So Much To Eat In Singapore

One of the supposed highlights of the Singapore trip for me was to try the local food. I seriously searched for the restaurants or stalls to visit and how to get from one hawker center to another. Hawker centers are very popular in Singapore, not just for tourists. A hawker center is basically a food court when compared to the Philippine context. But I guess what makes the hawker centers a bit different is that the stalls are more organized. Hawker centers can be found everywhere in the city. There’s one in Chinatown Complex, another one near Orchard Road called Newton Circus Food Center, and the more famous Lau Pa Sat Festival Market.

Sadly, I never got to go to these places I just mentioned. I knoooow! It’s the saddest thing. My sister tried to make me feel better by saying that Food Republic found at Wisma Atria and 313@Sommerset (both found along Orchard) are also hawker centers, only cleaner and with air condition. Although Food Republic can be considered a hawker center, I would have wanted to eat at an authentic hawker center that’s smoky, dirty and sticky.

 Duck noodles

 Black Pepper Chicken with Hand-pulled Noodles

 Seafood Noodles

Something like Pork Asado over noodles 

This reminds me of the 2 viand + 1 gulay found in the likes of Kamay Kainan 

Polonchay on the side 

 Hainanese Chicken Rice

 Xiao Long Bao

But what saved me from the hawker center despair was the local ice cream that’s being sold everywhere. I super loved the ice cream sandwiches! For only SG$1 or roughly 35 pesos, you can enjoy this huge ice cream bar sandwiched by thin wafers or a rainbow loaf. I can call it dirty ice cream since it’s being sold on the street and the ice cream man isn’t really the most hygienic person, but I tell you, the Pinoy dirty ice cream is not to be compared to Singaporean dirty ice cream. I mean, I love our local dirty ice cream, but the one from Singapore doesn’t taste like coconut milk. I mean seriously, wala naman Macadamia Chocolate or Praline Mocha flavor in our mamang sorbetero carts right?

 Mint Chocolate Chip

 Chocolate (boring)

 

We also tried the different restaurants found inside Jurong Bird Park and Universal Studios. I love buying food inside theme parks, especially the ones sold on the carts. Inside Universal Studios, we grabbed a quick bite at Fossil Fuels. Pretty witty for a snack bar right? Especially if I tell you that it’s found inside The Lost World, where Jurassic Park is also located.

 

My sister and I ordered Junior Dino nuggets which included a free lunch box for every meal. The nuggets were cutely shaped into dinosaur but tasted like Purefood chicken nuggets, or something even more bland. The fries were just okay.

My brother got the Fossil Fuel hotdog sandwich. I’m not sure how it tasted, but it looked like a Jolly hotdog to me. HAHA.

See what I mean about the Jolly Hotdog from Jollibee?

When we went to Jurong Bird Park, we decided to have lunch at Bongo Burgers. This time, my brother and I got the Bongo Beef Burger while my younger sister got the Barbeque Chicken Burger. The burger itself was okay, very filling, but it doesn’t seem worth the 500 pesos. The fries and salsa dip however saved the meal for us.

 

 

Although theme park food can be yummy, the biggest downside is that the restaurants tend to charge so much. This is to be expected since there weren’t really a lot of options to choose from. But seriously, they charge way too much on their food.

And finally, the reason why I was not able to fulfill my hawker dream was because my siblings always wanted to eat at the fast food chains. We ate at McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King. I understand that they want to go to these safer places, I also want to see what they offer that aren’t available in our country. But seriously? McDo almost every meal was not so fun in Singapore.

 

 

I would go back to Singapore if you’d bribe me with free local food. I swear you that.