food "diary": Singapore
for those who are interested, here are my food-related blurbs during our trip to Singapore. please keep in mind that these were not written to be intelligible to anyone else but me, so some things may not make sense. i'm copying and pasting them from Evernote without editing them.
some side information: these were often written either while at the restaurant/hawker center/etc after having eaten or at the hotel room upon arriving back for the night. they were often written in a hurry, so there's probably a lot of short hand and mistakes. also, photos from the final days are missing because i somehow lost them..... ;-; all photos have made small, but feel free to ask me to see larger versions/to ask me questions about anything.
July 12th
dinner (plane food)
Singspore Airlines seems comparable with ANA in terms of service, features and aircrafts. had a meal and snack: wok fried chicken with bamboo shoots in sesame oil and korean style beef fried rice with egg and kimchi (they had actual menus). it wasn't bad. :)
July 13th
breakfast @ DOME Cafe/Restaurant
found via reviews in a google map search, DOME has a nice western style breakfast. the peach ice tea was AWESOME and the eggs were the best scrambled eggs i've had since leaving America! i believe they were cooked in butter and had a very nice, rich cream added to them. it was like eggs from a really nice homestyle diner!
lunch @ Daikokuya + Haagen-Dazs
had lunch at a Japanese ramen place called Daikokuya. David had miso tonkatsu ramen while i had shoyu tsukemen and we shared okonomiyaki gyoza (gyoza with takoyaki toppings on it). wasn't bad. :)
dinner @ Zenso
tonight we had dinner at a Thai/Japanese place up the street from our hotel called Zenso. David had Black Pepper Chicken with rice and steamed veggies and i had Saba Shioyaki and Green Papaya Salad. The Green Papaya Salad had a lime sauce on it and wad really yummy but also pretty spicy!! had it been any spicier and i don't know how ij would have managed. ^^; i ate most of it, though, and as i said it was yummy. the Saba was very yummy. :) David enjoyed his dinner as well and dinner was cheaper than out previous meals thus far have been. also, i have decided that instead of focusing just on food i really need to try new drinks too and stop ordering juice and soda.
July 14th
breakfast @ Kopitiam
this morning we had breakfast at Kopitiam, a popular cafeteria-like place up the street from our hotel. we had a westernish breakfast at one of the few places that served it. i got Set F: 1 slice of kaya toast, 2 eggs sunny-side up, 2 slices of chicken ham and 'teh'. the toast was sliced through the center and had butter and some kind of sweet green paste that tasted like anko. the eggs were extremely runny on top and the chicken ham were thin slices of processed chicken shaped vaguely like ham. the 'teh' was very sweet and had milk. couldn't expect more from a $2.50 breakfast really.... ^^;
lunch @ Hong Lim Square + Hokkaido Ice Cream
today we had lunch at a hawker center in Hong Lim Square (Chinatown). i ordered Pig Organ Soup and Herbal Mutton Soup with a side of rice, all of which we shared. it was very cheap and yummy! the organ soup had very interesting stuff in it (liver, intestines, testicles....), but if you could forget what it is you're eating it's a very enjoyable meal. the mutton soup had less unusual ingredients and was spicier than the other soup. we also had watermelon juice and a peach milkshake, also from the hawker center.
later we had Hokkaido Ice Cream at the Central mall at the Clark Quays. David had a scoop of durian (a local spiky fruit) ice cream in a cup and i had a scoop of vanilla on a cone. it was yum. :) sorry, forgot to take photos.
snack @ TCC + dinner @ Ayam Penyet Ria
yesterday we met David's Indonesian friend who lives in Singapore. she helpfully took photos of us at there Merlion before we wandered around gradually making our way to Orchard Rd. we made a pitstop at TCC, a cafe in the underground Citylink Mall. David had Russian Earl Grey tea, i had Green Apple Ice Tea and we shared some 'mozza sticks'. David said his tea was good while mine was a tad strange, probably just because of the flavor which was strange to me; otherwise it tasted ok. the 'mozza sticks' were breaded and fried mozzarella sticks that were served with a (not-so-great) marinara sauce. it wasn't as good as the real thing from America, but it wasn't bad. David's friend had a strawberry soda and a cheesy shrimp(?) appetizer.
