Singapore is a foodie paradise. It is not exaggerating to say that eating is part of the Singapore Spirit. Since we will be celebrating National day in a month’s time, I thought it would be nice to write about some of the must-eats in Singapore.

Here’s my list of 10 Things to Eat in Singapore.

For first time visitors, it is a must to try all the popular hawker food from places like Chomp Chomp Hawker Centre and Old Airport Road Market. If you are willing to spend more on food, Singapore has many excellent fine dining restaurants, like Les Amis and Iggy’s. And of course, we mustn’t forget about the Celebrity Chefs Restaurants like Waku Ghin, Santi, CUT at the swanky Marina Bay Sands; Osia and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Resorts World Sentosa.

However, I’ll not be including Singapore’s best restaurants in this post. Instead, I want to share about some of the food that I miss whenever I am out of town. For non-food recommendations, please read my list of 10 Things to do in Singapore.

Chicken Rice

If you ask around which is the most famous Singapore food, chances are, people will reply with either chilli crab or chicken rice.

Amongst the many good chicken rice stalls in Singapore, I’d suggest going to either Tian Tian Hainanese chicken rice or Boon Tong Kee. I like Tian Tian’s chicken rice, but I hate the queue. If you are lazy to queue like me, go to Maxwell market before or after lunch hour. Tian Tian is definitely one of the best chicken rice in Singapore.

Boon Tong Kee, on the other hand, is a tricky one. Many people would argue that it is a commercialised restaurant, and there are probably lots of places that have better chicken rice. Let me explain. With six branches around the island, Boon Tong Kee is much more accessible, and you can have your chicken rice in a clean environment (not everyone is willing to brave the heat in hawker centre). It is a relatively safe option to bring your overseas visitors there for their first taste of our famous Singapore chicken rice.

Boon Tong Kee
425 River Valley Road
Tel: +65 6736 3213

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice
Maxwell Road #01-10 Maxwell Food Centre

Chilli Crab

As mentioned, Chilli Crab is probably the most famous Singapore food. It is the face of Singapore Cuisine, the must-try food for tourists. You cannot visit Singapore without having Chili Crab. There are many Chinese seafood restaurants in Singapore serving this popular dish, but my favourite is No Signboard at Geylang.

Fresh meaty crabs in a spicy-sweet chili sauce with deep-fried mantou – this is one of the most satisfying experiences in life.

No Signboard Seafood
414 Geylang Road
Tel: +65 6842 3415

Kaya Toast

Kaya is a coconut jam made from coconut milk, eggs which are flavoured by pandan leaf and sweetened with sugar. It is easily one of the best jam spread ever created.

Spread the kaya on the toast with a generous slab of butter – this is a very delicious thing for breakfast, tea, or supper. All you need is kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and a cup of coffee. This is the best local breakfast.

Chin Mee Chin Confectionery
204 East Coast Road Singapore

Ya Kun Kaya Toast Singapore
18 China Street #01-01
Far East Square Singapore
Tel: +65 6438 3638

Tropical Fruits

There are plenty of tropical fruits to eat in Singapore, so it is a good idea to head to the markets if you are not from the region. Some of the must-try fruits are: rambutans, mangosteen, longan, lychee, durian, and mango.

Even though I hate durian, I think it’s a pretty cool experience to visit Geylang and sit by the roadside to try the king of fruits.

Fish Head Curry

Fish Head Curry is a dish created by Singapore’s Malayalee. Cooked in a hot and spicy Indian curry, the large fish head is usually eaten with white rice or bread. Try the one from Muthu’s Curry at Race Course road.

Muthu’s Curry
138 Race Course Road #01-01 Singapore
Tel: +65 6392 1722

Laksa

Laksa has a rich coconut-based curry soup with rice noodles alongside ingredients like cockles, shrimp, tau pok and fish cake.

The first time I had a bowl of laksa (many years ago) was a total revelation. It was like taking a plane for the first time; the first sip of champagne, or having the first ever taste of foie gras. It was something very special.

Without a doubt, Laksa is one of the Singapore’s must-eats.

328 Katong Laksa
51 East Coast Road Singapore
Tel: +65 9732 8163

Zi Char

Zi Char (also known as Zhi Char/Cze Char/Tze Char) is a Chinese stall (in a coffee shop) that serves a variety of ala carte dishes at affordable prices. Different ‘restaurants’ have their own unique signature dishes, but a typical zi char place will usually has the following: meat items – pork ribs, har cheong gai ($8 – $20); vegetables – sambal kangkong, kailan ($6 – $12), side dishes – beancurd, noodles, rice ($4 – $20) ; and seafood – prawn, fish, crabs ($15 upwards).

