We will stand together, hear the lion ROARlolz
Just booked my tickets. It’s been a year now and my body is beginning to shake and spasm at my lack of Char Kway Teow and Chicken Rice intake…thusly I am heading to SINGAPORE for Christmas
“Why Singapore?” some of you may ask. It’s not the most exciting place in the world, especially for someone like me who has been there…christ…over 20 times I guess. It’s true, Singapore is neither an idyllic, beach haven getaway nor a hedonistic paradise of free sex and alcohol. Also the people there talk funny. HOWEVER, as something of a food snob / connoisseur / critic / shoveler, I can say that without question, Singapore is a veritable Shangri La for food lovers.
Singapore is a port city traditionally, and is home to a vibrant population of people from all over the fricking place. You have the immigrant Chinese, the local Chinese, Malaysians, Indians, a smattering of other South East Asianers and other Westerners and something called “Peranakan” people which I imagine are superhumans descended from flesh-eating fish, capable of stripping a cow to nothing but bone in mere minutes, who have learned the ways of modern society and now manage to blend in with other humans and go unnoticed, but every now and then spaz out into a meat-ripping frenzy whenever there is a cow nearby.
Anyway, because of this chaotic mishmash (tourist boards often call this a “melting pot“) of different cultures all living happily under the subtly totalitarian hand of Singaporean rule, it’s a bloody excellent place to go and eat. At any given street corner you’ll smell flavourful chinese noodle dishes, soups and barbecued meats, fiery indian curries and delicate, milky indian dessert treats, the coconut and pandan of malaysian / south east asian dishes, and maybe the smarmy phnar of some young western chef attempting to make some fusion abomination out of all of the above, decorated with a fricking starfruit-sugar lattice or whatever. Discounting the last example, Singapore really is a haven for anyone who wants to eat a massive, yet authentic variety of different kinds of food and pay only a few dollars per meal doing so.
As you can probably tell, I’m really looking forward to it. Last time I went to Singapore, I was only there for a few days which wasn’t conducive to quaffing the entire spectrum of the Singapore food playlist that I’d have liked to.
On my list this trip, apart from eating as much of the above list as I can:
- Glutton’s Bay, a food center of highly-rated vendors, put together by the people at Makansutra, a website that reviews the best hawker food in Singapore.
- My Humble House, as I’m something of a regular in the Tokyo branch and I want to see how the original Singapore branch is different.
- Some place people have told me about called Oosh.
- Sit by the pool and work on OSF and another TOP SECRET PROJECT (omg).
Other food tips and suggestions are more than welcome. But be aware that I’ve had my fill of fancy French / Continental food in Tokyo, in Singapore I’ll be looking for either cheapo local street eats or interesting, pretentious and outrageously expensive fusion type dining.
Cheers!
