So my wife mentioned that a forthcoming blog from her “foodie” husband was coming…so here we go.
To say that the food scene here is amazing is understating it…big time! One of the first things I noticed, within the first few days, is that there is a food place (restaurant, food stall) everywhere people tend to congregate (think malls, pedestrian-heavy streets). Singaporeans’ hobbies are shopping and….you guessed it, eating. Everywhere I looked people were eating! Alamak, I was in heaven!
The array of food choices here is pretty diverse, from American, Indian, Chinese (in hawker centers, they’re typically called ‘Mixed vegetable rice”), Malay (nasi lemak, kueh), Italian (pasta, pizza), Mexican (more on this later!), and others. Fat Boys (see sample menu) is akin to a typical bar & grill we have back in the States. Singapore boasts the “cheapest Michelin rated meal in the world!” Burgers and pizza are decent. Good, cheap Mexican food (am looking at you Sergio’s Taqueria, Taqueria El Asadero, and Restaurante El Mogote) is hard to find here unfortunately. Our experience at Super Loco isn’t worth blogging about but long story short, Mexican food is expensive and has nowhere near the flavors afforded by the aforementioned restaurants.
While we occasionally go to “restaurants” for a meal, our definite go-to is a hawker center and this is, IMHO, what truly makes Singapore a gastronome’s paradise.
Hawker centers were established by the government as a way of preserving the different cultures AND making the food prep and conditions sanitary. Hence the centers are typically clean, have running water, and have relatively clean restrooms (toilets as they call it here). They range from the small like the Zion Food Centre (the closest to our apartment), to the “touristy” like Newton Food Centre where they cater to the visitors and the ang moh (Singaporean term for “white person” but has Hokkien roots meaning “red-haired” ). There are hawker centres close to MRT stations (like the one by the Jurong MRT Interchange and in many HDB complexes – Housing Development Board – these are the gov’t subsidized apartments usually identified by having big numbers painted on the side of the buildings). In these places, there are a multitude of different cuisines that will suit everyone’s palate.
Random piece of trivia…the Adam Road Food Centre has the best Nasi Lamak in town that the Sultan of Brunei orders his from this hawker center. Also, if you’ve ever followed any of Anthony Bourdain’s shows, he did one episode of “The Layover” in Singapore. It delighted me to no end that when I went to the Tiong Bahru Food Centre, I was greeted by the escalator (aka travelators here) that was featured in the documentary.
We typically eat at hawker centers 5 days out of the week. For Martha and I, we sometimes hit the hawkers twice a day depending on what we fancy. The girls have become hawker center “experts” and like eating there. In the pics below, Hazel is eating her go-to, a (Hainanese) chicken rice and usually costs around S$2.80. and Lulu is eating a Mee Hoon Goreng (Mee Hoon – rice noodles, Goreng – fried). This meal is akin to pancit (for you Filipinos there).
The one I’m most familiar with is the hawker center in Jurong East by the MRT interchange. It’s in a typical location since MRT centers are heavily transited. There is a wide variety of food stalls. One of the most famous dishes, in fact, Singapore’s National Dish, is (Hainanese) Chicken Rice. If ever there is an icon for how simple foods can taste fantastic, this must be right at the top. Boil (whole) chicken to cook, take the chicken out, put rice in the broth, add sauteed spices (ginger, garlic, onion I think) and steam. THAT is it! We usually eat it with a simple chili condiment mixed with a ginger one. It’s such an explosion of flavors that it’s hard to fathom how simple it is to make. NOTE: chefs and cooks know that taking the bones and skin (subsequently the fat) out of animals to be cooked simply takes the flavor away. This is a prime example of when you cook a whole animal, you get a multitude of flavors.→ see the whole chickens (head and beak included!) hanging on the rack!
