Singapore Meals - Part One

If you follow my blog then you already know that I'm currently enjoying a week in Singapore for a conference (and a bit of free time too!). I was hoping to still post a couple recipes while away but I feel like I haven't had a spare minute to sit at my computer, and when i do, I've been trying to stay up to date with emails or skyping with my boyfriend, so I apologize for the lack of posts! I'm having a great time here though; Singapore is a beautiful city (or city-state, technically) and I've had some wonderful experiences here, the most memorable of which so far probably being a "fish spa", where you dangle your feet in a tank of little fish that eat away at all the dead skin on your feet - I'm not sure if my feet look any different now but it was definitely a fun experience!

I've also been enjoying some great food here from a range of cuisines. One of the things I love about Singapore is that the people come from many different cultures, and that's reflected in the food that's available. I've mostly been eating Indian and Thai food because those are my favorites, but I've also had a few delicious Chinese and local meals. And with my bit of free time this evening, I thought I'd share some pictures of the food I've been eating. Sorry that I don't have recipes for any of these dishes, but if you know of any great recipes for them, please leave me a comment to let me know!

The picture above is a dish called "carrot cake", which is obviously not what we would think of as carrot cake, but is rather a fried mixture of daikon, rice flour, egg, garlic, and spices. Apparently it's a classic Singapore hawker dish, so I made sure to try it when I was here. It was a tad eggy for my tastes, but I loved the soft pieces of daikon and when I mixed it with some spicy chili sauce it was really good!

The picture below isn't from Singapore but I included it because it's the only food/drink I've ever bought in Japan! We stopped in Tokyo on our flight over here and I felt the need to try at least one thing while I was there. Since I wasn't hungry at the time, I just bought a green tea drink:

It was pretty strong so I wasn't a huge fan of it, but at least I can now say I tried something in Japan! We're stopping there on the way home too, so I'm going to try to get some sushi next time!

Going back to what I've been eating in Singapore, I thought I'd start by showing you what I've been eating for breakfast every day at the hotel:

My breakfast usually consists of some sort of noodles, a dal, an Indian bread-like thing (it varies every day), a big plate of fruit (the one with the black spots is dragon fruit), some yogurt, and fruit juice. It's way more than I would normally eat at home but I can't control myself at buffets and the food is just so good!!

My first dinner here was at an Indian restaurant:

I can't remember what all I ate because it was a buffet, but pictured above is some palak paneer, chicken tikka, and some other things that I can't remember. The food wasn't that great, but the view was lovely, so I was happy!

On Day 2 we went to Singapore's botanical gardens (really nice) and then shopping. We were super hot and tired, so when we passed by a place offering jugs of margaritas we decided to stop in for a drink:

Even though a margarita isn't something you'd think of drinking in Asia, it was very tasty and refreshing, and just what I needed at the time!

For dinner the third night, we went to a Thai restaurant in a mall. A lot of the food here is in a food court or mall because it seems like every other building is a shopping mall. I ordered a pad thai with chicken:

It was really good, though not that different from pad thais at home, as I was expecting. I'll try one again when I get to Thailand next to see if there's a difference!

On another of our free days, we went to Chinatown for a bit of shopping. Once again, we got hot and sweaty and decided to stop for a drink. Chinatown had unusually cheap beer for Singapore (it's quite expensive here) so we all shared some big bottles of Tiger beer (Singapore's beer):

I've been trying to drink only Tiger beer while I've been here because it's made in Singapore and it's pretty tasty, especially on a really hot day (which is every day)!

We didn't have a lot of time to walk around Chinatown but there were some interesting items for sale, like what appeared to be a bag of dried octopus:

That same day we also stopped in Little India, where we ate lunch. I had to order one of my favourite drinks, a mango lassi (which was delicious):

We all shared some onion pakora as an appetizer, which is like a fried onion:

I dipped it in a green chutney which was so good! For my meal I ordered some sort of chicken platter that came with rice, vegetables, chicken, and a sauce, all of which were really good:

This is all the photos I've been able to go through so far so I'll stop there and continue the rest in another post later!

And at the risk of making you lose your appetite now, I just wanted to share a picture of the fish spa that I mentioned earlier just so you get an idea of what it was like. If fish gross you out, don't scroll down!

Tomorrow I'm off to Thailand and will update you again as soon as I get a chance!