singapore sling - part 3

In our final hours on the island, our eating pace started to diminish significantly. I'm not sure whether this had to do with the extreme humidity, or the fact that we over ate in the 24 hours preceding this and literally had no more stomach space left.

Nonetheless, a trip to Singapore is never complete without its two national dishes - Hainanese chicken rice and Singaporean chilli crab.

We took a cab out to Maxwell Food Centre for what has been voted as 
THE BEST HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE in Singapore. Of course, with such a declaration, comes a certain level of expectation. It was around 11:45am by the time we arrived but there was already a long line outside the Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice stall compromised mainly of the lunchtime crowd who worked close by.
I joined the line and ordered 2 servings of Hainanese chicken rice. Like wine, food can also be very subjective. Did we think it was THE BEST HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE in Singapore? Probably not. Although Anthony Bourdain did eat here and proclaimed that the "chicken rice was so fragrant and delicious, it could be eaten on its own" I must admit, it was very nice, but I wouldn't say it was the best I've had. Even the rice, whilst fragrant, was a tad dry for my liking. The chicken, however was really succulent and deeply enhanced by the secret sauce that was generously poured over the chicken.

hainanese chicken rice from Tian Tian

Like any true glutton, we didn't just stop at the chicken rice. Left feeling somewhat unsatisfied, we wanted something else to to fill the void. After trawling the stalls for a few minutes, we finally settled on good old Malay food. For hubby - nasi lemak and for me - mee rebus. 
Washed down with fresh sugar cane juice and a splash of fresh lime - now THAT really hit the spot.

mee rebus

nasi lemak with fried chicken

To round off our time in Singapore, we went to an old time favourite of ours - Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. Started back in the late 80's, Jumbo now has many chain restaurants littered across Singapore, but the best is still by far its original restaurant located at East Coast Seafood Centre.

king crabs - these guys were HUGE!

geoduck - don't they remind you or something else?

grouper - my favourite fish

We ordered the obligatory chilli crab with fried "man tou" or steamed Chinese buns, otak-otak, satay and oyster omelette (a huge improvement on the one we ate on the first night)

otak otak

satay chicken and lamb

oyster omelette

fried "man tou" - to mop up the crab sauce

singapore chilli crab

For me, returning to Singapore time and time again means eating out at hawker centres and local restaurants. The fancy dining and extravagant prices can be left for Europe. It is here, for me, the best food in the world can be found and the fact that a great meal can cost less than S$10, makes it even easier to stomach.


maxwell food centre
cnr south bridge road & maxwell road, singapore
opening times: varies from stall to stall


jumbo seafood restaurant
various locations
www.jumboseafood.com.sg