What I saw, what I did: Singapore Part 5

Warning: this is going to be a long post. Rightly so, as this was the longest day of our stay in Singapore.

The "slow group" separated from the rest again to explore the cultural attractions of the city. The other group spent the day in Orchard Road. The picture above is a shot of the entrance to Little India Arcade. Inside, it feels like Greenhills with the many knick knacks being sold, none of which you really need but are so colorful and intricately designed you want to own them just to show off.

In Singapore, even the tiangge is organized

Mak got hungry after strolling around the arcade. I guess having all those interesting merchandise fighting for your attention can get tiring. We stopped by a local restaurant.

The people are very helpful here. In this case, the guy in charge of the restaurant patiently explained to Mak the snacks displayed. He ordered a samosa and a plate of roti prata.

It was the best roti prata throughout our trip. Served hot, this flat bread is soft with a fragrance that almost made it sweet. The curry dip is rich, thick and mildly spicy. I could tell that it hit the right spot for Mak.

Little India commercial neighborhood

This was where we found cheap treasures like FIFA football jerseys for $12, waterproof eye liners for $2.90 (I've used mine and it just glides over and doesn't even smudge!), and my iPod touch case with screen guard for $8. Inside, it feels like Uniwide or a really old, cheap department store. But at least you get the value for your money.

The Mustafa Center is made up of two facing complexes. This one is also a department store. We found Indian perfumes here that cost about $12. They come in little cylinders with a plastic ball on the mouth that you rub on the skin to release the oil. Although they were strong, they actually smelled good which made me wonder why Indians don't use them.

This is the DVD section. Nope, these aren't pirated movies but authentic Indian films. Remember, this is Singapore!

We had lunch here, at Sakunthala's restaurant. We asked some strangers in the mall and they pointed this place which is famous for the Fish Head Curry.

The dishes displayed looked very spicy.

We just ordered some bread again. Each plate costs around $3. It consists of two chapati breads chickpea curry dip. My friends admitted that the bread is very filling. I only finished one and had rest wrapped. I was surprised when they included some fresh dipping sauce!

We took a cab and went to Haji Lane, a shopping district that's included in Time's 10 Things to Do in 24 Hours.

The shopping was a success for everyone. The Great Singapore Sale helped lower the prices even more of items that were already a bargain. You can find in Haji Lane creations of independent Singaporean designers. This place is a haven for the fashion forward. Unfortunately, I go for pieces of clothing that are timeless. It struck me that Haji Lane seems like a second-rate Newtown of Sydney.

Funny store name, eh?

Next, we went to Chinatown. We visited the Hindu temple and the Buddhist temple. I bought some jerky from Bee Cheng Hiang to take home. I'm not longer posting pictures of the temples nor of the sights in Chinatown anymore as they are not different from those outside of Singapore. I feel that the most important part of our day was eating at the hawker place called Maxwell Food Center.
This was where we found the best hainanese chicken rice, for only $2.50. Mak actually asked around to conduct a survey of which stall serves the best HCR! It's a shame that we weren't able to try other places recommended by friends for HCR because we were leaving the next day.
This is a salad-like dish made of cuttlefish, shrimp paste, bean sprouts, vegetables and crushed peanuts. I didn't like it. I had no idea cuttlefish would be rubbery. Good thing I still had my leftover roti.

I like turon very much, so it was no surprise that I fell in love with this variation of fried banana. Instead of filo paper, it's covered in flour. Inside, the banana is soft and mushy but not spoiled, as we sometimes find inside a turon. I may be wrong but I think there was jackfruit in this banana fritter which gave extra fragrance.

Full and happy, we hopped on a cab and collapsed dead tired on our hotel bed. I don't even remember if we bothered to take a bath to wash all the grime off. I'd do it again though, especially if given the same company. :) Read more

What I saw, what I did: Singapore Part 4

We had been staying in Singapore for three days and we still hadn't seen the important landmarks. On this day, we split into two groups. The others wanted to go to Funan IT Mall to buy some electronic stuff (they're mostly programmers). My group decided to take it slow and "smell the roses". It was outrageous that we kept on just passing by the shops, the views... in a hurry to get to places.

