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Singapore food log

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I spent 4 days in Singapore with Bear last month. This is not the first time I have visited Singapore, but it feels like the first time I have meaningfully explored it. We went to malls, the botanical displays, malls, the observation deck, malls, the garden, and did I mention malls? It was too hot to be out and about during the day and the most convenient escape from the heat was to pop into a mall and head to the food court for a snack. Consequently the biggest takeaway from this trip is that the East and Southeast Asian food scene is unmatched. I am quite conservative in my meat consumption having been raised vegetarian, but I love seafood and love experimenting with new flavours, and so Singapore had some of the best food I've ever eaten.

Day 1

  • May's Kafe: Our breakfast nook of the trip, a quick 7 minute walk away from our hotel. We sat in the same spot and tried different food every day.
    • Chee cheong fun: At the risk of upsetting both Singaporeans and Gujaratis, I am gonna describe this as rice khandvi with a sweet and savoury sauce and lots of spring onion on top. It was silky and chewy, but the sauce was bit too sweet for me.
    • Bean sprouts: Mung bean sprouts sauteed in oil and topped with herbs and something that looked like pork floss (?) Great side.
    • Kaya toast: Kaya is a sweet pandan-y coconut-y spread which when sandwiched between bread with some pats of salted butter is the quintessential Singaporean breakfast. Although I am not into sweet breakfasts, I am partial to Kaya toast and it ended up being dessert with my breakfast everyday.
    • Lemon barley: My beverage of the morning was this simple drink made by mixing barley powder in water and topping it with lemon juice and ice. It was cooling, very slightly sweet and the perfect way to end my breakfast.
  • Takashimaya food court: Takashimaya is a gigantic Japanese mall. Whether or not we bought anything there is irrelevant because the highlight of any mall in Singapore is always the food court, and Takashimaya did not disappoint.
    • Congee with okra, fish and unidentified greens: My first time trying congee! It was so comforting. I mean, the South Indian in me couldn't see a bowl of soupy rice and not be happy. The steamed fish was literally the best fish I've ever had in my life, and the bhindi was still slightly slimy but interestingly not off-putting at all! One of the best meals I've eaten.
    • Chicken yakitori: Classic. Smoky, sweet and perfectly cooked.
    • Chicken karaage: I mean, it's fried chicken.
  • Chagee: Chagee is a chain of tea shops founded in China but with branches all over East and Southeast Asia. My fixation with Chagee through my trip began on the first day. I wanted a hot drink because I was feeling cold in the mall's air conditioning, so I walked up to what looked like an Asian Starbucks to get something that could warm me up and my life was changed forever.
    • Bo Ya jasmine green milk tea: I got a basic jasmine milk tea not really thinking much of it but oh my god. It was so fragrant, so jasmine-y I felt like I was being serenaded. I'm not a fan of milk generally but the milk in this one tasted so mild, no acidity at all. The packaging was a bit wasteful but I tried my best to ignore that.
  • Chao Thai bistro: The friendly neghbourhood Thai place was our saviour as we scoured the neighbourhood on Google Maps to find something that was open late.
    • Thai fish cakes: Amazing! I had never had Thai fish cakes before and I couldn't believe how good they were! Although a bit greasy, the little vada-looking things were soft, a bit chewy and way more flavourful than I expected! Slightly seafood-y, very herby, the most notable flavour being lemongrass, with some heat from what I am assuming is bird's eye chilli.
    • Egg fried rice: Exactly what it said on the tin. Gigantic portion though.
  • 7 Eleven: 7 Eleven has been our saving grace whenever we have been in a country with a 7 Eleven.
    • Milo: My sweet treat every night of the trip.
    • Pocari sweat: The actual MVP of the entire trip, probably saved me from going to the hospital at least twice.
    • Unidentified rice cracker: This was like cocaine, I wish I had taken a picture of the packaging so I can buy it again.
    • Unidentified fruit gummy: Turned into our emotional support sugar supplement.

