Singapore

Our travel philosophy has always been characterized by organized disorientation – it’s that excitement from seeing a place for the first time, armed with nothing but a self-drafted itinerary and a sense of adventure, and that serendipitous rush from having made an off-the-beaten-tourist-track discovery, like that whole-in-the-wall restaurant kept secret by hard core local foodies.

However, such was not the case in our overnight trip to Singapore. Luckily for us, we were accompanied by locals, who were more than familiar with the food choices that this small nation has to offer. Now while we do enjoy the thrill of researching restaurants to try, we could not help but feel spoiled to have our itinerary planned by and taken around Singapore by true blue Singapore residents. After all, there is nothing more exciting about a trip abroad (except for shopping maybe) than experiencing the fringes of local cuisine instead of that 24-hour Starbucks along Orchard Road, especially when it’s something that you wouldn’t have expected to be right under your nose.

Fish Glue and Coca's Special Chili Sauce

Case in point: Coca Suki Steamboat Restaurant. We were five tourists in the group, and we’ve probably had about twenty trips to Singapore among us, but we had never tried this restaurant along tourist magnet Orchard Road before. The closest thing we Manila folks have to this is shabu-shabu, which to be honest, pales in comparison to the spicy Tom Yum buffet that Coca has to offer. In terms of preparation though, steamboat is basically like the shabu-shabu that we have here: a pot of broth (wellshabu-shabu is really just hot water) and an unlimited supply of vegetables, seafood and meat. We had two hot pots – Tom Yum broth and chicken broth – in which we let our dumplings, tofu, prawns, liver and beef swim to a slow and painful death before we quickly devoured them over bowls of delicious chicken rice. Clearly the chicken broth wasn’t as spicy as the Tom Yum, but both equally deserved the sinful food binge. What apparently makes this place a must-visit is its super spicy chilli sauce, which to this day is made by the owner’s grandmother in Thailand and then shipped out to its outlets throughout Asia. Talk about customer service! And at SGD 20, this will have to be the cheapest meal you’ll ever have, because you’ll be so full that you can skip your next two meals.

Kim Gary's Milk Tea and Toast 

We also tried Kim Gary HK Restaurant which had been the stuff of our friends’ mad milk tea cravings since our trip to Malaysia. We of course knew that there were Kim Gary outlets in Kuala Lumpur, but as you may recall, that leg of our trip had failure written all over it and we were unable to locate the outlet nearest to us. So once we got to Singapore, we made sure to insert a trip to Kim Gary for some milk tea in our itinerary. We later found out from our friends that what makes Kim Gary’s milk tea different is that it is made using real tea bags, giving it a richer, more delicious and fuller taste. Unfortunately Kim Gary does not serve kaya toast, which we love with milk tea, so we had toast with butter and condensed milk. Don’t get us wrong, what we had was sweet and pretty good, but Kaya toast and milk tea are like, well, bread and butter. We didn’t have much at Kim Gary since this was just after an awesome dessert of Phish Food ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, but our friends who tried the French toast and the toast covered with strawberry preserves were like kids let loose in Toys R Us.