after walking around Orchard Rd for a little while, we went for dinner at an Indonesian restaurant called Ayam Penyet Ria in Lucky Palace. we were lucky to have David's friend around to show us authentic food from her own country as we otherwise wouldn't have found the place and according to her the food was very authentic, unlike other Indonesian food in Singapore. the restaurant specialized in "penyet" dishes, which are battered and fried things (fish, meat) that are then covered in fried batter crumbs(?) and served with Indonesian chili sauce and rice. David and his friend had Ayam (chicken) Penyet and i had Ikan (fish) Dory (type of fish) Penyet. all three of us had Indonesian tea. all of it was REALLY good-- we loved it! the chili sauce was really spicy (as in burn your mouth for several minutes after it's gone spicy) and the fish was really nicely seasoned. the food was served on top of a circular-cut banana leaf which i thought was cool. wish i could bring some Indonesian tea back to Australia.
July 15th
breakfast @ J.CO Coffee & Donuts
we ended up leaving the hotel really late this morning. :( we had donuts at a donut/cafe place called J.Co at Parco Bugis Junction. i tried Ice Thai Tea while David had the usual Cappuccino; we got a box of 6 various donuts and were given 2 free for a grand total of 8! i just about ate all 4 of mine. they weren't bad and the tea was interesting in a good way. had a major sugar high afterwards. ^^;
lunch @ Newton Circus
today we had lunch at a hawker center called Newton Circus near Orchard Rd. this hawker center was a lot more use to tourists than the one we went to yesterday; as soon as we entered we were touted. ^^; we ate at a stall that happened to be pictured in our Lonely Planet guidebook; twas really yum! had fried rice, sweet & sour chicken & spicy leafy stuff (baby spinach?). we also had ice coffee (David) and ice lemon tea (me) from another stall.
dinner @ the hotel (instant noodles)
tonight we were exhausted and we had had a late lunch so we just picked up instant noodles from the 7eleven for dinner. i got spicy "authentic" clam fried noodles (Thai) and i also tried some Pokka Lychee Ice Tea. bother were good. :)
July 16th
breakfast @ DOME Cafe/Restaurant
i wanted to avoid eating more than once at the same place, but for a good sit-down breakfast close to the hotel, DOME seems to be the best option by far. interestingly, we discovered that DOME is an Australian chain that's based in Perth. they have cafes all around Western Australia and in various Asian countries. no wonder the quality of their western-style breakfast is so good. :P
anyway, today i'm having the exact same thing as i had the other day (only because they ran out of sausage) and David is having the "Big Breakfast".
lunch @ the Tekka Centre
had lunch at the Tekka Centre hawker center today. we had some mildly spicy Mee Goreng and spicier Mutton Steak, which wasn't what a westerner would think of upon hearing the word "steak" at all. it was presumably steak that had been ground up and broken up into lots of small pieces and cooked with onion, green peppers and other things with lots of seasonings that made it a deep red. both were good. :) oh, and we had ice lemon tea from another stall.
dinner @ the Singapore Food Festival
tonight we had dinner at the Singapore Food Festival, which is currently being held around the Clarke Quay. we got Chicken Tikka, Samosa and Naan from the stall of a North Indian restaurant. twas very yummy. :) to go with it i had bottled Chrysanthemum Tea and David had a can of Asahi Beer.
July 17th
breakfast @ Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
today we had a small breakfast at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Iluma. David had coffee and a chocolate chip muffin and i had a chai latte (not often found here) and a banana muffin. the muffin was a lot sweeter than i imagined it would be and the chai latte was huge and heavier on the chai than it would be in Australia.
lunch @ Funan Digital Life Mall Food Court
today we had lunch in the 5th floor food court of the Funan Digital Life Mall. we got food from the Korean Cuisine place: the BBQ Chicken Set for David and Octopus Bibimbop Set for me. the bibimbop was really yum! it had shredded cucumber & carrot, octopus in sweet red sauce, seaweed (wakame?), bean sprouts and chili sauce topped with a fried egg. the set also included seasoned dried little fish, kimchi and wakame soup, all of which was yum. oh, and we had canned apple and white grape Qoo. :)
snacks @ Bugis Junction & dinner @ Zenso
at random places around bugis we got bulgogi chicken on sticks (like yakitori) and bubble tea. i got peach bubble tea with pearls.... the pearls are very interesting/strange. ^^;
we had dinner at Zenso again, this time having something different than last time. David had green chicken curry (mild, but still very spicy) and i had chicken tom yum and steamed cockles. the cockles were steamed with lemongrass and served with thai (vinegary) chili sauce. the tom yum was chock-full of stuff, including leaves, stocks of lemongrass and some kind of root that i wasn't comfortable eating/couldn't eat, so eating it was kind of hard but it was yum. the cockles.... while easy to eat were a bit of a pain because you got so little meat for every one that you opened and there were so many.... as for taste, they didn't taste bad, but i wish i had gotten clams as you get more meat for every shell you open and clams are yummier. still, glad to have tried cockles :) had canned ice lemon tea with it all.
