Singapore Splurge

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With many major cities just a hop, skip and jump away from Phuket, we flew to Singapore a little over a week ago, planning on three days of city-state living. Our first impression upon arrival was of an extremely clean and well-organized place, excellent customer service, and a million malls. It seemed almost a bit too sterile for a place in Asia, but we immediately warmed to the friendly people we met, and found some of the more obvious quirks (import of chewing gum is forbidden, for example) charming.

Over the course of the next three days, we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We’re not big fans of zoos, but gave the one in Singapore a chance, and marveled at everything from orang utans to cheetahs. A definite highlight! A visit to the National Museum of Singapore proved the right thing for understanding the city’s history, and we saw an excellent exhibit of Annie Leibovitz’ photography: 190 portraits, as well as many images from her private archive… what an amazing talent!

Beyond that, we walked and walked (and walked) around the many quarters, enjoying sights in Chinatown, Little India, the Orchard Road area, and the Muslim quarter, Kampong Glam. At two Hindu temples we came across pujas (prayer rituals), reminding us of the wonderful times we spent in India. For anyone who’s never seen one, a puja is a chaotic blur of holy men running from one altar to the next, chanting while they wave candles, and place flower petals in front of, and on, various deities, and then speeding off to another part of the temple to do something similar. Off to the sides, there are always groups of women sitting in little groups watching their children play, and merrily chatting away. In the background music; one man played a percussion instrument, while another played some type of elongated flute that sounded a bit like a bagpipe.

Everywhere you went there was something to see: random people practicing their skating skills in metro stations, couples posing for their wedding photographs (a big thing in Asian countries), a mall that was recommended due to its “Four Floors of Whores” (don’t think too far; it’s true to its name), and a well-developed metro system that made getting around the easiest thing ever.

One of the main reasons Singapore had been on our bucket list, however, is because this is a city where it’s all about food. And nothing embodies this culinary culture so much as the “Hawker Centers” we explored – collections of food stalls offering all types of food. These centers were purposefully created, and were all over town; one in a dedicated building, another on the first level of a parking garage, and a third in an underpass. Despite stall after stall of dishes, it was usually fairly easy to spot the really good ones if you took a moment to watch where people were queuing.  Apparently, there used to be a severe shortage of women in Singapore (until 1860 there was a 10:1 men:women ratio!), resulting in the rise of this incredible street food culture. Sometimes (a very rare occasion!) the absence of women proves fruitful 🙂

Among the many dishes we enjoyed were “Hainanese Chicken” (chicken that had been boiled and almost melted when eaten), “Popiah” (a delicious spring roll-like creation), various types of dumplings, and something called “carrot cake” which had a bizarre consistency nothing to do with cake. We opted not to try the “turtle soup”, although I’d loved just a little taste of it. Lime juice, tea, or a sweet barley drink were usual beverages, and dishes usually cost only a few dollars (if that). In the mornings, we went for traditional “Kaya Toast” (toast with a coconut/butter spread that you dipped in runny eggs) at one of the many “Kopitiams” (traditional coffee houses found all over the city). And on very short notice, we met up with new friends Poh Bee and Doxie for a delicious meal of Muslim food, before visiting the Sultan Mosque.

Since Singapore is also known for a wide selection of high-end culinary options, we also decided to indulge in two places on the other end of the spectrum. We started at “André.” Chef André Chiang was born in Taiwan, but moved to France at an early age to learn from the best (Robuchon and Ducasse were two of his many mentors). The menu we enjoyed, under his trademarked “Octophilosophy,” was basically eight courses, each one assigned a general topic. A whole lot of amuse bouches, and pre- and post-desserts on top of that, each dish was a work of art and delicious (photos here). The wine pairings, all from small French wineries, were all good, but nothing stood out as extraordinary. Service, on the other hand, was impeccable, and not just because one of the waiters was incredibly attractive. But it was André himself that really made the experience absolute top notch. He took the time to go from table to table speaking to all his patrons, and truly seemed to care about making his guests feel at home. We had a good laugh over his candy bar odyssey; after studying all the candy bars he could find, he concluded that Snickers is THE perfect bar. Although it’s such a small detail, we were also impressed to learn that he closes the restaurant whenever he is not personally present. It is a bit of a pet peeve, but I feel that at this level, where the chef really embodies the experience, that’s only fair.

André set a very high bar to measure our second dinner at the “Tippling Club”, famous for pairing food not only with wines, but also with cocktails. By chance, we were seated at the bar, which turned out to be the best table, since we could see each dish presented in front of us while enjoying a true culinary marathon. (The photos tell all!). The attention to detail given each dish was stunning, and we loved the somewhat “revolutionary” feel of this place. Here, they learned by the book, but then built on that to simply do what they thought was right. Food and drink ‘gasms galore.  The sommelier Markus, and Yugi (the best bartender in the world, in our opinion!) added a personal touch to the night. At some point, we struck up a conversation with the three Australians next to us (Terry, Neikah, and Savannah), and ended up spending the witching hours together with them in the bar, discussing cross-country skiing in Australia (which apparently exists) and a special poem by Banjo Peterson.

Late in the evening, presumably a little on the tippled end, we decided that we were loving Singapore far too much, and spontaneously decided on “more Singapore”, extending our trip by four days. So in the following days, we went a bit further afield, taking a nice stroll in the southern part of town along the “Southern Ridges” – some 9 km of trails. We also visited the small island of Pulau Ubin, where time has stood still and kampong village life seemed to survive (for the time being). We cruised around on rented bicycles, winding our way through mangrove forests and past rubber plantations.

By (Facebook-) chance we had found out that two people from our neck of the woods were in Singapore. So  we spent our last night in good company with Corina and Mad, first attempting to see Hugh Jackman at the movie premiere of X-Men (we gave up and left the huge crowd to go have dinner), and then solving a “Real Life Escape Game.” We didn’t prove to be the greatest quartet of Sherlock Holmeses −and decided to stick to our day jobs for now− but did figure out various parts of the puzzle and had tons of fun in the process. And then, since we wanted to celebrate in style and finish our time in Singapore on the highest note possible, we ended our last night back at the Tippling Club with Yugi, sipping the most wonderful cocktails in the world.