A culinary trip to Singapore

To write this post, we had to jet to Singapore - and spared no expenses or efforts! Nonsense ....  We were in Singapore, but for an entirely different reason: just to eat. We both are in fact big Anthony Bourdain fans. And when we had saw his episode about Singapore, we were thrilled and one thing was for sure: at some point we have to go there as well. So we went there! Singapore is a city-state, just south of Malaysia. The fascinating thing about Singapore is its cuisine, people from nearly every Asian nation found a home here and brought their food with them. You can eat excellent Chinese, Indian, Malay, Indonesian or Japanese. That is precisely why we were there!

Sleeping:

If you wants to live in a fancy hotel in Singapore, say from 4 stars, expect to spend pretty much money. Generally, the prices are not at all comparable with those of other large Asian cities. But what the heck .. for such a once-in-a-lifetime experience we wanted something nice and treated ourselves in the wonderful New Majestic Hotel. The design hotel is just one thing: differently. Certainly, you can spend your Singapore nights in one of these interchangeable large chain hotels - but the New Majestic Hotel is simply different. From start to finish styled - with funny ideas (Peepholes in the pool located beneath the restaurant) and a stunningly friendly and helpful staff. We were excited and felt really at home in our room. We had a Lifestyle Room, a mini-duplex, the bed on a gallery above, below, a small living area with Nespresso machine and the bathroom (the shower also with a peephole), with chic Kiehls products. Our eyes wandered out the back, on the said pool, so it was wonderfully quiet at night. We had breakfast at the hotel only once - and that very well. The selection including cheese is indeed unusual for Asia, but we preferred country-typical breakfast Kaya Toast in a Café two blocks away. Also worth mentioning is the location of the hotel: it is located at the southern edge of Chinatown, in probably one of the most beautiful streets in the area. In the vicinity many Chinese clans own beautiful old buildings, finely renovated and colorfully painted. We were very lucky to live in this neighborhood and not around the Orchard Road where most hotels are located.

Food:

We were clear on one thing: we wanted to taste the same stuff that Anthony Bourdain had also eaten. First, Chicken Rice Soup Tulang. But not just anywhere, but in exactly the same restaurants and at the same hawker (small cooking stalls, which have usually specialized in one to three dishes) our hero went to. But this was not so easy. As we were in Singapore around  of Chinese New Year, many Chinese Hawkers had closed over the holidays. Including Tian Tian at Maxwell Hawker Centre just around the corner from our hotel, where probably the best Chicken Rice dish would have been served. Even on the day Tian Tian should have re-opened, we were faced with the lowered blinds.

But then .... on the last day of our stay it was finally time to dig in: Tian Tian had opened and we finally got our long awaited Chicken Rice. And it was soooo delicious. The chicken is cooked in a broth with myriad spices and coconut milk - and in the same broth they cook the rice later. Everything is refined individually with different sauces (ginger, chilli, soy). Such a dream!

The second meal which had to be on our menu was Soup Tulang. The lamb bones are slowly cooked in a sweet and sour tomato soup - and you are supposed to suck the marrow out of the bone with a straw!!!! On TV it was already a mess and looked more like in an operating room.... so on our way, we are already some kind of scared. But on our first attempt we  somehow could not find the Golden Miles Food Center, opposite the Golden Mile, namely Tower Center - where we in vain searched for the hawker stall of Haji Kadir + M. Baharudeen (Booth # B1-14). On our second try, we found it.  Purportedly, those guys  are said  to have even invented the dish "Soup Toulang"! All around they showed pictures of Anthony Bourdain - and again we felt like what we were: eating tourists. But who cares, when that plate with that special dish is standing in front of you, a spicy hot sweet blood-red bone in sauce?  Ok, we have to admit that we hesitated a little to try it, but after the first bite was clear: Soup Tulang is a fine thing! But let us give you one simple advice: don't wear anything white when eating it and get yourself plenty of napkins. Knife, fork or chopsticks find no real use in this mess.

Another specialty of the city that you should not miss and a similar mess like Soup Tulang are Chilli Crabs. Which is a giant crab cooked in sweet and sour, tomato and egg sauce- The good thing: you will find it just about everywhere in town. But - it is only between three restaurants that the global blogging scene can not choose (ie who has the best chilli crab). You have really good chances to get a decent Chilli Crab in the East Coast Seafood Centre right on the sea. Here you will find the best seafood restaurants in the city - including Jumbo Seafood, Long Beach Seafood and the Red House Seafood Restaurant. With a few starters the 900 grams of chilli crab was enough for the both of us, plus there is are so called Dumplings, small fried yeast buns which you probably get addicted to just as we did. The food was fantastic, great, yummy... so guys, PLEASE OPEN UP A RESTAURANT IN EUROPE! ;-)

As usual, the Internet was our friend for researching the best eats. And by chance, we found the info that in Singapore, they have Soft Shell Crab Burger, whose shell is so soft that it can be eaten. "Burger Bench + Bar", was the place which had it, a tiny burger shop in a cinema/shopping center called Cathay Cineleisure near Orchard Road. They only use the freshest ingredients for their burgers. The owner Willin Low is and he surely has a reputation to loose as  he is one of Singapore's famous chefs. His other restaurant is on a more higher level .... but also our burgers were really outstanding. 

Jenke has already seen the world and eat all kinds of weird stuff (German readers of our blog may remember his visit to a Penis Restaurant in Beijing, just to give you ONE example) and as curiosity may have killed the cat but never had stopped Jenke from trying strange things, also in Singapore he found something crazy. It happened when we were out on our first night at the Marina Bay, on a huge New Year celebration, with all kinds of cotton candy, funny colored rodents (this year is the Year of the Rabbit!), merry-go-rounds, a colorful show stage with all sorts of Asian artists and lots of food stalls. We tried to catch a glimpse of food one stall sold, but what we saw from afar, we could not really classify. Even as we stood in front of the bowl it was not clear to us what they offered: we saw small, crispy fried brown creatures, about two inches long and quite thin. Somehow, the parts looked like deep fried Mini Martians. Only a native could help us with our question and started to make funny duck noises. Excuse me? "Ducktongue, Ducktongue. When you eat, you speak like duck." Aha! Duck tongue. Politely we asked if we can  try only one tongue (for a proper portion they wanted to have 25 Singapore dollars). The cook took pity on us ignorant long noses and gave us a duck tongue. Taste? Well, yes. Much tendons and small bones, little meat. Much fat. Nothing more. At the locals were happy about our nibbling...

Again, the web –it can be heaven and hell…. We read about one place far off the city center. The store has been praised exuberant by various bloggers who swore that they had simply the best Peking duck in the world. After about 25 minutes taxi ride to the far north, we were nearly in Malaysia and finally there. Only: the duck was sold out! Disaster! So now what? Next door we found a Thai restaurant, "Sawadee Thai Cuisine" - and what we saw on the plates of other dining guests looked really good, so we went inside. What a Hello! The nice service spared no efforts to convince us of their specialties, and so we ordered, like there was no tomorrow. Little spring rolls, chicken cooked in banana leaves, chicken in coconut milk, spicy prawns, kebabs, fish balls, and and and .... A wonderful evening, even without duck.

And a great trip, we will surely go back to Singapore. To see more photos, become a Reisefreunde Fan on Facebook here!

Posted in: English Version,Singapore,Streetfood