Worlds apart; Kway Teow at Zion Road, Singapore

So, our Spring holiday last year started with 5 weeks of travels around Spain and Morocco. This was the first time we had done any extensive traveling around Europe, and the food and culture was infectious. The casual, relaxed days that revolve around eating and drinking and of course the afternoon Siesta...

It was then we find ourselves in Singapore for a few days before heading to Thailand. Immediately upon arrival it is clear we are Worlds apart. There are a lot more buildings, tall ones and it seems quite sterile (especially after Morocco). The humidity hangs in the air. The taxi driver speaks English, la. And we are ready for some Hawker Food. We make our way to the Zion Road Riverside Food Centre. It's so different to what we have been doing for the past 5 weeks ... Plastic tables, open air space, fans spinning around and a little more urgency here.



It's certainly not a long, relaxed lunch with alcohol and coffee. It's a quick plate of noodles. Kway Teow noodles, from stall no. 18 to be precise.



We also have a plate of stir-fried greens, which are the most vibrant green we've seen in a while. The noodles have pieces of fish cake, clams, beansprouts and egg in a rich brown sauce while still remaining somewhat light. The greens simply dressed with oyster sauce.



Now, it may be jetlag, but we're off for a Siesta;)

Zion Riverside Food Centre Stall no. 18
70 Zion Rd
S247792 Singapore
12-3pm and 6:30-11pm
Closed alternate Mondays


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Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore

Our first visit to Golden Mile Food Centre we were on the hunt for some of the famous Soup Tulang. We first sniffed out the stand with Roti John, Adimann Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice ... this Muslim stall is known to do a mean Roti John with loads of minced mutton and egg topped with a little mayonnaise and chili sauce. The Roti John is a Singaporean creation of onions and eggs spread on a split French loaf and grilled. This one was awesome! it had just the right amount of chili sauce and mayonnaise, heaps of flavour from the mutton, slightly crunchy onions and all in a bizarre soft of French Toast / Omelet roll way ....

.. and then noticed Haji Kadir & M. Baharudeen Soup Tulang was right next door. After ordering our Roti John we placed an order. This is all they do, you just specify how much you want on your plate e.g $5, $6, $8, $10

Soup Tulang is a wicked mutton marrow bone dish. The bones braised in an addictive bright red tomato & chili broth served with chunks of French Bread, to mop it all up.

There's no polite way to eat it, you just need to get in there, fingers, hands and all. The little plastic spoon you're giving works well when reversed and the handle used to poke the last little bits of marrow through ... The soup here is very robust, sweet, spicy, thick & a little gamey with a good amount of meat left on the bone to gnaw on as you slurp through the marrow. What an experience!

We still had a little more room and a few more places on our list. On the top floor we found Chong Cheng Chilly Mee, Prawn Mee, Laksa a renowned hawker of chili noodles. A fragrant and fiery dish of egg noodle, pork slices, pork ribs, prawns, hard-boiled egg all topped with a smack-your-lips chili sauce. A small bowl of soup on the side, and all for S$3. How good is that?

Not able to fit it all in on one trip, we returned again later in the week. We were here to check out Mansaku, a hawker stall busting out traditional Japanese in the midst of all things Singaporean.

Here you have a choice of 6 sets including katsu, terriyaki, unagi and a couple of dons. Being very unimaginative we both went for the terriyaki chicken. In all fairness, it was the only set that came with the chawanmushi that we were both eyeing off ....

The chicken itself was a beautiful piece of thigh, still with the skin on. It was so tender inside, like it had been steamed. But with delicious crispy skin all laden in a glistening terriyaki sauce.. there was the standard shredded cabbage with chili mayo garnish. A great little chawanmushi with chunks of chicken and shitake mushroom sunk in the bottom. Miso soup. Rice and a wedge of fresh cut watermelon.

All this was served from a bustling little stall, with just 2 men doing the lot. Seriously, this place was so busy, we never saw the line less than 10 deep and constantly moving. Superb! and at S$4.80 a set, Amazing!