July 18th
breakfast @ the hotel (bakery stuff)
the previous night we bought bread from a random bakery to have for breakfasts the next day. we got anpan, "little sweet potatoes" (bread with sweet potato paste in them), walnut raisin bread and dorayaki. twasnt bad. :) forgot to take photos. ;(
lunch @ Itacho Sushi
on our way to the zoo we had lunch at a sushi restaurant called Itacho Sushi in a mall at Doby Ghaut. apparently they're a Hong Kong based sushi restaurant. we sat at the sushi bar and had a large variety of high quality, super yummy sushi. the prices were listed per one piece of sushi (strange!), but i guess price wise they were on par with the prices at Oshin, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Brisbane. twaz a wonderful lunch. :)
"dinner" @ KFC
after spending hours walking around the zoo we wanted to eat dinner before going to the night safari that was next store. sadly we didn't know that in the night safari was lots of food options.... we thought we were limited to the places that we saw outside of the zoo, all of which were very Meh. we finally settled on KFC.... we both had BBQ Chicken Meltz Sets which came with a weirdass wannabe chicken quesadilla thing, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and a drink. sadly the KFC was just about to close, so the "meltz" thing wasnt fresh and was rather disgusting. worst use of a tortilla ever. :/ either way, it held us through out hours at the night safari.
late night snack @ Indian restaurant across the stree
upon getting back to the city after midnight i wanted something to eat. i had been eyeing a 24hr indian outdoor restaurant/hawker stall that is across the street from our hotel for a while and finally decided to try it. i got egg and onion roti prata to go. twaz SUPER yum! so yum that i wolfed it down without taking a single photo. :( i'll have to get it again and take photos this time.
July 19th
LOST FOR ALL ETERNITY BECAUSE I SOMEHOW FORGOT TO WRITE ABOUT IT AND MY PHOTOS HAVE MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED
*SOBS*
.....had Laksa for dinner at the Singapore Food Festival and Hokkaido Ice Cream for dessert.... i remember that much.
July 20th
breakfast @ Toast Box
breakfast at Toast Box at Bugis Junction was quite the experience. it was a very Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast (bread sliced in half through the middle and filled with lots of butter and some kind of sweet paste), "teh" (black tea with condensed milk) and "half-boiled" eggs. the kaya toast was better than the cheap kaya toast that we'd had previously and the teh wasn't bad; it was sweeter than i'd expect tea with fresh milk to be. the eggs.... well, they were what made the meal an adventure. they were barely cooked- not even the white was cooked. i've never had such barely cooked eggs before that weren't in or on something else. we weren't even sure how we should go about eating them, but after looking around us and doing some guesswork we surmised that they should be cracked and poured into the little bowl provided and eaten with soy sauce using a little spoon. eating eggs this way was interesting to say the least. overall, it was a good breakfast. :)
lunch @ MOS Burger
lunch at the MOS Burger in Takashimaya S.C. on Orchard Rd was much like lunch at a MOS Burger in Japan. we both got spicy MOS burger with cheese sets, although i dont remember such a burger being on the menu in Japan. maybe that's just MOS Burger catering to the local taste. while David got the typical fries set (and there was no melon soda on offer OMG), i got the Hokkaido croquette set, which i don't remember being offered in Japan either. maybe i just have a bad memory or it wasn't on offer in Kochi. anyway, it was all good, especially the croquette. it had peas and carrot in it which i thought odd, but it was oh so yum. in fact, i wish i could have one right now despite being full to the point of bursting. yuuuummm.
