“Auntie, would you like to try some food?” a voice says to me.

I swing my head around and look at him with a look that says “Are you talking to me?”

This was the first time in my life that I have been called Auntie and it was during my Singapore visit. And even more flooring, it came from not the mouth of babes but a full grown adult male. And as someone that is somewhat of denial about my age and most likely to be voted “mutton dressed as lamb” in future decades, it’s a little strange but sweet.

And isn’t it funny how even though I don’t see my Singapore based cousins often (and here everyone is cousin, auntie or uncle) they intrinsically know what I want even without a word spoken. My cousin Tzan and his wife Geok Lee pick me up and take me to Takashimaya where I price a Longchamp Le Pliage bag (eek! more expensive than in Australia, who would have imagined?) and take me out to ice cream at Island Creamery as I express a desire for my beloved sweet corn ice cream. Geok Lee tells me “They’ve got very unusual flavours there-like Cendol” and I’m immediately sold.

Unbeknownst to me, Tzan is an ice cream enthusiast and when he asks the woman behind the counter for “one scoop of everything” I wonder where on earth he was when I was a child as those words are music to a child’s ears.  But as I am an adult and know that I have eaten a month’s worth of food in the last few days I suggest that we limit it to trying the more unusual flavours. I know…what on earth possessed me to limit it?

We start with cendol, pulit hitam (black sticky rice), teh tarik, bandung (rosewater drink), soursop and Tiger beer sorbet. The cendol complete with the wriggly green tapioca worms and the pulit hitam with the toothsome grains of black rice are a favourite along with the tek tarik which gives me a little caffeine pick me up. The Tiger beer is strong in hops and the soursop is a refreshing and we use this as a palate cleanser as we are about to go off to lunch. Yep that’s the thing about my family and I, we can eat pretty much any time

We’re off to lunch where there will be a table of 15 of my family members, some of whom I haven’t yet met as it has been so long since my last visit to Singapore. And Tzan tells me that he chose this restaurant because it specialises in a lesser known type of cuisine called Heng Hwa cuisine said to be a simpler cuisine related to Foo Chow cuisine (my mother’s family background). Originally from the Fujian province of China you could count on one hand the number of Heng Hwa restaurants here in Singapore. There is an emphasis on seafood as Heng Hwa is a coastal town and the style of food is said to be lighter and more home style.

Putien style century egg $7.90

Me? I’m excited to be trying century eggs. Here they are lightly savoury crumbed and deep fried. I take a bite and it is delicious, tasting like a light batter which really just gives it texture and a boiled egg. I’m not quite sure what all the fuss about century eggs is and perhaps the deep frying helps in this regards (to paraphrase Nigella Lawson, how can deep fried be anything but good?).

Braised pig intestine $13.90

I am not usually a huge fan of intestines but this braised pig’s intestine, cut into small pieces is actually very tasty. With a slightly rubbery and spongy texture but with a distinct savoury star anise flavour I actually go back for a second and third serving of these.

Iced bitter gourd $5.90

Another item that I wasn’t expecting to like was the iced bitter gourd. Here, it is very thinly shaved and comes on a plate with the ends curled up like a flower with shaved ice in the centre. It is also accompanied by a watery honey sauce to dip it in. There isn’t any bitterness to this gourd perhaps offset by the honey and the shaved bitter gourd has a crunchy, fresh texture like biting into a crisp apple.

Steamed cold pork belly with garlic $7.90

Oh the less adventurous side, the thin slices of cold pork belly was delicious soft and came edged with a garlic sauce.

Drunken cockles $9.90

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Haji Lane

Pendants from Threadbare & Squirrel

I’ve often thought that if I could do anything at an Olympic level, it would be shopping. I’m certainly not qualified or gifted with the physical ability to do anything else. So when there is actual shopping time worked into a travel itinerary I am ecstatic. To me, there’s only one thing to do when your tummy is full and that is to shop! My justification is that burns up calories in preparation for another meal

A mini dictionary pendant

With print on each page!

So far we’ve seen quite a bit of Singapore in our short time. Today we make our way to Haji Lane, a small lane way that houses some fantastic boutiques. Whilst larger centres such as Ion and Orchard Road offer chain store goodies and air conditioned relief, Haji Lane in the middle of the Muslim quarter is pure Paddington or Surry Hills boutiques full of young designers at ridiculously low prices. The clothes and accessories are smack bang on trend and we were only dragged out of there by the fact that we had to check into our hotel before dinner.

A bear disguised as a monkey

The lane is small with about 20-25 boutiques and they open late at around 3:30-4pm but it is well worth a special visit (taxis are inexpensive in Singapore). All up I bought three dresses, a necklace and a sweater with each item averaging about $35SGD which is about $30AUD). Sizes are mostly one size fits all and they will fit up to a size 12 Australian depending on the cut. Yep this is why they budgeted in shopping time!

