I started out the week with a a food tour through Chinatown to get a feel for Singapore and to eat my way through it. Usually food tours are mostly about food traveling from one food spot to another with history along the way, however on this tour, we also toured the Sri Mariamman Temple and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.
Chinatown is very easy to find on the MRT (subway) so just follow the signs to exit A. Ride the escalator up to the street and pictured is what you’ll see with the old colonial buildings up top and the shops on the bottom.
I met my host at Bee Cheng Hiang’s, a chain of BBQ bakkwa meats. The meat looked very processed and it tasted like greasy jerky. Apparently they BBQ the flat pieces of meat on premise, and it has no preservatives. Ask for a free sample – it’s worth a try if you think you’d like it.
Next was up was another chain with Old Chang Kee, and they have several locations in Singapore. This place specializes in curry puffs and the Curry O didn’t disappoint with potatoes, chicken and a slice of egg in a savory curry sauce.
After a quick stop at Nanyang Old Coffee Shop, we headed into the Sri Mariamman Temple. It’s a place of worship so there are rules including removal of shoes and covering up. If you don’t have anything to cover up, scarfs and shirts are at the front door to borrow.
these ladies didn’t bother to read the sign.
For lunch, we stopped at the famous Hawker Centre stall, Maxwell’s, however the queue was too long at the #1 famous chicken rice booth (Tian Tian) so I had the #3 at Maxwell’s Hainese Chicken Rice. It’s basically sliced up chicken and rice, however watch the Singaporean episode of Street Food to get a better idea of how this is made. It’s not as simplistic as I make it out to be. Delicious!
Maxwell’s Hacker Centre.
My tour included a trip upstairs which features a gold room, an area to meditate and a display of the Buddha’s tooth.
Once we finished the tour of the temple, we headed back to Chinatown to experience roti bread, fried radish cake and an Indonesian Bamboo cake made of rice flour, filled with palm sugar and then steamed. Topped with desiccated coconut and granulated palm sugar – it’s pretty tasty!
Next up a Malaysian cooking class with more photos and less text.
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