An eating weekend in Singapore

I went to Singapore for an epic eating weekend and at the last minute was joined by my dear friend V. It's not everyday you get to meet up with a friend in a strange country!

We wandered through Haji Lane and little Arab but everything felt slow on this Saturday morning, the first day of Ramadan. I saw a nasi Padang place I remembered from last time but it was also closed. We almost left except the five Chinese women waiting outside waved us over and told us to wait another 10 minutes for the place to open.

They were five sisters, the youngest sixth sister married by chance to a Melbourne man. They met up every Saturday for lunch, to catch up away from their families. Such familiarity and intimacy - one sees this so little in modern smaller families.

We stuffed ourselves on plates of rice, fish, octopus, okra, tofu & beans and fried sweet anchovy tempeh mix.

Then we went back and attacked the dessert counter for Kueh and bo bor cha cha.

Stuffed, we bade the five sisters goodbye and headed to Geylang where V was staying.

Later that afternoon, after a syrupy Kopi C from Nanyang coffee, we met up in the city and wandered around. It was Saturday night and everyone was out. We enjoyed a free local talent music show, walked across a few bridges, took photos of the durians and watched another traditional Chinese dance show. Singapore is pleasant enough this way - nice photogenic buildings, clean streets to stroll, polite people and no hawkers...

It was too far to go to any real hawker centres so we stopped in at Lau Pa Sat and I had this mixed carrot cake. It was ok - maybe a little too greasy and not particularly flavoursome other than salty.

The next morning I skipped the hostel breakfast of white toast and teabags, and headed out to Chinatown Complex food court. Now this is my type of food court - dark, dinghy, dirty, full of locals. It was easy to find what to eat - just join the queues!

First I had this silky chee choong fun with some smooth taro cake.

Then a coffee from 1950s coffeehouse, poured old style strained from a stocking!

I couldn't resist a second snack - chee kway from Bedok chee kway (ironically later when we were at Bedok they were closed on Sundays!) These little rice cakes were delicately steamed and served with a dollop of pickled veg and chilli sauce.

We went to Bedok to keep eating - a great suburban food centre full of amazing cheap food.

First stop was fish soup - lots of people lined up here for a great clear soup. Whilst sitting next to the fish stall we met a young Malay Chinese woman who was working in Singapore. She told us all about the sense of despair she has about the future of Malaysia, and how she feels isolated from her family but feels like Singapore is the future.

Then it was time for bouncy fishballs atop noodles.

Half a watermelon filled with lychees, jackfruit, palm seeds, shaved ice and palm sugar. An incredibly refreshing sugar hit.

V's first taste of durian, picked by an Indian lady who proclaimed to be the durian expert.

We went into town to find a camera store at Funan, which had closed for renovations. Never mind, we found a Burmese enclave just near City Hall. It was Sunday afternoon and the Burmese crowds were out - either drinking beer and catching up with friends at the cheap food halls or having impromptu picnics in the park.

We followed the queues to the most popular of them all. How I relished the freshness of all the salads, and shan tofu again!

We happened to sit next to a very sad and drink maid who was drinking alone and complaining about her boss and lack of prospects in life. Spittle flew as she raged, and intermittently she would stick her fingers into our food and grab bits here and there. We ran away as soon as we finished eating this utterly delicious plate.

That night we ended up at Marina Sands. V had eaten so many red bean buns that she couldn't fit in dinner and I ended up eating a plate of dumplings at the Northeastern restaurant next to my hostel. I was so hungry/tired that I even forgot to take a photo, though the dumplings were really very juicy and delicious.

The last morning in Singapore, I got up early to explore Hong Lim complex. Here I went to Outram Park char kway teow - run by a kindly couple. The lady told me she'd been in the business for decades, and they are "simple noodle people".

What a fine plate of CKT this was, full of wok fire and crispy bits.

I picked up a crispy curry puff and headed for a walk up to Mount Faber. I got totally lost but enjoyed the breath of green away from the crowdedness of Singapore.

I caught a bus down and wandered through the backstreets of Chinatown, stopping in at Tong Ah for a very crispy kaya toast breakfast.

Stuffed, I could hardly face more eating at Old Airport Rd food centre, which turned out to be our favouritest food centre of all.

There were lots of people waiting outside the prawn noodle stall, which was well deserved as this broth was incredibly rich and flavoursome.

We had popiah which was so light and crunchy, perfectly balanced with peanut and salty flavours - so good we went back for another one.

This rojak (Toa Payoh) is also very famous, but perhaps a little pungent with the fish sauce flavour. V found this too sweet and didn't like it at all.

We did agree that the Lao Bao beancurd was the smoothest, creamiest dessert one could have though. Also another one that was so good we went back for seconds.

My very last meal in Singapore was actually a takeaway box I bought to eat on the plane. I had been to this veggie place in Tampines with Joo 9 years ago and it was still there - the food as tasty as ever.

We had so much fun in Singapore this time eating and meeting random people. It was a treat to get away to Asia just 4 hours from Darwin - I love the visions Singapore bring of a "civilised" Chinese society, one where people adhere to a sense of orderliness. Could China ever achieve this? A bilingual, clean, lawful society?