November 11, 2003

Fact: Singaporeans love food.

Singaporeans love good food and they love eating.

Most of all they love eating good, cheap food.

'Cheap and good' is just about the best accolade any restaurant or food stall can receive from anyone. The reputation of cheap-and-good food locations spreads like wildfire throughout the island by word of mouth. Sure, some places receive a flurry of attention after getting a good review from a local newspaper, or a high star rating in 'The Makansutra', but for the most part, those places which are genuinely good are well-known already.

People will travel all the way across the island to eat seafood at East Coast, or hokkien mee at Chomp Chomp, or roti prata on Jalan Kayu or nasi lemak in Jurong Market 3 or kway chap in Tiong Bahru. Of course, Singapore is less than 30 miles across at it's broadest section, so travelling the length of the island doesn't really take that long. Unless it's rush hour, or it's raining!

Singaporeans are willing to wait for good food. They take pride in queueing up for the best sliced fish soup or chicken rice or carrot cake available in the food court or hawker center.

I have learned that one of the best ways to ensure a decent meal in unchartered waters of an unfamiliar food center is to pick one of the stalls with a queue.

Initially, I thought this was, well, somewhat bizarre and masochistic. I was hungry, I wanted bee hoon soup. There were three stalls serving my dish of choice. Why bother waiting for 15 minutes, when I could get what I wanted in 3 minutes, for the same price or less, from the stall next door? It's all noodles, soup and fishballs, right? Wrong.

Experience has taught me that Singapore, patience is indeed a virtue that will be rewarded; well, when it comes to stomach satisfaction, if nothing else.

Posted by Kristen at November 11, 2003 01:21 AM
Comments

How would Singapore be for vegetarians, out of curiosity? (That is, an actual vegetarian, not "the kind that eats fish", also known as "not a vegetarian".)

Posted by: wildsoda at November 11, 2003 01:38 AM

vegetarians can have a tough time in singapore. there is some truly excellent indian food available for vegetarians, but other food groups are not nearly as well catered for. most hawker centers/food courts will have a vegetarian stall, which sells fake meat and vegetarian versions of popular dishes, such as fried bee hoon. these sort of food can be very oily, but otherwise OK.

very often, asking for something at a non vegetarian stall to be prepared 'vegetarian' will result in the dish containing no pork or beef bits - but, as you mentioned, seafood is not considered meat, and sometimes chicken is even permitted to enter a vegetarian dish!

the real crunch for a true vegetarian is that even if you can get the food stall to prepare your dish without any meat or seafood, you may not be able to tell whether the dish was prepared with other meat/animal products, like chicken stock or pork lard.

Posted by: Kristen at November 11, 2003 02:19 AM

i hear you, kristen! being a singaporean who now lives in a place with much less variety, i so miss the food - when i go home on a trip - i'll have to work off my list of yummies!

Posted by: stef at November 11, 2003 12:38 PM

Sliced fish soup? "Waiter, could I have a knife please, I wish to slice my fish soup"? Sounds like a hearty soup.

Posted by: Edwinek at November 12, 2003 07:01 AM

heh. edwin - actually it is referring to the fact that the soup contains slices of fish. :o) yeah, now i think about it,you are right, it is a funny name for the dish...

Posted by: kristen at November 12, 2003 08:16 AM