fine mist of water began to spread over the cascading greenery.
“Are they misting the entire wall? I feel like I’m at some upscale tropical resort.”

“This whole country is an upscale tropical resort,” Colin quipped as he led them toward
the exit. Waiting at the curb were two matching silver Land Rovers. “Here, pile all
your luggage into this one, it’s going straight to the hotel. We can all ride in the
other one without
being cramped.” The driver in the first car got out, nodded to Colin, and went to
join the other driver, leaving an empty car for them. In her jet-lagged fog, Rachel
didn’t know what to make of all this and just climbed into the backseat of the SUV.

“What a treat! I don’t think I’ve been welcomed at the airport like this since I was
a little kid,” Nick said, recalling the times in his childhood when a large group
of family members would gather at the airport. A visit to the airport back then was
a thrilling event, since it also meant that his father would take him for a hot fudge
sundae at the Swensen’s Ice Cream Parlor in the old terminal. People seemed to go
away on longer trips back then, and there were always tears from the women saying
goodbye to relatives heading overseas or welcoming home children who had spent the
school year abroad. He once even overheard his older cousin Alex whisper to his father
just before Harry Leong was about to board a plane, “Be sure to pick me up the latest
Penthouse
on your layover in Los Angeles.”

Colin settled behind the wheel and began adjusting the mirrors to fit his sightlines.
“Where to? Straight to the hotel, or makan?”
^†

“I can definitely eat,” Nick said. He turned around to look at Rachel, knowing she
probably wanted to go straight to the hotel and collapse into bed. “Feeling okay,
Rachel?”

“I’m great,” Rachel replied. “Actually, I’m kinda hungry too.”

“It’s breakfast time back in New York, that’s why,” Colin noted.

“Did you have a good flight? Did you watch a lot of movies?” Araminta asked.

“Rachel went on a Colin Firth binge,” Nick announced.

Araminta squealed. “OMG—I
love
him! He’ll always be the one and only Mr. Darcy for me!”

“Okay, I think we can be friends now,” Rachel declared. She looked out the window,
amazed by the swaying palm trees and profusion of bougainvillea that lined the sides
of the brightly lit highway. It was almost ten o’clock at night, but everything about
this city seemed unnaturally bright—effervescent, almost.

“Nicky, where should we take Rachel for her first local meal?” Colin asked.

“Hmm … should we welcome Rachel with a feast of Hainanese chicken rice at Chatterbox?
Or should we head straight for chili
crab at East Coast?” Nick asked, feeling excited and torn at the same time—there were
about a hundred different eating places he wanted Rachel to experience
right now
.

“How about some satay?” Rachel suggested. “Nick is always going on and on about how
you’ve never tasted decent satay until you’ve had it in Singapore.”

“That settles it—we’re going to Lau Pa Sat,” Colin announced. “Rachel, you’ll get
to experience your first true hawker center. And they have the best satay.”

“You think so? I like that place in Sembawang better,” Araminta said.

“NOOOO! What are you talking about,
lah
? The fellow from the original Satay Club is still at Lau Pa Sat,” Colin said insistently.

“You’re wrong,” Araminta replied firmly. “That original Satay Club guy moved to Sembawang.”

“Lies! That was his cousin. An imposter!” Colin was adamant.

“Personally, I’ve always liked the satay at Newton,” Nick cut in.

“
Newton?
You’ve lost your mind, Nicky. Newton is only for expats and tourists—there aren’t
any good satay stalls left,” Colin said.

“Welcome to Singapore, Rachel—where arguing about food is the national pastime,” Araminta
declared. “This is probably the only country in the world where
grown men
can get into fistfights over which specific food stall in some godforsaken shopping
center has the best rendition of some obscure fried noodle dish. It’s like a pissing
contest!”

Rachel giggled. Araminta and Colin were so funny and down-to-earth, she liked them
both instantly.

Soon they were on Robinson Road, in the heart of the downtown financial district.
Nestled in the shadows of massive towers was Lau Pa Sat—or “old market” in the Hokkien
dialect—an octagonal open-air pavilion that housed a bustling hive of food stalls.
Walking from the car park across the street, Rachel could already smell the delicious
spice-filled aromas wafting through the balmy air. As they were about to enter the
great food hall, Nick turned to Rachel and said, “You’re going to go nuts for this
place—it’s the oldest Victorian structure in all of Southeast Asia.”

Rachel stared up at the soaring cast-iron filigree arches that radiated out across
the vaulted ceilings. “Looks like the inside of a cathedral,” she said.

“Where the masses come to worship food,” Nick quipped.

Sure enough, even though it was past ten, the place teemed with hundreds of fervent
diners. Rows and rows of brightly lit food stalls offered up a greater array of dishes
than Rachel had ever witnessed under one roof. As they walked around, peering at the
various stalls where men and women were frenziedly cooking their delicacies, Rachel
shook her head in awe. “There’s just so much to take in, I don’t know where to start.”

