To say my Dad has travelled extensively over his lifetime would be a bit of an understatement! He is fortunate enough to have visited some really exotic locations in the course of his work and a love of food and sampling the local cuisine certainly runs in the family! My Dad’s latest post is all about a recent trip to the Far East…
Typical ‘Hawker’ stalls
Singapore is an expensive place to eat out but you would expect that to be the case in one of the world’s centres of finance and trade. I first visited Singapore over 40 years ago and it has changed markedly: the streets are now safe and clean and the roadside food stalls all but disappeared. In recent years the Government has concentrated the old-fashioned food stalls into smart ‘Hawker Centres’ (a Hawker is a street vendor) housing a number of small stalls around a central eating area.
May and a very fresh crab
On a recent business trip I ate in several different ones but my favourite by a mile was the one at Newton Circus. This always seemed very busy and was full of many locals as well as tourists. We ate at May’s Stall (No 61) several times and were never disappointed. The food was very fresh: indeed much of the seafood was displayed live and could be selected there and then for immediate cooking. I never really found out what May’s specialities were but we chose the stuffed prawns followed by Chilli Crab, a Singapore speciality. All this washed down with local beer. The prawns were huge and extremely tasty and the meaty Chilli Crab certainly didn’t disappoint. But beware it was really quite chilli ish and very, very messy. Even so it something you just have to try when in Singapore.
Stuffed prawms
Singapore is a great tourist destination but a great place to eat too, the restaurants vary from expensive and world-class down to pretty indifferent but for value and local colour do try one of the Hawker Centres.
Chilli Crab
