Katong Laksa, Singapore

Katong has been made over since my last visit 3 years ago. I love how they have conserved the old shophouses and made everything look so...touristy-nice...but when I was in Katong at noon one day two weeks ago, there were only a handful of people walking around. I don't know it if's the heat (Singapore is all about air-conditioned malls) or the sterile, perfect 'Tourists Welcome' look of the place. What it needs is more people to liven up the place. Maybe it is different at night. Next time, I'll go at night.

The one thing people come to Katong for is the most famous Singapore laksa stall at 328 Katong. 328 is not the original laksa operator in the shoplot but it has literally cashed in on the original operator's reputation for the best laksa after the original operator moved out when the rent was increased. There's a lesson to be learnt from this: don't build up a reputation and leave, thinking that somebody else can't do the same thing.




3 years ago I found 328 laksa too creamy-thick. This time, I loved it. The soup was just nice, not too thick or thin, there were lots of dried shrimps, the cockles were plump, sweet and crunchy, the noodles slippery-smooth and delicious. At S$4/5/6 (S/M/L), who says Singapore is one of the most expensive cities in the world? In KK, you can't eat a decent bowl of noodles for below RM6 (and you shouldn't convert the currency unless you are a tourist).


Otak otak is something I don't particularly like. Or dislike.


The lady of this quaint Peranakan/Eurasian shop cautioned me about taking photos inside when I stepped in. Perasaan because I didn't think of doing so. I did buy two of her old-fashioned curry puffs, the ones that are made with short crust pastry and baked, not deep-fried. They were kind of hollow and dry but still tasted heaps better than the awful spiral pastry deep-dried curry puffs we get these days.




The red agar was rose syrup-flavored, cold, very firm and not too sweet. It reminded me of simpler days when desserts were just that, simple agar agar jellies.


These banana loaves smelt heavenly but nobody wanted to share a loaf with me so I stood smelling and drooling but the lady didn't offer me a sample. Which isn't so bad because one of my friends stood drooling at the window of a Chinese dimsum place in London years ago and a waiter came out with a doggie bag and told her to go away. Lesson: wear a good coat when travelling.


I know some people say Awfully Choc's choc slice is overrated but I love it.


Straight from 328 Katong to Katong Mall for the Hainanese chicken rice! This was at Delicious Boneless Chicken Rice stall in the food court of the mall. What can I say? We had two plates of the chicken. That was less than 30 minutes after eating Singapore laksa and we each had a bowl. Why am I not surprised that when I went to town yesterday 3 people said I've put on weight? Two said I look "fatter and different". That's brutal.


Mixed pickles and refills are FOC with the chicken rice.


Singapore started as a free port nation about 50 years ago. Due to its strategic location in the Straits of Malacca and good management, Singapore tied with Rotterdam, The Netherlands as the busiest ports in the world for decades until about 6 years ago when Shanghai took over that spot. This photo was taken from our apartment which is not near the port but even so, look at the number of ships out there.

Singapore Dec 2011-2

Orchard Rd was busy and merry as usual. Two new malls have sprung up since my last visit. Ion and 313@Somerset. I found Ion more pleasant. A couple of restaurants looked really tempting. One of them, Ippudo Ramen, had people queuing even at 3 pm.


This was the end of the queue at Starbucks in one of the Orchard malls and we were incredulous that Singaporeans were so crazy about Starbucks coffee. A couple from Finland stood near us and wondered at the same thing too. Starbucks is kaput in Australia I heard but Singaporeans can't get enough of it.


I was with a friend in the Isetan Supermarket when she spotted this pretty young thing and made me take a photo with her. Turned out that she's Fiona Xie, a Singaporean actress. I was so unnerved I forgot to take a shot of her mile-long legs. Remember AngelaBaby whom I saw in Hong Kong?




A resting place for tired shoppers somewhere in Gallery Mandarin. Apparently tired shoppers not only eat and nap, they pet too. 


Abercrombie & Fitch had a week-long promotion of their about-to-open store on Orchard
Rd and flew in some dishy hunks who stood outside the store half-naked. The women bystanders went crazy, their bfs or hubs fidgeting and sucking their bellies in. Someone pushed me forward and I ended up looking stupid with a bunch of hunks half my age. 


These boys kept their shirts on but I bet they have abs too.


The cakes at Antoinette looked SO good but we just had a big lunch and my guys didn't want any dessert. I tell myself that next time, I will make a trip to Singapore with my girlfriends and we will sit down for tea.


At Tangs, I met up with my son Ming who had flown in from Melbourne via KL and Hub who had flown in from Penang and the first thing Ming ate was chicken rice and choy sum. This was in one of the food courts on Orchard and Ming said it was 6/10.




If you've never been to Marina Bay Sands the casino, go. From far the buildings look
ridiculous, like a ship is marooned on top of two buildings but close up the grandeur of the whole project is just awing. The casino is HUGE and classy and there are lots of restaurants and shops if gambling is not your thing. 

We were wearing jeans, so we chose to eat dinner at Mario Batali's Osteria Mozza (2 Bayfront Ave, Tel: 65.6688.8522). The dang thing about the place is you have to decide whether you want pizza or pasta at the entrance. Pizza diners go right, pasta lovers go left. You can't have both, isn't that silly. Hard decision but I chose pizza.


