It’s been a gourmet sort of day: Singapore Day 2 (23 July, 2014)

Not that you’ll see any fine dining here, though it may be mentioned. Gourmet is, we believe, as gourmet does … and the thing is that, as travellers interested in food, we found a lot to interest us today.

We didn’t mention breakfast yesterday, but our hotel deal includes breakfast and it is a full-scale buffet which, in Asian countries, usually works for Sue. And so it does here. Both mornings she has been able to have rice porridge or congee, with various condiments. She has also enjoyed their sliced fresh fruit including watermelon, pineapple, and dragon fruit. Len, of course, has ranged more widely across the buffet options.

A gardening we will go … sort of

Breakfast, though, is not the main business of our day – that was the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which are free but contain the National Orchid Garden, which is not. We went to them both and spent a wonderful morning among colourful flowers, heritage trees, and yes food because we saw astonishing ginger plants, banana plants and other tropical plants like galangal and turmeric.

We are not orchid aficionados but we loved wandering around this feast for the eyes. They have so many different plants from a wide variety of environments. There was even a cool-house. Who would have thought that we, who had shivered our way through a Toronto spring less than three months ago, would now be seeking out a coolhouse? But that’s travel for you.

We ate at the Gardens’ food court. It was ok but no photographs were taken, which may tell you something!

Orchard Road

Next stop was the obligatory Orchard Road. We did have a mission though – Birkenstocks for Sue. She was thrilled to find pretty much the style she was looking for, in the colour and narrow fitting she wanted, at a price that was less than she expected, in the Centrepoint Mall. While in that mall, we treated ourselves to a coffee at a place called TCC, where Len had, and Sue tasted, a lovely Matcha Azuki sponge-style cake.

We walked from there back to our hotel, passing a few of Orchard Road’s non-shopping sights. These include Istana, the official residence and office of the President of Singapore, though he doesn’t really live there. All we could see were lots of guards and a driveway! Opposite it is the pretty looking Istana Park, but by this time our feet were smelling home and could not be convinced to cross the road. Another time perhaps.

On our walk home, as Orchard Road turned into Bras Basah Street, we passed Kopitiam, an inside hawker centre that caught our attention as Kopitiam is a favourite Asian restaurant of ours “back home”.

Durians, gluttons and hints of fine dining

For our evening meal we decided to do the hawker centre thing since we’d wussed out the night before and no self-respecting food traveller can come to Singapore without trying at least one. We decided on the offputtingly titled Gluttons Bay for three reasons: it was in walking distance of our hotel being around 1 km or so away; it had been recommended by the Tasmanian couple in our cooking class; and this hawker centre was established by Makansutra, a company which promotes food culture. They apparently invited their favourite hawkers to join their venture.

On our way to the Bay, we passed one of the Durians, that is, one of two buildings that make up the Esplanade – Theatre on the Bay. We also caught our first sight of the amazing Marina Bay Sands complex which, among other things, contains Tetsuya’s Waku Ghin restaurant. When researching our trip, we considered booking a fine dining night and this was one possibility, but we decided that around $1000 for dinner for two was just a little more than we were prepared to pay!

Instead we had a great meal at Gluttons Bay … though we were far from gluttonous. For main course we had one of the local delicacies – well, two really – a black and a white carrot cake, costing $4 each  These are savoury dishes that have nothing to do with carrots but a lot to do with radish. We followed up with a large sticky rice with fresh mango to share, at $12. Sue also wanted to try the Hainanese Chicken Rice. Was it as good as ours? And Len considered trying some inviting seafood but in the end we decided not to be gluttonous and moved on.

We ended the evening by walking around the esplanade area to the famous Merlion fountain where we joined others in much photo taking, before finding an outside table at a bar overlooking the bay. Sue considered ordering a Singapore Sling, but in the end went for a white wine. How boring is that? Anyhow, at 8pm, we were treated to a delightful light show from Marina Bay Sands and the nearby lotus-shaped Art Science Museum.

The tall and fanciful buildings, the boats plying the river/bay, and the heat – not to mentioned being surrounded by multiple languages – reminded us of our stay in Dubai last year.

Nobody in Singapore drinks Singapore Slings. It’s one of the first things you find out there. What you do in Singapore is eat. It’s a really food crazy culture, where all of this great food is available in this kind-of hawker stand environment. – Anthony Bourdain

And some photos from the day …

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And the fantastic Sands Light Show (with Spanish commentary, if you listen closely!!) …