While I love chicken rice, my default food is Malay. It reminds me of the foods I grew up with. Nasi Lemak (Nasi – rice, Lemak – Fat) usually refers to rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaves. I remember my mom making rice with pandan…the leaves give the rice a sweet fragrance that makes it more delicious…at least according to me. The typical Nasi Lemak has a fried egg, a piece of fried chicken, bilis (dilis in Filipino or fried anchovies) with peanuts, and sambal. Sambal balacha is a God-sent condiment that is typically made of chilis, fish sauce (patis in Filipino), shrimp paste (bagoong in Filipino), ginger, garlic, vinegar, sugar, and onion. It is spicy, salty, sweet, and full of umami goodness in every bite! Alamak!
The pictures below shows a “mixed” Nasi Lemak. The typical consists on coconut rice, bilis, peanuts, fried chicken, a fried egg, and sambal. I’ve gotten confident to just ask for rice and pick and choose ala carte. The combinations are vast. Stir-fried vegetables:kangkong with chili (water spinach), bean sprouts, cabbage. Curries: yellow curry with potatoes and chicken, red curry (slightly sweet and spicy) with chicken. Fried: chicken, eggs, hotdogs, and spam even, plus SARDINES (the Filipino type found in a can with tomato sauce but souped up with spices)! We also discovered that Vietnamese “stir-fried beef w/ rice” (at least for this stall) was in fact Filipino “bistek” that was even slightly sweet along with the usually tangy saltiness.
Martha and I also fell in love with kueh (kway or kuih). Kueh are bite-size snacks that are either sweet or savory. One of the reasons why I love kueh is that they are almost the same (if not the same) as the local snacks I grew up with. These two have equivalents (Singaporean/Malay → Filipino): Binka Ubi → bibinka, Kusui → kutsinta. Our favorites by far are Ondeh Ondeh (see below) , and Kueh Dadar. Ondeh^2 is a hollow sphere of glutinuous rice flour coated in dried coconut and inside is a palm sugar syrup very similar to the Filipino “arnibal.” You ought to just eat the whole thing because biting into it just causes the syrup to burst out. Kueh Dadar is similar to a fresh srping roll except the inside is dried coconut immersed in said plam sugar syrup. One of the best places to get kuehs is Tiong Bahru Galicier Pastry Shop. Oh, and if you happen to stop by, check out their savory treats namely the chicken pie and egg tarts! Catch them before noon to have them warm (although you run the risk of not getting them because they’re still being made!)
We also love Chendol which is a dessert very similar to halo-halo (Filipino). Each starts off with a cup or so of shaved ice on which evaporated milk is poured. From this base, the additional toppings speaks to each country’s history. The halo-halo ingredients represents the amalgamation of cultures that the Philippines is: Leche flan (Spanish…similar to creme brulee), ice cream, rice krispies (American), and beans, agar-agar, coconut, and various fruits like jackfruit/lanka (Malay). Chendol is more Malay with a variety of beans, palm sugar syrup (again alamak!), jelly noodles, and agar-agar. Optional toppings for both desserts include creamed corn, and other tubers and fruits.
Coffee (Kopi to locals) is another revelation. Western-type cafes like the Tiong Bahru Bakery or 40 Hands have the familiar espresso-based drinks (mocha, espresso, Americano etc.). Two drinks that I wasn’t familiar with are: long black and flat white. Long black is made by pouring a double espresso over hot water. It’s stronger, richer, and thicker than an Americano. I haven’t had a flat white but it looks to me like “steamed milk with some coffee”…not quite my speed but I might have to try it while I’m here since both are popular in this area of the planet.
There are “boutique” cafes like I mentioned above and the conglomerate owned (Starbucks). However, most locals prefer going to “kopitiam” (kopi – coffee, tiam -house). Coffee here is served with sugar and milk. It is sweet and mocha-colored…again not my speed but it works. I prefer it straight up black (kopi kosong). Check out this website for how to order coffee while in S’pore.
That’s all I can write about for now…like I mentioned, there’s a plethora of food choices here that one just has to visit to understand all that I just talked about.
Necessary But Insufficient 