It's all about the coffee

On Sunday we did a food tour of Chinatown with the “Secret Food Tours” company. This will be the fourth city I’ve done with the same company (Paris, Amsterdam and Tokyo were the others) and this one did not disappoint. We started near one of the subway exits in the Chinatown section of Singapore and stated from there. Our guide (Helen) is a Singapore local with Chinese heritage, full of energy, exuding happiness and willing to answer any of the questions we had on Singapore-Chinese food and culture.

We started with BBQ Pork Bakkwa which is a dried flat spiced piece of pork that’s BBQ’d. It’s slightly chewy with a lovely Smokey sweet taste. Not really amazing to look at, but absolutely delicious. It’s similar to jerky, but way nicer.

We then headed into one of the massive Hawker centres in Chinatown. After finding a table (not really an easy task with the throngs of people about). Helen brought over some Singapore style coffee, which is coffee with condensed milk at the bottom which you stir through. This combination really works in the hot humid conditions of Singapore. We had some hot Chinese breakfast food, a curry puff and a “Butterfly Cake” which is similar to a donut or fried fritter with sesame seeds.

Next on the food list was “Popiah”- Chinese spring roll- peanuts, turnips, carrots- thin skin- all ingredients in roll are cooked (again delicious).

The next dish was one I’ve read quite a bit about and have been anxious to try it. It’s Hainanese chicken. It doesn’t look appetising by any means, as it’s poached chicken with the skin on. Helen mentioned the best way to order it is to ask for the skin removed and no bones. The rice is cooked in chicken broth and comes with a small bowl of extra chicken broth to pour into the rice. Condiments for the side are sweet duck sauce and garlic chilli. The dish has a very delicate flavour and with the duck sauce it’s delicious. I found the chilli sauce way to hot.

After these dishes we strolled through the hawker centre where Helen pointed out the various other foods on offer, which vendors were the better ones and the history of the hawker centres.

I don’t think any food tour of Singapore (or anywhere else in south east Asia) would be complete without discussing Durian. It’s a large fruit that smells absolutely foul and disgusting but apparently tastes delicious. I can’t get past the smell to even taste it, but I did taste some durian ice cream. Thankfully that didn’t smell at all. The fruit has such and overpoweringly disgusting smell it’s illegal to take it on the subway here and almost all hotels ban guests from brining it in.

The final hawker centre we visited was the Maxwell hawker centre on the edge of Chinatown. Here we we had some “Appam” which is a fine Indian pancake (closer in texture to a French crepe) with sugar and coconut. This was washed down with a local “Tiger” brand beer. The local tradition is to pour it over ice to keep it cool longer – it works

If you have a couple of hours to spare this is a really worthwhile tour, and you certainly won’t leave feeling hungry!

First morning here we had breakfast in the hotel complex (it was included in the room rate), so we just went out for coffee afterwards to my favourite coffee place here “Common man Coffee Roasters”. Walking out of the hotel there was no mistaking we were back in South East Asia, the lovely enveloping humidity of the early morning, tropical plants everywhere along the side of the road and the unmistakable pungent aroma that passes from time to time “is the smell durian ? Or is it a bit loose sewer gas”. The coffee was worth the short walk and we came back to the hotel to get ready for our next trip out to Little India.

Little India was only a few stops on the MRT from our hotel, so only took a few minutes. We had forgotten masks were mandatory on the subway here, and everyone is 100% compliant with the regulations, unlike what it was like at home. Luckily the staff at the ticket/info desk were able to give us a few so we avoided having to go out and find some.

Overall I found little India somewhat underwhelming, I’d had visions of walking down the streets surrounded by Diwali colour festivals and passing Bollywood dancers but in reality it was just fruit and vegetable stores, cheap clothing stores, mobile phone/electronic shops and small supermarkets selling Indian staples. There was one interesting Temple (Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple). Sharon and Sally spent some time cruising the “Mustafa Department Store” – massive building selling all sorts of things.