dinner @ the hotel restaurant
David preferred to have dinner at the hotel, so even though i don't care for hotel restaurants that's where we had dinner. they were featuring "Tastes of Singapore" where you could choose to sample 3 - 5 popular Singapore dishes for a low set price. David got s set of 4: bbq stingray, sweet & sour prawns, laksa and pepper crab. i also got a set of 4: bbq stingray, rojak, mee siam and chili crab. the bbq stringray had a unique taste that wasn't bad although it wasn't as meaty as some fish. i felt that the mee siam (spicy vermillian noodles) could have been made better although it wasn't bad. the rojak was a salad of various fruit and veggies in a sauce topped with crushed peanuts. it wasn't bad at all. the chili crab which is uniquely Singaporean was served only as a claw and didn't seem very well prepared. in fact, it was a little cold.......... for dessert we had apple crumble served with ice cream and wasn't bad but by this time i wasn't feeling well to my stomach..... upon returning to our room i became very sick and spent the night either on the toilet, throwing up or in bed....
July 21st
lunch @ the Albert Centre
(smashing the sugar cane to make juice)
we didn't have breakfast today. instead we had a kinda early breakfast at a hawker center close to our hotel. actually, out of all of the hawker centers that we'd been to this one was the biggest and even though we passed it almost every day we'd never gone into it till today. we ordered roti prata (indian bread) and nasi biryani chicken from a stall that sold muslim food. the roti prata was cold, but the curry sauce served with it was hot and it tasted good. the chicken and rice was yum. :) we also tried some sugar cane juice which was pressed and made to order. it tasted very different from what you'd imagine sugar cane juice would taste like. it was yum! :)
dinner @ Changi Airport
we had our last meal in Singapore at the airport and we made sure that it was Singaporean. the restaurant was called Prima Taste. David had the crispy chicken and rice set and I had their sampler set where i got to choose 3 Singaporean dishes from a selection of 5. i had laksa, chicken rice and shrimp mee, all of which were yum. :) to drink, David had fresh lychee soda and i had fresh casmani(?) juice, both of which were yum. we boarded our flight with full stomachs. :)
while we're on the topic of food, since i've been back in Brisbane i have found several new Asian restaurants downtown! in fact, i've explored an area of the city that i'd never been to before and found more than just Asian restaurants. among the restaurants that i found were several Korean restaurants, two Singaporean restaurants, a Vietnamese(!!) restaurant, a Malaysian(!!) Restaurant and a Taiwanese restaurant! i intend to visit them ALL. 8) now i've just gotta find me an Indonesian restaurant.
some side information: these were often written either while at the restaurant/hawker center/etc after having eaten or at the hotel room upon arriving back for the night. they were often written in a hurry, so there's probably a lot of short hand and mistakes. also, photos from the final days are missing because i somehow lost them..... ;-; all photos have made small, but feel free to ask me to see larger versions/to ask me questions about anything.
July 12th
dinner (plane food)
Singspore Airlines seems comparable with ANA in terms of service, features and aircrafts. had a meal and snack: wok fried chicken with bamboo shoots in sesame oil and korean style beef fried rice with egg and kimchi (they had actual menus). it wasn't bad. :)
July 13th
breakfast @ DOME Cafe/Restaurant
found via reviews in a google map search, DOME has a nice western style breakfast. the peach ice tea was AWESOME and the eggs were the best scrambled eggs i've had since leaving America! i believe they were cooked in butter and had a very nice, rich cream added to them. it was like eggs from a really nice homestyle diner!
lunch @ Daikokuya + Haagen-Dazs
had lunch at a Japanese ramen place called Daikokuya. David had miso tonkatsu ramen while i had shoyu tsukemen and we shared okonomiyaki gyoza (gyoza with takoyaki toppings on it). wasn't bad. :)
dinner @ Zenso
tonight we had dinner at a Thai/Japanese place up the street from our hotel called Zenso. David had Black Pepper Chicken with rice and steamed veggies and i had Saba Shioyaki and Green Papaya Salad. The Green Papaya Salad had a lime sauce on it and wad really yummy but also pretty spicy!! had it been any spicier and i don't know how ij would have managed. ^^; i ate most of it, though, and as i said it was yummy. the Saba was very yummy. :) David enjoyed his dinner as well and dinner was cheaper than out previous meals thus far have been. also, i have decided that instead of focusing just on food i really need to try new drinks too and stop ordering juice and soda.