Day 2

  • May's cafe
    • Roti prata curry: I liked this! Super crispy, buttery and flaky prata (which is essentially a Malabar parotta) with a thin coconut milk curry, very reminiscent of Singaporean flavours. The roti was a bit greasy for my liking, but I liked how familiarly the dish ate.
    • Kaya toast
    • Homemade barley: The non-lemon version of the barley drink I had had the previous day. I still can't make up my mind if I liked it with or without the lemon, but I can confidently say that I love the barley.
  • Cloud forest cafe: A quick stop to get some sugar in us after walking around Cloud Forest
    • Coconut ice cream: Meh. Naturals is better. Probably because this used more mature coconut so it was missing the subtlety of the coconut flavour that I see in tender coconut ice creams.
  • Satay by the Bay: A breezy open hawker center in the promenade which, true to its name, indeed sold satay right by the bay. I've been here before when I was much more sick and uninterested in food, but I still remember the satay was a banger.
    • Chicken satay: I was right, it was pretty banger, but not as moreish as I remember. Plus the peanut sauce was a miss.
    • Sliced fish in sweet and sour sauce: This was actually really good. Tender, flaky fish with a sticky sweet half-crunchy half-chewy outside. It leaned a little bit sweet, but not cloyingly so. Plus there was rice and I am a certified rice hoe.
    • Sugarcane juice with lemon: Too sweet. My heart yearned for Cane-O-La.
  • Marina Bay Sands food court: After spending half an hour on the Marina Bay Sands rooftop, the natural next move was to get something to eat from the hawker-style food court in the mall below.
    • Dry noodles set from Kok Kee Wonton Noodles: Incredible. Possibly my favourite meal of the whole trip. Thin springy egg noodles tossed in a salty sauce (which I later found out was basically just lard and soy sauce), served with a spicy chewy char siu, bok choy blanched and tossed in a slightly different but just as tasty sauce, and the most comforting bowl of broth. The whole meal was so rich in umami and while somehow not being overtly meaty. I will dream about this meal for years.
    • Fruity Ai-yu jelly from Nine Fresh: Another food experience that was borderline spiritual. A cold herbal jelly topped with chewy milk balls, taro balls, mango and lychee boba, and probably more things I couldn't discern. I have no idea how to describe this. Texturally it was varying levels of chew, and flavour-wise it had some pops of mango against a steady backdrop of the ai-yu jelly. Mindblowing. I will also dream about this for years to come.

Day 3

  • May's Kafe
    • Chee Cheong Fun and Yam Mix: This was basically the breakfast from the first day along with spongy yam cakes. There was something texturally that I did not like about the yam cakes but I couldn't put my finger on it.
    • Kaya Toast
    • Hot Barley drink: Since by then I fallen sick I switched to hot drinks. I love this hot barley tea even better than cold. It felt like a very mild neutral soup.
  • Chagee
    • Bo Ya Jasmine Tie Guan Yin Milk Tea: I hunted down a Chagee again, and I ordered the more fascinating item on the menu, a jasmine tea made with Tie Guan Yin instead of green tea. I later found out that Tie Guan Yin is an oolong tea which leads to a slightly toastier flavour compared to green tea. At the time though, I didn't know any of this and I was honestly in awe because this tea was probably the best drink I'd ever had. It was even better than the green tea version. It was so intensely aromatic with jasmine and the tea flavour was so smooth, no bitterness at all.
  • Tiong Bahru Bakery: This was a little bakery on the side of Fort Canning park.
    • Scallion cream cheese Shio Pan: A spongy and subtly sweet bread roll cut and filled with salty cream cheese and topped with scallions. The cream cheese was so satisfyingly salty against the slight sweetness of the bread, and the scallions provided just enough interest in flavour while still letting the cream cheese and bread shine. Ugh, it was the perfect snack.
    • Lemon Blueberry brioche: A tart and sweet lemon curd encased in a light brioche with a delightfully crunchy top. The lemon curd was slightly too tart for me but I still really liked this.
  • Yi Fang: Yi Fang is a fruit tea store I was obsessed with when I lived in Berkeley, so when I saw a store in Singapore I couldn't help but run to it.
    • Songboling Mountain Tea: This was my go-to order in Berkeley but this time it was so disappointing! I didn't know if they used a different tea or if I misremembered the name, but I was expecting a light, refreshing slightly mineral-tasting tea and instead got a bitter, metallic tea that left a tannic aftertaste on the back of your tongue.
  • CoCo Ichibaniya: The siren song of Japanese curry rice that we gave into for five out of five nights in Tokyo earlier this year followed us to Singapore. I couldn't resist its call.
    • Vegetable curry rice: In all honestly this curry rice was not as good as the one in Japan. It was clearly adapted to the Southern Asian palette, which meant less meaty and an almost maggi-like spiciness. It didn't scratch the curry rice itch as well as I thought it would but it was still so goddamn tasty.
  • 7 Eleven
    • Pocari Sweat
    • Unidentified rice cracker chicken flavour
    • Milo

