Hillside Travelers

When I was younger and did community theater (a fun fact many of you might not know), I was cast as Oliver in the musical of the same name. One of my favorite scenes was around the song “Food, Glorious Food” which is going on in the back of my head as I am writing this. [Short aside, after months of rehearsal, the community theater decided to continue with the show Godspell that was making money and scuttled Oliver! The theater shut down shortly thereafter so that was my last foray into theater.]

Ok, back to Singapore. The food here is amazing and comes from hawker centers — open air areas that sell affordable food in stalls — to fancy restaurants and everything in between (including fancy hawker centers). Thus far, we have sampled Malaysian, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Singaporean, fusion (various combinations of the above) and more.

Fancy Food

Singapore has an amazing array of restaurants at a variety of price ranges. We hit an *amazing* Chinese restaurant in the famous Raffles Hotel. It was not just the food, but the ambiance and plating were terrific (see below). Very much appreciating the strong dollar.

Because our host is vegetarian, we have sampled a fair variety of meat-less entrees. Below is from a gourmet vegetarian Japanese restaurant (and that is me rockin’ the Hawaiian shirt!)

Other Dining Experiences

Lest you thought we did all or even most of our dining as fine dining, I wanted to turn to what has been the most fun places to eat. We’ve gone to a few very modest/holes-in-the wall restaurants. In one, the Kind Bowl, I had the best pho I have ever had in my life. We also went to a place that does amazing things with plant protein (including chicken satay & chicken wings!)
Below is a sushi place where you order on your phone and your meal gets delivered on a little train. The train track is in an oval and just outside of it are tables and booths. When the food arrives, the train stops right at your table and lighted button comes on (at the top left of the #61 and logos). You push the button to send the train away once you have taken off your plates.

Perhaps the most fun places to eat, and places that are famous here, are the Hawker Centres (yes, that is the British spelling because that is what is used here as one of the four official languages of the city state — along with Mandarin, Malay and Tamil (from India)).

Hawker Centres

As noted, Hawker Centers are a Singaporean version of an open air food court with an amazing variety of food stalls. One of our first nights here, we went to a “fancy” Hawker Centre — Lau Pa Sat. Trudy got Korean and I got Malaysian (as I already had Korean for lunch).

My favorite Hawker Centre thus far (and we are still trying them) is at the Tiong Bahru Market. The ground floor is a market with fish, fruit, vegetables, clothing and more.

We sampled a few stalls. One was from Jian Bo – one of the more established markets. They are known for their Shui Kuch which is in the upper right hand corner. It’s a steamed rice cake with preserved radish on top (and tastes better than it sounds – I don’t like radishes but found it tasty).

Food Fun Fact

One of the foods common in this region is the durian. In addition to its thorn-covered rind, the durian is best known for being a smelly fruit.

It is so smelly, there is a special sign on busses and subways forbidding people to take it on board.

We will definitely try it before we leave and let you know how it is. [Another fun fact: you are not allowed be naked in your house/apartment/domicile with the windows open. If someone sees you, you can be arrested. Apparently the peeping tom can also be arrested – so not sure how often this is enforced]

And if you are wondering whether we have gained kilos and kilos of weight – so far we are doing okay. One of the reasons for this is that we continue to work out. Gyms are expensive so I have been creative in how I get my workouts in. One option here is to essentially work in a what looks like a shipping container and is called a Gym Pod. It is a small gym that you can book for yourself (or invite one or two of your friends)! They send you the code a few minutes before your scheduled session and the pod is yours!

All for now. May try to get one more in before we leave for Vietnam and Cambodia next week!