Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge (27 page)

Her favorite places to check out for food, shopping, and everything in between!

Aunty Lee's Favorite Food Spots in Singapore

Food courts and hawker centers are the best introduction to Singaporean food because they offer the widest variety of foods. As a general guideline, food courts are mostly air-conditioned while hawker centers are not.

Best Place for First-Time Visitors:

The Food Republic on Level 3 of VivoCity

The decor here evokes the good old-fashioned hawker streets with wooden stools and tables, but with air conditioning, clean toilets, and clearly marked prices. And it is handy if you're going across to Sentosa. Aunty Lee recommends their thunder tea rice, butterfly fritters, and egg pratas . . . and the kueh tutu (coconut and peanut).

Best Place for Breakfast or Lunch:

Tiong Bahru Market
is the best place for an authentic heartland breakfast or lunch. It's best not to risk trying to have dinner there as most of the stalls close once they are sold out for the day, which usually happens by mid-afternoon. Aunty Lee likes the chwee kueh there—chwee kuehs are tiny savory rice cakes served with a topping of preserved radish and eaten with chili sauce.

Best Spot for Locals:

Lau Pa Sat
(meaning “old market”) is what the locals call Telok Ayer Market. Unlike Tiong Bahru Market, you don't want to get here too early. The stalls inside the pavilion are open all day but every evening around 7 P.M. the road outside is closed off for the satay stalls to set up. Lau Pa Sat dates back to the time of Singapore's founder, Sir Stamford Raffles. Aunty Lee recommends the barbecued prawns and octopus.

Aunty Lee's Favorite Shopping and Spots in Singapore

   
1.
      
Kampong Buangkok.
Singapore's last “kampong” or village. This is what Singapore looked like when Aunty Lee was growing up, with zinc roofs and red mailboxes and open doors. It makes Aunty Lee nostalgic for the calm and quiet (except for birdsong and insect buzz) of old Singapore. But she doesn't visit often because despite their openness these are people's private homes and lives.

   
2.
      
Indri Collection In People's Park Complex.
They have a large collection of ready-made Peranakan embroidered
kebayas
and batik sarong skirts (and batik shirts for men). Indri is really more a stall than a shop and doesn't have a unit number. It's on Level 1 of the People's Park Complex, just off the central atrium and next to the Security Guard counter. (And if you make it there, Aunty Lee suggests you take a take a quick detour to the basement food court of People's Park Complex to try their noodles.)

   
3.
      
Arab Street.
One of Singapore's oldest and most beautiful mosques is found here. Sultan Mosque was built in 1826 by Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor. If you wish to enter the mosque, and are not appropriately dressed, robes are provided. Arab Street is a rich bazaar-style mix of cafés and shops dating from the 1950s selling textiles, carpets, and souvenirs. Aunty Lee also recommends Haji Lane around the corner, where pre-war shophouses showcase the latest up-and-coming fashion designers.

   
4.
      
The German Girl Shrine and Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin.
Pulau Ubin is Singapore's second largest offshore island, but completely different from Sentosa. The German Girl shrine, also known as the Barbie Doll shrine, is a yellow hut beneath an Assam tree. Legend has it that it commemorates a German girl who fell to her death in a granite quarry during World War I and some believe she brings good luck. Chek Jawa is Singapore's only surviving multi-ecosystem site—sandy beach, rocky beach, seagrass lagoon, coral rubble, mangroves, and coastal forest—and protected from development till 2012. Now, in 2016, its time may be running out.

   
5.
      
And finally, the Mustafa Centre in Little India (Syed Alwi Road).
This is a huge department store that sells everything from refrigerators, jewelry, tea towels, and mobile phones to plasters and painkillers. In operation since 1971, it is open twenty-four hours a day, every day (including Chinese New Year) and also has a foreign currency exchange. Aunty Lee suggests you take a look around Little India while you are there and explore the ayurvedic medicine shops, fortune tellers, henna tattoo artists . . . and of course sample the roti prata, thosai, dhal, and kebabs!

Aunty Lee's Top 5 Food Favorites

   
1.
      
Katong laksa
with homemade barley water. Fierce debate rages in Singapore over the most “authentic” katong laksa. It consists of rice noodles served in a rich, spicy gravy with fish cake, prawns, and cockles and garnished with laksa leaf.

   
2.
      
Kaya toast
with soft eggs. A delicious sweet coconut jam. Kaya toast and eggs are a standard breakfast set available all day at most “kopi-tiams” or corner coffee shops.

   
3.
      
Fish head curry.
The head of a red snapper stewed in a sweet and sour tamarind curry with okra and eggplant and ginger flower buds. This is best eaten with fingers off banana leaves but also tastes good with cutlery.

   
4.
      
Kueh lapis.
Multi-layered, multicolored, traditional steamed cakes made of glutinous rice flour, coconut, and sugar. Kueh lapis legit is made of layers of rich batter, each spread over the previous layer and grilled separately, creating the brown lines in the buttery cake.

   
5.
      
Tau suan.
A sweet hot dessert soup made of split mung beans and flavored with pandan (screw pine) leaves. Though widely available at dessert stalls, this is a favorite comfort food . . . and full of protein and soluble fiber, it's healthy as well as delicious!