An Endless Menu of Foods

Singapore has a tremendous variety and quantity of restaurants and eateries all over the city. There are foods from all over the world here and a range of different dining options.

I have only been here a week, but living in a hotel I take all of my meals at restaurants. I'll give you a sampling of some of the meals I have had this week to give you a sense of the variety that Singapore has to offer...

Firstly, I'll mention that there is a wide range of restaurant types here. There are sit-down restaurants with well decorated dining rooms. There are fast food establishments (fast food from the US, like McDon, Pizza Hut, L John Silvers, etc.; and also fast food from European countries). There are street food vendors (called 'hawker stalls') where you can find cheaper food with less ambiance (and usually no air conditioning). There are coffee shops, ice cream shops, bars, and snack stands.

Restaurants can be found all over the city. Certain areas are better known for their dining options, but generally you don't have to look to far to find some place to eat. Certain socializing and tourist areas are full of eateries. An example is the top picture, of Boat Quay along the Singapore River. Restaurants and bars offering food from all around the world line the river front.

The city is full of shopping malls. Limited on space, Singapore uses its land wisely. The first couple of storeys on many commercial buildings are dedicated to shopping. All of these shopping centers have some type of food court to serve meals to the people working in the offices in upper floors. The food courts can range from Western fast food places, to simple and quick 'ethnic' foods from all around Asia. The second picture shows a sample of a food court.

Hawker stalls are used more by the locals and can be found around all of the public housing developments around the city (80% of the population in Singapore lives in government developed housing). These provide simpler and cheaper food. They are usually busy places with interesting dishes marked on signs in a variety of south Asian languages.

There is also great variety in the type of cuisine available. I'll give a 'sampling' of what I've eaten this past week to give you the 'flavor' for the diversity of foods. (by the way, my vegetarian diet is on temporary suspension while I experience some of the new foods here:

• Morning coffee, orange juice, and toast w/ egg at small bread shop near to hotel
• Morning butter toast and soft boiled eggs, with orange juice at popular breakfast place near to my office
• Vegetarian Indian curry dish in the Little India district of Singapore (near to an apartment I am considering to rent)
• Japanese sushi delivered to my table via conveyor belt
• Udon soup with fried squid for lunch at food court at my office
• Turkish vegetarian kabob in mini-food plaza near to hotel
• Thai soup and fried fish cake, with cucumber salad at office food court
• Too much Indian food for dinner one night after work along Boat Quay.
• A roasted vegetable sandwich on foccacia bread, with french fries at the Borders Bookstore Bistro on Orchard Road (exotic, I know)
• A delicious macchiato espresso at a small cafe adjacent to an apartment complex I am considering living in -- right after I got a haircut (needed to lose some of my hair in this tropical heat)
• Great plate of noodles and vegetables at a hawker stall near Orchard Road
• A bowl of potato leek soup, french bread, and a ceasar salad (plus choco brownie) at a European food court near the office.

So, I am sure you can see the great variety of foods here in Singapore. Fortunately I have also been doing a lot of walking since I arrived here, so I am not as big as a house -- as one might assume from reading the above list!

--Alek (in Singapore)