Singapore

It's been a while since my last post. I guess with Christmas coming it will give me more excuses to make more food and make more posts.

I didn't have to cook in the last week as my time was spent sniffing around in Singapore. Was lucky enough to get taken around to eat the signature dishes, I guess you can't really go without having Singaporean Chilli Crab in Singapore.

We went to East Coast (Jumbo Seafood Resturant) for chilli crab. There was so much gravy, much more generous than what we're used to here in Perth.  I needed more than one stomach to eat the mantou (the fried chinese buns) to soak the gravy. I was told Jumbo is one of the better places to eat, but the location is pretty much hyped up by tourist advertising, so next time I think I'll have to try a local stall and see how different it tastes.

Apart from the traditional hawker stalls and all, I was looking for some Sinaporean Bak Ku Teh. Its a soup made with garlic and pork ribs. The Malaysian version contains more herbs but the Singaporean version consists mainly of stock, garlic and pepper only.  

I found Song Fa Bak Ku Teh near Clarke Quay MRT. There were quite a few people sitting in and it looked quite authentic. The Bak Ku Teh was very nice. The taste is not as strong as the Malaysian style, its more clear and doesn't mask the taste of the pork. I used to like the Malaysian style a lot, it is very hearty and warming with all the herbs. After trying this one, I found it more simple and easy to drink/eat, it also brought out the flavour of the meat much better. I think I like this one more now.

Address: 11 New Bridge Road 
Take Clark Quay MRT Exit to Central Mall)

After a small Bak Ku Teh, I walked down New Bridge Road into Chinatown for some Hock Lam Beef Kuey Teow. It's a Teochew style noodle, the soup was very rich and beefy. I asked for the version with soup and the lot (beef tripe, tendon shin, beef shin, sliced lean beef and tendon). Apparently its $1 more with tendon.

The noodle was very nice. The 'tendon shin' was bits of beef shin with tendon in it. The shin part was very well cooked and the texture of tendon melted in my mouth. The combination of both was just so nice that it sort of dissolved altogether. The rest of the meat were very nice two, but I think the tendon shin was my favourite.

Address: 22 China Street (Far East Square)
Website: Hock Lam Beef

After all this, I think my best Singaporean local food discovery will have to the street side ice-cream stalls. You can find them at most tourist attraction spots, for me it was Orchid Road and Esplanade Park across the river from the Merlion.

The ice-cream is wrapped in a sweet white bread with green and pink swirls, you can also get ones where the bread is just green. The texture of the bread is similar to the Asian style white bread which is sweeter and lighter in texture compared to the Western style white bread. I guess you can call it the Japanese style milk loaf. It is actually a very common bread loaf found locally. 

The vendor has blocks of ice-cream sitting inside his refrigerated trolley. When you order, he'll take on block out (about the size of a brick), cut about an inch of ice-cream and wrap it in a slice of bread. You can choose to have the wafer instead if you like, but I found the bread nicest. The sandwich ice-cream works so well in the Singaporean heat, a perfect snack - especially when you bite into the ice cold ice-cream and it melts a little into the bread.