Dresses at where my credit card went a little nuts: Collage Boutique

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In my last Singapore post I showed you about the high end of Singapore. And although it has been a good 15 years since my last visit before that we used to visit a lot. My mother is Singaporean and every few years we’d get on a plane to visit my aunt, uncles and countless cousins. I can tell you these five things about Singaporeans:

1. Singaporeans are obsessed with food. Like seriously obsessed. They will spiritedly debate the merits of their favourite chicken rice, char kway teow, oyster omelette place and then cluck at you good naturedly for going to the wrong place or give you a loud bellow of “Approved!” for selecting the right place.

2. They love high end and they love low end food. By low end I mean cheap hawker centre meals where deliciously fragrant and flavoursome food can be had, in the heat and humidity, for a mere $1 per drink or $2-$4 per main meal. The high end here is higher than the high end is a lot of countries with the most expensive meals costing about $400SGD per head.

3. They love to shop and the shops are open until late to cater for this love.

4. They don’t seem to sleep much. They’re too busy working, eating and shopping.

5. They are obsessed with food. They really are. So it’s no wonder that with a mother from Singapore I would be similarly devoted. It was in my genes…

So it would seem only fitting that we see Singapore, the other Singapore beyond the glittery 5 star jewels with some of the locals of Singapore. These people will uncover to us the hidden gems, the best places to eat where Singaporeans eat and the places about which they furiously debate.

Geylang Serai Food Market

No trip to Singapore is complete without a visit to a hawker centre. All of us were up early at the crack of dawn and ready to partake in Tony Tan’s food tour of local hawker centres and shops where he gives us a his view on the food and history of Singaporean cuisine. We start at the Geylang Serai food market where the hawker food sits on the level above the wet market below. It’s a predominantly Malay muslim market so the food is mostly halal.

Tony Tan

We start with the stands around the outside of the markets that sell dried shrimp and palm sugar. There are differences in the palm sugar here-we are used to paler palm sugars in Australia whereas here it is darker. Tony shows us belacan which is the pungent shrimp paste used in laksa and all sorts of other delicious dishes. There is also a fascinating black nut, the Buah Keluak which is poisonous and fishermen use to stun fish before they catch them.

The poisonous Buah Keluak black nut once buried in alkaline  ash

The black nut is then boiled and roasted

When the fish eat the nuts they become dazed and float to the top making them easy to scoop up. The nut is poisonous without treatment but after treatment becomes deliciously edible (and we’ll get to try this later).  Treatment involves burying it in alkaline ash and then boiling and roasting it which semi prepares it. It is then mixed with spices and the filling is then stuffed back into the shell and cooked. And I can’t help thinking about whoever thought of this process really must have wanted to eat this!

Tongkat Ali – Viagra for women and men!

Another interesting item is the Tongkat Ali which is the bark of the tree that is used in tea and coffee to increase how shall we say…stimulation. It is said to be like Viagra for both women and men! We tried some but sadly didn’t feel any effect which is probably a good thing as our other halves were at home in Sydney…

The Wet Market

We enter the wet market and it is so named because the ice used to pack and keep the fish for selling makes the floor very wet. Starting at 5:30am there are all types of fish for sale in the ten or so stands that sell fish with prices marked per whole fish rather than by weight. There is a stand with fresh cockles being scooped up.

Scooping cockles

The two types of coffee that make up Singapore coffee

Tony holds two types of coffee beans in his hands. One is roasted in margarine and sugar and has a glossy coating to it and another looks more like a regular coffee bean. He urges us to put one of each in our mouths to taste the difference. Singapore coffee is a 50/50 blend of these beans.

We pass a stall where “Auntie” (everyone older is pretty much auntie or uncle) is chewing on a betel leaf wrapped in betel nut. She is also making pot pourri out of flowers and shredded pandan leaves to leave around the home which she packages up in newspaper and staples shut. Tony tells us that many of the older generation have become addicted to chewing on the betel nut and this leads to problems like involuntary drooling but the initial feeling is that of relaxation. He buys a few for us to try as Alison and I want to give it a go a bit later as they suggest having a toothbrush handy as it turns your mouth brown (as if involuntary drooling didn’t sound unglamourous enough!).

But enough shopping, we’re hungry! All of these smells is enough to make a girl suddenly want breakfast and as in Asian countries, the best places for food are the ones with long queues. We line up at this stand which is popular for their Nasi Padang dishes and Tony tells us that the owner has also made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Beef Lung

Pork is one meat that isn’t sold here because it is a predominantly Muslim market but meats such as beef, chicken and goat are popular and they also sell offal including beef lung, spleen and tendon. As we are getting hungry (it’s lunchtime according to our Sydney based tummies), we follow Tony around to gather the best of what the hawker centre offers including the beef lung above. I try a bite and it is flavoursome and quite firm in texture and actually quite pleasant indeed without the overtly strong offal smell that some offal has.

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