Typically, when I plan my trips, I put a lot of thought in and do tons of research on what I could possibly see, where I should eat, and how to make the most of my time. This time around, I left everything to Shan's expert hands. Eager to show me the best of what Singapore has to offer, she put together an epic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure of neighborhoods and hawker centres.
Day 1
After a little solo exploring at the Merlion plaza and Marina Bay, I got my first taste of hawker centres at the Lau Pa Sat market on Raffles Quay.
Aisles upon aisles of Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, South Indian, Korean, and other stalls. I can't even describe how good this place smelled. I took this interior shot around 11:00am. 30 minutes later, the lunch rush came in and there wasn't a single open table in the entire market.
After the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre, I met up with Shan and we explored the neighborhood of Tiong Bahru, one of Singapore's oldest housing developments. It's retained some of its older architecture, but now it's also home to newer condo/apt towers, famous hawker centres, and some nice thrift shops and indie bookstores. The must-have hawker dish of Tiong Bahru: char siew pork at Lee Hong Kee Cantonese Roasted Pork.
After Tiong Bahru and a stroll through the Singapore Botanical Gardens, we met with Adley coming home from the office, and we headed to the East Coast Lagoon hawker centre. This one was an open air market right on the water. We knocked back some Tiger beer and enjoyed some ridiculously good Singapore specialties: sambal stingray, prawn fritters, "carrot cake" (actually stir-fried radish and rice flour cake with seafood, soy sauce, garlic, etc), and satay. It was a great end to my first full day in Singapore.
One thing I was really impressed with in Singapore was the diversity of people and food. Yes, on the surface it's all Southeast Asian (South Chinese, Indo/Malay, Tamil, what-have-you), but you never really feel like it's a homogeneous culture. I more of a feeling that this is the NYC or melting-pot of Asia.
In Part 2, Shan and I earn props for navigating a Little India fish market, and we get sloppy on some bones on Arab Street.
Day 1
Aisles upon aisles of Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, South Indian, Korean, and other stalls. I can't even describe how good this place smelled. I took this interior shot around 11:00am. 30 minutes later, the lunch rush came in and there wasn't a single open table in the entire market.
After the Lau Pa Sat hawker centre, I met up with Shan and we explored the neighborhood of Tiong Bahru, one of Singapore's oldest housing developments. It's retained some of its older architecture, but now it's also home to newer condo/apt towers, famous hawker centres, and some nice thrift shops and indie bookstores. The must-have hawker dish of Tiong Bahru: char siew pork at Lee Hong Kee Cantonese Roasted Pork.
Tiger on the shoreline
Left to right: Sambal stingray, prawn fritter, carrot cake with prawns
What was left of the satay when we remembered to take a picture, and Mee Goreng.
After Tiong Bahru and a stroll through the Singapore Botanical Gardens, we met with Adley coming home from the office, and we headed to the East Coast Lagoon hawker centre. This one was an open air market right on the water. We knocked back some Tiger beer and enjoyed some ridiculously good Singapore specialties: sambal stingray, prawn fritters, "carrot cake" (actually stir-fried radish and rice flour cake with seafood, soy sauce, garlic, etc), and satay. It was a great end to my first full day in Singapore.
One thing I was really impressed with in Singapore was the diversity of people and food. Yes, on the surface it's all Southeast Asian (South Chinese, Indo/Malay, Tamil, what-have-you), but you never really feel like it's a homogeneous culture. I more of a feeling that this is the NYC or melting-pot of Asia.
In Part 2, Shan and I earn props for navigating a Little India fish market, and we get sloppy on some bones on Arab Street.
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