Warning: This is a post full of photos!

Because Singapore is a country full of amazing things to eat. Not just the local food but cuisines from all over the world. And Singaporeans love to eat.

Something that has been very popular in Singapore over the past couple of years or so is the well-known hotpot chain from China called HaiDiLao. It’s known for its amazing service especially when you have to wait for a table (which we didn’t). While waiting for your table, they provide all kinds of snacks and fruits and drinks. And at some outlets you can even get a manicure while you wait. The service inside the restaurant is great too – for instance, they provide bags for your phone, cribs for your babies, and if you are dining alone, you can be seated with a large stuffed toy.

And you have to get the hand-pulled noodles just so you can watch the guy do his noodle dance!

 

 

 

 

A lovely salad from PS Cafe at Ann Siang Hill.

 

 

I have loved these egg tarts from Tong Heng for years. And now they’ve gone all fancy!

 

 

 

My friend took me to Hans Im Glück, a Munich burger chain that’s surprisingly popular in Singapore. They have a great meat-less (and also meat-y) burger menu. I got a beef burger and my friend got a burger with an olive patty. My side of choice was a German cabbage salad which was delicious.

 

 

 

Ramen is everywhere in Singapore. And this chain, Hototogisu Ramen, is from Japan. It has a Michelin star! Each outlet in Singapore seems to have a unique ramen – this one at Great World City has an oyster broth which was so delicious and briny.

 

 

 

 

I happened to find online a local izakaya, a few minutes from my in-laws’ place in the east of Singapore where we were staying. I adore izakaya style food, which are a lot of yakitori (grilled skewered meats) and other snack-like foods for eating while having drinks. This one, called IZA, has some more “Singapore” style dishes like a otak tamago. Otak is a spicy fish paste and tamago is the Japanese word for egg. So it’s an egg omelette wrapped around a spicy fish paste. Quite good. They also had a nasi lemak onigiri. Onigiri being a rice ball, this one grilled. And nasi lemak is a local coconut rice dish, often eaten at breakfast time, and it’s served with fried fish, (sometimes fried chicken), cucumbers, and delicious spicy sambal.

 

 

 

Another local flavour, this time from an ice-cream place. This is Creamier and it’s located in an old army barracks area that’s turned into art galleries. The ice-cream flavour is ‘white rabbit’ just like the White Rabbit candy I loved as a kid. White Rabbit candy is a milk-based candy that’s wrapped in an edible rice paper. I also had a kaya toast flavour – kaya toast being a toasted bread with coconut jam and butter inside. The ice-cream even had bits of toasted bread (or at least it tasted like toasted bread!) within.

 

 

One of the best eclairs ever. It seriously even beats the one from Bouchon. This is from Rive Gauche. 

 

 

One of the most popular things to do in Singapore in 2019 was to visit the new Jewel at Changi Airport. It’s really just a mall but it has some unique places like the gorgeous waterfall and the country’s first ever Shake Shack. Now I know that Shake Shack is an American thing but it also just recently opened in the Bay Area in Palo Alto and we hadn’t been to it yet. So here we were in Singapore eating at an American chain. And it was, well, underwhelming. The burgers were not bad but I wasn’t a fan of the soft bun. Also I am not fond of crinkle cut fries.

 

 

Local kueh bought by a friend who invited us to their lovely home. All kinds of yummy coconuty and steamed goodness.

 

 

We last had some awesome Thai food in Los Angeles but I’m always up for more. This is in the Golden Mile Complex, a slightly more gritty shopping centre in Singapore that is full of Thai eateries and shops. I was excited to see green mango salad, which I can’t seem to find in the Bay Area.

 

A favourite local breakfast is at one of the kopitiams like this Killiney kopitiam.  They have a variety of dishes like noodles but my favourite is the kaya toast set with tea and soft-boiled eggs.

 

 

I was dying to have nasi Padang, which is a plethora of dishes one can pick to have with your rice. This is at Rumah Makan Minang in Tampines. And it was so good. We had sayur lodeh (a coconut gravy with vegetables like cabbage, carrots and green beans), beef rendang (a dry spicy beef curry of sorts), begedel (fried potato patties) and a tofu tempeh dish. Their green sambal is unique and very tasty. And strangely reminded me of tomatillo salsa.

 

 

Roti prata is a must-eat breakfast for me.

 

 

Satay! We ate so much satay over our three weeks. This one was the best – from Haroun Satay.

 

My family is part Teochew (also known as Chiu Chao), as in some of our ancestors originated from the Chaozhou prefecture of China. And we love Teochew food like braised goose and orhnee, a delicious yam paste dessert served sometimes with pumpkin or gingko nuts like in the photo. This was at Paradise Teochew at Vivocity.

 

 

See what else I’ve eaten in Singapore over the previous years’ visits:

Weekend Cooking: Eating Singapore part 1

#WeekendCooking Eating Singapore: Whitegrass at Chijmes

Eating Singapore: Set lunch at Grissini

Seafood high tea at The Westin Singapore

 

 

 

Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, beer, wine, photographs