Have you ever eaten around the clock? Well, I have in Singapore. While I’m usually a two-meals-a-day person (I don’t really eat breakfast), in Singapore, we ate almost every couple of hours. Don’t blame us, blame the amazing food.
It’s only in Hong Kong that I discovered Asians’ passion for food. Mainland Chinese enjoy food, of course, but are not as crazy about it as Hong Kong people are. They simply eat non-stop. I remember going to my boss’ place in the evening and having dinner (or what I thought was dinner) with her family: pig feet, pork intestines, chicken feet, rice, etc. And then, two hours later, everybody got up and went for the actual dinner in a restaurant where twenty people shared a table and the many 菜 (small dish).
I’m lucky to have a good stomach and a taste for street food. I’m not a huge fan of “weird” meat (i.e. intestines and the like) but I can eat pretty much anything else. You can’t really apply Western health standards to Asian street food but I’m perfectly fine with that. Who wants to live in a tasteless sanitized world, anyway?
We started our day by a traditional Southern Chinese breakfast: jiaozi (fried ravioli with meat, leak and cabbage), baozi (steamed bun with meat filling) and egg tarts (small tarts with custard filling).
Breakfast
Later, we had lunch in a huge food court in Chinatown. Mine was a vegetarian dish with stir-fried noodles, eggplants, potatoes and tofu.
In Chinatown, we headed to People’s Park where food was more appetizing than ever. I grabbed a “bing” (a fried bun with pork and vegetable filling) and some “liang mian”. These “cold noddles” help beat the heat in the summer. It’s exactly what it is, cold noddles with salt, peanuts, soya beans, spices and hot sauce. Leaves your mouth in fire, but it’s good!
We also had little snacks here and there, thanks to the many bakeries around. The best thing is that we didn’t overeat because portions were very small. All in all, it’s actually a pretty healthy thing to do, to just grab something when you feel hungry. And food is so cheap after Australia! Most meals cost us from $2 to $5, about ten times cheaper than in Oz.
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So much food! This makes me hungry now 😀
YUM! Looks great! Wish I were there with you so that I could try all of the delicious looking food!
Actually, we Malaysians think Singaporean hawker/street food is watered-down versions of Malaysian food. Singapore is the place for haute cuisine. For street food, ntg beats Melaka/Penang/Ipoh… aka Malaysian street food! 😀
Yum! I’m starving now!
Non stop eating? Sounds like heaven.
Hmm… these are mostly Chinese food. Try some local flavor, e.g. roti prata, nasi lemak, bak kut teh (肉骨茶).
Ha lucky you, eventhough we’re in the capital of French food, we most often end up in one of the Asian neighbourhoods to eat out, I just love it 🙂
I know you are adventurous to try anything and that’s cool 🙂
Street food! I love trying local food by hitting the streets! That’s exactly what I did while in Mexico this past week.
@Nigel – 😆 We had a lot of Indian food later on as well.
@Soleil – I’m sure you’d enjoy it! Add Singapore on your travel list.
@kyh – Really? I like the food in Singapore because it was very Chinese and I was more familiar with it (i.e. at least, I knew what to order). Food in Malaysia was great too, I’ll blog about that later.
@Em – Sorry 😆
@Tulsa Gentleman – Sounds like you’d like Asia!
@khengsiong – Yes, Singapore was mostly Chinese food. I did have Malaysian food in Malaysia later!
@Cynthia – I’d love some blue cheese for dessert though 🙂
@shionge – I love trying new food, I’m rarely disappointed.
@Linguist-in-Waiting – So, did you like it? I though of you there!
Ah yes.. Malaysian food shares the same traits as Singapore’s – as we’re from the same roots! But to us, Singaporean street food normally tastes blander than its Malaysian counterparts – i know this is generalization – but of all my friends who’ve been to Singapore, everyone says Malaysian street food tastes way better. But like I said, Singapore is the place to be if you’re in for fine dining! 😉