Not what we ate for dinner
Not what we ate for dinner

Chris’ comment on one of our other posts reminded me that those few people who didn’t express amazement at the idea of our going to Singapore for a whole week went into raptures about the food we would be able to eat here.

I still remember the chilli crab I had here on east coast parkway during one visit 15 years ago, or so.

But with two boys who generally prefer only to eat white food (rice cheese or pasta) and a much stricter budget than we would have for a week’s holiday, we’ve managed to be fairly local, quite a lot more than we would have been with money no object.

We’re staying in an apartment on top of a shopping centre and we’ve eaten in its food court every night. We look to be the only non locals there, most nights. Definitely the way to eat on a budget in Singapore. I think you can tell a lot about a country’s food culture by what its cheapest food is like.

Each night we’ve had a full meal for four of us for about S$20 (currently around A$16). It has been tasty, with what look like pretty fresh ingredients, mostly cooked to order (rather than sitting festering in a Bain-Marie) and we even managed to get the boys to eat it!

Callum has restricted himself to chicken and rice (which i saw described as Singapore’s national dish in a food article a year or two ago) most nights, supplemented by compulsory vegetables. Declan has tried a few different things, and even had a go at hot chilli sauce on top of his duck last night. His most cost effective meal has been the time I asked for just noodles in a broth (to go with my fish soup). The man at the stall laughed, and charged me 50 cents.

We haven’t managed to find the sea urchin that Declan promised he would eat, though, despite my looking in the windows of quite a few restaurants. Maybe in Beijing.

Leave a Reply