Singapore Food Trek (Part 1)

Every visit to Singapore always ends up as a food trip for me. What else can you do in a "foodie haven" that offers an eclectic mix of cuisine that's bound to fill up your gustatory wish-list for years to come?

My 'mission' on this trip was the 2010 Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, an event I had looked forward to for a long time. I purchased my tickets in April, booked my airline in May, and waited it out till this time of year. A good friend and officemate was coming along, but he would be staying with his girlfriend at a hotel not too far from the city centre.

On the side, I imagined I would be sampling some good food at the many hot dining spots in Singapore. Though I did promise my wife that I'd keep as close to my diet as possible, I guess all hell broke lose as soon as my plane landed in Changi airport!

For this trip, I stayed with my good friend Mai. My wife and I stayed with her two years ago when we got to Singapore as part of our cruise package with Star Cruises. Mai and I used to hang out during our college days in UP, and we still had that same kind of wacky yet sincere friendship that didn't miss a beat throughout the years. From Changi airport, I took a cab to her office to pick up the keys to her flat. I got to her flat, got settled, rested a bit, then headed out the door.

XIAO LONG BAO
Mai insisted we go out to dinner on my first night in SG, so we decided to meet at the ION, a glitzy, new high-end mall on Orchard Road, and take it from there. It took me about a 45-minute walk from the stop where I got off the bus, coming from Mai's flat in Upper East Coast Road, and that helped get my appetite going.

After we found each other, Mai led me to Din Tai Fung, at the food court of Paragon Mall. To say I was hungry was an understatement, and Mai herself was high-beaming it all the way to that place for our dinner.

Din Tai Fung is an award-winning restaurant of Taiwanese origin, specialising in xiaolongbao (small steamed buns, marketed as "dumplings" in the West). Outside its native Taiwan, Din Tai Fung also has its restaurant chains in Australia, China, Hong Kong,Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States. This branch is just one of eight in Singapore, and it was good timing that I was in town to try it out.


After getting to our table, Mai did all the ordering, which consisted of steamed shrimp and pork dumplings, steamed vegetable and pork dumplings, fried rice with shrimp and egg vegetarian delight in special vinegar dressing. The dumplings were great! Perfectly steamed, and it seemed to melt as soon as you put it in your mouth.

We were catching up on each other's happenings for the last two years and pretty soon, we had consumed almost everything served on our table. Which is a normal occurrence when you have me and Mai, and a table full of food, and no one to stop us. Good thing we had some Chinese tea to help keep our stomachs warm.



SNOW ICE
Later in the evening (which was about 15-minutes later), we met up with Rhea, Mai's sister, who works at one of the newly soft-opened boutique hotels along Orchard Road. Then we proceeded to this dessert place at the Food Court somewhere beneath the ION Mall. Mai said she just wanted to let me try some "snow ice" for dessert. You may not be able to lead a horse to water, but you can always drag me to hell and back with the promise of dessert!

After five minutes of looking for it, allowing me to take a trip to the loo (and a very stylish one at that!), Mai found the place called Mei Hong Yeun, got a table, and placed an order.

When it arrived, it was heaven on ice! Literally a little mountain of shaved ice, flavored from the inside out! This was Chendol Snow Ice, with a taste that I can't exactly place although it hinted of coconut and pandan. Mai added a huge dollop of gula melaka to make it just a tad more tasty! It's an acquired taste, but not off-putting as you would think. The green trimmings would be the pandan-flavored bits, or something like it. It wasn't really very sweet, so you can actually bear to eat a big portion of that serving.

Then came this big yellow sculpture, which turned out to be Mango Snow Ice, topped with more mango sauce! Really refreshing to the taste, and quite appealing in taste. These desserts really turned out well as a counterpoint to the heavily soy- and vinegar-based dimsum meal we had earlier -- a perfect ending to a great evening!





Disclaimer: We didn't finish both desserts. Left them with a bit more than a third left on the bowl. Honest!

CRYSTAL JADE
The next day, I found myself in Holland Village, quite a ways off of my usual route in SG, but a locale that's teeming with great new finds, including a row of gadget shops that offered one of the best prices in town! It was my first time here and I wanted to check it out.

