Singapore, Day 2

Date of visits: 19th July 2010

After our breakfast at the hotel (Brizo Restaurant, disappointing), we headed to Raffles City for some shopping to kill time before visiting Fook Seng Golden Hill for some home-style chicken rice. 

When we arrived it seems we were the only tourists, and I proceeded to order our lunch in cantonese. They had run out of the raw fish starter or porridge, so we simply went for the superior chicken rice (S$3), extra chicken rice ($0.5), and fried seasonal vegetables with oyster sauce (S$4-5). 

chicken rice, one each, with home-made garlic chilli sauce and fantastic with a little of the thick sweet soy sauce drizzled on top

'superior' chicken had some sesame oil  drizzled on top and cucumbers underneath.

chicken broth, not particularly exciting.

These vegetables were too undercooked for my liking, every bite was a loud crunch =P

The small plate of chicken was enough for the both of us. It was quite good, not completely bland and being given only the breast without skin, they were quite moist too. The chicken rice was even better, the texture showing great execution on the part of the chef, and it wasn’t very oily either. With the exception of the vegetables, this was a very simply yet satisfying lunch for me.

We then headed south to VivoCity for some more shopping before making a pit stop at Bakerzin for some late-afternoon fuel after hitting so many shops! On this day there was 30% discount (believe discount is until end of August, 2010) and S chose an Oreo cheesecake whilst I took the recommendation of the cashier lady and went for the strawberry shortcake.

S thought the cheesecake was too sweet, and I had some too, which I thought the sweetness was fine (I don't have a liking for desserts which are too sweet either) - cheesecakes are meant to be sweet and this one was already far less-sweet than ones you find in the US. However, I really didn't appreciate the base nor the texture of the cheesecake. It was creamy, yes, but not dense like a baked cheesecake is meant to be....and the oreo cookies...well, it didn't cut it for me, being soggy and all.

My strawberry shortcake was essentially two layers of sponge with two layers of light whipped cream layered in between, with some sliced strawberries. It was very light and is easily manageable by one person. I would've liked to see more fruit though. Nothing particular exciting and I didn't quite understand how this was their best seller. 


For dinner we decided we wanted some more local food experiences, so I suggested we head back to Clarke Quay to the Food Street, which had been set up for the purposes of the Singapore Food Festival. Yes this was more for tourists than locals as the food was probably more expensive but in normal food centres each serving is so big one dish would've filled you up. Here we were able to sample different things, and for everything below the total came to about S$20. 

This food street was set up nicely, with lots of stalls, each selling a different kind of food, from chilli crab to durian ice cream to hand-made noodles. 

Otak Otak / Otah Otah

We were late arrivers, and I was lucky enough to snab the last of the otah otah. After watching Anthony Bourdain's trip to SG, I had been wanting to try these Nyonya / Indonesian delicacies. They are steamed fish paste, which have been marinated with coconut milk and a variety of spices and then wrapped in banana leaves. These ones I had were actually grilled on a barbeque rather than steamed. 

Rojak

Next we sampled rojak - a fruit + vegetable salad commonly found here, as well as Malaysia + Indonesia. We asked or the spicy sauce to be on the side, and the man behind this rojak stall proceeded to mix some guava fruit, cucumbers, pineapples and chopped deep-fried dough sticks ("yao jar-gwai" / you tiao) with a sweet marinade resembling hoi-sin sauce, and crunchy chopped peanuts. Very light and refreshing for this hot weather.

Popiah 

Cross-section of a slice of popiah

Popiahs are fresh rolls with shredded jicama or cucumbers, vermicelli and usually a protein such as shrimp or pork or hard beancurd. Flavour comes from chopped crunchy peanuts and a sweet sauce, similar to that found in our rojak salad. We asked for ours to not include any protein as S is quite picky with her meat, but it was tasty nonetheless =). 

Hand-made noodle in soup with prawns, minced pork, anchovies, fried garlic.

I chose this as our filler. This stall had some chicken dumplings, fried noodle dishes and noodle-in-soup dishes for one to choose from. The guy behind this stall was very friendly and sweet, and recommended the prawn soup noodle, so I agreed and went for it. The noodles were the fresh kind, pre-made for tonight, but the whole dish is assembled to order. The woman took her time, and I thought the noodles would've been better (more al-dente) if she had not boiled them for so long! The couple of shrimps were small but bouncy, and the minced meat was very flavourful. I didn't care for the soup as much as S as it was too salty and probably had a lot of MSG.

All in all a smart way to sample different local foods, and we were lucky to be arriving at the time of Singapore's Food Festival.