The food in Singapore was definitely one of the highlights. Especially after arriving from New Zealand where things cost the same as they did in US, driving us to cook rice & beans or peanut butter sandwiches for every meal.

In Little India we went to a southern Indian restaurant where you were served a scoop of rice on a banana leaf surrounded by a bunch of little cups of sauce. You pour some sauce on the rice, mix it around with your right hand in an attempt to form little balls, and then pop it in your mouth. Using your left hand is rude and eating rice one-handed was a huge challenge – but very entertaining. The locals sitting behind us were opening cracking up as Jamie took this photo. Thus, the look on my face:

One of my favorite things in all of Singapore were these cute little flower shaped steamed rice cakes filled with coconut. They were made fresh when you ordered them so you got to watch the woman fill the mold with rice flour and coconut and pop them under the steamer. We asked to take a picture of her, but she was too shy and said no.

The was a little bun filled with sweet red bean paste. At first it tasted odd to me because I was expecting it to be more sweet and less bean-y. But then after I got over the initial shock I loved it:

Our guidebook claimed this is one of the most popular desserts in Singapore. It is shaved ice with different fruit syrups, a little coconut milk, and then a sprinkling of sweet red beans on top. Buried in the bottom was an assortment of brightly (and I do mean neon) colored gelatin cubes, circles, and droplets. Each part on its own was tasty, but I’m definitely not used to eating all these things together in one dish:

The dragon fruit is bright pink with green spikes and is about the size of a softball. It is served chilled then cut in half. You scoop out the flesh and edible seeds with a spoon it is almost like eating sorbet out of a real fruit cup! It has a mild but slightly tangy flavor and the crunchy seeds are very tasty.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 17th, 2007 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Singapore, Southeast Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.