The best part of the day was undoubtably the High Tea experience at Raffles Hotel. The food was amazing, although as a non-seafood & egg eater it seemed every sandwich was seafood or egg based, either crab, salmon or tuna. If you don’t eat seafood, tell them, and they will bring you chicken sandwiches.

The scones & jam were spectacular food. Probably the best strawberry jam I’ve ever had. The grounds of the hotel are great, wander around and take in the ambiance of the architecture. After the High Tea, we headed over to the Long Bar to sample the Slings. I expected the Long Bar to be, kind of “Long”, but as far as bars go it was relatively short. The “Long” must be based on the amount of time you wait to get in!

As a tip, when you book your High Tea, book your place in the Long Bar exactly 90 minutes later and you can experience both without a wait.

We had planned to do a river cruise tonight, this was pretty much the only thing I hadn’t pre-booked and of course it was all sold out. No Boat cruise for you!.

Dinner was down at one of the oldest Hawker Centres (essentially a Food Court) in Singapore. Its massive with so many people everywhere. We got a table near a massive inflatable rabbit (Display for Chinese new year) so I thought it would be easy to find our table once I had my meal, but of course there were dozens of inflatable rabbits everywhere!. At least that equaled a few more steps for the day.

Just outside Lau Pa Sat is Satay Street, with dozens of vendors all selling various satay dishes. We will be coming back for that another night for that.

We started the long journey home yesterday, we had a 9.13 train from Bath to London where we were staying overnight before flying out of the UK today.

The train was a comfortable express from Bath and only took 1.5 hours. Staying near Paddington the hotel had our room ready early so we could check in and dump our growing luggage. Sharon wanted to check out the Globe theatre shop so Emma and I went to the Transport museum to check out the hidden London exhibition (the ticket I had for the Down St station tour included entry to this).

The transport museum is really worth a visit if you come to London. Old trains, busses and lots of stuff for small kids as well.

After that Sharon and Emma looked at more shops and I headed over our London office to have a few drinks with the team there. We had dinner at the closest place we could find outside the hotel (BrewDog pub) it was pouring rain once more) but they did great burgers so it was a bit of a win.

On the way to the airport this morning we witnessed a family going through one of my top travel nightmares. They got on the Heathrow express just after us and I noticed one of the guys had his backpack open at the back. A few seconds later there was a massive panic as they realised they had either lost or had the wallet with their passports stolen. They jumped off the train in a panic with all their luggage. Luckily one of the Heathrow express staff noticed the commotion and went over to help them out.

Heathrow was pretty busy but we cleared security etc in less than an hour and was able to sit down and grab a coffee. My last one in Europe for this trip

First leg of the journey is on a big A380

Our hotel included breakfast so we ate there before heading out. Sharon wanted to visit the Jane Austin centre, this held little interest to me, so Emma and I walked down to the Herschel Astronomy museum. Fantastic little museum, Herschel discovered many interesting things about the solar system, however he is best known for discovering the planet Uranus, from which has generated endless jokes for generations. We owe him a great gratitude.

Whilst waiting for Sharon to finish in the Jane Austin house, I found a great coffee place only metres from the museum so Emma and I had a coffee and hot chocolate. Happy to have found a great coffee place so close.

We walked up to No.1 The Royal Crescent, which is now a museum run by the Bath Preservation Trust to showcase what wealthy life was like in an 18th century house. Learnt a few things I’d never heard off, like the “Turnspit” dog which was put in a wheel to Walk and turn roasting meats.

The “To Do” thing in Bath is a high tea at the Pump Room, which we had booked in for 3pm. After handing over a princely sum, something like the annual GDP of a post colonial third world country we were presented with a massive amount of delicious food (probably enough to feed a village of starvin’ Marvin’s).

We went for a wander after the Pump House to try and walk off some of that food. The Sydney gardens and area around the river are beautiful. Thankfully the rain had disappeared in the afternoon.