Finish The Asian Foodie Posts! Part 2 - Singapore

The reason, The Reason we selected Singapore as one of the destinations for this, de-I's first Asian trip was because of its renown as a foodie destination.  Even the official tourist office information calls eating the national pastime.  With its multiple cultures, mix of socio-economic classes, and strict hygiene laws it is a place where you can spend as much as you want or as little as you want and still get great food.  Therefore Supreme Foodie Partner Pulisha and I are known for our foodie centric trips (France and Italy) disciplined, mission oriented food traveling, we had a plan in place for how to best leverage the limited time we had.  We focused a lot on the famous hawker malls where they have put the street vendors and where all kinds of great foods from the various ethnic groups can be found.  Our major expenditures were saved for seafood.

So here is our meal-by-meal Singapore eating experience

Sunday Breakfast

Tiong Bahru Hawker Market

Chicken noodle with soup (right), Pork noodle with wanton soup

The soup is served separately from the noodles

Have to try a snow pear soda with it right?

Sunday Lunch

In a hawker mall on Orchard Street for the workers not the tourists

Malaysian Nasi lemak (with the fried chicken) and Nasi goering with beef randang

Don't even ask me what some of these things were.  We would look at the bewildering variety in the stalls and just say, "Let's try that."

Sunday Snack 

From stall at Tiong Banhu rapid transit stop

Fried things - gyoza (meat dumplings), crab paste, scallops.  There were three on a skewer.  They were yum.

 Sunday Dinner

First of three meals at...

 

...just 7 store fronts down from our hotel.  We went there every night, it was that good.

 Braised baby bok choy in special broth

Wife - "So what think thee honorable daughter Pu?"

Pulisha - " Mmmmmmmmmm"

Chicken with chile

i

Venerable Pu working on the piece de la resistance

Singapore's famous Chile Crab

Aftermath of dinner #1

Monday Breakfast

(No pictures :( we were chatting with a Singaporean and Vietnamese gentlemen we were sharing tables with) at a joint just around the block from us halfway to the Tiong Bahnu Market

Hainanese Curry Rice with Pork Cutlet and Duck Noodle Soup

Monday Morning Snack

Ice Cream Sandwiches

The ice cream is cold as a rock to make it survive the heat after serving

They take a rectangle of ice cream and then put to thin wafers around it to make the sandwich

Monday Lunch

Indian

We went over to Little India.  But it had taken a lot of effort walking around the botanical gardens and then finding our way to Little India.  We wanted to go to a hawker mall there but #2 was very tired.  So we decided to go to a restaurant so we could sit down and order.  This was probably our least impressive meal of the trip as it was very much like Indian food we would get in the states.  It was very good mind you and would be very pleased at this quality if we got it in the states but it wasn't anything really different. 

We had chicken tikka, Nepalese vegetables, Nepalese chicken and some cucumber pickles.

Monday Dinner

The second of three meals at Sin Hoi Sai Seafood Restaurant

Singapore style noodles, not like any version I've had in the US.  No major curry flavor

Deep fried fish skin - If you like gribbnes and cracklings, you're going to like this.  They are very thin and totally crunchy.  I give it three Yums!

The major seafood of the day, Mantis Prawns in salt and pepper flavor.

They were very sweet and tasty but there was much less meat than we thought given the size and it majorly adhered to the shells so was very difficult to get out.

Coffee Flavored Pork Ribs, these were a revelation.  It was kind of like a barbeque sauce with this pronounced but not overpowering coffee flavor.

Tuesday Breakfast

We woke up late and headed to Chinatown where once again we were in a hawker mall.  Today it was Laksa, a Malaysian noodle soup with a balanced amount of coconut milk, plenty of heat, and chicken.

After wandering around Chinatown, we again decided that a sit down place was a better choice.  Pu eyeballed a place with a list of Singaporean specialties.  Even though this is a major tourist part of town, we ended up with a winner.

Oyster Omelet, this was a really nice dish.  It was far milder in flavor than we expected.  Wife is not a big fan of oysters or very fishy tasting food and she loved this.

Belachan Stuffed Fish, after the fact I googled balachan and found out it is a pungent shrimp paste.  For this dish, it is pounded with shallots and dried peppers, stuffed into the fish cavity and down slits along the back, then it is pan fried until the skin gets very crispy.  The crispy skin bits were the best.  I give it many Yums.

Tuesday Dinner

Third of three meals at Sin Hoi Sai Seafood Restaurant

We be excited and happy!

The crab Mother Lode

Fried Chicken with shrimp sauce, I think had some of that shrimp paste flavor from the balachan.  Many Yums.

Kangkow (greens) with Sambal

The seafood star, Black Pepper Crab.  Not sure which I liked better, this or the Chile Crab.  The crab itself was so sweet.  Lots of Yums :)

Each meal #2 and I ordered something we had no idea of what it was.  This night it was fried egg plant with chicken floss.  Even after eating this we couldn't figure out what the chicken floss was.  Only one Yum.

The Last Breakfast (boo, hoo, hoo)

Lor Mee, a different type of Malaysian Noodle Soup

Char Shiu Rice, a Cantonese barbaqued pork

Fried pork and scallion fritters, fried yam cake (I liked it but not everyone's favorite), and fried shrimp paste - they fry so well here.

Big Sigh.  Then off to the airport and back to Manila