Sunday, January 31, 2016

Singapore's Must Eat Food: from fish head curry to seasonal delights like pineapple tarts

INDIAN
Local fruits and fruit juices:
Fruits/Durian: Any hawker centre /food court (durian in season)

What to eat?
Chinese: Fish - seafood restaurants on the east coast such as Jumbo (must book).
Choose your fish from the menu and/or from the aquariums around the restaurant.
If you don't like fish, try lemon chicken, or chicken with cashew nuts.

Indian Fish: Fish Head Curry
Fish head curry is a large fish head served in sauce in a casserole dish with a cover.

Vegetable curry as a main or side dish and boiled white rice or fried rice are served on a green banana leaf cut into oblongs like a place mat but serving as a disposable plate. In more basic places the green banana leaf is laid directly onto the table. Here in Muthu's Curry restaurant the banana leaf is on a try.

Where to try it?
M u t h u ' s Curry. (I had to insert spaces. Autocorrect changed the spelling to mouth.)
www.muthuscurry.com

Banana Leaf Apolo,
54 Race Course Road, Singapore 218564.
Tel:6293 8682.
48 Serangoon Road, 01-32 Little India Arcade, Singapore 217959.
Tel:6297 1595.
www.thebananaleafapolo.com

CHINESE
What to eat?
Lo Hei - Chinese New Year national dish for Spring (Chinese New Year)


Durian cakes, crisps or ice creams
Durianmpire has several branches. I went to Bukit Panjang Plaza, near Bukit Panjang MRT train station at the northern end of the Downtown line. In the same area, to the northwest, is a branch at Jurong West Shopping Centre.
Other branches are at Changi airport, terminals 2 and 3 in the departure halls.

Pineapple pastries
Pineapple tarts are tiny but so delicious.

Red Bean paste dumplings (fast food served hot from glass-sided revolving heated dispenser on the counter at a 7-11 or similar newsagent and corner shop)

Red Bean paste sweets

Moon cakes (autumn / harvest/ moon festival) - food courts in shopping malls and department stores, seasonal pop-up shops and kiosks, even ice cream parlours, supermarkets. The cakes may be sold singly, as sets of two or four. Some sets including elaborate gift boxes at prices from about £5-10 for one to £25-£100 for a box of four. The most expensive are in a tin with origami sections or a colourful container with four drawers, with gold ribbons and booklets.

Why so expensive? They are little works of art with embossed designs, bought as gifts to VIPs and business associates.

Although they are only muffin or fist size, they are hugely calorific and rich, and usually cut into four or eight pieces, or smaller slices, served to a group of people.

(See earlier post on moon cakes.)

MALAY
What to eat?
Peranakan food
Where to try it:
(Check local papers or hotel concierge)

Cheap eats:
Any hawker centre or food court in the basement/ground level or top floor or a department store or shopping mall.
Indian: Any clean looking corner shop or restaurant in Little India.

Luxury and Expensive Food:
Glamorous and typically Singaporean:
1 Raffles Hotel
2 Marina Bay Sands (rooftop skyscraper restaurants on T shape skyscraper with triple towers - must book)
3 Revolving restaurant, circular, above skyscraper (keeps changing hands and brands - has been a Westin, Swiss hotel, Compass Rose).

Chicken Rice and Duck Rice
If you prefer to stick to conventional European style food, chicken rice or duck rice are available cheaply in the hawker centres or food courts.

Cheesecake and Rainbow Cake
For a dessert with visual appeal, try rainbow cakes. For the familiar, find New York style cheesecake in the usual worldwide coffee bar chains such as Starbucks, and the local version, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. (See my previous posts on Rainbow cake in Singapore.)

More information from hungrygowhere.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer 

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