As our flight arrived at night, we headed straight for Chinatown to see the night markets- which the internet will have you believe 11pm. They lied.

By the time we got there, it was around 9pm but most of the stalls were already starting to close and an hour later, when we left, there was almost nothing left to be seen. Lesson learnt- don’t trust the internet!

Dismayed, we headed back towards out hotel and passed this restaurant on the way. As we hadn’t yet tried Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore yet, we popped in, hoping they hadn’t run out of chicken for the day!

We were in luck, as they were only almost out of chicken and managed to give us bits and pieces of what they had left. Interestingly enough, the restaurant had run out of rice (of all things you can run out of?!?!)  which we were fine with as we were still pretty full from our previous meal anyway. The chicken did not disappoint at all- it was amazing tender, moist and succulent just as we had hoped.

We ordered some stir fried bean sprout as well which were much more plump and juicy than the ones you’d find in Sydney. I’m not much of a fan of bean sprouts but these were so good I could’ve had the whole dish myself!

But what was even better was the Fried Tofu in Sweet Chilli Sauce- the tofu was amazingly smooth and crispy on the outside, accentuated by the little pieces of fried garlic. Don’t underestimate the sweet chilli sauce though- it’s much spicier than it seems!

For breakfast the next day, we head over to Berseh Food Centre,  a busy two storey food centre that had been bustling with patrons late at night when our taxi had driven past it the night before. Turns out it’s probably more of a night thing than a morning one as we found only a handful of stalls on the top level were open in the morning when we reached there.

As we’re starving, we take a seat by a fish ball stall (with no name) and immediately order a fish cake- which is sort of like a huge sized deep-fried fish ball. It’s nice and bouncy, crispy and tasty and though it’s not quite our definition of breakfast, it’s so good we order a couple more while we wait for the rest of our food to come.

We spend most of the day walking around visiting the touristy areas- Orchard Road, Merlion Park, Marina Bay etc. We stop by this cute ice-block place in front of Merlion Park because of the sweltering heat- although we think that it’s ridiculously overpriced for frozen fruit juice on a stick, it does the job of cooling us down!

By the time we reach Marina Bay Sands,  we’re starting to feel hungry again so make a quick visit to Rasapura Masters Foodcourt. Luckily it’s just past lunch time so it’s not too difficult to find a seat. There’s so much to choose from, but we settle on a simple udon stir fry which looks incredibly tasty with its thick dark sauce. Turns out looks are deceiving- the dish is rather bland.

On the very top of my ‘must eat’ list in Singapore was chilli crab, and we had intended on walking around Clarke Quay and looking at menus before choosing a restaurant. As we were pressed for time, and many of the restaurants were not open at 5:15, the only option we had was Chen Fu Ji, above Jumbo Seafood restaurant.

As we can’t have a meal without veggies, we order the Braised Japanese Shiitake with Buk Choy. The veggies are fresh and the mushrooms are big and plump.

We’d have loved to stay in Singapore longer and get through much more of our ‘to see’ and ‘to eat’ list, but our tight schedule had other plans for us-  stay tuned for more holiday posts! 🙂

Tiong Bahru Boneless Hainanese Chicken Rice
57 Smith St, SINGAPORE

Berseh Food Centre
166 Jalan Besar, SINGAPORE 208877

Rasapura Masters Food Court
Canal Level, Marina Bay Sands (10 Bayfront Ave.), SINGAPORE 018956

Chen Fu Ji Fried Rice 陈福记
Riverside Point, 30 Merchant Road #02-30/31, Clarke Quay District, 058282