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Published: March 24th 2010
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Donut Time
Mango, Oreo and Apple Where to start with the food in Singapore...
If you wanted to take a vacation just to eat well I would recommend it over any place I have been. There are strong influences from Chinese, Malay and Indian throughout the country and it comes out in the food.
Most everything that I had in Singapore was amazing. From the hawker stands, mall food courts and the delicious and informative food tour provided by Tony the owner of the Betel Box hostel.
My eating journey began at food stall not far from where I was staying. This is where I learned that I LOVE the pork in Singapore, so I got the same dish a couple of times at different places. Basically just noodles, pork and wonton soup. The pork is cooked slowly so it is very tender and is almost sweet. They only give you a few little pieces of meat and I always wanted more. I would have devoured a huge plate of it if I could have found one.
Donuts
Moving to the mall food courts I first hit up Takashimaya and it was incredible. I was shocked to see so many bakeries, I really
Din Tai Fung
The chili dumplings were too slippery for chopsticks didn't expect to see beautiful fruit tarts, amazing breads and homemade cream puffs. And then there are donuts. I was told not to miss the donuts in Singapore so I got three kiddie donuts at the food court, mango, cookies and cream and apple cinammon. The mango was good but not great. The oreo and apple were out of this world good. They were both light soft dough with filling. The oreo donut had a filling similar to a whipped version of the filling you find in an oreo, with chocolate icing and oreo on top. The apple cinnamon was an apple pie filling and the entire donut was rolled in cinnammon sugar, sounds simple but was so delicious.
Din Tai Fung
The next spot on my "must eat" was Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung is known for their dumplings and I was able to find out why. I had the chili pork dumplings as well as the steamed pork dumplings. The chili dumplings were in a sauce with perfect spice and sweetness, it was really incredible and I ended up dipping the steamed dumplings in it too. The steamed pork dumplings were like little pockets of
Steamed Pork Dumplings
Heaven in little dough pockets goodness. You have to bite off a little nibble, suck out the soup and then devour the rest. I can not wait to go back and get more.
Meat wrapped in dough
I love all meat wrapped in dough and thankfully Singapore is filled with different options. I wish we had little Samosa stands up and down streets at home, they make the perfect snack to walk with and eat at the same time. I also vow to eat more dumplings and wontons when I get back to the US.
The chicken curry and the potato samosas were my favorite. With one of my potato samosas I got some wonderful sweet chili sauce again...favorite asian sauce behind sweet soya. I also hit up some bakeries for bread stuffed with ham, chicken, etc. So so delicious. I think my love for meat in dough started with corn dogs and has expanded quite a bit. I am still looking forward to getting a corn dog at the Iowa state fair this August.
So this is meat on top of dough but still fits into the same category...it is called floss. It is very popular around Asia, I am
Happy face bread
Where I got yelled at for taking a picture. Who knew bread was so secretive that you cant take pictures not sure that it is the same everywhere and I will never find out because I don't plan to have it again. I was pretty much guilted into buying a floss because I took a picture of the happy face bread and got yelled at by the sales clerk. I didn't realize that there was a no photography rule in food court bakeries. She then started going on and on about how great floss was so I felt obliged to buy one. My best explanation is: sweet soft bread with a pork jelly and dried up pork shavings on top. I sounded like it had potential for goodness but not so much.
711 Mashed Potatoes
When you see a mashed potato dispenser at every 711 you eventually need to try it, so I did. I got the BBQ flavor with gravy. It came out as a liquid and I didnt think it would firm up, but before the gravy was even done pouring out of the machine we had spongy dry mashed potatoes on our hands. Lets just say I didnt go back for more, but I am glad I tried it.
The Betel Box Food Tour
Floss
I think you get the point from the look on my face One of the highlights of my hostel was the free tours that they offer. On Thursday nights, Tony, the owner takes out any willing participants for a food tour around the Joo Chiat neighborhood. We learned about Singapore culture, people and history of city. He also answers all of the questions visitors have about Singapore like: how does the government work, what are the languages, what's up with the gum law, how much do people make and why can so many Louis Vuitton stores stay in business and where do typical people live. It was so informative some of the highlights for me were:
- It is not illegal to chew gum in Singapore however it is illegal to import gum or bring it into the country (I inadvertently broke the law). You can however buy gum from a pharmacy with a perscription...random I know. He mentioned that there were some government talks a few years back with the US and one of the senators was on the board at Wrigley and now the laws are less strict. funny how things like that work.
- Language - every student is required to learn English as their first language and
Meat in dough
Actually this was a veggie samosa but same difference, all wonderful their second language is the native tongue of their father (Father is Chinese you learn Mandarin no option) but if the father is European then you get to pick your second language.
- The government is run similar to a private business and the prime minister is inctefied and paid out based on performance. He is also the highest paid PM in the world making I believe $1.3, his salary is based on the average salary of 10 people from the top 6 proffesions in Singapore (10 doctors, architects, bankers, etc).
Now onto the food. It was great. We started with Samosas, both chicken and veggie and ate them while overlooking the city from the 17th floor of a typical Singapore residential building. We then moved onto Jenny's fruit stand for some great fresh fruit. Fruit that is truly fresh and doesnt have to be shipped around the world is so much better. I loved the honey pineapple and yellow watermelon. Then we had some rice dumplings, there were pork and shrimp. I just had a pork since at this point I was getting full but we had barely started. Moving to the next spot we had a full
sit down dinner with about 10 different plates of food. I enjoyed the shrimp rolls (cant remember official name) and the beef in coconut curry sauce, it was so tender you could cut with a spoon. After gorging ourselves we went to another residential area to have our information session with Tony (we also bought some beers and ice cream). All in all it was a really great night. I wish I would have been able to do it the first day I was in Singapore because I learned so much and got to try amazing food that I would not have been able to try on my own. Also, we saw where the President of Singapore lived, right around the corner from the hostel, who would have known!
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Tony
non-member comment
Thank you for joining us on the foodwalk!
Hey Kate! thanks for joining us for the foodwalk! BTW, I think the leftovers which we doggy bagged was in the fridge for over a week! Think we done well that night. incidentally, our PM actually earns more than S$3mil.... your favourite beef dish during the foodwalk is called Beef Rendang and the shrimp shots are Kueh Pie Tie... So, whats for dinner? ;-p Tony