Location: Singapore

Author: My Husband

After spending two weeks in India, my colleagues and I went our separate ways. One decided to fly home via Frankfurt (effectively flying around the world to get to/from India), and the other spent the weekend in HK before continuing on to Vancouver. I was the laziest and decided to simply spend the weekend in my transit city, Singapore, for some personal R&R before heading home.

In the foreground is the symbol of Singapore – the Merlion. The tall building in the background is the Swissotel Stamford, which used to be the tallest hotel in the world. In the middle is the Esplanade (also affectionately know as the durian for its spiky exterior), which serves as Singapore’s stage for cultural events. To the right of the Esplanade are the hotels at Marina Bay.

Being in Singapore is a treat, and despite my being away for years and years, it always feels like home every time I’m back. It is all too easy to slip back into the warm embrace of the country, of family, and of my childhood sights, sounds, and tastes; once I step through the sliding doors of the airport terminal, I’m back in familiar territory.

When in Singapore, I would usually take a room in one of the hotels at Marina Bay, and over the years, I’ve stayed at most of them. However, Marina Bay is a little out of the way and I wasn’t interested in spending the bulk of my 2 days commuting, so I decided to put up at the centrally-located Intercontinental this time around.

The hotel boasts a fusion colonial/peranakan theme. It feels quite genteel and thus appropriate for an Intercontinental. However, uncharacteristically for an Intercontinental, the service was not always all that it should have been. My favourite Intercontinental is still the Paris Le Grand in France.

The hotel is attached to the Bugis Junction mall, which boasts of a fully air-conditioned “shopping street”. The mall was built around several blocks of restored Peranakan shophouses, and a portion of it was enclosed with a glass roof and air-conditioned.

The glass ceiling and walls enclosing the space between the restored shophouses.

The interior of Bugis Junction. These used to be real shophouses. In days of yore, the shopkeepers would operate their businesses on the ground floor of these buildings and live on the second and third stories.

Across the street from the hotel, you can still see some of the unrestored, un-gentrified shophouses. This stretch of shops are mostly traditional coffee-shops and eating houses. I’m sure the food at these places are very good, but I’m just not used to eating hot foods in 30+ degree weather anymore…

My first full day in Singapore, I met up with some close relatives and had lunch and dinner at the Shang Palace and Palm Beach respectively. These will be featured as quick takes in the next couple of posts. The next day, I went to Orchard Road to pick some items up for my wife, and I again took the opportunity to have lunch at… Food Republic. I had my aunt and uncle with me that day, and the three of us really went to town on the food at the Wisma Atria FR outlet…

FR… again…

Thye Hong hokkien prawn noodles. These were savory, but with a slight tinge of sweetness imparted by the prawn stock used to cook the noodles. The mix of noodles gave this dish differing degrees of al-dente’dness.

Also from Thye Hong. Imho, these were even better tasting than the prawn noodles. Expertly fried with plenty of “wok hei” and fresh cockles, this was the best cha kway teow I’ve had in quite some time. Our Vancouver readers can find an approximation of this dish at the “Curry King” stall at the Osaka supermarket mall foodcourt.

This is the local fried radish “cake”. The “cake” is made with a slurry of rice flour and grated radish, and then steamed until solid. The “cake” is then sliced up, and fried up with eggs and other seasonings. This is a personal favourite, and I’ve never lost the taste for it after all these years. As far as I know, nobody makes a dish like this in Vancouver.

Rojak. Best I’ve had in quite a while. See the difference between the rojak in Singapore and that which we ate at Kedah House? Needless to say, the Singaporean version was quite a bit better.

This is a crepe filled with cooked jicama, shredded omelette, grated carrots, chopped peanuts, and some sweet/spicy sauce. It’s akin to an unfried spring roll, and quite satisfying. However, my wife has not developed a taste for this at all…

Singaporean roti prata. Another personal favourite, especially the egg-y version. Roti prata is available in some SE Asian (Tropika, Kedah House, etc…) restaurants in Vancouver, but they look and taste slightly different.

 
Ice kachang (flavoured shaved ice) with sea coconut (the brown stuff – it is sweet and has the texture of jello) and flavoured grass-jelly shaved ice. In the heat and humidity of Singapore, eating some shaved ice provides much needed cold relief.

Milk tea served in a traditional coffee-shop teacup. I’m sure it was all in my mind, but I think the tea tasted better when drunk from one of these traditional teacups.

To give you an idea of what the interior of a Food Republic looks like, here are some snaps I made at the Vivocity location.

This is a snap of the Roti Prata cook flipping and thinning out the prata dough. You can see formed pratas cooking on the griddle.

Finally, after lunch, we happened by an Old Chang Kee stand. Since resistance was futile, I dutifully bought a couple of their traditional curry puffs (a deep fried pastry shell with a curried chicken/potato/egg filling) to eat back at the hotel.

It was a fantastic two days. My R&R in Singapore, in addition hanging out by the pool, was mostly spent eating.

Not a bad place to spend a couple of hot and humid days

However, it’s just as well it was only two days. If I had spent any more time in Singapore, Christina would probably have put me on a bread-and-water diet after I returned home.