old airport road

singapore

51 old airport road

after a series of faux-hawker centers (i.e. mall food courts), we finally got a chance to go to a real hawker center on our last night in singapore. it was massive - rows and rows of vendors selling all different kinds of food. it was a little overwhelming and we only had an hour. derek and i decided to take turns. first, he guarded our table while i searched for my meal. i walked up and down each row looking for indonesian fried rice but didn't find it. i ended up going with a bowl of minced meat noodles.

on my way back to the table, i noticed an oyster omelet stand but my hands were full. so i asked derek to order a plate to share with the table. really good. the oysters tasted fresh and the chili sauce was delicious. after we finished our meal, we went back to get soybean milk and almond jelly for dessert. derek and i loved the hawker center - next time we go to singapore we'll definitely visit more hawker centers and less food courts!

my humble house

singapore

website

my humble house is located in the esplanade, a giant durian-shaped arts center in downtown singapore. it serves high-end chinese food with southeast asian influences. very fancy and very tasty. pictured is the lobster salad with dragonfruit and melon balls in a wasabi dressing. it's served in a dragonfruit shell with rose petals. that's just an example of the amazing dishes that we ate here.

we had lunch here but i think it would be a very nice place to eat at night. it looks like the walls are designed to sparkle at night and there's a great view of the city. there's a sign outside that says no shorts, no sandals, and no photography. they didn't complain, however, when i walked in shorts and flip-flops and took pictures of every dish. a sidenote - the waitresses have very strange uniforms. they look like traditional chinese outfits except for the fact that there's fabric missing around the waistline. you can see the waitresses bellies and belly buttons. it's rather disturbing but if you can ignore the waitresses and focus on the food, it's fine.

food opera

singapore

website

food opera is a massive food court in the basement of the super fancy ion mall that recently opened on orchard road in singapore. derek and i actually stopped in the food opera twice - once for lunch before we started shopping and again for an afternoon snack before leaving the mall. i don't even think we managed to look at every vendor before deciding which one to order from. for lunch - derek ordered hainanese chicken, roast duck with rice, and a side of roast pork. i wanted something a little lighter and went to the dim sum vendor and ordered an egg tart and fluffy white pork buns.

lunch was just okay. it was more expensive than other food courts, but the food wasn't worth the bump in price. unfortunately i forgot to take a picture of our afternoon snacks, because those were much better. derek had bon chon chicken (yes, that's considered a snack for derek) and i had belgian chocolate ice cream mixed coldstone-style with sponge cake and strawberries from a japanese ice cream shop.

long beach seafood

singapore

website

east coast park in singapore is a beautiful park by the water with a hawker center for street food, a huge man-made lake with a waterskiing machine (a rope will pull you in a loop around the very large lake), and the east coast seafood centre which contains several seafood restaurants, including long beach seafood. we saw a few people ordering the black pepper crab, which was apparently invented at this restaurant, but we wanted the chili crab.

fatty crab in nyc has its own version of the dish, but it is more expensive and uses one small crab. plus, the singapore version has crab meat in the chili sauce itself. the sauce is extremely spicy. for me, at least. derek and the rest of the table happily dug in. i enjoyed the fact that the chili crab was served with fried mantou and i used that to dip into the crab-laden sauce. a much milder option, but still delicious. for dessert, they served an amazing almond jelly with longan pieces - very refreshing after all that spicy food.

din tai fung

singapore

website

my lonely planet guide recommended this place for its dumplings and noodles. it's a taiwan restaurant with branches throughout asia and i think they also have branch in los angeles. the singapore branch was (big surprise) in the basement of a mall on orchard road. we went on friday for lunch and it was packed - we had to wait about a half hour to get seated.

the xiao long bao is their specialty, so that's what we ordered. very very good. unfortunately there wasn't as much soup in the dumplings as i would normally like but the taste was phenomenal. that said, i think we can get the same quality of xiao long bao from joe's shanghai in nyc's chinatown. my noodle soup with pork and pickled cabbage was good, but not as good as the version my mom makes. all in all, it was a fantastic meal but between joe's shanghai and my mom, i think we've got this place beat.

