Eating (and walking) our way around Singapore
After sitting on planes and traveling for 30+ hours, we were ready to stretch our legs and take on our first city — Singapore! We had 5 days to explore all the food, sights, and history that Singapore has to offer and we are leaving feeling accomplished and extremely full.
Marina Bay
We bookended our Singapore adventure with the iconic Marina Bay area. We began day 1 with a walk to the Merlion, cooled off in the AC (temperatures did not dip below 90 degrees) of the Marina Bay Sands mall (which has more designers than Madison Ave!), and then strolled through the futuristic Gardens by the Bay.
For our final day in Singapore we enjoyed a luxurious stay at the Marina Bay Sands. The complex was over-the-top and felt like the 3 nicest Vegas hotels combined, with an infinity pool on the roof. We were especially excited to stay after watching Netflix Amazing Hotels and learning about the complexity of the operations #dorks — it did not disappoint.
Neighborhoods
Singapore is a multicultural country with people from China, Malaysia, India & more — each of those three primary ethnic groups has its own part of town dedicated to their culture (and food!) We took tours of Little India, Kampong Glam (Malay) and visited Chinatown a few times. We also wandered through old colonial areas and tasted the Singapore Sling which was invented to mask the alcohol so women could drink in public #feminism. In each area we tasted (a lot of) food, visited temples and learned about the history.
Food
Since we’ve mentioned the foods of Singapore a few times we figured we should dive in deeper. As Singapore industrialized, street food vendors were moved to more permanent locations to regulate the sanitary standards — creating Hawker Centers. Netflix educated us once again, and we took full advantage of the food culture. We visited Tekka Market in Little India for dosas and biryanis, Lau Pa Sat for chicken rice (flavorful, but served room temperature), Chinatown Street for satay, and Maxwell for coconut sticky rice.
We did try a Michelin star restaurant, Candelnut, with friends who were also traveling the region (hey Rohit & Juhi!) We enjoyed an insane tasting menu of Peranakan food — the cuisine of the Chinese who immigrated to Singapore in the 15th century to support British trade (also the crazy rich from Crazy Rich Asians.)
We culminated these experiences with a food tour by an Israeli Expat. She taught us about the market culture and brought us countless foods that we would not have identified on our own from the Tiang Bharu Market. Our favorites of that day were the tortoise cake (a dessert, not a turtle) and ice kachang (a red bean shaved ice)… hoping we still fit in our clothing by the end of this trip!
Our overall favorite meal was the soy sauce chicken and noodles from the Original Chew Kee. We wandered in here because it was packed and all of our guides gave us the same food advice — follow the crowds and get on the long lines. They were right.
Key Stats
Average miles/day: 11 (!!!)
R books completed: 1 (Becoming by Michelle Obama)
G books completed: 0 (he’s close!)
