Singapore used to have a lot of food carts on the streets that were ran by immigrants from China, Malaysia and India. A few years back, the government took all of them from the streets and put them spread across the island in food courts. These food courts have a clean water and sewage so this initiative enable clean street food for the community and visitors. And above all, it is ridiculously cheap. For 10SGD you will eat like a king!

The Hawer Centres are everywhere from fancy Raffles Centre to suburbs. It all depends where you are and how 'local' you can bear to go. Be prepared to share a table, use plastic plates and brave the heat with NO air conditioning or napkins.

They are maid of a combination of food specialists. I say that because these people have been cooking one type of food or some times one dish for their whole lives. They cook each dish to perfection or at least a lot of them do.

The most famous dish in Singapore: Chicken Rice. Tian Tian for example is No1 Chicken Rice but Wee Nam Kee is pretty amazing too and they have several outlets.

Other very famous dishes that are not to be missed are: murtabak, roti prata, Chili Crab, Laksa, Sweet n Sour pork and Satay.

Recommended Hawker Centres in order of fanciness:

• Gluttons Bay: anything is good here. It was chosen by food critics of Makansutra guide. The diference here is that you eat by the Marina Bay. Wee Nam Kee is supposed to have one of the best chicken rice.
• Food Republic @313 Somerset. Have handmade noodles done by this guy. So thick and delicious.

• Maxwell Food Court: Tian Tian!!!! And go at lunch time to catch the lady that makes Malay sweets called Ondeh Ondeh! Little coconut gummy sweets to die for!

• Bukit Batok Food Court: our local Not to be missed. Prata and Murtabak are amazing here and a mst stop for our guests.

As the locals would say: Makan! (Eat on!)

sorry we have been extremely bad at keeping up with the posts. Reason: we moved! We have been living in Singapore for the last few months and we will be here for the next foreseeable future. This means that the next posts will be mostly about our adventures in this side of the world. Hope you enjoy it!

To start off our South East Asia journey, let me register here the key things about Singapore. These will be the topics that you will see me talking about in the future posts.

• People: what a melting pot! We will try to capture here some of the interesting things that we learn about this fascinating mixture of cultures that is Singapore.
• Food: needless to say, Singapore is a paradise for foodies. Because of its location and immigration, here you can find food from anywhere in the world! So far the places we like to eat the most are the Hawker Centres.
• Parks: it is very true that this is a City in a Park. There are so many parks, gardens and nature reserves that you can get lost in nature throughout your whole stay. Some are good for a stroll, some for flower watching, others for proper hiking and others to stay away from…at the end of the day, this is still a tropical country with all sorts of wild life.
• Cultural Sights: because of the Chinese, Malay and Indian influence, in Singapore you can find very interesting places to visit. Mosques, temples, Little India, China Town, Arab Quarter. All with its own beauty and keeping true to its origins. Walk around Little India on a sunday and you will really feel like you are in India.
• Modern Sights: Singapore is a super modern country that got developed exponentially in the last couple of decades. Because of that you can see shiny new constructions all over the place. Special ones are of course Marina Bay, Gardens by the Bay, Orchard Road and Sentosa.
• Glimpse of Paradise: despite the modern feel around the CBD (Business District) you can still find pockets of Paradise in and around Singapore. Cross to the very end of Sentosa Island to have a spa retreat in a tropical jungle or go to Pulau Ubin to cycle in the wild.
• Night life: anything from sky bars to karaoke bars. Here you will find whatever you are looking for.
• Travel: from Singapore one can go very easily to places like Bali, Indonesian Islands, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and and and. The list is huge.

Hopefully you will enjoy Singapore as much as we are.

xx