food republic

singapore

website

for thanksgiving dinner, the newylweds, derek, and i had a feast at the food republic food court in vivocity mall. it's a huge food court with all kinds of food. it took quite a while for all of us to make our initial lap around. there was one vendor who just sold various fried items, another who only sold meat buns. women push around carts with more food and drinks - like dim sum and fresh juices. it's quite a spectacle.

first we commandeered a table and made sure that one person was guarding our stuff at all times. then we separately visited the various vendors and brought back plates to share. i found the taiwanese food vendor and ordered all my favorites - zha jiang mian (pictured), scallion pancakes, fried mantou, and fried red bean pancake. derek picked up beef soup with hand-shaved noodles and chicken+pork buns. in true thanksgiving style, we ate and ate until we were stuffed. it was an excellent way to celebrate the american holiday.

prima tower

singapore

website

derek and i had lunch at prima tower's revolving restaurant. as it was our second lunch of the day, our focus was mostly on the awesome views of singapore. the restaurant is located at the top of the prima company's flour silo and the entire restaurant slowly rotates so that during an hour-long meal you can move about 180 degrees. we saw mount faber, sentosa island, and the port of singapore (the busiest port in the world).

dim sum was pretty good. i took a picture of the lovely chicken feet. unfortunately it's been a while since we ate there. we didn't pay for internet while in singapore because i found a mall near the hotel that had free internet kiosks. that's why i waited until we returned to new york before posting about the many singapore restaurants we went to. so i can't really remember what else we had other than the fact that it was dim sum, but i do remember the incredible views being the focus of our meal.

bread talk

singapore

website

i love chinese pastries - the big fluffy buns filled with various pastes and the not-too-sweet cakes topped with whipped cream rather than frosting. the versions i find in nyc's chinatown are usually greasier and heavier than the pastries i find on the west coast or in asia. i didn't get to go to very many bakeries while in hong kong so i spent much of my time in singapore searching for chinese bakeries. unfortunately, most of the bakeries are french-style with a lot of tarts and croissants. good, but not what i was looking for.

breadtalk is a chain of bakeries that can be found in singapore malls. although it was mostly french pastries and breads, i did find a few asian-style buns and cakes. nothing with red bean paste or anything like that, but the almond bun (pictured) from the breadtalk in paragon mall was close enough. it was delicious - filled with a light white chocolate cream and topped with toasted almonds. it was so good that even derek liked it - in fact, he ate half of it ...

lucky plaza food court

singapore

lucky plaza on orchard road

as you will see, derek and i ate in a lot of food courts. every mall in singapore had a basement food court filled with all kinds of food - indonesian, korean, indian, chinese, etc. - there's even usually a stand devoted solely to hainanese chicken rice. although not as cheap as the hawker centers, it was still great food for reasonable prices. every time we went to a food court, derek and i took a preliminary lap to survey all of the options.

pictured is the duck and wonton noodle dish that i ordered from "roasted delight" in the asian food court. we were drawn to the hanging roasted meats displayed on the counter. i was surprised to find out that the wonton noodles are not served in soup. instead, the plate is covered in a sweet soy sauce that you can mix into the rest of the ingredients, while the soup is served on the side. it really highlights the taste of the noodles and wontons.

pu tien

singapore

website

pu tien is an area in the fujian province in china and also a restaurant in a mall in singapore serving food from the region. it seems like all the good restaurants in asia are in malls. this was yet another feast with dishes i have never had before. some highlights - the deep fried thousand year old egg with sweet and sour sauce, the steamed cold pork belly with garlic, deep fried yam, and butterflied shrimp with massive amounts of freshly chopped garlic on them.

my favorite, however, was what the natives at our table referred to as the "singaporean hamburger." stir-fried beef strips with caramelized onions as the "patty." the "bun" is a deep-fried mantou pocket (the kind they serve with peking duck at most chinese restaurants on the west coast.) the restaurant also provides a plastic glove and a knife. directions for eating: place the plastic glove on one hand, use it to hold the very hot fried mantou and use the knife to slice open the pocket portion. then fill with the stir-fried beef and enjoy. delicious and a little dangerous (try not to burn your mouth on the hot oil still coating the mantou pocket).