“Just point to whatever looks interesting and I’ll order it,” Colin offered. “The
beauty of the hawker center is that each vendor basically sells just one dish, so
whether it’s fried pork dumplings or fish-ball soup, they’ve spent a lifetime perfecting
it.”

“More than one lifetime. A lot of these people are second- and third-generation hawkers,
cooking old family recipes,” Nick chimed in.

A few minutes later, the four of them were seated just outside the main hall under
a huge tree strung with yellow lights, every inch of their table covered with colorful
plastic plates piled high with the greatest hits of Singaporean street cuisine. There
was the famous
char kuay teow
, a fried omelet with oysters called
orh luak
, Malay
rojak
salad bursting with chunks of pineapple and cucumber, Hokkien-style noodles in a
thick garlicky gravy, a fish cake smoked in coconut leaves called
otah otah
, and a hundred sticks of chicken and beef satay.

Rachel had never seen anything like this feast. “This is insane! Every dish looks
like it came from a different part of Asia.”

“That’s Singapore for you—the true originators of fusion cuisine,” Nick boasted. “You
know, because of all the ships passing through from Europe, the Middle East, and India
in the nineteenth century, all these amazing flavors and textures could intermingle.”

As Rachel tasted the
char kuay teow
, her eyes widened in delight at the rice noodles flash-fried with seafood, egg, and
bean sprouts in a dark soy sauce. “Why doesn’t it ever taste like this at home?”

“Gotta love that burned-wok flavor,” Nick remarked.

“I bet you’ll love this,” Araminta said, handing Rachel a plate of
roti paratha
. Rachel tore off some of the doughy golden pastry and dipped it into the rich curry
sauce.

“Mmmm … heaven!”

Then it was time for the satay. Rachel bit into the succulent grilled chicken, savoring
its smoky sweetness carefully. The rest of
them watched her intently. “Okay Nick, you were right. I’ve never had decent satay
until now.”

“To think you doubted me,” Nick tut-tutted with a smile.

“I can’t believe we’re pigging out at this hour!” Rachel giggled, reaching for another
stick of satay.

“Get used to it. I know you probably want to go straight to bed, but we have to keep
you up for a few more hours so that you’ll adjust better to the time change,” Colin
said.

“Aiyah, Colin just wants to monopolize Nick for as long as possible,” Araminta declared.
“These two are inseparable whenever Nick’s in town.”

“Hey, I have to make the most out of this time, especially since mommie dearest is
away,” Colin said in his own defense. “Rachel—you’re in luck, not having to deal with
Nicky’s mum the minute you arrive.”

“Colin, don’t you start scaring her,” Nick chided.

“Oh Nick, I almost forgot—I ran into your mum the other day at Churchill Club,” Araminta
began. “She grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘Aramintaaaaa! Aiyoh, you’re too dark!
You better stop going into the sun so much, otherwise on your wedding day you will
be so black people will think you are Malay!’ ”

Everyone roared with laughter, except Rachel. “She
was
kidding, I hope?”

“Of course not. Nick’s mum doesn’t kid,” Araminta said, continuing to laugh.

“Rachel, you’ll understand once you meet Nicky’s mum. I love her like my own mother,
but she’s one of a kind,” Colin explained, trying to put her at ease. “Anyway, it’s
perfect that your parents are gone, Nick, because
this
weekend your presence is required at my bachelor party.”

“Rachel, you’ll have to come to
my
bachelorette party,” Araminta declared. “Let’s show the boys how it’s
really
done!”

“You bet,” Rachel said, clinking her beer with Araminta’s.

Nick gazed at his girlfriend, thrilled that she had so effortlessly charmed his friends.
He could still hardly believe that she was actually here with him, and that they had
the whole summer ahead of them. “Welcome to Singapore, Rachel,” he joyously declared,
lifting up his bottle of Tiger beer in a toast. Rachel gazed into Nick’s sparkling
eyes. She had never seen him as happy as he was tonight,
and she wondered how she could possibly have been worried about coming on this trip.

“How does it feel to be here?” Colin asked.

“Well,” Rachel mused, “an hour ago we landed in the most beautiful, modern airport
I’ve ever seen, and now we’re sitting under these huge tropical trees by a nineteenth-century
food hall, having the most glorious feast. I don’t ever want to leave!”

Nick grinned broadly, not noticing the look Araminta had just given Colin.

Astrid

Whenever Astrid felt in need of a pick-me-up, she would pay a visit to her friend
Stephen. Stephen had a small jewelry shop on one of the upper levels of the Paragon
shopping center, tucked away from all the other high-end boutiques in a back hallway.
While it lacked the visibility of high-profile local jewelers like L’Orient or Larry
Jewelry, with their gleaming flagship stores, Stephen Chia Jewels was highly regarded
by the island’s most discerning collectors.