Mouth Watering Singaporean Dishes

I had a rare treat the other day when I attended lunch hosted by the Singapore Tourism Board. I arrived early and had an animated conversation with Lee about Singapore, Filipino food, Filipino places, politics and quirks! I told Lee that he holds the record for the most talkative Singaporean I've met and I was really surprised with his knowledge about the Philippines and our unique characteristics as Pinoys.

I've been to Singapore countless of times and I've done a lot of write-ups about it in the past few years. Most of those posts were about food and a couple about Singapore tourist spots. I confessed to Lee that in the past year I have been obsessing about milk tea (thus my tea blog with Drew) and that I have been supermarket hopping in Singapore to find the best instant milk tea.

The highlight of the intimate lunch was the authentic Singaporean dishes prepared by Heritage Hotel's Singaporean chef. I lit up when I saw that the menu included mee-goreng. Mee-goreng is my most favorite Singaporean dish and have attempted to cook it twice already (both attempts failed), so I'm on the look-out for the best mee-goreng locally.

The Singapore Slaw. I didn't really know what to expect from the salad since it was my first time to eat it. Mixed the veggies and dressing after taking a couple of photos and then ate a forkful. I was surprised that the colorful combination was delightfully flavorful and tasty. I actually craved for more when I got home.

Nyonya Meatball Soup. Linelle explained that Bawan Kepeting is traditional soup like our sinigang/nilaga. It takes about a day to prepare this soup. I was surprised to see a lot of ginger in the soup and thought that I wouldn't like the taste. I thought wrong. The ginger added a lot of flavor to the soup and the meatball (which tasted like siomai) was a great complement.

Singapore Laksa. I have a confession to make. Inasmuch as I've been to Singapore numerous times I never tried the laksa because I was scared! Before I tried it out Sweetie exclaimed that it was really spicy. That got me nervous. I found it really spicy too, but I soon realized there was nothing to be afraid about the laksa because it was really delicious. I'm fond of coconut based dishes (that's the Bicolana in me) and I liked the rich flavor of the soup.

Mee-Goreng. My favorite Singaporean dish of all time, need I say more? I did impress Lee though when I told him that I knew the difference between Chinese and Indian mee-goreng. Haha. I hope to perfect this dish before the year ends.

Hainanese Chicken Rice. It's been years since I last ate this dish because I developed allergy to chicken. I was unfazed though because I was hungry and really wanted to eat chicken again (it's been 18 months!). Linelle explained that Heritage Hotel imports chicken since our local chicken isn't fat enough for this dish. And guess what? I didn't have an allergy attack. Linelle also mentioned that this dish was made by Chinese immigrants when they arrived in Singapore. Definitely a dish you should have when you go to Singapore. If I remember correctly it was the very first dish I had during my first visit to Singapore back in 2003.

Sago Gula Melaka with Ice Cream. There's a certain twist in this dessert that I couldn't pinpoint. I liked it anyway.

There's one easy way though to enjoy these dishes anytime - move to Singapore and work there! Harold from Stratworks mentioned that a TV news segment said there are 100,000 jobs available in Singapore. Singapore government has made it much easier to find a job through Contact Singapore and did you know that you can actually get a one year pass to find a job there?

I must say that based on experience, Singapore is an easy place to live in. Everything works like clock-work and commuting is a breeze. There is also so much to see in Singapore, check out my Lakwatsera Ako travel and food blog for more stuff about Singapore.

For more information about visiting Singapore as a tourist, visit YourSingapore.com. And for more details about finding a job in Singapore visit ContactSingapore.sg.

Thank you Lee and Linelle for the awesome experience!