There are many good zi char places in Singapore, but I’d recommend Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hoon (for har cheong gai), Keng Eng Kee Seafood and for a slightly more upmarket option, Ming Kee Live Seafood.

Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hoon
Jumbo Coffee Hub
Blk 19A Dover Crescent

Keng Eng Kee Seafood
Blk 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-136 Alexandra Village Singapore
Tel: +65 6272 1038

Ming kee Live Seafood
556 Macpherson Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6747 4075

Peranakan Cuisine

Peranakan Cuisine, also known as Nyonya food, is the result of blending Chinese ingredients and wok cooking techniques with spices used by the Malay/Indonesian community. There are plenty of Peranakan restaurants in Singapore serving fantastic nyonya food, you can check out the fairly new Candlenut Kitchen by Malcolm lee – one of the up and coming chefs in Singapore; and Ivin’s – a popular and no frills place for families to have dinner.

Candlenut Kitchen
25 Neil Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6226 2506

Ivin’s
19 Binjai Park Singapore
Tel: +65 6468 3060

Dim Sum

Hong Kong might be the land of dim sum, but I feel that some restaurants in Singapore serve very good dim sum too. I’m sure everyone knows by now: my favourite dim sum restaurants in Singapore are Royal China at Raffles Hotel, Yanting Restaurant at St Regis, and Taste Paradise at Ion Orchard.

Royal China
1 Beach Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel
Tel: +65 6338 3363

Taste Paradise Ion Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
#04-07 ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 9660

Yan Ting Restaurant
29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis
Tel: +65 6506 6888

Char Kway Teow

“What food do you miss the most when you are away from Singapore?”

This is a simple question. My answer is definitely Char Kway Teow. The stir-fried noodle is artery clogging, but it is very, very tasty! For me, the best char kway teow in Singapore will be the one from Zion Road. You MUST EAT it!

No 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow
Zion Road Riverside Food Centre

I wrote this list of 10 Things to eat in Singapore for the NDP 2011 Official Website, but this is not a sponsored blog post and I have not received any monetary benefits in return. That said, I got two tickets to the NDP preview and I’ll be writing a second post to share more about the Singapore spirit during the parade.

Besides all the good food, what do you think defines the Singapore spirit? Share your thoughts at the NDP website and NDPeeps Facebook page!

When it comes to cheap and good food in West of Singapore, the first place that comes to mind is definitely Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre. It is one of my usual hang-out places for local food as it’s only ten minutes away from my home.

It can be quite a daunting task when you are ordering food in hawker centres. Which stalls do we order from? Shall we flip a coin, judge by the number of newspaper cuttings, or simply look at the queue of each stall? If you are planning to make a trip to Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, I’ll like to share with you some of my favorite food there.

For those of you who have been reading my food blog for a while, I’m sure you know that Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite hawker food. I usually order it from Xin Heng Char Kway Teow (Stall 181) when I’m having dinner at Bukit Timah Food Centre. He Zhong Carrot Cake (Stall 185) is extremely famous for their white carrot cake. I very much prefer the sweet and eggy black carrot cake so I seldom order this unless my friends want to try it.

For Oyster omelette, avoid the one from Fried Carrot Cake Fried Oyster (Stall 145), the omelette was soggy and there was hardly any oyster. I can’t remember the name of the stall that I always order from — it’s in the same row as Xin Heng Char Kway Teow.

It’s always a good idea to eat at hawker centre with a group of friends (at least 4-5 people) so that you can order more food. Stall 156 BBQ Seafood offers a good variety of BBQ seafood like stir fried Lala clams, BBQ Stingray and sambal kangkong – great for sharing, but I can probably finish the excellent stingray on my own.

I have tried two of out three of the hokkien mee stalls in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre. On one occasion, we decided to try Fried Hokkien Mee (Stall 145) because of the long queue. Unfortunately, the hokkien mee was a total letdown, the sambal chili wasn’t spicy enough, and the taste of the noodles was subtle – bordering on bland. The second Hokkien Mee Stall is located in the middle row of the food centre and they use the distinctive flat yellow noodle. I’m going to try out the third stall (facing the main road) the next time round.

Peter Pan Western Food (Stall 133) has been around for some time, and they have value-for-money Western Food. Otherwise, there’s Tom Kitchen Western Food which is located near the stairs. Long House Popiah used to have a branch in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, but on my recent visit, I realized that it’s not there anymore. Try the popiah and kueh pie tee from Stall 127 instead. There’s also the famous Satay bee hoon, Japanese food, and Thai Food stalls worth trying if you want something different.