Yummy Naan and Buttered Curry

Without a doubt the highlight of our Singaporean food trip was dinner at Mr. Prata. Located along Evans Road, about a seven minute drive from Orchard Road (seven because ten seems like too long a drive for Singapore), this is definitely not the kind of place tourists should go to unless armed with a rental or with a map (digital or otherwise). While getting there from your hotel shouldn’t be a problem, getting a cab out of the area may be a bit of a headache. This is why we strongly suggest you take a map to guide you on your pedestrian journey back to civilization, because the chances of you being able to hail a cab are about as slim as you hitchhiking your way to Ion. But before we deter you from giving Mr. Prata a chance at all, we suggest you heed what we have to say about the place, because it just might be worth your twenty minute walk back to the traffic. So, this is what we (and by we, we mean three people) had: butter chicken, chicken curry, chicken tandoori, keema, cheese naan, garlic naan, and tissue prata with cheese and sugar. We’d say that the butter chicken was really really really really good, but Microsoft Word would go crazy with those grammar-conscious red zig-zag lines, so we’ll just say that it was really good. The chicken fillets were very flavorful and spicy, even with minimal gravy, so it definitely did not feel like we were eating in those rip-off places that just top pasty unseasoned meat with gravy. And as you can probably tell, equally delicious and packed with loads of heat was the gravy, which made for a perfect wading pool for our naan. The same may be said of the chicken curry, whose gravy was spicy enough that we couldn’t decide where to douse the naan. At the risk of crowing at dawn given our unconscionable fowl consumption, we also had chicken tandoori. It turned out to be a bad call on our part, because the meat was too dry for any enjoyment with the naan, and you know how much we love the whole dipping-naan-in-gravy exercise. It was a bad call not because of the general lack of moistness of the meat, but because we were blithering idiots for not realizing that anything prepared in a tandoori would obviously be dry. The keema was just swiped off our friends’ table because we were still hungry, and we were a bit disappointed to find that it was sorely lacking in heat. Actually, it was just an exotic version of our local ground pork dish (giniling) sans the hard-boiled egg, raisins and God knows what else street canteens decorate it with. The tissue prata was basically a plateful of surprises, because we had absolutely no idea what it was and how good it actually was. We reckon that the primary reason we ordered it was that the restaurant was named Mr. Prata, so its prata had to be worth trying. But from the first pinch of the prata cone until the final plate sweeping of sugar and cheese, every bite was an explosion of sweet, salty, cheesy and crunchy flavors. Last but not the least is the naan, which for brevity purposes, we will no longer describe. Just note that we liked it so much that we made additional orders.

Tissue Prata, Chicken Tandoori, Iced Teh from Mr. Prata

On our last day, we finally gave in to the convenience of Ion’s food court, where we didn’t have to worry about finding a restaurant whose cuisine was satisfying to everyone. At least here at Ion, everyone could find something they’d like. And the choices here were about as varied as Lindsay Lohan’s and Britney Spears’ dating histories combined. We had Hainanese chicken rice, char kway teow, bak kut teh, and satay – all of which were awesome, given their average price of SGD 5. Call us uncultured, but we got pretty riled up too about the gadget used by the satay place in paging customers once their orders were ready. Manila may be light years behind in terms of food court technology, but apparently Singapore is right up there with the United States.

And before heading back to Manila, we met up with a friend who had at the time relocated to Singapore. Thanks to his SGD pay check, we were treated to a five-star snack at one of Singapore’s best, Old Chang Kee. Of course, anything gratis definitely merits some enjoyment, but we must admit that the street stall's curry puffs and fried shrimp skewers are to-die-for. So much so that a more recent trip back to Singapore called for another food binge at Old Chang Kee. And as if this treat wasn't enough, we were also fed dim sum at the Food Republic food court over at Orchard Road. Talk about Filipino hospitality! We'd tell you to hook up with David Fenix for a free Singaporean meal, but alas, the dude has returned to these parts. We figure he missed his pre-dawn dim sum runs to Jade Palace.

Dimsum Treat from David Fenix

It was a rather strange experience having gone abroad with neither a mission nor a plan. Having been to Singapore several times already, we were excited to see a different side of the country without journeying too far from our Scotts Road residence, and fortunately for us, we were accompanied by people who could take us to more local places located smack in the middle of tourist spots. They afforded a different sensation of serendipity, but they were fantastic discoveries nonetheless. And while no disorientation was involved in this trip, there definitely was a sense of comfort knowing that we were exploring an unfamiliar side of Singaporean cuisine without having to worry about what to order or finding our way back home.

By the way, we hear that the locals love a place called Henderson Waves. We reckon a visit is a must for all tourists. Come in rubber shoes and bring an extra shirt though; you'll definitely work up a sweat here.

Mr. Prata
26 Evans Road, Singapore 259367

+65 6235 6993‎

Business hours: 24/7

Kim Gary Restaurant
http://www.kimgary.com.my/

Coca Suki Restaurant

http://www.coca.com.sg/

How to get there: Google map