singapore stop over; 2015

So this post was meant to come before all my Bali posts, but it felt like it wasn’t long ago since I last posted about Singapore… so surely its well spaced out now! We always have a good reason to make Singapore a stop over. This time, while looking at cost of flights to Bali for our friends’ wedding we realised its around the same price (or less) to add a stop over (although taking more time of course) and we can never say no to Singapore! Land of good food and good friends 😀

SYDNEY TO SINGAPORE

Loyal Scooters – should deserve free upgrades to business class for future trips 😛 *nudge*

Obligatory pre-flight maccas meal

We were pretty excited about trying out Scoot’s new Dreamliners. The stuff that caught our attention:

WIFI! – We had to pay for it though but it was pretty cool being ‘online’ while in the air. We even tried to call Alfred’s parents and it wasn’t easy trying to connect! We eventually did though. Lucky we only paid for an hour of use because we got bored of it pretty soon (there’s only so many times you could refresh instagram + facebook -.-)

Dimmable windows – instead of sliding down the window covers, you can now ‘dim’ them with the press of a button, almost like instant tinting!

Still on Sydney time, eta: 2 hours

The plane lights up in rainbow colours when we’re near the destination

DINNER: Spize, River Valley

Being greeted by our Singaporean friend, foodie and the-guy-who-plans-to-fatten-us-up-every-trip, Nick he took us to have something we’ve been craving for a while… prata! It was our first visit to Spize, which is a little more fancier than the other prata places we’ve been to.

The menu was fairly overwhelming, so many mouthwatering choices! Eventually we made up our minds and as a result of said menu, we ended up ordering too much for 3.

Nasi lemak + lime juice

Some dishes we ordered: Pondok Selera Roti John, Nasi Lemak, Nasi goreng, Murtabak, Prata …. we demolished ‘most’ of it

The nasi goreng which was dressed like omurice!

ONE FULL DAY IN SINGAPORE

We stayed at Big Hotel in Bugis, not too much has changed though we’ve noticed new things popping up e.g. there’s now a Pie Face #feelslikehome

BREAKFAST: Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee

I’m so jealous of how spoilt for choices Singaporeans are when it comes to food, you can have laksa for breakfast if you’re craving it (what a crazy diet though?!). We decided to treat our stomaches to prawn noodles for the first meal of our one day in Singapore.

Our friend drove us here on a previous trip, we couldn’t quite tell where we were in relation to other places. This time we got there ourselves using the MRT and was surprised how convenient it is, it was pretty much across the road from Kallang MRT station!

Hello Prawn Mee, which we’ve been craving for since 2012

Clearly we weren’t the only ones who wanted Prawn mee for breakfast

EXPLORE: Tiong Bahru

After a quick train ride and a not so short walk from the station, we found ourselves in Tiong Bahru – what was supposed to be the more hipster part of Singapore. We really weren’t too sure of where to go so just wandered around the streets which were supposedly popular according to our on-the-spot google search.

Apparently theres a hawker centre in this building! wish we knew earlier 🙁

MORNING TEA: Tiong Bahru Bakery

It didn’t take us long before we gave in to the stinking hot weather and resorted to any cafe that had air conditioning. Luckily we were right near Tiong Bahru Bakery – one of our favourite bakeries.

Love their assortment of pastries and cakes, a favourite being the Pandan flan!

Ice coffee for the mister!

Ordered a peppermint tea in hopes that it would be cooling… instead I felt like I was drinking toothpaste

Pandan Flan of course!

With all the cheap meals you would have in Singapore, Tiong Bahru appears to be an expensive treat but in comparison to prices back home – it ain’t too bad.

BREAK: NGEE ANN CITY

We managed to walk from Tiong Bahru to Ngee Ann City in the Singaporean heat, it was only a 30 or so minute walk and luckily there were occasional tree cover along the way which helped! We ducked into Ngee Ann City for a break from the heat, also just to burn a bit of time until our stomaches were ready for the next meal.

LUNCH: 18 Zion Road Fried Kway Teow

Second time back here! We haven’t tried many char kway teow places in Singapore but this is a local favourite and easily ours too. Same uncle cooking up the same CKT – it amazes me how devoted chefs are in Singapore, not getting bored of cooking the same thing over and over again for 10+years!

What we don’t find in our CKT in Sydney….. Cockle!! (and a lot of lard ;D)

We took the free shuttle bus to Orchard road – where we peeked into some of our favourite international brands, it appears to be sale time in Singapore but we bought nothing 🙁

SNACK: Ice cream Sandwich on Ochard Road

No trip to Singapore can be complete without visiting ice cream sandwich uncle on orchard road! this one had a really long queue so we joined in.

#feltlikeakid moment

DINNER: Kim Keat Hokkien Mee

We caught up with more of our Singaporean friends who took us to a new place recommended by our foodie friend who shared photos from this place and we couldn’t help but drool… it was winter in Sydney at the time… and the sight of claypot hokkien noodle is damn enticing. That is exactly what Kim Keat is known for here, you can order different sized claypot depending on number of people. You will find things like pork and variety of seafood. So long as you sit under a fan and order a cold drink, eating hokkien mee out of a claypot is so good – we seriously need this in Sydney during winter!

Oyster Omelete

Claypot Hokkien Mee (feeds 4)

Want to try this place next time in Bugis!

DESSERT: AH CHEW DESSERTS

Our friends brought us to another area for dessert, it looked and sounded familiar… then I realise I had seen it on instagram posted by the few Singaporean foodies that I follow. Ah Chew has a good selection of Hong Kong style desserts.