If you are having breakfast at Bukit Timah Food Centre, be sure to order the Kway Chap from stall 138. There’s always a long queue when I go there during weekends. My mother is a big fan of the huge fishballs from Teochew Fishball noodle, (Stall 179) as well as the dark sauce wanton mee from Stall 197 Happy Wanton Noodle. To end the hawker feast on a sweet note, have the smooth beancurd and Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls) from Soyako (Stall 166).

// Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre is within walking distance from Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, and Bukit Timah Plaza. For other options, there’s a stretch of eateries and restaurants at Cheong Chin Nam road, Chun Tin road and Lorong Kilat opposite Beauty World.

Singapore Hawker Food Review
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road

The Singapore Food Scene is getting very exciting with the opening of Celebrity chef restaurants, and many new dining concepts. But when my overseas friends ask me for recommendation on what to eat in Singapore, or what is the true Singaporean cuisine, I’d definitely reply: Hawker Food.

With the exception of places like Newton Circus, Lau Pa Sat & Chomp Chomp Hawker Centre, the prices of food in the other food centre usually are around $2-3. You are going to be shocked by this, but my last visit to Old Airport Road Food Centre was actually a few years ago, before the renovation. I need someone to scold me for taking so long to revisit this wonderful place, which undoubtedly is one of the best Hawker Centres in Singapore.

As much as I do not fancy oysters, it is a joy to dip the oyster omelette into the chili sauce which is slightly sour, yet sweet and spicy. I’m not sure if Katong Ah Soon Fried Oyster is one of the better stalls in Old Airport Road Hawker Centre, but the oyster omelette was the first empty plate on the table.

It was one o’clock in the afternoon, and everyone was hungry. It’s a damn Sunday morning, and we should all be sleeping in bed. Instead, I was queuing up for the Blanco Court Kway Chap at Old Airport Hawker Centre with ten (equally crazy) people in front of me. After a long wait of 27 minutes, it was finally my turn to make the order. The intestines were cooking in the stove, yet the chef/cook/hawker grabbed them with his bare hands, put it on the chopping board and cut them into appropriate portions with breathtaking speed.

Everyone crowded around the table, waiting impatiently for the food blogger to take the photos. Eating commenced after that, and luckily, it was worth the wait.

Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite Singapore’s Hawker Food, and Lao Fu Zhi fried kway teow is one of the most famous char kway teow stalls in Singapore. Unfortunately, I thought that Lao Fu Zhi’s rendition was a little too dry, and it lacked a certain wok-hei. The million dollar question: is there another better char kway teow stall in Old Airport Hawker Centre?

This is the Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee, otherwise known as the lor-mee-that-we-queued-for-half-an-hour. There are many hawker stalls in Old Airport Food Center, but Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee is one of the few that has an incredibly long queue. It’s good to eat out with a group of friends who are willing to brave the snake-like human traffic and wait for a seemingly-ordinary bowl of noodle.

Lor Mee is a bowl of noodle served in a thick starchy gravy and comes with ingredients like prawn roll (ngo hiang), half boiled egg, fish cake, and fish. My friends were won over by the generous toppings, and the flavor of the sticky gravy. Me? I will only eat it if someone else is queuing up.

If you like the kick from having the spicy-hot sambal chili, you will be very disappointed with the famous Nam Sing Hokkien Mee. In place of the familiar sambal chili, they have sliced red chili instead. The Hokkien Mee has a much higher proportion of the rice noodles to the yellow egg noodles. Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee definitely has their loyal supporters, mind you — we waited slightly more than twenty minutes for this plate of Hokkien Mee. Thankfully there is no need to queue as they will deliver the Hokkien Mee when it’s ready.

* * *

I’m definitely going back to Old Airport Road Food Centre soon, do share with us which are some of the other hawker stalls that are worth a try.

Singapore Hawker Food
Blanco Court Kway Chap
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-135
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Katong Ah Soon Fried Oyster
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-07
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Lao Fu Zhi Fried Kway Teow
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-12
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Nam Sing Hokkien Mee
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-32
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-116
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

” SINGAPORE – Singapore’s annual inflation rate hit a 25-year high of 6.6 percent in January, according to Department of Statistics (DOS) data released on Monday.

The inflation rate, as indicated by the consumer price index (CPI), was the highest since the 7.5 percent hit in March 1982… “

You must be thinking whether LIC has gone nuts writing food reviews, or you must have step into the wrong place, not quite like your impression of a food blog. Don’t just read the start, you need to finish the story!

