Food Blog

I try to keep details about food out of my main blogs because, for many,it’s boring. Mal and I are in food heaven. Everything we eat, unless otherwise stated, is incredibly delicious. Having said this I will try to keep superlatives out of my copy.
The food in Singapore is diverse, a fusion of Chinese, Indian, Malay and Tamil.
Last Wednesday we ate lunch in the Empire Café, a restaurant in the famous Raffles Hotel. First course was Hainanese chicken satay accompanied by sweet red onion and cucumber, with a side of sticky rice prepared in a banana leaf. The chicken was so well flavored that it hardly needed therich chunky peanut sauce. This was followed by an eggplant dish which, I guarantee, would convert the most ardent anti eggplant person into a lover for life. It was served in a sweet, sour and spicy sauce, unlike any I have tasted before, liberally infused with sesame seeds. We also had a prawn dish served in a home made chili sauce, accompanied by potato chip papadums and a chutney of ginger and mango. The base for the chili sauce was a strong fish stock. Not my favorite but Mal loved it. All of this was served on steaming fragrant rice and washed down with a local draught beer. We finished the meal with perfect coffee.
At night we ate dinner in Little India in a restaurant famous for Singapores signature dish, Fish Head Curry. I had misgivings about how I would respond to a fish head floating in a sauce but I overcame them, fortunately, because the reputation for this dish is well deserved. The waiter delicately removed and served the fish which, by the way, was red snapper. The sauce was a classic curry sauce with a hint of star anise, the best I have ever tasted. We ordered an equally delicious vegetable dish prepared with yogurt and coconut milk. Again we enjoyed a large platter of steaming fragrant rice. The beverage this time was an Indian beer called Kingfisher.
You may wonder, “why so much beer for wine lovers.” Singapore is predominantly Muslim and so by levying a hefty import tax on wine the government can pass the expense onto the tourists. The selection of wine is modest and the prices unattractively high. The selection of beer, on the other hand, is excellent.
That night our taxi driver told us that if we wanted to experience authentic Indonesian food that we should go to Clarke Quay on the Singapore River.There we would find a restaurant frequented by the locals called The Indonesian. We went the next day and were not disappointed. Again we started with perfect chicken satay. This was followed by a noodle dish with squid, prawns and vegetables, served in a spicy brown sauce. We also had crab balls, the Indonesian equivalent of crab cakes, served in a crab shell.Once again the draught beer was cold and delicious.
We keep forgetting to photograph our food before we eat it and so mostly we have only empty platters to show you. We will try to do better in future!