A journey of Food in Singapore

Food Glorious Food – a journey around the food courts in Singapore


By Sujatha Raman

I landed just after 7 am on a Saturday morning at Singapore’s ultra modern Changi Airport and was met by my sister who greeted me with “ You know there is a food court here at Terminal Three – want to see if there is Char Kway Teow?”

Without further ado, we made a beeline to the food court, bags, trolley and all. The food court was everything a food court needed to be: a wide variety of stalls, clean, bright and happily all the stalls seemed open at this early hour. The original plan was to make a food stop at my fave CKT stall in Marine Parade on the way home. But the stall only opened around 11 am in readiness for the lunch crowd.

I surveyed the food court and spotted the large black cast iron kwali (a large wok) that was used to stir fry the kway teow and headed over. Since they also offered chye tow kway aka carrot cake (not to be confused with the American cake by the same name) I ordered a plate of that as well. Leaving my sister to wait for the food, I moseyed along to the other stalls. I ordered a fragrant bowl of fish ball soup and looked longingly at the dim sum and vadei but contained myself. I had a week after all.

The char kway teow was delicious with fresh, warm, smooth noodles stir fired with black sweet soy sauce and peppered with small bites of chicken and succulent clams. I’m actually a fan of the method that blends yellow round noodles with the flat, broad, white rice noodles and sir fries with oodles of pork lard and egg but after three years away, I was very appreciative of the quality of the dish I was gobbling down. The chye tow keow which is puzzlingly nicknamed carrot cake is actually made of flour and grated radish. It was slightly crispy on the outside and light and moist on the inside and refreshingly oilfree. The fish ball soup was a perfect complement to the two stir fried dishes, the savory broth mild and tasty and the fish balls slightly springy.

My family loves to tell the story of the time my sister brought char kway teow to New York for me. I had been in New York for three years and was hankering after some good local hawker food when my sister called to inform me that she would be coming to New York. I managed to persuade her to bring some packets of char kway teow with her. On the day of her flight, she dove to my favorite stall in Marine Parade and bought three orders of the noodles for me. When she got home, she opened the plastic containers and aired them until they were room temperature. Then she cellophaned the containers, packed them in plastic bags and placed them in her check in baggage. The idea was that they would keep fresh in the cold cargo hold for the 20 hours of the flight. When she got into New York, I placed two packets in the fridge and warmed up one and ate it with great relish.

I made determined efforts to load up on my favorite dishes during the week which flashed by. This included nasi padang, a Malay speciality of rice and various side dishes, at one of my old school haunts Rendevous which used to be in a unassuming shop house across from the National Library. Now it is located on the first floor of a fancy hotel by the same name. The large prawns coated with spicy sambal paste were especially delicious , and for dessert I had an incredible chendol made with fresh coconut milk, dark brown sugar syrup, sweet red beans and green flour pieces.
The next day I was hosted at the well known Banana Leaf Apollo restaurant in Little India, where I ate with my fingers off banana leafs. The fragrance of curry and spices lingered the whole day. The food was extraordinarily delicious and I enjoyed sharing it with family and friends that I had not seen in a couple of years.

It was also heavenly to swim in tropical water. The day after I arrived in Singapore, I woke up and took a cab over to my sister’s condominium and swam in her pool. The water was just cooler then body temperature and it was extremely pleasurable to swim in a pool with green trees around it and a pleasant breeze. I have enjoyed swimming all my life but in New York the activity has lost its charm. Even though there is a heated indoor pool in the gym close to me in Brooklyn, shedding layers of winter clothes, and then bracing for the cold air after the swim was too daunting. On the last day of my stay in Singapore, I met a friend from high school who drove me to her club on Sentosa Island where after our swim, we drank freshly squeezed juices sitting on chairs in the pool with a view of the sea and boats tethered close by. It was the perfect end to an idyllic week.