Saturday, June 06, 2009

Eating your way across a city

While most people know Singapore and the place where you can't chew gum or spit on the street without getting fined, it is has been a cross roads of an entire hemisphere for centuries. As a result, there is a wonderful blend of cultures. One of the foremost of these conflations is food.

Back in the 70s the government removed all of the food vendors from the streets and put them into food courts and hawker stalls. This decluttered the streets and also allowed for health and safety inspections. The result: incredible street style culinary delights where you do not have to worry about the nasty little buggies that typically come with street food in other countries in this part of the world. Needless to say I have been eating. A lot.

Laksa: A spicy curry soup with noodles, bean sprouts, fried tofu and in my case, fish. It is served in a metal bowl on the metal stand that has a fire lit underneath it. Wonderful dish. Rich, creamy, and full of flavor. I topped my meal off with mango juice.


Chicken Rice: I used makansutra to find what is supposedly the very place in all of Singapore for this dish. It is steamed chicken with an Asian style gravy that is served with a special kind of long grain rice, a bowl of chicken broth and a spicy chili paste. The chicken is steamed so perfectly that it is very soft, but not so soft that it completely falls off the bone. I have no idea what is in the gravy, but it is good. The chili paste is chili, garlic, ginger and a little water to make it not so thick. It also had a bit of a sweet edge to it that mitigated the heat. You ate the dish by taking some of the chicken and mixing it into the rice with a bit of the chili paste. You then took a bite with all of the components mixed together.


Other highly recommended dishes by the website above are chili crab, pepper crab, and fish head soup...

3 comments:

Lesley said...

Big mistake for me to read this while nursing Daniel at 4 am. Now I'm starving and all we have to eat is cereal. Thanks a lot!

Damien Huffer said...

Great restaurants for chilli and pepper crab are those in a line along East Coast Rd. Water views, outdoor dining, good service, and very generous portions. HUGE crabs! Mmmmm....

Emily said...

You're back online! Yay! Have a great trip--I'm looking forward to the updates (although I'm very glad I didn't read this one when I was hungry).