Feasting in Singapore

One of the food-related things I look forward to whenever we travel to our southern neighbour is eating in the food courts.  Yes :)  I love the food-court food in Singapore.  



Although I must qualify that statement and say that I've mostly eaten in food-courts located in middle to upper class suburban malls and not so much at HDB apartment-based food centres, but really, what is there not to like? The quality of ingredients used are good, the taste and standards consistent throughout major food-courts, food hygiene is maintained, prices are reasonable and portions are generous.  

Sadly, I can't really say the same for what's available here in our Malaysian shopping mall food-courts.  Besides the fact that all food must be halal, you find 99% of the stalls are manned by foreign workers.  Food quality and hygiene are questionable, and flavours of any single dish are vastly different from one stall to another. 

When eating in Singapore, my family likes to go for comfort food, rather than speciality cuisines.  We love our beef noodles, curry laksa, chicken rice, fish noodles and of course, the fabulous durian pengat that you can only find in Singapore!  Sigh...I don't understand why we can't seem to get good durian pengat in Malaysia - the land of durians! :P

So, be ready for an onslaught of food pictures in this post.  It is quite a long post, as I am cramming photos of food we've eaten in various places in Singapore.  

Pan Mee Soup with Beef Slices and Poached Egg
 

Whenever we are in Orchard Road, we will drop by the food court in Lucky Plaza for some cheap and good food.  The Pan Mee soup was yummy - hearty broth with tender beef slices and beautifully poached egg.  Can't find this version here.

Fish slices noodle soup - thick fish slices in milk based soup. 

Ice kacang with durian pengat - hubby said this was so-so. 
Their leng chi kang is heaps better.

Lechon with Rice

If you like Filipino food, you can't go wrong with Lucky Plaza.  We had one of the best lechon here (our Chinese version of Siew Yoke/Roast Pork).  Although not as tender or fatty juicy as Siew Yoke, this lechon was fantastic. The meat was chewy but not tough, the skin was thick yet still crackling and the flavour was superb, more intense than Siew Yoke.  Hubby and I devoured the whole plate and still craved for more. 

Pork Sinigang

Nothing much to look at, but this Pork Sinigang was totally yummylicious.  Loosely meant as Tamarind Pork Soup, it was wonderfully appetizing, the pork meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the broth was sour and flavourful.  Food-court or not, these two dishes were the tastiest Filipino food I've had.

Frog Porridge at AMK Hub food court

Very nice porridge in a claypot, with tender and meaty froggy portions.

Chwee Kueh

I found out that Chwee Kueh is a big favourite in Singapore, but I have never quite gotten the hang of this nyonya delicacy, so I'd better not give a biased opinion here :P  My BIL said it was quite nice.

Beef noodle soup at Rasaputra foodcourt, MBS.  Pricey and ok,
but i still very much prefer the version at the AMK Hub

Seafood Cantonese Fried Noodle

Surprisingly, we had very good meals at the Ulu-Ulu Restaurant at the Singapore Night Safari.  The meals were pricey (as expected) but you get really good stuff.  Hubby's Seafood Wat-Tan-Hor came loaded with chunky and fresh seafood.  The portion was gigantic!  The picture above in no way does it justice.

My Curry Laksa was superb.  There were two huge prawns the size of my palm, three huge, super fresh scallops, quail eggs, tofu, shredded chicken meat, spaghettic noodles and a hearty laksa broth.  We polished the whole bowl in mere minutes.

My BIL and wife shared a briyani set and said that it was good too.  Again, portions were extra generous.


We also enjoyed good hawker food at the Singapore Food Trail (SFT) at the Singapore Flyer.  The SFT is a 60s themed food centre, very similar to Lot 10's Hutong Food Centre.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos! :P

Another accidental food find was The Summit cafetaria on the grounds of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.  The Summit is a cheap and cheerful, no-frills cafetaria/canteen attached to the NUS School of Law. 



 

 



 

We had brought the kids for a day excursion at the Botanic Gardens and were looking for a lunch pit-stop when we stumbled upon The Summit. This is a good place for cheap and good homey food. 

 

 



 

They have various Asian and Western selection, and sets of the day.  I had the Pork Ribs and Watercress Soup set that comes with steam rice and a big serving of stir fry spinach.  It was ridiculously cheap at S$2.50 or something like that. The soup was very good - full of porky goodness, falling-off-the-bone tender meat and melt-in-the-mouth watercress.  My son ate 3/4 of the whole thing.

Can never resist a good serving of Barley and Gingko Soup with Beancurd Sheets.  Loads of gingko inside.  Love it.

Jumbo size curry puffs - crispy and flaky on the outside, chocked full of goodies on the inside.  Nice.

 

 

 

I think of Sakura as the equivalent of Shogun in One Utama.  They are always packed, and the selection of food is not bad. 

Since it was Christmas period, they had the carvery section - which was nice. 

Loads of chilled big prawns...

And sashimi!

You don't have to stand and wait for the chef to slice a few miserable pieces for the crowd to fight over. 

Teppanyaki section

Plenty of prawn tempura for the taking

I like this herbal prawn soup

Their hainanese chicken rice was very good

Braised Teochew Duck

Yummy desserts  - from top left, clockwise;
Lotus Bean Pau, Durian Pengat Puffs (both were very good),
Cheese cake and sweet potato and sago with gula melaka (very nice!) 

Some good friends took us to this restaurant in Yio Chu Kang

Apparently, Seletar Hill Restaurant is a famous, award-winning restaurant that has been blogged to death a few years ago.

Nothing too fancy - it is a small, cosy and homey restaurant

They serve you tea in these dainty glass cups

One of their signature dishes - Kong Bak Pau (Braised Pork) 

 

 

Best way to eat it - with a steamed man tou.  Yummy.

Claypot Tofu with Seafood

Their most famous dish - Camphor Tea Smoked Duck.  I love everything with smoked tea.  This duch was juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside.  Love the smoked flavour. 

Stir Fry Kailan

We thoroughly enjoyed the meal at Seletar Hill.  It was always nice catching up with old friends over good food.  Thanks James and Joey!

Before I end this post, did you know that fruits are so cheap in Singapore? Yes, even after currency conversion.   Even though we never cook in Singapore, hubs and I just love to buy loads of fresh fruits from Fairprice.  Each of these fruit packs below costed between S$1.99 to 3.99. 

I want to cry.