Day 4

  • Takashimaya food court: I was still sick so I insisted on congee again, with the promise that we could check out the street food festival that had just opened in the mall basement, but once we were there nausea and general discomfort took over, so I stuck to what I knew.
    • Congee with steamed fish and green beans: By then I was fully grieving the lack of good Asian food in Bangalore, and so I had to get myself another congee while I could.
    • Steamed veggie buns: A snack for the road that Bear picked up for me from the food fest. The bun was soft and warm, with a filling which was surprisingly umami considering it was fully vegetarian.
  • Chagee
    • Bo ya Jasmine green milk tea: One last time of drinking this liquid cocaine before I left.
  • Uncle Chieng's Wafer Ice Cream: This little ice cream cart caught our eye as we were walking to the next mall, and I looked it up to find that it's an old favourite of locals, so even though I was sick I had to take a bite out of Bear's ice cream.
    • Yam ice cream in wafer: Okay, ube ice cream is amazing. I've never had ube before, always having dismissed it as "I'm not the biggest fan of sweet potato so I don't think I'll like this", but one bite out of this light purple ice cream sandwich and I was hooked. It was so mild and lightly sweet, not what I expected at all. The wafer was not a thin waffle like Baskin Robbins, more like the crispy wafer cones of the old McDonald's ice cream (which is my personal favourite type of cone) which provided a nice crunch without making the whole thing too sweet. 10/10 experience, really wished I wasn't sick so I could eat like, seven more of these.
  • Plaza Singapore food court: I found the nearest Nine Fresh so I could have the Ai-yu jelly dessert once again before I left, and it happened to be in – say it with me, gang – a mall! I was sick of malls by then I just wanted to go home.
    • Milk bun, Egg bun and a fried crispy glutinous rice dumpling from a bakery that I simply can't find the name of now. They were all alright, a stand-in for lunch before the main event.
    • Fruity Ai-yu jelly from Nine Fresh: I really savoured this. The jelly was so herbal and everything was so chewy. I am so in love with this dessert.
  • CoCo Ichibaniya
    • Cheese sticks and mini salad: Since my tummy was full from the food in the previous mall, I accompanied Bear in his curry rice quest today and snacked on some mozzarella sticks and the smallest salad I've paid money for.
  • Rumel Cafe: Quick stop for a takeaway dessert before we headed back to the hotel to pack.
    • Pandan cake with gula melaka: Nice! Too sweet, but I love pandan as a flavour so much that I gobbled this up anyway.

That was everything I ate in Singapore. This city truly has my heart. I can go on and on and on about the food scene here even though I've barely scratched the surface. I don't know when will be the next time I visit, but until then I'll hold on to the receipt of the Chagee jasmine tea as proof that god exists.