Back to food, the point i am trying to bring across is, in this day where inflation rises like nobody’s business, and price of food soars, where can you even see food that just cost 2 bucks? Fishball noodle, Chicken rice, fried kuay teow, all your familiar local delights, $2.50 is the norm, with more selling at even higher prices in the hawkers nowadays.

The store we are looking today has a signboard with an ambiguous name of just Fried Kuay Teow Mee may be deceiving, and unknown to the rest. But this store at Seah Im food centre opposite Vivocity, cooks a mean plate of fried kuay teow, all for just 2 bucks.

Char Kuay Teow ($2)

Walking past the stall, the fragrance of the char kuay teow already caught my attention, looking at the board, $2 for all their stuff, fried kuay teow, fried carrot cake, fried hokkien mee, mee goreng. Gosh!

The char kuay teow did not disappoint. Not the most good-looking one around, no fancy plates to go along. The greasy plate of char kuay teow may not looks welcoming to your calorie intake, but once in a while, you got to spoil yourself.

Not too soggy, and not too dry, the savouring plate of char kuay teow is simple, and at 2 bucks, you really can’t complaint.

Fried Kuay Teow Mee
Seah Im Food Market
Seah Im road

In case you are wondering where is Serangoon Gardens Food Centre, its near Lorong Chuan, just before turning in into the Serangoon Gardens’ roundabout.

First Stop, PK Xpress fish & chips. This store is reputed for their Aussie Fish & chips, and selling at $6 per set in a “hawker centre environment” they really got quite a lot to live up to.

Aussie Fish & Chips ($6)

The aussie fish & chips certainly does not fail to disappoint. Cripsy on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. Plus the serving is quite huge. Another thing worth mentioning is the accompanying salad, there’s nothing special about the greens, the slices of mango mixed with the greens are really sweet!

I don’t like the fries though, its just like normal potato fried and served. Anyway we got 2 portions of it and cannot finish because we had other food as well.

Banana Walnut cake ($2.50)

Besides having fish and chips, the store also serve some awesome home-made desserts and cakes. The banana cake may looks quite small at $2.50, but my friend finish it in a mouth-full!

Chocolate Cake ($2.80)

The home-made chocolate cake is really a steal with such a large slice at $2.80. After eating so much food, we really struggle to finish the cake. The chocolate cake can be better if there’s more layer of thin chocolate in between the cake as i find it a tad on the dry side.

Garden Street Kway Chap

I always love Kway Chap but nowadays we can’t seem to be able to find really good ones around. My friend recommended Garden Street Kway Chap, so lets give it a try!

At first glance, they are supposedly quite famous being on so many different media publications already!

Whats Kway Chap without the main character, the “kway”!

Kway Chap serving of 3 person ($15)

We didn’t get the small intestines because my friend didn’t eat that. The rest is pretty good, but i don’t quite like the roast pork though. Kway Chap is actually a very simple and nice dish, but i don’t always eat them firstly because you can’t find much good ones around.

And secondly, the stores usually charged a very high price, as in the price is not really fixed and its up to their call. If anyone know of good and cheap kway chap please let me know!

The must-have sugarcane drinks when you eat at Hawker centre!

Another friend doesn’t eat Kway Chap, so he ordered a plate of roasted meat rice, pretty decent i guess. The roasted meat is ordered from the store see picture below.

Roasted Meat store on the left, Fried Kway Teow store on the right.

Fried Oyster ($4)

The fried oyster is quite good as well, but usually i just go in for the eggs and leave the oyster alone. Its pretty guilty since the oyster is the ingredients that warrents such a high price for a plate of fried oyster, but usually there will be others who will be more than willing to finish up the oysters for me.

Fried Kway Teow ($4)

LIC favourite hawker food, fried Kway Teow! You know people always say when they goes overseas they always miss the local food in Singapore. If there’s only one local food LIC can choose, it will definitely be fried Kway Teow! Sinful as it may be, but having it once in a while won’t makes me feel that guilty.

Serangoon Gardens Food Centre is really a good place for our authentic local delights, and there’s a few other stall selling famous for their duck rice, fishball noodles which was closed on the day that we visited. Furthermore, its relatively cheap when you compared to the better-known hawker centre like Newton Food centre and Chomp Chomp!

The real awesome deal about our local delights is that they are not only nice, but also real cheap! Four of us spend like around 10 bucks each to enjoy all the good food? Its always good to have a group of friends going together, ordered many different food and share!

Serangoon Gardens Food Centre
49A Serangoon Gardens Way