Holland Village, as defined by Wikipedia, is a small commercial enclave near the Buona Vista MRT Station close to the Queenstown area in Singapore. A popular venue for younger Singaporeans and expatriates, it is dominated by and often visited solely for its eateries and watering holes, along with some specialist shops selling non-traditional wares

Some of the stores and dining places were still closed when I got there, so I just surveyed the place. It really looked like a great hangout for drinks and cocktails. There was a couple of food courts, a shopping center and the Holland V Shopping Mall, with a windmill fixed on the roof of the building structure. The open dining spots were Crystal Jade, BreadTalk, The Coffee Bean, Subway, Indochine and Häagen-Dazs, and a Ya Kun Kaya place.

Since it was already close to noon, I decided have my lunch at Crystal Jade.There were two Crystal Jade places in Holland V: one is a dine-in resto and the other I think served dimsum and bread to-go. I just ordered steamed chicken and noodle soup, and it was one of the best ones I've had in a long time!



KAYA TOAST
From Holland V, I headed back to Orchard Road to do some more window shopping. After walking for most of the afternoon, checking out the malls while waiting to meet up with my friends, I started to get hungry (how come this is becoming a regular thing?). In fairness, I only had chicken noodle soup for lunch, so obviously, I would be hungry by 4pm!

I then found this neat-looking place that served Kaya toast and Kopi! I haven't really tried this one yet, even if a place called Kopi Roti already opened in Manila. I've heard of it though, of the coffee laced with condensed milk, called Kopi, which you pair with a toasty bread filled with butter and a delectable spread!

Kaya toast is a popular snack amongst Malaysians and Singaporeans where kaya is a local favourite spread eaten on toast, fresh bread or cream crackers. Kaya is made of eggs, sugar and coconut milk and flavored with pandan.



The coffee in Singapore is not just your plain old coffee as it is know in other parts of the world. While "Kopi" is the direct translation of "coffee" in Malay. When you say kopi, that means coffee with condensed milk. If you want it just black with no sugar, then that's Kopi-O. Here's a complete list of terms and what they mean to help us out next time we have a coffee break in Singapore:

Kopi-O: Coffee without milk and only sugar
Kopi-C: Coffee with evaporated milk
Kopi-gau: Coffee (strong brew – “gau” is “厚” in Hokkien)
Kopi-po: Coffee (weak brew – “po” is “薄” in Hokkien)
Kopi-C-kosong: Coffee with evaporated milk and no sugar (‘kosong” means empty in Malay)
Kopi-O-kosong: Coffee without sugar or milk
Kopi-O-kosong-gau: A strong brew of coffee without sugar or milk
Kopi-bing or Kopi-ice or Kopi-Peng: Coffee with milk, sugar and ice
Kopi-xiu-dai: Coffee with less sugar
Kopi-gah-dai: Coffee with extra sweetened milk
Kopi-Di-Lo: All coffee, no water

Source.

The place I went to was called Toast Box, and what attracted me was the white-colored theme of the shop, with rustic wooden furniture, white-washed counter and walls, and employees in white uniform! I ordered the set meal of two kaya toasts and a cup of Kopi.

At first bite, it really got to me. I liked it. The spread inside the perfectly toasted bread tasted much like coconut jam, spiked with pandan. The melted butter added the necessary kick, and then made more interesting when you drink the coffee after it. Sarap!

There were other, more eclectic, dishes on the menu like Laksa, Peanut Thick Toast, and a combo meal that includes half-cooked soft-boiled egg, which I'm not really fond of.

The Toast Box experience was a good one for me, opening up a new craving for kaya toast. Later that same evening, after we had our dinner, I brought my friends to the same Toast Box branch to get some coffee and more toast! Anmar, one of our former engineers during our old Airborne Access days who is now working in Singapore, explained to us the different coffee varieties, then proceeded to order several toasts for our after-dinner treat! Just look at how Nappy relishes his first bite of kaya toast! Adik!

And it was surprising for me to find out that Toast Box is owned by the same owners of Bread Talk. Another surprise for me, which I just found out as I was writing this blog entry, is there is a Toast Box in the Philippines! Its first store is in Trinoma, which opened back in 2007! Wow, where have I been?! Thanks to Anton of OurAwesomePlanet.com for writing about this when it was newly opened.

*Succumbing to my addiction, I ended up having more Kaya Toast and Kopi-C at the Ya Kun Kaya stall at Changi Airport while waiting for my flight home. I even bought a gift box that contained two bottles of the kaya spread - a great 'palaman ng pandesal' option for breakfast.

**Here's a fair warning from the Health Guru on the regular consumption of Kopi-C. As is the case w/ rich foods, moderation is key. Now let me check my dictionary for the meaning of that word...

END OF PART 1.

Head on to PART 2!