July 14th
breakfast @ Kopitiam
this morning we had breakfast at Kopitiam, a popular cafeteria-like place up the street from our hotel. we had a westernish breakfast at one of the few places that served it. i got Set F: 1 slice of kaya toast, 2 eggs sunny-side up, 2 slices of chicken ham and 'teh'. the toast was sliced through the center and had butter and some kind of sweet green paste that tasted like anko. the eggs were extremely runny on top and the chicken ham were thin slices of processed chicken shaped vaguely like ham. the 'teh' was very sweet and had milk. couldn't expect more from a $2.50 breakfast really.... ^^;
lunch @ Hong Lim Square + Hokkaido Ice Cream
today we had lunch at a hawker center in Hong Lim Square (Chinatown). i ordered Pig Organ Soup and Herbal Mutton Soup with a side of rice, all of which we shared. it was very cheap and yummy! the organ soup had very interesting stuff in it (liver, intestines, testicles....), but if you could forget what it is you're eating it's a very enjoyable meal. the mutton soup had less unusual ingredients and was spicier than the other soup. we also had watermelon juice and a peach milkshake, also from the hawker center.
later we had Hokkaido Ice Cream at the Central mall at the Clark Quays. David had a scoop of durian (a local spiky fruit) ice cream in a cup and i had a scoop of vanilla on a cone. it was yum. :) sorry, forgot to take photos.
snack @ TCC + dinner @ Ayam Penyet Ria
yesterday we met David's Indonesian friend who lives in Singapore. she helpfully took photos of us at there Merlion before we wandered around gradually making our way to Orchard Rd. we made a pitstop at TCC, a cafe in the underground Citylink Mall. David had Russian Earl Grey tea, i had Green Apple Ice Tea and we shared some 'mozza sticks'. David said his tea was good while mine was a tad strange, probably just because of the flavor which was strange to me; otherwise it tasted ok. the 'mozza sticks' were breaded and fried mozzarella sticks that were served with a (not-so-great) marinara sauce. it wasn't as good as the real thing from America, but it wasn't bad. David's friend had a strawberry soda and a cheesy shrimp(?) appetizer.
after walking around Orchard Rd for a little while, we went for dinner at an Indonesian restaurant called Ayam Penyet Ria in Lucky Palace. we were lucky to have David's friend around to show us authentic food from her own country as we otherwise wouldn't have found the place and according to her the food was very authentic, unlike other Indonesian food in Singapore. the restaurant specialized in "penyet" dishes, which are battered and fried things (fish, meat) that are then covered in fried batter crumbs(?) and served with Indonesian chili sauce and rice. David and his friend had Ayam (chicken) Penyet and i had Ikan (fish) Dory (type of fish) Penyet. all three of us had Indonesian tea. all of it was REALLY good-- we loved it! the chili sauce was really spicy (as in burn your mouth for several minutes after it's gone spicy) and the fish was really nicely seasoned. the food was served on top of a circular-cut banana leaf which i thought was cool. wish i could bring some Indonesian tea back to Australia.
July 15th
breakfast @ J.CO Coffee & Donuts
we ended up leaving the hotel really late this morning. :( we had donuts at a donut/cafe place called J.Co at Parco Bugis Junction. i tried Ice Thai Tea while David had the usual Cappuccino; we got a box of 6 various donuts and were given 2 free for a grand total of 8! i just about ate all 4 of mine. they weren't bad and the tea was interesting in a good way. had a major sugar high afterwards. ^^;
lunch @ Newton Circus
today we had lunch at a hawker center called Newton Circus near Orchard Rd. this hawker center was a lot more use to tourists than the one we went to yesterday; as soon as we entered we were touted. ^^; we ate at a stall that happened to be pictured in our Lonely Planet guidebook; twas really yum! had fried rice, sweet & sour chicken & spicy leafy stuff (baby spinach?). we also had ice coffee (David) and ice lemon tea (me) from another stall.
dinner @ the hotel (instant noodles)
tonight we were exhausted and we had had a late lunch so we just picked up instant noodles from the 7eleven for dinner. i got spicy "authentic" clam fried noodles (Thai) and i also tried some Pokka Lychee Ice Tea. bother were good. :)
July 16th
breakfast @ DOME Cafe/Restaurant
i wanted to avoid eating more than once at the same place, but for a good sit-down breakfast close to the hotel, DOME seems to be the best option by far. interestingly, we discovered that DOME is an Australian chain that's based in Perth. they have cafes all around Western Australia and in various Asian countries. no wonder the quality of their western-style breakfast is so good. :P
anyway, today i'm having the exact same thing as i had the other day (only because they ran out of sausage) and David is having the "Big Breakfast".
