If red-hot fusions of Asia’s favourite flavours tickle your fancy, then look no further than a trip to Singapore.
Text by Cynthia Rosenfeld
Flights criss-cross the skies day and night between Hong Kong and Singapore
and given it is only a three-hour journey, you can make the trip south for lunch.
Both cities have long and storied culinary histories but Singapore, located at the core of Southeast Asia, is a gastronomic melting pot, giving it the edge.
Generations of traders have brought authentic Middle Eastern fare to Arab Street, flavours of the subcontinent to Little India’s dining palaces, and a rich abundance of ethnic Chinese cuisine, mainly from the Middle Kingdom’s southern provinces. Europeans have also made their mark, notably through the influx of fine French restaurants that have sprouted up around the island in recent years.
No doubt more culinary influences will arrive in the future, for Singapore is most definitely a city on the move. Everywhere you look you see progress, from the shiny new shopping malls along Orchard Road, the city’s main shopping drag, to the glitzy casinos and hotels opening on Marina Bay Sands. And before we concentrate on food, any visitor with children must cross the dramatic bridge to Sentosa Island to explore Asia’s first Universal Studios and the family-friendly hotels of Resort World.
If you’re planning a romantic gourmet getaway, however, the Capella Singapore on Sentosa Island will make the sexiest impression. For a start, it looks fantastic – Sir Norman Foster has added a contemporary architectural touch to the 1880s British military halls and the 30 acres are dappled with 112 guestrooms, villas and manor houses perched above the South China Sea.
Descend the sleek marble staircase to dine at Cassia, the hotel’s contemporary Cantonese restaurant designed by Hong Kong’s wunderkind Andre Fu, who has filled the sunny dining room with hand-painted butterflies, dramatic arching lanterns and soaring lattice work screens. Regulars swear by the wasabi prawns, roasted duck with green mango salad and the unusual sounding signature dish – Chilean sea bass with minced garlic and mozzarella cheese in bonito sauce.
After this splendid introduction we grabbed a cab to head to the Grand Hyatt in Singapore’s central business district. The hotel’s Straits Kitchen offers a neat alternative to the plethora of street food stalls, which may lack the sophistication to entice the less brave tourist. Here they serve up risk-free popiah, an elongated summer roll filled with braised turnip, prawns, boiled eggs and peanuts, and ayam santan, Malay chicken curry with fresh coconut milk.
Hungry for more dim sum, we made our way to Chinatown. Ajai Zecha, son of Amanresorts founder Adrian Zecha, is the man with the biggest culinary reputation here. He has lured chefs from China’s Guangdong province to stuff the juicy dumplings at his superb restaurant, Dim Joy. Architects, designers and other local trend setters come here to appreciate the chic minimalist ambience, but we concentrated on gobbling up honey syrup char siew bao, Lingnan egg tarts and crispy pumpkin balls.
Next stop was another historic Singapore neighbourhood, Rochester Park, known for its “black and whites”, ageing colonial houses with two-tone facades. Visionaries such as Yenn Wong, the designer brain behind Hong Kong’s JIA Hotel, have opened restaurants like Graze in this atmospheric location. We settled in under the stars to suck down ginger wine oyster shooters with wasabi and cucumber oil. Our well-informed waiter recommended we start with the blue swimmer crab linguine with garlic then move on to the soy-lacquered Wagyu ox cheek with coconut rice, green papaya and pomelo salad. He later tempted us into moist green apple and rhubarb crumble for dessert.
At FiftyThree, former lawyer Michael Han brings the playful principles of molecular cooking to a nine-course, ever-changing scientific extravaganza. We began with Maine lobster claw served in melted butter foam with elderflower pearls. Later on we feasted on a pink and chewy pork loin cut, which was served with cauliflower and malt chips. Han, who cites Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck fame as his mentor, kept his biggest surprise to last: gin & tonic wine gum.
Former banker Mag Tang is another to have found the lure of the kitchen irresistible. She began her culinary career at the stove of Mag’s Wine Kitchen when the chef she hired failed to show up. Nine years later, she has been lauded for her work importing fine food from France’s Champagne region. We gathered around the raised wood block table that extends out from her microscopic kitchen to dine on a salad duck breast smoked with coffee bean tea leaves before dipping homemade bread into smooth foie gras terrine made with port and Armagnac.
Before we visited Chef Armin Leitgeb at Les Amis, one of Asia’s most celebrated dining spots, we asked the sommelier to e-mail his recommendations the best Burgundies and Bordeaux to accompany our dinner. It proved a good decision as we had the finest accompaniment to our meal that began with a luscious langoustine salad and foie gras terrine with crispy apple bread and pear-verjus chutney and continued with roasted black Angus entrecote served with cocoa bean ragout and truffled French fries. Globe-trotting gourmands will appreciate the details here, from Italian linen napkins to the aromatic cedar steak knives and original chandeliers from Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.
Our final stop was Iggy’s, a regular at the top of Asia’s best restaurant lists. We felt like lottery winners after securing bookings among the 13 counter seats – Singapore’s most coveted reservation. Gourmands on a budget grab the prix fixe lunch here, which features food fusing European dishes with Japanese ingredients like the signature Wagyu burger and sakura ebi cappelini. Later we tasted Iggy’s foie gras mousse with sesame and charcoal- grilled Wagyu strip loin with seito tomatoes, garlic confit and truffle mousseline potato followed by a fig tiramisu with homemade rocky road ice cream. There couldn’t have been a finer final culinary sensation to pack away with the rest of our marvellous memories of Singapore’s superb gastronomy.
Dim Joy
80 Neil Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6220 6986
Guangdong chefs lovingly fold rice flour dough into dumplings by the street facing window at this bijou eatery in the heart of Chinatown, a modern minimalist eatery serving up bamboo baskets filled with steamed, baked and fried Chinese fare.
Graze
4 Rochester Park Singapore
Tel: +65 6775 9000
Inside a black and white colonial bungalow, this inventive eatery serves up a global menu of palate pleasers like Thai green papaya pomelo salad and crispy pork hock with plum salsa plus a sinfully sweet black and white chocolate pudding plate better experienced than merely described.
Iggy’s
The Regent Singapore Level 3, 1 Cuscaden Road, Singapore
Tel: +65 6732 2234
Local boy Ignatius Chan turned his unpretentious eatery into one of Singapore’s top tables by delivering consistently innovative and excellent fusion fare with an emphasis on exquisite ingredients like Wagyu beef and French white truffles. A who’s who of the Singapore scene can be found every day around this restaurant’s intimate counter.
LES AMIS
#02-16 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road, Singapore
Tel: +65 6733 2225
Singapore’s most award-winning restaurant deserves those accolades as much for the fine European cuisine as its stunning dining room with imported European linens, glassware and antique accents throughout.
Mag’s Wine Kitchen
86 Circular Road, Singapore
Tel: +65 6438 3836
www.magswinekitchen.com
Banker turned knighted oenophile and gourmet chef Mag Tang turns most diners here into personal friends with her smooth foie gras and aromatic meats plus seriously addictive desserts and a world-class wine selection crammed into this closet-size eatery.
Straits Kitchen
Grand Hyatt Singapore 10 Scotts Road, Singapore
Tel: +65 6738 1234
At this vibrant dining venue, an ultra cool alternative to the standard Singapore food court designed by Japan’s Super Potato, everyone can enjoy the island nation’s extremely rich edible heritage while avoiding the island’s notorious swelter.
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