Sizzling in Singapore

Nothing better than leaving the cold murky Northern Hemisphere winter for a long weekend in Singapore. I was lucky to do this over Easter, and spent a fab few days catching up with my folks and pigging out on the local food.

Not long after our respective planes from London and Brisbane had landed, we headed directly to Newton Food Centre (formally known as Newton Circus), one of the original Hawker food centres. This place to me, is the quintessential Singapore. Vast and bustling, the whole area smells like an enormous aromatic kitchen. Food here is great value and you're spoilt for choice!

Satays are sold in bulk, and we ploughed our way through 80 of the delectible little sticks of meat and peanut sauce by the time we downed the first bottle of Tiger Beer. Gotta keep the fluids up in the tropics!

Other memorable meals were the obligatory chili crab, which we had at a lovely riverside restaurant in Clarke Quay, and again on the final night out at East Coast Parkway - another fab eating precinct.



The final amazing food encounter was at the Swissotel's Equinox restaurant, which towers 70 floors above the city. The view at dusk was awesome - it really helped to put this compact city into perspective. The miso cod and dessert platter was delicious. And the cocktails up on the 71st floor were pretty good too!

As well as the usual lurch down Orchard Road, and a frenzied expedition to Lucky Plaza, where there are so many consumer electronics shops, your head spins, we spent a soggy afternoon out at Jurong Bird Park.

This is one of Singapore's most popular and well known attactions, and despite the big tropical rain storm, we checked out some amazing birds. The huge walk-through aviaries allow you to get up close and personal with the birds. The scarlet flamingos were my favourite! Check out the rest of the pictures here.



Finishing off the eat-a-thon, we met the lovely Ann for a local lunch in International Plaza, home to the Dow Jones Singapore office. Ann introduced us to claypot chicken and a yummy bean paste and ginko dessert.

It's true that Singapore is known for its obsession with eating and shopping...but hey...what a wonderful way to wile away the hours.

Show me the crab (and gimme a satay while you're at it)

My all-time FAVOURITE experience in Singapore is chilli crab. Even if I only have a 3-hour stopover in Singapore, I'll hurtle out to the East Coast Parkway to get a dose of this mouth-watering dish.



Anyway, we had longer than three hours for the evening of Mum's birthday, and attempted to over-dose on chilli crab at the Long Beach Seafood Restaurant. Consumed with a Singha beer or ten, this is truly one of best food experiences on the planet. I said to Mum that I intended to be gutsing out on chilli crab for my 60th birthday.

Other fab restaurant precincts in the ever-expanding Singapore, include the newly refubished Clarke Quay and CHIJMES.

And of course there's always the trusty hawker centres, which we visited another night. Newton's Circus, now known as the Newton Food Centre is one of my favourite haunts - Mum and Dad first bought me here about 20 years ago and to me it's always been synonymous with Singapore.

Here's a pic of Dad working his way through a couple dozen mixed satays and the obligatory Singha.

A day at Sentosa

Another part of Mum's birthday surprise was a pampering session at the fabulous Spa Botanica at the Sentosa Resort. Sentosa is an island just off the Singaporean mainland, easily reachable by bus, cab or car.

I'd been here before and had one of their yummy Singapore Flower Ritual packages. This is how they describe the package:

"Surrender to the peace and tranquility of a private garden pavilion where fragrant flowers sweetly scent the air. The treatment begins with a deep pressure dry massage in an outdoor massage pavilion to soothe weary muscles, after which a special preparation of local herbs and flowers is gently rubbed into the skin. Then enjoy an aroma massage to moisturise the skin and induce further relaxation. A revitalising soak in a sweet smelling frangipani filled tub and an elixir of calming tea completes the cycle of blissful reawakening."

I can say without hesitation that this was one of the best spa treatments I've ever had. I think Mum agreed!

With Mum safely tucked up in her floral wonderland, Dad and I headed up to Fort Siloso - Singapore's only preserved coastal fort.

I didn't really know much about Singapore's history and the Japanese occupation of it during WWII. It was a really interesting (and eerie) site, where you could explore the actual tunnel system below the fort.

We were in one of the old bunkers, when this peacock decided to put on a show.

















Several hours later, we picked up a refreshed Mum, and wandered down to the beach, where a flock of restaurants and bars provide a great view out over what signs claim is the southernmost point of the asian continent.

Lunch down on the beach was great - we found an eatery that served a dizzying range of seafood and noodles, and opted for a noodle dish, with chilli crab being on the agenda for dinner.

The iconic Singapore Sling

One of the absolutely mandatory things to do in Singapore is to have a Singapore Sling at the iconic Long Bar at Raffles.

It seems odd to be sitting at one of the most expensive hotels in the country, scoffing peanuts and dumping the shells on the floor, but, needless to say, with such massive humidity, one has to keep the fluids up...

Here are Mum and I, doing what the locals do...