lunch @ the Tekka Centre
had lunch at the Tekka Centre hawker center today. we had some mildly spicy Mee Goreng and spicier Mutton Steak, which wasn't what a westerner would think of upon hearing the word "steak" at all. it was presumably steak that had been ground up and broken up into lots of small pieces and cooked with onion, green peppers and other things with lots of seasonings that made it a deep red. both were good. :) oh, and we had ice lemon tea from another stall.
dinner @ the Singapore Food Festival
tonight we had dinner at the Singapore Food Festival, which is currently being held around the Clarke Quay. we got Chicken Tikka, Samosa and Naan from the stall of a North Indian restaurant. twas very yummy. :) to go with it i had bottled Chrysanthemum Tea and David had a can of Asahi Beer.
July 17th
breakfast @ Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
today we had a small breakfast at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Iluma. David had coffee and a chocolate chip muffin and i had a chai latte (not often found here) and a banana muffin. the muffin was a lot sweeter than i imagined it would be and the chai latte was huge and heavier on the chai than it would be in Australia.
lunch @ Funan Digital Life Mall Food Court
today we had lunch in the 5th floor food court of the Funan Digital Life Mall. we got food from the Korean Cuisine place: the BBQ Chicken Set for David and Octopus Bibimbop Set for me. the bibimbop was really yum! it had shredded cucumber & carrot, octopus in sweet red sauce, seaweed (wakame?), bean sprouts and chili sauce topped with a fried egg. the set also included seasoned dried little fish, kimchi and wakame soup, all of which was yum. oh, and we had canned apple and white grape Qoo. :)
snacks @ Bugis Junction & dinner @ Zenso
at random places around bugis we got bulgogi chicken on sticks (like yakitori) and bubble tea. i got peach bubble tea with pearls.... the pearls are very interesting/strange. ^^;
we had dinner at Zenso again, this time having something different than last time. David had green chicken curry (mild, but still very spicy) and i had chicken tom yum and steamed cockles. the cockles were steamed with lemongrass and served with thai (vinegary) chili sauce. the tom yum was chock-full of stuff, including leaves, stocks of lemongrass and some kind of root that i wasn't comfortable eating/couldn't eat, so eating it was kind of hard but it was yum. the cockles.... while easy to eat were a bit of a pain because you got so little meat for every one that you opened and there were so many.... as for taste, they didn't taste bad, but i wish i had gotten clams as you get more meat for every shell you open and clams are yummier. still, glad to have tried cockles :) had canned ice lemon tea with it all.
July 18th
breakfast @ the hotel (bakery stuff)
the previous night we bought bread from a random bakery to have for breakfasts the next day. we got anpan, "little sweet potatoes" (bread with sweet potato paste in them), walnut raisin bread and dorayaki. twasnt bad. :) forgot to take photos. ;(
lunch @ Itacho Sushi
on our way to the zoo we had lunch at a sushi restaurant called Itacho Sushi in a mall at Doby Ghaut. apparently they're a Hong Kong based sushi restaurant. we sat at the sushi bar and had a large variety of high quality, super yummy sushi. the prices were listed per one piece of sushi (strange!), but i guess price wise they were on par with the prices at Oshin, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Brisbane. twaz a wonderful lunch. :)
"dinner" @ KFC
after spending hours walking around the zoo we wanted to eat dinner before going to the night safari that was next store. sadly we didn't know that in the night safari was lots of food options.... we thought we were limited to the places that we saw outside of the zoo, all of which were very Meh. we finally settled on KFC.... we both had BBQ Chicken Meltz Sets which came with a weirdass wannabe chicken quesadilla thing, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and a drink. sadly the KFC was just about to close, so the "meltz" thing wasnt fresh and was rather disgusting. worst use of a tortilla ever. :/ either way, it held us through out hours at the night safari.
late night snack @ Indian restaurant across the stree
upon getting back to the city after midnight i wanted something to eat. i had been eyeing a 24hr indian outdoor restaurant/hawker stall that is across the street from our hotel for a while and finally decided to try it. i got egg and onion roti prata to go. twaz SUPER yum! so yum that i wolfed it down without taking a single photo. :( i'll have to get it again and take photos this time.
