Day 20. Singapore. Food tour +

Alarm went off earlier than anticipated this morning so we had a nice easy start.

Breaky gets a tick, but we limited ourselves this morning as our first activity is a Monster City Michelin and local Hawker Market Food Tour.

We grabbed a cab from hotel to meeting place at Chinapoint MRT and met Linda our guide and 8 others for the tour and taste.
Linda was very good, she told us a lot of facts about the history and development of Singapore and also something of living in Singapore.
The name Singapore comes from the Sanskrit – Singa Pore means Lion city.

Sir Stamford Raffles from the British east India Trading Company arrived in 1819 looking for a deep port. On 6 February 1819, Raffles signed an official treaty with Sultan Hussein and the Temenggong and on this day, the Union Jack was officially hoisted in Singapore. According to Linda he paid $3000 for the island.

The population of Singapore is 5.9mill with an average of 7000 per sq km. In some places 50k per sq km.

On the 9th August 1965 Singapore gained independence.

Singapore is only 2.5 km from Malaysia.

Singapore is incredibly land poor with 22% of its landmass made up of reclaimed land.
The country is a mixing pot of nationalities including Malay, Indian and Chinese.

The official language is Malay but everyone speaks English to straddle all the races living here. Kids learn their home language Tamil, Malay, Indian etc AND English.

There are lots of different curries given the mixed population.
We walked to the Hong Lin hawker centre and Linda explained that work as a hawker was for the uneducated and they used to be portable stalls, now they are permanently located in various sites across the city. This was seen as a way to make money and get rich. She explained that the Hawker Markets have high standards for maintenance and cleanliness and are now clean and safe. There are large fines for any found not to pass regular health inspections. Each market is shut down every 6 months for a thorough clean and they need to keep their fans and exhausts very clean. In fact they are cleaner than most of the bigger restaurants.
In China town there used to be a lot of people living in shop houses in Chinatown. Lots of vice, extortion. Now it has all been cleaned up.

Much of the food is imported as Singapore doesn’t have the land mass to support agriculture.
Much of the beef comes from Australia. The food is brought safely from a range of places.

Hawker centres are Singaporeans first choice for good, they provide cheap food that also provides variety for families of fussy children and it’s cheap and value for money when compared to gathering many ingredients and cooking at home.

The Hong Lin hawker market is located under two large tower blocks. These are government housing. 80% live in Housing Development Board flats and 90% own their own homes within these. So having the hawker markets nearby is handy for families to come down and eat.

The government here really provides for its people. The housing is affordable, there is much work to ensure the housing and market are fully accessible as the population is aging.

Linda also explained that the smart watch she is wearing is provided by the government and that there are incentives for walking 5000 and 10000 steps in the form of credits/money for being healthy. Evidently the Singaporeans have a very high rate of diabetes and due to low levels of dairy osteoporosis in the elderly.

I asked about taxes to pay for all this. Linda said the government makes its money from investments not taxes.

We were taken inside the market to a table set aside for us and Linda proceeded to bring our first three dishes. Following the tasting we visited each of the Hawkers.

1. Wonton noodles. BBQ Pork, with and pork crackle accompanied by a Soup with date and wolfberries. All really good.

Chinatown Market. Hawker stalks and wet market downstairs- one of the few left.

2. Laksa – prawns, noodles, taopok (soy bean tofu), little cockles, fish cake, laksa flakes, Indian spices. Nepalese coconut milk, Chinese noodles. Very tasty

3. Handmade curry puff. This was good. The pastry was precisely layered and contents were really tasty.

4. Pandan cake

5. Hainanese Chicken and rice (Anthony Bourdain endorsed) with sugar cane drink.

6. Char siew BBQ Pork and rice with tiny peanuts. Michelin star.

We moved onto another area after meal 3 and out into the streets to learn more about the area.
In the 1960/70’s Singapore was a third world country. It took fifty years to be first world. The people were poor and often only ate once a day so it had to be good. Curry puff was hours of work, these meals are good, cheap, clean. Variety that individual families can’t make.