With our slow pace, I was finally able to take a picture of this interesting building in daylight. It's the School of the Arts of Singapore. It's reportedly the best art school in Asia, but it's only for high school students.
After sightseeing around Dobi Ghout (which wasn't much because the shops open late--one of the most annoying things for me), we took the train to go to Marina Bay where we would meet the other at 1pm. We passed by this park which is the War Memorial.

As we were taking photos, a barefooted monk came ambling by with some women whom we guessed were his assistants or perhaps family members. We seized the moment to have our picture taken with him. Thankfully his guide and companions obliged.
We learned that he is from Vietnam and is just visiting. We were touched that he put on his costume for us (it must be heavy walking around with all that drapey fabric and beads hanging on him). We communicated by gestures and hand signals as their English was very poor. That was what we meant by "smelling the roses"! :D

Our lunch was at the food court of Marina Bay Mall. It's yet another mall that looks and feels like SM Mall of Asia. It was there that I bought a K-Swiss shirt at an outlet store for my little bro and a pair of shoes for $15 from a store called The Little Things She Needs. :)

Ice Kachang with Sweet Potato, Yam, Jelly and milk

I had this for lunch. I was craving for banana fritters already by then, and was growing tired of the laksa, chinese noodles and curry selection. I didn't like it because it turned out to be some sweet potato and yam desert. I thought the orange pieces were papaya or peaches. The lady minding the store couldn't be bothered to explain her menu, and she spoke very little English.

Grace made a better choice with this Korean chicken hot pot dish. I tried it and it was very tasty. The others were still in search for the best hainanese chicken rice, which of course couldn't be found in that food court.

After lunch, it was time for souvenir pictures! We just struck our poses everywhere and clicked away! :)

Newly Wed Shot with the Merlion :)

At about this time I was beginning to think how... gray Singapore is. There were still a lot of buildings being constructed. Everything is organized everywhere. My friend and I agreed that we appreciate everything the little country has to offer, but we'd still take the colorful chaos of the Philippines any day.

While the other group went to ride the Singapore Flyer and then visit the Night Safari afterwards, my "slow" group decided to go home and chill. We ended up being surprisingly productive because our impulsive trip to the market got us buying pasalubong already.
Look at this giant Hello Panda pack! It contains assorted flavors (chocolate, strawberry and milk). Why don't we have this in the Philippines?

By the time we finished grocery shopping, my companion was not feeling well anymore. We grabbed some food from FairPrice and headed home. I tried the Japanese pancake with Kaya filling by Mr. Bean (it's also inside FairPrice) but it wasn't good. The cake tasted yeasty and the kaya wasn't as sweet as the one I have at Ya Kun Kaya Toast Ortigas. I bought a bag of Cheezels as well to make her feel better. :)

Late that night, the third person in our group who was supposed to meet up with a friend based in Singapore told us that his dinner got cancelled. He wanted to go out and try this fried chicken place in Orchard Road. Since we had already eaten, I convinced him to do something else. After some time of deliberation, we decided on checking out Clarke Quay for a night out. We didn't bring our friend who wasn't feeling well anymore.

Well, this was what we ended up doing after checking out the bars. Instead of chilling with a drink, we got our adrenalines pumped up with the G-Max Reverse Bungee and the GX-5 Xtreme Swing rides in Clarke Quay. Check out the site here. After browsing through that site, I probably don't need to expound more on what it was like riding not one but BOTH. I can only say that there was a point when I was up in the air and everything went slow motion, and my only thought was, "Wow, I'm still alive."

The ride was worth going to Singapore for. I'm not exaggerating. Mak and I had our turn with three Filipino girls, which made the ride more awesome because we could scream and curse in Tagalog. :)

Our big smiles after the rides

Aloe Vera Jelly with Soursop Ice Kachang

I really never learn. We went to our neighborhood Kopi Tiam for a night cap after Clarke Quay. Makaw had some dimsum while I made yet another experiment with the numerous variations of ice kachang. I was looking for the iced desert I used to have in Australia, but maybe that wasn't Singaporean because it had coconut milk. I didn't know what soursop was until I tasted it. It turned out to be plain guyabano, which we grow in our backyard back home. I asked the old woman in Mandarin whether there was supposed to milk in it. She looked at me funny and said, "You want milk? I put milk." I wish I had shut my mouth because it was a mistake. Guyabano with milk??

