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Power of prata and kueh tutu
Taken from: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/sub/lifestyle/story/0,5562,340061,00.html
Sept 11, 2005 By Colin Goh

SO THE Wife and I are now back in New York to do post-production on our second feature film, The 5Cs.

When we first stepped into the post-production facility in Soho, we were very surprised. Most of the post houses we'd seen in Singapore were very cool, posh and professional, with mood lighting and uber-hip modernist furniture, and we'd expected its New York counterpart to be even slicker.

Instead of something out of Minority Report, however, we were greeted by what looked like a larger version of Courteney Cox's apartment in Friends, with open-plan kitchen (replete with jars of cookies and candy) and a living room area with rumpled sofas for people to mingle. Things were so down-home, they'd even printed a welcome placard for us, which they'd hung in the reception for all to see! So pai seh!

Belying its lepak (casual) feel, however, are its blue-chip clients. For instance, the Coen Brothers and Stephen Soderbergh cut O Brother Where Art Thou and Solaris here, while working in the editing suite next to ours was Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road To Perdition).

'I can't believe we're cutting our little Housing Board flick next to Sam Mendes,' I said, with trepidation.

'Maybe some of his genius will flow through the walls by osmosis.'

'Don't be a starstruck suaku, can?' said the Wife.

'Some of our Singaporean magic could also seep into his suite.'

'You're going to cho gong tau on Sam Mendes?' I asked incredulously, using the local term for 'hex'.

'No, goondu,' snorted the Wife, using the local term for 'idiot'.

'I just mean that we Singaporeans often seem to assume foreigners are somehow superior, and we invariably sell ourselves short. Why should you think the flow is only one way?'

'This is Sam Mendes!' I exclaimed. 'What effect could we Singaporeans possibly have on folks like him?'

Just then, the phone rang. It was our director of photography, Martina Radwan, who shot an Oscar-nominated film last year.

'You'll never guess what I've found!' she said excitedly.

'Worldwide distribution!' I answered.

'Harvey Weinstein's private number!' said the Wife.

'No,' Martina replied.

'Prata! There's this cafe near my place that's selling prata! I've been eating it nearly every day since I got back to New York!'

The Wife and I looked at each other quizzically. It was true that during our shoot, our New York crew had been particularly partial to Singapore's erstwhile answer to the croissant, but we didn't think the mania would have lasted.

'The curry's not very good,' she added. 'But you can't have everything.'

'What other Singaporean things are you still craving?' I enquired.

'That small white cake I used to buy from Junction 8,' she replied.

'Kueh tutu?' said the Wife, incredulously.

'And those empanada-like whatchamacallits.'

'Curry puffs,' answered the Wife, shaking her head.

'And coffee that comes in those plastic bags with strings,' Martina continued.

'They should have them here. They're brilliant! You can hang 'em anywhere! They're especially useful on film sets, with no tables to place cups.'

'Prata, kueh tutu, curry puffs and plastic bags?' I said in disbelief.

'That's the Singaporean stuff that gets you?'

'Hey,' she fired back. 'Thanks to your crazy schedule, I didn't see much of Singapore beyond Toa Payoh and Bishan where we were filming.'

After making dinner arrangements, Martina hung up, leaving us dumbfounded.

After a long pause, the Wife piped in, 'Well, you wanted to know what effect Singaporean stuff has on foreigners. There's a case in point.'

I could not help but agree. Often we try to stage manage the image we want to leave on people: the clean streets, the shiny shopping centres, the ability to speak non-native tongues with a proficiency absent in even its native state, and so on.

However, often it's the simple, quotidian and sincere things that have a more profound and lasting effect.

For instance, on set, it was always amusing to me to see our New York crew borrowing phrases from the local crew rather than the other way round. Apparently, they continued to use them even on their next job in the United States.

Perhaps years from now, some cultural anthropologist may start researching just how Hollywood began using puzzling expressions like 'chop chop kali pok,' 'siam!' and 'talk cock, sing song, play guitar'.

So maybe over the next few days, I'll hang a friendly bag of kopi on Sam Mendes' door. Who knows to where that might lead?

(Colin Goh is the editor of satirical humour website TalkingCock.com)

It's time for me to go home. Yes. It's about time I go home too. I had enough of Australia.