Hawkers
When it comes to food, you can‘t get past hawkers and hawker centres in Singapore. Every hawker focusses on more or less on one particular dish. Most of them exist since generations.
In the 18th century immigrants brought their comfort food dish to Singapore. They started their small businesses with street food to earn a living as it did not require big investment. Due to the many hawkers on the streets causing hygienic issues, the government started to relocate them into centers in the 60‘s. In 2016 UNESCO has added the hawker culture to the world heritage listing.
I must admit that most of the time, we was greeding eating all the good stuff and totally forgot to take pictures for the blog. 😚
From left: Bao, Dim Sum, Mango and pineapple juice Chinese roasties w/ rice; Potsticker (fried dumplings); Snails and fried Mantou (steamed rolls), the touristic hawker centre Lau Pa Sat (https://www.laupasat.sg); mussels and Kailan (Chinese vegetable)
Depending on the quantity we paid between 10€ and 38€ for both of us.
Typical Singapore breakfast
An established Kaya breakfast restaurant has opened a new branch near our hotel by chance. We went there in our first morning. We had kopi (coffee with sweet condensed milk), Kaya and French toast. The specialty is the the crispy toast is to be dipped into the liquid egg. As it is not common to provide napkins, you are in such a mess eating.
Regarding coffee it is almost a science how to order coffee. As I said we had Kopi then there is Kopi-o, coffee with sugar, Kopi C is coffee with sugar and non-sweet condensed mild, Kopi C Kosong is not sweet at all with condensed milk, Kopi Gah Dai is extra sweet and the list goes on and on.
We paid 9€ for the breakfast for both of us.
Dim Sum
Southern Chinese go yum cha which is translated to drinking tea but meaning enjoying dim sum dishes which consist of small portion of steamed or fried delicacies. Usually, it is taken as brunch or lunch, often in a big group with family and friends. Due to the large population of Chinese, dim sum is also valued in Singapore, that‘s why there are quite some dim sum restaurants here. Since we live in the South of Germany, no such is available. That‘s why we never can say no when come across a dim sum restaurant. 😊
Dessert Restaurants
Also a Hong Kong favorite are restaurants where they only offer sweets. Hence, quite some exist in Singapore and are being visited around the clock. Typical Chinese desserts are sweet soups.
From left: Mango Tapioka Pudding with Pomelo and shave ice; black Sesame soup; Hong Kong style egg tart
The 2 desserts was 7€ together and the tart was 1,50€.
New Finds:
One think one have already eaten and drank everything but actually this is not true. In this 4 days in Singapore, we ate 2 new food: Japanese oyster and ice cream with 6% alcohol.
The Japanese oysters are sweeter and it is firmer in the bite. The Australian bubble was not that good.
In a bar, we have been offered tasting different alcoholic ice creams. In general, they taste quite well, most of them like iced long drinks. Our favorite flavors Saphire Sunrise (Yuzu, Pomelo sorbet with Gin) and More Heat, Oh? (Mojito sorbet with Cuban Rum). Although, 12€ for such a small cup is extremely expensive.
Here are some other things we have eaten
Looks all delicious! Please send something back to Germany immediately! All the best, Torsten