Singapore Days Two & Three

Before we get to day two, I didn’t finish day one in my last post.  We ended up buying a whole duck from Duck Master on the way back to the hotel, and the two of us ate the duck hovering over the hotel room’s small desk.  The duck was very delicious, even though we were both full from a long day of nonstop eating, we ended up devouring the duck.  The skin was perfectly crispy, while the meat was tender and juicy.  I wish we had some rice to accompany the duck, or pancake so that we could have DIY Peking Duck.

After the duck feast, we mustered up enough energy to go back out to Clarke Quay for drinks and live music.  We have not gone out to bars in awhile, and were giddy at the prospect of actually staying out past 10pm (I know, we are sad).  We went to The Highlander and The Pump Room, both of which had live bands that played a good mix of top 40 songs and catchy songs from the early aughts.  Both bands were full of energy and had great singing voices.  The crowd was an eclectic mix of different age groups and ethnicities.  I’ve haven’t had that much fun on a night out in awhile.  The only downside is that the drink prices were ridiculous, I made a mistake of ordering two shots without asking for the prices first, and the bartender charged us an outrageous price for them, let’s just say that they were much higher than the clubs in NYC.  Lesson learned, always ask for prices before ordering!

We started day two with a proper meal in a restaurant, something that we only did once during our three days here, as we ate all other meals in hawker stands.  I wanted to have the famous Singaporean Chilli Crab and Pepper Crab, and the best place to do that according to many is Long Beach Seafood Restaurant.  I had fond memories of Chilli Crab from my prior time in Singapore, however, this time I realized that I have developed a stronger preference for Pepper Crab.  I guess it is not surprising since Long Beach Seafood Restaurant is considered the birthplace of Pepper Crab.  The crabs were priced by the kilograms, we got 1 kilo each of the two crabs, they were brought out with four perfect little fried buns. The buns are meant to be eaten with the sauce from the Chilli Crab, but I am happy to just eat them by themselves.  They are crispy on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside.  The crabs themselves were spectacular, I am convinced that the crabs in Singapore are a million times better than their counterparts in the States, yes even better than the famous Baltimore crabs.  The crab meat was tender with just a hint of sweetness, which perfectly complemented the sauces they were cooked in.  This was the most expensive meal that we had in Singapore, and also the best meal in my opinion.  There are no better way to eat crabs other than smothering them in chilli tomato sauce, or black pepper sauce.

After the crab feast, we decided to walk off the food by going to a Hawker Center to eat more food.  We were only 15 minutes away from Old Airport Road Food Center, one of the oldest and most acclaimed hawker centers in Singapore.  Unfortunately, we got there around 3pm, which is considered an “off peak” hour.  It is an awkward time period as a number of popular dinner places have not started service yet, while the famous breakfast places have closed for the day.  The most disappointing part was missing the satay from Chuan Kee Satay (#01-85).  Instead we tried (shaved ice) from Nyonya Chendol (#01-115), Bandung (rose) Beancurd from 51 Soya Bean (#01-72), Charcoal Egg Tart, and BBQ Pork Rice Noodle from Freshly Made Cher Cheong Fun (#01-155).  Overall, my favorite was the rose beancurd.  I understand that beancurd does not sound very appetizing, think of it less as soy bean, and more as a Chinese panna cotta. It was silky smooth, lightly sweetened, and perfectly refreshing for the hot humid weather.

We finally decided to start the “sightseeing” portion of the trip by taking a cab down to the Marina which contains the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Gardens By The Bay. This was such a beautiful and lively area, it was completed after my previous stint in Singapore, so this was my first time seeing it.  I’ve seen a lot of pictures of Marina Bay Sands Hotel, it is really cool in person.  I can’t wait to stay here during our next visit.  The walk down the marina was packed with tourists and locals alike, there was a fun color 10k run going on and speakers along side the bay was blasting techno music.  There was also two carnivals happening across the water from each other, one was a giant inflatable park with at least a dozen giant bounce houses for kids called Art Zoo.  We got to the Supertree Grove just in time for the light show and it was spectacular.  There was a cluster of giant structures that resemble large trees wrapped in thousands of lights, when the show starts, the lights would blink along with music, which included a selection of well known movie soundtracks (i.e. Star Wars, Aladdin, etc).  It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed.