Note to self: if I were an old woman and had to work in a 24 hour Kopi Tiam, I'd be cranky too.

Read more

What I saw, what I did: Singapore Part 3

Our second day in Singapore was dedicated to Universal Studios. I've been to Universal Studios in California so I wasn't too excited about this. Plus I've been reading people's blogs and its seems not all rides are operational yet. The cost of the ticket per person is 66 SGD.

We went through Vivo City again to ride the train to USS. You can feel the soccer craze even in Singapore.

I'm not going to discuss what we did there in detail. That would spoil the surprise when it's your turn, right? :p But the first thing I did before we even got through the gates was ogle at Garrett's Popcorn shop. It says it's "One of Oprah's favorite things", so how come I've never heard of it before?? Does it have anything to do with the fact that I don't follow Oprah??

This was one of the thrilling rides. It's like a roller coaster except your feet are dangling in the air. We had to remove our shoes except for those wearing sneakers. We weren't allowed to bring cameras as well, but Grace had the gall to video the whole ride with her digicam! I enjoyed this short ride but half the time I was worried about her camera and scenes from Final Destination kept coming to mind. When we berated her for it, she gave us an evil smile and said, "Well say your prayers!" What a friend!!! :D

USS is divided into a lot of sections. At the time of my visit to California, the hype thing was Shrek and Robocop (!!!). In Singapore, one of the most worthwhile rides was in the Mummy Returns section.
You enter through here and the maze gets deeper and deeper as if you're entering a pyramid, just like in the movie. If you're claustrophobic, you might have a problem keeping your act together as the anxiety just piles on and on and the queue never seems to end. It doesn't help that there are signs all over warning people that the ride is not for the faint of heart. The worst thing about queueing here is being stuck with middle eastern men and Indian families. Man do they stink! Thankfully my friend has a vial of White Flower oil which saved us.

Once you try the ride, it's not that scary after all. The warning was just to hype it up, which worked with a lot of people because the line kept getting shorter as we returned. Yes, we returned 4 times. We even bought the souvenir picture where we choreographed our poses! :D

After more walking, stopping to watch shows, conducting our own photoshoot and a couple more rides, it was dusk and we were ready to leave the theme park. We passed by the souvenir shop first to use our vouchers. The ticket includes 2 vouchers of $5 off each for meal and merchandise. In effect, our ticket cost only $56. :)

Of course we couldn't leave without a picture of the Universal Studios logo!
I promised that I would check Garrett's before we leave. Fortunately my friends had the same idea. Inside, the smell of buttery popcorn was overwhelming. My friends ended up the ones buying even though I love popcorn the most. With flavors like Buttery, CaramelCrisp, Pecan CaramelCrisp, Cashew CaramelCrisp, and CheeseCorn, Garrett's selection was more on the sweet side; I'm more of a plain salted one kinda gal. Also with the price of one bag, I can buy 3 Chef Tony's. Some of my friends brought the popcorn back home. But it was only our second day. Predictably, by the time we were going home, the popcorn was either eaten or no longer crunchy.
I cannot deny however that the pecan variety was really really yummy. The CheeseCorn was powdery and a bit sour since they use cheddar. I didn't like the combination of cheese and butter.
We went to Orchard Road to meet a college friend who is now based there. We were going to have dinner at Din Tai Fung!

Back in Australia, I always hear about Din Tai Fung from food bloggers. I didn't try it because Chinese cuisine is not one of my favorites. Now I regret not filling up on xiao long pao as much as I could when I had the chance to hog one order all by myself for months!!! We waited a long time to get seated. It was worth it though. This was my best meal in Singapore.

Stewed Beancurd with Honey Sauce

This is one of Din Tai Fung's appetizers. I love it! I love beancurd and it was very flavorful with the sweet and salty sauce. It felt like eating meat because of the mushrooms. You wouldn't believe it's healthy.

Braised Beef Soup

This soup is also very tasty though too salty for my palette. The beef melts in your mouth and the vegetables are crisp. You can see the oil over the broth but you can't stop drinking it all! :) This is perfect over steamed rice or with noodels, but somebody ordered fried rice already. It was interesting how my friends who are all Filipinos were the ones who ordered the food and I didn't contribute anything. Haha!