House salad, about S$10++. Boring and the dressing was pH 4 maybe, so acidic I couldn't finish it.


An appetiser of calamari with beans, S$10++. Not a bit impressive. 


The main course of the day was braised lamb shank, S$36++. It was good, tender yet still attached to the bone. Yum with the thin pieces of crisp bread.


This was worth the wait (they said 45 minutes but this came in 20 minutes). Fennel and sausage pizza, about S$28++ I think. I've never tasted a similar pizza, not even in Italy. The crust was thin, puffed and crisp and the fennel and sausage were so good together.  I  would surmise that the oven temperature was over 400 C? Awesome.


3-mushroom pizza, another awesome creation.


The pizza crust was made even more crispy by a coating of semolina.


The caramel ice cream with peanuts, about S$15++, was a disappointment because it was too sweet and ordinary. Really those pizzas were a hard act to follow. I wished I had ordered the ice cream with olive oil. Next time.

We stepped out of the building and faced the Louis Vuitton store with the Singapore river and city skyline as back drop. People were dining al fresco and the cool night air blew through giant palms, making the place seem so laid back and beautiful. This part of Singapore reminded me of Sydney Harbour but Sydney Harbor seems so tired and old in comparison. 

Singapore Dec 2011

Dinner on my first night in Singapore was at Putien, a Fujian-Heng Hua restuarant in Marine Parade. I'm not familiar with Fujian cuisine and found it similar to Cantonese cuisine. I found Putien's dishes at par (albeit some misses) with the fine restaurants in China and the elegant, modern Chinese decor very pleasant. Not sure about the prices though because the tab was picked up by Hub's cousin.




Thin belly pork slices with a garlic soy sauce. The pork slices were so thin that it was hard to tell whether it was pork or imitation meat. Though tasty, this was too delicate a dish for me. I want my meat to taste like meat.


This is one of Putien's best dishes, tender spinach in a rich sauce of three types of eggs: century egg, salted duck's egg and chicken egg. I'm not sure about this version of 3-egg spinach which though very tasty and flavorful, was rich and creamy compared to the common version where the sauce is lighter and clearer. The spinach was also slightly bitter. 


Oh chien or baby oysters omelette is one of the greasiest but yummiest dishes you must feast on in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. This deep-fried version is dry and boring.


I've always disliked Singapore lor mee, noodles in a thick gummy gravy but Putien's version was different and delicious. The soup was rich and very tasty, slightly thick and the noodles just the right texture.


This dish of sweet and sour fish was perfect, the sauce just nice and the fish delicious, superfine and fresh.


I love taro, and one of my dining companion commented that taro is a ladies' favorite and I think he's right. The or nee (taro paste) was lacking in taro flavor. The pumpkin dessert can be improved by using deep orange-colored mature pumpkins. Still, nice change from the usual red beans or peanuts and I enjoyed the coconut ice cream.


This was AF's breakfast the next morning at a stall behind a mall in Katong. I've noticed that char siew in Singapore is always lean and dyed orange-red, like the char siew in Kuching. A no-no for me.


I didn't try B's noodles with stewed chicken feet and mushrooms because I was saving my stomach for my first bowl of Singapore laksa in nearly 3 years.


The cockles were big and raw, the noodles el dente and even though the soup was too thin and lacking in deep flavor, I walked away very contented.


Maybe because it was my first day in Singapore but the economy buffet dishes looked better than those in KK.


I was in Singapore to meet up with Tina but our schedules didn't allow us to spend much time together so Tina suggested that I go to her mom's apartment for lunch. 




It's always a treat to eat home-made mee siam. Everything, from the gravy to the sambal, was home-made. So much work--that's why I've never cooked mee siam.


Tina's mom's delicious nyonya-style mee siam is a more sour and lighter version than the mee siam I'm used to. 


A bottle of home-made salted fish, either straits Eurasian or nyonya-style. Reminds me of mango chutney, only this was better. I'll have to get my brother to bring this for me.

Lion City!

No lions in Lion City but there are plenty of gigantic rain trees! That's the first thing that strikes me everytime I come to this city. Why is it that Sg can have such big lovely trees shading their highways and roads, making everywhere green and fresh, when we, next to Sg, have mazes of concrete flyovers and bare dusty road dividers?

Why is it that the Sg dollar, once at par with Malaysian Ringgit, is now 2.4 times higher, despite The Little Red Dot, city and country being same size (247 sq km, Wiki) as the city of KL (243 sq km, Wiki) and having no natural resources? Why is it that EVERY street and corner is clean and devoid of thrash yet in Malaysia you can't step into a coffee shop without used tissues sticking to your shoes and chairs? Why is it that buses are new and clean, run on time, plentiful and fares are cheap? Why are Sg taxi drivers rated the BEST in the world while KL taxi drivers are notorious for not using their meters and picky when sending passengers, discriminating about locations and even the weather?

Why is Sg rated the best place to live (albeit now rated the 6th costliest) in South East Asia (or the whole Asian region)? Why are the literacy rates, education and living standards of
Sgreans among the highest in the world?