We finished the “touristy” part of our evening by visiting another one of Singapore’s trusty hawker centers.  This time, we went to Lau Pa Sat, in the heart of the financial district.  I made a beeline for the stall with the longest line, i.e. Seng Kee Local Delights.  I ordered a Laksa, and one of my favorite Singaporean dishes, Fried Carrot Cake.  The carrot cake here is not the version that we are familiar with in the States.  Instead, it is made with daikon and rice flour, which is steamed, chopped up and stir fried with eggs and soy sauce.  It is chewy and soft at the same time.  We also decided to try the famous Lau Pa Sat Satay Street, which was a bit of a let down.  The wait was over 30 minutes and the satay was overly sweet.  We decided to end the night with a Turkish Pizza, and it was kind of a disaster, a rare misstep amid our Hawker Center pilgrimage.  The meat was bland, while the dough was hard.   We couldn’t end on that down note, so we finished with some rainbow ice.

We woke up on day three with only one mission, eat a bowl of Laksa from Famous Sungei Road Laksa.  It was just as good as I remembered it to be.  The soup itself was flavorful without being too “coconut-y”, while the noodles were perfectly chewy.  We also tried Otak Otak (fish cake in banana leaf) and Popiah (spring roll).  Our nonstop eating train continued with a Guo Zhi Set, which contained braised pig trotter and pig’s trotter jelly (I know it sounds really gross, but meat jelly is quite good, think of it as a pate).

After the filling breakfast, we went back to our hotel and checked out. However, since our flight wasn’t until later in the afternoon, we decided to go back to Maxwell Hawker Center for one last “Hawker lunch”.  We started with fried banana from Lim Kee Banana Fritters (#01-61), it was sooooo delicious.  The crust outside was flaky and light, while the banana was super sweet, the juxtaposition of the crunchiness of the coating outside against the softness of the banana was perfection.  It turns out to be the appropriate snack as I waited in line for the famous fish head soup (Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon).  The line did not seem long, but given the labor-intensiveness of making fresh fish head soup and noodles, the line moved very slowly.  The effort was worth it at the end, as the soup was one of the my favorite dishes this weekend.  It was milky and smooth, with a complex flavor profile, I could drink it everyday.

One of my favorite part of eating at hawker centers is that you never know who you will meet.  There are communal tables placed around the stalls, people usually pick up their food, and grab the nearest seats they find.  As such, during peak meal times, you will likely share the table with another party.  We sat next to a father/son duo from Australia, the father grew up in Singapore, but his 8 year old son has never been.  The precocious boy struck up a conversation with me while the father was busy eating, the boy proceeded to complain about the hot Singapore weather and the “weirdness” of the food here, he missed hot dogs and hamburgers.  I couldn’t help but laugh at his statements, as I felt the same at his age, oh how he will realize when he grows up that nothing is better than some good old Asian comfort food.

Before we left Singapore, we made a final stop at one of my favorite department store in Singapore, Takashimaya, which has the best food market/stalls.  It has a giant supermarket, as well as numerous food vendors that sell things range from cookies, ice cream, waffles, fruits, sushi, beef jerky, and everything else in between.  They also have a traditional food court, which of course we indulged in, but I will spare you of more food photos.  Instead I wanted to show you this fruit stand that gets fresh fruits delivered every day from Japan.  Can we just take a moment and look at the prices, that’s 178SGD for a melon, ONE MELON!  I am sure it is a very good melon…

We bid Singapore goodbye on a very full stomach, needless to say, it was an extremely long four and half hour flight.