Fried Porkchop

I had never tasted porkchop as good as the one served to us then. Maybe I'm exaggerating already but everything was really perfect. The pork was not chewy; it's almost like long strips of chicken nugget without the bread crumb and with some sweet sauce. Yummy with fried rice!

At last, the main event of the dinner! The award-winning xiao long bao. We ordered two trays of this and still we were barely satisfied. I taught my Filipino friends how to eat it. At last I showed some Chinese knowledge! I am getting hungry posting this.

This was my dipping sauce. Lots of chili. :) There's ginger and black vinegar in that soy dish. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. But before that we passed by FairPrice to get food and Tiger beer for the soccer game we were going to watch in our hotel's common room that night. I didn't stay for the live telecast of Germany vs Spain anymore though, which finished at 3am.

Read more

What I saw, what I did: Singapore Part 2

We were supposed to have dinner here, at Marche Restaurant in Vivo City. The place has a view of the beautiful harbour, and serves Swiss recipes. Justin, who lived in Singapore for his JTA (Junior Term Abroad), said the food is good there, and indeed the brightly lit place with fresh fruits displayed looked very attractive.

We lined up to get a table but something changed my friends' minds and we ended up at Food Republic.
Did you know that Food Republic is a chain owned by BreadTalk? I didn't realize all Food Republics in Singapore are the same.

There were a lot of stalls to choose from that after going around three times, I realized being faced with so many food options for only one meal when you're hungry and everything looks yummy but you don't even know what you're looking at is very very stressful. And you end up making bad choices.

Take Grace for instance. She really really wanted the prawn noodles which everyone was ordering, but she got distracted by this saucy looking sister. I don't know what it is, but she complained that it lacked flavor, despite its appearance which we expected to be something with hoisin sauce. I liked the flat noodles though, mainly because I'm partial to anything with flat noodles like Pad Thai or Char Kwey Tiao. It has shrimps, beansprouts and other vegetables. Sorry I can't describe it because it's not mine, but it was like instant pancit canton and I liked it.
Grace also got some hakaw, but apparently she was forced to get them because the lady in the stall thought she wanted a plate when she was merely asking whether they were hakaw. She made the mistake of pointing and speaking in English. By the time she realized the lady had punched her order, it was too late. To be fair, the hakaw tasted fresh and were very hot.

Meanwhile, I can't say I got a bad deal with the plate I ordered. It was one of those make your own soups. You can choose the ingredients; maximum of 6 and you pay $0.60 for every additional ingredient, and then the broth you prefer, whether clear, spicy or curry, and finally if you want flat noodles, vermicelli or Chinese noodles. The choices for the ingredients are: vegetables (about 6 types), meatballs (I got mushroom meatballs), different sizes of tofu, whether fried or fresh (I got fresh), yam, seaweed... oh dear I don't remember what else. I'm sure there were no meat cutlets or fresh seafood. Lastly I picked flat noodles.
My order ended up looking like what you see above. I didn't expect them to separate the seaweed and pour broth over it, and then cook the rest of ingredients in spicy sauce. What I least expected was for them to separate the noodles. It was very confusing how I was supposed to eat it, but I managed and it was very good. :) The spicy sauce had a good kick (after I doused it with more chili sauce) and just a little sweet. I didn't care for the seaweed soup or the noodles.

I met a high school friend in the food court. She was returning to Manila the next day, so I was really happy to have caught her. She brought some strawberries which she says she gobbles up for breakfast everyday. I checked them and they were indeed huge and juicy looking. I introduced her to my friends and we chatted a long time about the best things to check out while we were there.

After dinner we shopped a bit but I didn't find anything special with the mall, since most of the stores can be found back home as well. I was also peeved that all the XS/S sizes are gone because the Great Singapore Sale has been going on since May. All the Singaporeans are so skinny, I wonder where they put the kaya toasts and noodles! Not to mention the milo!!!

I took a picture of these buildings on the way home. The first one is Cathay Plaza, the one below is the School of The Arts in Singapore. I just love how most of the buildings are treated like art there, and it seems like they apply no boundaries on creativity. WIth that I bid Singapore goodnight!

Read more