The Hawker stalls are handed down through generations.

We visited Sook chin which was basically an ethnic cleansing centre. Back in the war Singapore surrendered to Japan. The Japanese rounded up Chinese, and bundled anyone they didn’t like into trucks and were taken to Changi and killed. They said 5000 people but later graves and effects were found of over 50k killed.
We stopped at an empty shophouse. There are only 7200 shophouses left. These are similar to terrace houses in my view except there is a shop at street level and the family live above it. Singapore has become too busy to have this level of housing. Some of the shop houses have sold for 20 million.

Raffles created the five foot way in Singapore, basically a wide and shaded Footpath for the heat and humidity.

Then we walked among the street of four churches. A Mosque, A Methodist church (very boring) a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple which had been renovated last year. Other than the Methodist they were all ornate and interesting to look at.
Officially there are 10 recognised religions, but Linda says there are many more.

Here we received course 4 apiece of Pandam Cake – very light and sponge like. Pandam is their vanilla and is made into Kaya jam – with egg and coconut and water. We also learnt a little about the Chinese medicine shops and the importance for Chinese folk.

ABBT. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple has 5 floors.

We had a quick spin around the ground floors. Into the hall of A hundred gold leaf dragons.

An amazing embroidered wall hanging of lotus.

There was a lot of monks and nuns? holding prayers.

This is a new temple built in 2007 from donations. It is said to house one of Buddha’s molars on the fourth floor. Devotees donated gold and in total there is a 320kg of gold in a giant stupa. A bit further down the street there was long, long rows of offerings of food that people can contribute to. (Linda says it’s not wasted but I wasn’t clear where it goes)

The government provides well for the people – HDB, lift towers on older HDB towers, wheelchair friendly but they are not highly taxed. The government makes money via investment.

At the Chinatown market we tried Hainese chicken and rice recommended by Anthony Bourdain. We also got a large cup of very cold sugar cane drink which went down a treat. It’s hot and humid and it feels like we are melting. Then Linda took us past the Hawker stall which has a queue over an hour long. It was really good the chicken was so tender and tasty and the rice also has the flavour.
Our last stop was a BBQ Pork and rice dish – Char siew. Very tasty. Here we parted ways. We stayed and chatted to a couple of ladies from Texas, before heading out into the heat to find a sim for Suzie and to check out the street art of Yip Yew Chong.

Then to the MRT (subway) to catch a train back to hotel for a rest and recover.

RF. We also learnt that it’s safe here and people are trusting and law Tables are to be left clear and we had to take our plates etc to trays that are constantly cleared away. This has only been in place a year and everyone does the right thing. Chope is their table reservations system. Basically they leave a bottle in the middle of a table if they want to reserve the whole table. Or they leave a tissue pack or security card and lanyard on the seat if it’s only one or two people. Linda said people can leave their computer and it will be safe. We later saw an example of this.

This evenings adventure was a Night Safari at the Mandalai Zoo.

We braved the MRT again. Aunty Sue is a wiz at working it out. We changed lines and travelled about an hour or so to Khatib station and then caught the Zoo shuttle another 15 minutes to the zoo. Then it got confusing. Anyway we opted to join the Disney’esque’ line for the tram ride.

A bit of a disappointment unfortunately. We did see quite a few animals briefly, some elephants quite close and rhinos and a pretty magnificent lion with his mane sitting on a rock. However I think we were expecting something more.

Oh well, we grabbed a bite to eat and caught a very empty shuttle ready to repeat the train journey in reverse.

It’s a clear night here in Singapore though the sun was setting in a haze as we neared the zoo. It’s hard to describe the humidity. It really drains the energy, but a brief respite in cooler space and you are good to go again.

While we were training it home there was some rain but we don’t have to venture outside between train and hotel as we’ve figured our hotel is connected to a shopping centre that is connected to metro station. Winner.