I apologize for the blog silence these past few days. I was completely consumed by the following tasks:
A) slogging through sauna-level humidity, from one air-conditioned sanctuary to another,
B) systematically emptying our bank account (a.k.a. shopping), and
C) eating my way through Singapore.
The eating was almost a full-time job. We must have eaten a week’s worth of food in just three days!
Hainanese chicken rice—roasted chicken served over rice cooked in chicken broth, flavored with ginger and garlic—at the famous Wee Nam Kee in Novena…
Cereal prawns—fat prawns rolled in egg yolk and Nestum, a breakfast cereal, then deep-fried until golden and crunchy—at Wee Nam Kee, but available pretty much everywhere…
Black pepper crab at Jumbo Seafood…
Piping hot ramen with pork belly in a thick, salty pork broth at Menya Musashi, Raffles City…
Finally, cereal prawns’ evil twin: a leaning tower of crispy sea bass at Beer Thai House…
finished with sweet mangoes and sticky rice with coconut cream.
A note on Beer Thai House: Located in Singapore’s very own Little Bangkok, the Golden Mile Complex and Tower, the horrid kitschy decor in this hole-in-the-wall Thai eatery should be taken as a clear indication of a superb, authentic meal. Easily the best Thai food we’ve had since leaving Southeast Asia nearly two years ago.
Not all of our Singapore eats made it on camera: Ya Kun kaya toast, pork tonkatsu at Tonkichi, spicy peri-peri chicken at Nando’s, even the random coffee bun from the strip of lunch stalls at International Plaza. My pregnant appetite got to them first!
I also failed to capture the most important part of these meals: the people Marlon and I shared them with. There are reasons why our Lah-Lah Land stint was a short one (well, for me at least, just three years), but I can regret nothing about Singapore when I think about the amazing friends we made there. This week was a wonderful reminder of all the funny, brilliant, beautiful, creative, kind people who made our Singapore experience worth it—and who make the prospect of a return trip so much more fun.
