After Ho Chi Minh City, we flew into Singapore for one night to stay at the amazing Marina Bay Sands.
As it was a milestone birthday for Mr FPJ, we found a chocolate mousse birthday cake and a do it yourself gin and tonic in our hotel room. A very thoughtful gesture by the hotel.
They had also kindly provided us with a dessert platter in the fridge. What a lovely surprise!
If you’ve never been or heard of Marina Bay Sands, it has the world’s largest rooftop pool on the 57th floor. As it was mid-afternoon, we were ready for a swim and some relaxation on a beach lounge. The menu was from Spago by Wolfgang Puck. I was only peckish and ordered a bowl of fries to be shared.
And couldn’t forget a mocktail.
That night, we wandered through The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and found the 24hr food court – Rasapura Masters. Singapore’s hawker centres (food courts) are great places to check out the local food. Rasapura Masters is a little more upmarket since it’s based in Marina Bay Sands and has air-conditioning. It’s very convenient if you’re staying in the hotel. There we found a mix of Asian street food stalls. As it was my first time (and only night) in Singapore, I had to order a Singaporean signature dish – chilli crab with mantau. The crab was at market price (I don’t remember the cost). It came with lots of gravy with medium chilli intensity. I was wishing for some rice to help mop up all that sauce as the 5 mantau buns provided weren’t enough. The crab was quite small and it was a lot of work to crack the shell for minimal crab meat. Ah well, while in Singapore…
Mr FPJ ordered an udon stir fry which had been smothered in thick dark soya sauce. A good choice and so saucy.
The following day, I talked Mr FPJ into coming with me to check out the famous 1x Michelin starred hawker stall Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle at the Chinatown food complex.
When we got there around 11.30am (I know, far too late!), there was already a massive queue wrapped around two corners. We joined the end and waited.
To pass the time and to prevent a hangry me, I hunted around for some snacks while Mr FPJ held our place in the queue. I ended up buying two items from the one stall ‘Genie Foods’. The first was a chicken curry puff which had a good amount of filling in it (chicken, potatoes and herbs) encased in a beautifully golden pastry.
The second was a 4-pack of kueh (steamed dumplings made from rice flour) with various fillings like mushroom, Asian greens and rice. The dumpling skin was thick but still soft and chewy, each dumpling was still hot from the steamer.
Just over an hour later (yep we queued up for over an hour), we finally reached the front. There were glistening chickens hanging on hooks at the front and back wall with a large chunk of pork ready to be sliced. We watched as Head Chef Chan Hon Meng chopped and sliced portions of chicken and pork, before placing them on each order.
As it had been a long wait, we decided to order 3 dishes between us. The soya sauce chicken with noodles (SGD $2.50), soya sauce chicken with rice (SGD $2), and roast pork with rice (SGD $2.50). Three dishes from a Michelin-starred stall and all we paid was roughly AUD $7! A fantastic price.
The soya chicken’s dark red skin looked fantastic and was slippery and smooth. The chicken meat was soft but not as juicy and succulent as I’d expected. The thin egg noodles were bland but came with a side of chilli sauce and Chinese greens to mix with the chicken. The rice had been covered in a dark soy sauce which was slightly sweet, which I enjoyed wishing there was a small tub of that sauce. I’m sorry to say, but I don’t think this dish lives up to all the hype. It didn’t do enough to stand out for me and tasted similar to other chicken rice dining establishments. I did like that it wasn’t as greasy as other places. The roasted pork was plentiful with not too much fat but the overall dish lacked flavour. Although we probably won’t queue up again for these dishes, I’m glad we got to try the world’s cheapest Michelin star dining. It’s also great that the owner doesn’t intend to increase prices just because of a star.
On the walk back from Chinatown to the subway station, we passed by a small shop called Oyoge Taiyaki selling a mochi taiyaki variation. I loved eating the traditional taiyaki and hybrid croissant taiyaki while in Japan, so I was very curious to try a mochi variety. It was basically like a mochi ball but shaped as a fish with red bean filling inside. Delicious.
After a bit of window shopping back at The Shoppes in Marina Bay Sands, we stopped in for afternoon tea at global tea shop TWG.
The tea menu at TWG is one very thick hardcover book with pages and pages detailing each note in every tea they have. It was overwhelming but so impressive. I don’t quite remember which tea I chose, but it did open up like a flower inside the glass tea pot.
To go with the tea, I ordered a chocolate cake which came with coffee gelato and whipped cream. The cake wasn’t too rich or chocolatey so it was a nice way to end the afternoon.
We headed to the airport a little later for a late night flight back to Australia. My last meal in Singapore was at Changi airport – a small tub of tonkotsu ramen from Ippudo Express that hit the spot.
And that concludes our South East Asia trip! Hope you’ve enjoyed.
To recap:
- Eating in Chiang Mai – Part 1
- Eating in Chiang Mai – Part 2
- Eating in Luang Prabang
- Eating in Vietnam – Hanoi and Halong Bay
- Eating in Vietnam – Phong Nha, Hue, Da Nang and Nha Trang
- Eating in Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City
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