6 replies to this topic

[docdix]

Hi,
I have two days in Singapore coming up. can anyone give me places to go for street or hawkers fare that will give me a good taste of the Singaporean home cuisine.

Thanks

[piracer]

Oh jeez thats such a difficult question to answer. If i may suggest though, Maxwell Hawker Centre (which is near Chinatown) and Adam Road food centre. There's Tian Tian chicken rice stall in Maxwell which is arguably the most famous in Singapore and awesome mutton soup (doesnt sound much but its awesome) in the latter, plus a decent seafood BBQ stall (get the sambal stingray). AVOID at all costs, Newton Circus which is a rip off and has medicore food. Chinatown hawker centre also has good things but its big and i dont quite remember the stall names. I suggest you pick up the Makansutra guide (at any bookstore) for a good listing, eitherwise just be really firm in asking your hotel concierge for advice that you want some serious hawker stuff.

[docdix]

Thank you for the advice. If you only had 2 hawkers places you could go to, which ones would they be? I probably have only two free afternoons to spend eating so I may not have the time to shuttle from one place to another. Thanks again

[heidih]

I have only one experience in Singapore in 2006. Aside from the good advice already given I followed the general advice about street food: see where the locals are lining up, and keep your eyes and nostrils open and on alert. To this day I regret not stopping in a small corner cafe where the older guys were slurping down a brick red broth near where the tea shops were with the hanging bird cages. The tea shop area was under renovation and we were so hot from walking in the humidity that I could not pursuade my teenage son to stop.... I was there in August and durian was in full flavor - the perfume was everywhere and the lobes were on sale at every corner. In almost every location the blended fruit drinks (watermelon was my favorite- just watermelon and ice) were done with dead ripe fruit. In terms of travel, the subway is so accessible that you can easily move between most areas quickly. Please report back upon your return.

[docdix]

I have only one experience in Singapore in 2006. Aside from the good advice already given I followed the general advice about street food: see where the locals are lining up, and keep your eyes and nostrils open and on alert... Please report back upon your return.

Thanks for the advice, usually that is what I do but in this trip we will be a party of 8 people so I wanted to find a place with a good number of stalls choices so everyone can get their own fancy. I will go with the recommendation above on Maxwell Centre and based on the Makansutra website, they also recommend Chinatown Centre... is that a good place to go too? How about Gluttons bay? I know it will be rainy so will that be a problem?

thanks

[docdix]

Well just got back from Sing. it was mostly overcast which helped temper the heat and it was surprisingly less humid than last april. As planned, i did get to try what I had intended to eat while I was there plus a few more. Arriving a little after lunch we headed for the most accessible... Din Tai Fung for some dimsum stuffed with pork and chicken broth... fantastic as always. For dinner we ended up at the Food Republic atop Isetann on Orchard... great variety and what was recommendable is the Oyster Omelette, Mee, Laksa and Hainanese Chicken... actually everything looked so good so we tried and shared them.
Day 2 breakfast of Nani Goreng and bacon at the hotel then lunch at Spring Court in chinatown and had an 8 course menu. The highlight was the sharks fin soup and Singaporean chili crabs. I tell you, Singapore has the best sharks fin soups I have had so far because of the sheer amount of it that they place in the soup! The crabs were huge and excellent and just properly spiced. For dinner we went to the hawkers stalls at the marina (Makansutra Bay) with a view of the new Sands hotel it was excellent but limited in choices. I think what was nice about it was the ambience. The highlights for me in this place were the Oyster Omelette, Chicken Sate, fried seafood/seaweed rolls. I tried the grilled spicy Sting Ray and while it was different, I think I was just too full to enjoy it especially since you had to eat that with rice. I would have liked to try more but given that lunch was at 2PM I was just too stuffed to go for it.
Day 3 i skipped breakfast and had lunch at Maxwell food court and just had hainanese chicken. We left for the airport at 4pm and some of my companions had enough of Singaporean/Chinese food dove into the first Burger King stall they saw... believe me I was tempted but didn't want to forget the experience.
Thank you for all your suggestions and I think I am supposed to be back there in 3 months. My next trip is for Xiamen... suggestions and advice anyone?

[helenjp]

Please do keep up with the updates! I love Singapore, though it's been a while since I was there, so can't remember specific names too well...I think one of the good things about Singapore is precisely that you have Burger King next door to places where you can get down to some gooooooood makan! Makes it easy for everybody to enjoy themselves.