food in singapore

Food is a big deal in Singapore. Or you’re eating, or you talk about food, or you think of eating or you make something to eat. A very popular activity. Many people even post a picture of their lunch on FaceBook every day!

Not surprisingly, therefore, that you can eat really everything everywhere. The restaurants, hawkers (street stalls), food courts (huge halls with all small toko’s), and so on are innumerable.

Around the corner from our apartment is a giant food court: Lau Pa Sat. In a grand Victorian building are about 100 food stalls. In the middle are tables and chairs.

Details of the cast iron construction of this Victorian building. Bit decayed and neglected, but still beautiful.

So some stalls are in the middle, the rest is grouped along ‘streets’ on the outer sides of the octagonal building.

You can also eat outside, around the building.

It is so enormous and much that I keep getting lost;-)

Even though there are hundreds of chairs, periodically (lunch, dinner) they are all occupied and you need to wait long in order to find yourself a free seat and table.

Once you have found that you “Chope” it. That means something like: “claim or reserve.” You do that by putting paper handkerchiefs / napkins on your chair and / or table. You don’t have to be afraid of someone ignoring that and stealing your table, because that is not done here. That would be unthinkable.
If you do not have paper towels with you, no problem. There are many elderly who do not have good pension and who try to earn a penny here. They sell small packages of paper handkerchiefs.

Smart thinking, because you get no napkins in food courts, so you do need them and also to “chope”, as I just explained.

Nowadays we are routined and always have some of these packages on us.
But occasionally I do buy an -unnecessary and too expensive- pack of some oldie.
They can sure use the money;-).

You then walk along the stalls and order whatever you want. Maybe here some satay, a little further chilli crab, somewhere else something to drink … After which you go to your ‘choped’ table to eat.

Jumbo shrimp satay.

Sometimes you do not get disposable plates and cutlery/ chopsticks, but you get plates and cutlery that get washed and rinsed instead. In the latter case, you do what Singaporeans do it : don’t think of how that is done in the kitchens of those mini-stalls. Clean water and detergent are usually not involved;-)

The food is great everywhere and every asian kitchen is represented. Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Indian, Malay, it’s all there. There are complete stingrays on display, there is pig organ soup, crab, sliced fruit on skewers, bird nests, and a lot more.

Stingrays on ice.

Chilli-crab; Frits’ favorite. Indeed very tasty, but too much work for so little crab for my taste. Also I keep finding it hard to see the crab alive till it ‘s cooked.

So if you want to eat Asian food, there is plenty, it’s tasty, everywhere and cheap.
If you prefer other cuisines, like western ones, there is a lot of choice as well. Not in Lau Pa Sat, although they have a Wendy’s (fastfood) since some years;-).
But in Singapore there are numerous restaurants with other cuisines. Only western food usually that tends to be way more expensive.

Foodies will be very happy in Singapore; eastern or western cuisine, budget or Michelin Star restaurants…it is all there.

Enjoy your meal!