July 19th
LOST FOR ALL ETERNITY BECAUSE I SOMEHOW FORGOT TO WRITE ABOUT IT AND MY PHOTOS HAVE MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED
*SOBS*
.....had Laksa for dinner at the Singapore Food Festival and Hokkaido Ice Cream for dessert.... i remember that much.
July 20th
breakfast @ Toast Box
breakfast at Toast Box at Bugis Junction was quite the experience. it was a very Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast (bread sliced in half through the middle and filled with lots of butter and some kind of sweet paste), "teh" (black tea with condensed milk) and "half-boiled" eggs. the kaya toast was better than the cheap kaya toast that we'd had previously and the teh wasn't bad; it was sweeter than i'd expect tea with fresh milk to be. the eggs.... well, they were what made the meal an adventure. they were barely cooked- not even the white was cooked. i've never had such barely cooked eggs before that weren't in or on something else. we weren't even sure how we should go about eating them, but after looking around us and doing some guesswork we surmised that they should be cracked and poured into the little bowl provided and eaten with soy sauce using a little spoon. eating eggs this way was interesting to say the least. overall, it was a good breakfast. :)
lunch @ MOS Burger
lunch at the MOS Burger in Takashimaya S.C. on Orchard Rd was much like lunch at a MOS Burger in Japan. we both got spicy MOS burger with cheese sets, although i dont remember such a burger being on the menu in Japan. maybe that's just MOS Burger catering to the local taste. while David got the typical fries set (and there was no melon soda on offer OMG), i got the Hokkaido croquette set, which i don't remember being offered in Japan either. maybe i just have a bad memory or it wasn't on offer in Kochi. anyway, it was all good, especially the croquette. it had peas and carrot in it which i thought odd, but it was oh so yum. in fact, i wish i could have one right now despite being full to the point of bursting. yuuuummm.
dinner @ the hotel restaurant
David preferred to have dinner at the hotel, so even though i don't care for hotel restaurants that's where we had dinner. they were featuring "Tastes of Singapore" where you could choose to sample 3 - 5 popular Singapore dishes for a low set price. David got s set of 4: bbq stingray, sweet & sour prawns, laksa and pepper crab. i also got a set of 4: bbq stingray, rojak, mee siam and chili crab. the bbq stringray had a unique taste that wasn't bad although it wasn't as meaty as some fish. i felt that the mee siam (spicy vermillian noodles) could have been made better although it wasn't bad. the rojak was a salad of various fruit and veggies in a sauce topped with crushed peanuts. it wasn't bad at all. the chili crab which is uniquely Singaporean was served only as a claw and didn't seem very well prepared. in fact, it was a little cold.......... for dessert we had apple crumble served with ice cream and wasn't bad but by this time i wasn't feeling well to my stomach..... upon returning to our room i became very sick and spent the night either on the toilet, throwing up or in bed....
July 21st
lunch @ the Albert Centre
(smashing the sugar cane to make juice)
we didn't have breakfast today. instead we had a kinda early breakfast at a hawker center close to our hotel. actually, out of all of the hawker centers that we'd been to this one was the biggest and even though we passed it almost every day we'd never gone into it till today. we ordered roti prata (indian bread) and nasi biryani chicken from a stall that sold muslim food. the roti prata was cold, but the curry sauce served with it was hot and it tasted good. the chicken and rice was yum. :) we also tried some sugar cane juice which was pressed and made to order. it tasted very different from what you'd imagine sugar cane juice would taste like. it was yum! :)
dinner @ Changi Airport
we had our last meal in Singapore at the airport and we made sure that it was Singaporean. the restaurant was called Prima Taste. David had the crispy chicken and rice set and I had their sampler set where i got to choose 3 Singaporean dishes from a selection of 5. i had laksa, chicken rice and shrimp mee, all of which were yum. :) to drink, David had fresh lychee soda and i had fresh casmani(?) juice, both of which were yum. we boarded our flight with full stomachs. :)
while we're on the topic of food, since i've been back in Brisbane i have found several new Asian restaurants downtown! in fact, i've explored an area of the city that i'd never been to before and found more than just Asian restaurants. among the restaurants that i found were several Korean restaurants, two Singaporean restaurants, a Vietnamese(!!) restaurant, a Malaysian(!!) Restaurant and a Taiwanese restaurant! i intend to visit them ALL. 8) now i've just gotta find me an Indonesian restaurant.