Golden Mile Food Centre

(not to be confused with the Golden Mile Food Complex)

505 Beach Rd

Adimann Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice, for Roti John

#B1 - 14

11am - 11:30pm

Haji Kadir & M. Baharudeen Soup Tulang

#B1 - 13/14/15

11:30am - 1:30am

Chong Cheng Chilly Mee, Prawn Mee, Laksa

#01 - 59

9am - 8pm

Mansaku

#01 - 93

11am - 4:30pm

Closed Monday

Claypot Rice Chinatown Food Complex, Singapore

We were having a wander through the newly renovated Chinatown food complex, it's a massive warren of stalls... we had no idea where to start so we just meandered through stopping to have a peak in random places.. whilst peering in at pots of clay pot rice "give it a go, you won't regret it" was the advice given to us by a local picking up his order, it looked and smelt fantastic. Couldn't say no .. you have a choice of chicken, salted fish, Chinese sausage or a mix of all three. we went for the mix. It takes about 20 min so we filled the time fetching some drinks and talking to our new Singaporean friend who was very impressed with our efforts in Singapore's culinary world so far.
Clay pot rice is so called for the pot it is cooked in. The rice and other ingredients all cooked together in the clay pot over a flame.. as the rice cooks and the stock is absorbed the rice starts to fry. A good crispy crust slightly blackened is that of a good clay pot.

Ours was no exception, a moreish crunchy crust, nice firm plump rice in the center and hidden like treasure through out juicy chunks of chicken, little salty bursts of fish, tasty strips of Chinese sausage and shitake mushroom. Mixed with the plate of spring onion and coriander it was awesome. S$8 gets you a pot that easily feeds two .. S$10 gets you a pot for four. Great value, Great taste!



A recommended follow on from here was a traditional Asian dessert stall. He is the only one in Singapore that still grinds all his flavorings rather than opting for the much more common packet mixes mostly seen these days.

With a dozen or so flavors up for grabs it could be quite hard to make a decision especially as you can mix the flavors to create your own special blend.

We go for the walnut cream and the almond both thick and unctuous, the walnut has so much flavor and disappears in seconds. The almond also delicious but the strong marzipan flavor gets the best of us and we can only manage half.
With such a positive experience we know we'll be back for more of both sooner rather than later.


Chinatown complex
Blk 335 Smith street


Zhao Ji Clay Pot Rice
Stall 053
open 12pm - 2pm, 4pm - 8.30pm closed Wednesday


115 Tang Shui
Stall 206
7.30am - 5.30pm closed Tuesday

Tian Tian Chicken Rice, Singapore

When you're in Singapore and you mention chicken rice everyone's a connoisseur .. a few names get mentioned more than the rest and one name more than them. Tian Tian located in Maxwell Food Center is the big cheese of chicken rice, top of the game as long as most can remember.

As you wander into Maxwell a queue that stretches from one side to the other catches your eye and that's the place. It makes you feel sorry for the other chicken rice places in there, one seems to even bat an eye at them let alone show any interest in their wares... We join the queue which is moves along at a great pace (I hate standing in queues that don't move when you know there's something great at the end) and suddenly we're there faced with decisions small (S$2.80), big (S$3.50) or half a bird ... we go for two bigs, each comes with half a dozen slices of plump juicy chicken, a mound of nice firm flavorful rice, sliced cucumber, dipping chilli and a peppery soup of the poaching stock. Lush!

I have to say it is the best chicken rice I have ever tasted, every thing so full of flavor but nothing more than the rest, so tender, so perfect, so want another one right now. This plus the near litre of fresh soursop drink from the stall opposite left us full to bursting..

A quick peak into the back of the stall reveals a well oiled production of blanching, poaching and refreshing chickens, being open for 9 hours a day they must keep a whole chicken farm or two in business.

.. On the way out I couldn't resist a go at an oyster cake.

Didn't know what it was but they looked so lovely just pulled from the wok all shiny and crispy.....mmmmmm delicious. It's a mixture of oysters, minced pork, Asian celery and peanuts all coated in a rice flour batter and deep fried. We found out later that that particular stall is one of the best in Singapore, huh there you go, lucky shot.

Just look for Anthony Bourdain's mug plastered on the side of the stall as a recommendation... not that I'm jealous much....really. But the cake was great give it a go.

There was so many other places that need our attention but so little stomach space, making a mental note to return we left Maxwell all happy smiles.



Maxwell Food Center
Maxwell Road

Chinatown

Tian Tian Hiananese Chicken Rice
Stall 10
11am - 8pm closed Monday

Mdm Hoon Delicacy
Stall 5
9.30am - 6pm closed Sunday