Our two days in Singapore have been spent with our guide Phil who really
knows local food well. The first day he pulled his car right up to a storefront
and we sat ourselves on small stools at a table by the road for DUCK/RICE. Now
every Eastern Asian meal has rice, so many of the meals are called simply
duck/rice, fish/rice or the most famous chicken/rice; each vendor of course has
his or her own recipe.
This was the most delicious one in town for sure and came with pickled
cabbage (like sauerkraut), tofu, and the most yummy cooked peanuts with slices
of duck breast all over a mound of rice in a rich duck sauce. It was divine and
all for $4.50 Singapore per portion (that's about $3.35US each monster-sized
place) which is amazing. Of course, chili-prawn paste and garlic-lime sauce were
on the side; I could use these every day. The drinks we chose were A&W root
beer for Sam and a superb aloe-vera tea-like drink loaded with chunks of aloe
fruit at the bottom, which were sweet and reminded me of lychee.
Today our lunch was at the Maxwell Hawker's Stalls which is a covered
hawkers' center with what must have been hundreds of storefronts in four rows or
so of an indoor market. Many were closed as it was Sunday, but the selection was
still amazing. Samuel migrated immediately to the steamed and fried dumpling
stand and Phil and I headed to the CHICKEN/RICE, but you must choose from almost
a dozen of these. Phil explained the long line was for a place that Gordon
Ramsey and Anthony Bourdain had both declared the best in town, but that the
chef there had since left and opened his own stall 3 doors down (where many news
articles graced the stand declaring 'CHICKEN WARS' in Singapore between the two
vendors)...so that's where we headed. There are sauces and clear chicken broth
as well with each dish and while it was nice, it was not an historic dining
moment. The egg & oyster omelet was good, although Will did not like its
slightly slimy consistency. The hit dish was Hokkein Noodles with shrimp &
calamari. A fried banana was had for dessert and then we headed to the smoothie
stand where dragonfruit/passionfruit smoothies were in store for Sam & I and
Will chose the drangonfruit/yoghurt smoothie as it proclaimed to help with
weight loss and memory recall!
It was a yummy two days in Singapore for sure....and we shall return here
after our cruise for more tasty local tidbits.
