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food glorious food
Published in the October-December 2010 issue.
From fine-dining restaurants helmed by celebrity chefs to vibrant hawkers’ centres, Singapore is a paradise for gourmands, as Vivienne Tan discovers.
There’s no better place to get a taste for Singapore’s melting-pot culture than at its numerous outdoor food courts. Crowded with locals around the clock, these bustling centres are cheap and unfussy: tables are usually formica, chopsticks are disposable and napkins litter the floor. But don’t be fooled by the rough-and-ready look of these places – hygiene is impeccable thanks to regular health inspections.
The Maxwell Food Centre on the outskirts of Chinatown is home to dozens of tiny stalls selling Singapore favourites such as char kway teow, flat rice noodles fried with seafood fishball noodle soup, claypot chicken rice and more. The 24-hour Newton Food Centre is especially popular for its seafood: try the grilled stingray with hot sambal. Food here is quick, cheap and delicious, though be prepared to sweat: like most hawker centres, Newton is cooled only by lethargic overhead fans.
There are plenty of restaurants at the other end of the spectrum for those partial to starched linen and air conditioning. The current talk of the town is the bevy of new restaurants at Marina Bay Sands, one of the city-state’s two “integrated resorts” (the other being Resorts World Sentosa).
By the end of the year, Marina Bay will host restaurants from six of the world’s most celebrated chefs – three are already open. French chef Guy Savoy’s eponymous Singapore dining room is modelled in his three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris. The space is all crystal and heavy silver, with tables set beside a floor-to-ceiling glass wine cellar stocked with some of the most sought-after vintages in the world. On the menu, expect classic French fare prepared using ingredients such as lobster, caviar, truffles and foie gras.
Next door, Catalan native Santi Santamaria’s first restaurant in Asia, Santi, similarly takes its cues from the chef’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain. The cuisine is modern Catalan with a Mediterranean twist – think octopus with Romanesco sauce and migas, a hearty village dish that Santi transforms using summer truffle and poached quail eggs.
Sydney’s own Tetsuya Wakuda has also ventured out of Australia for the first time ever. His new restaurant, Waku Ghin, wows from the moment you step into the design-driven dining room – well, the main dining room: there are four in total, and guests are moved between spaces to enjoy different courses. Begin with sake and caviar in the ocean-inspired lounge before moving on to mains in an intimate room overseen by a private chef. While the menu features experimental ingredients, most near-impossible to source in Australia, it also lists perennial favourites such as Tetsuya’s famed confit of ocean trout, dusted with konbu and set atop a salad of apple and fennel.
If that’s not enough to excite your tastebuds, come back in a couple of months when Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali and Daniel Boulud are set to open signature restaurants here as well.
It’s not new, but Au Jardin Les Amis is one of Singapore’s most popular restaurants, famed for its location as much as its cuisine. Set in a restored 1920s plantation-style cottage on the grounds of the Botanic Gardens, the eatery has space for just 12 tables. The prix fixe dinner menus, masterminded by chef Galvin Lim, change on a regular basis, but often include standouts such as caramelised scallops drizzled with a brown butter sauce and a memorable ginger brownie. Sister restaurant Fifty Three is much more experimental when it comes to cuisine. Here, chef Michael Han wows diners with molecular fare served up in a shophouse overhauled with a Scandinavian interior.
Despite the slew of awards to his name, restaurateur Ignatius Chan is not resting on his laurels. His intimate restaurant Iggy’s fills European dishes with Asian ingredients: think foie gras mousse with sesame, and sautéed “little neck” clams with tarragon and sago pearls. Chef André Chiang, another of Singapore’s hot chefs, oversees the city-state’s highest restaurant: Jaan par André, 70 floors up in Swissôtel The Stamford. Chiang’s menu focuses on nouvelle French fare, featuring dishes such as popcorn ravioli with pan-roasted giant gambas or a slow-roasted lamb saddle with wild-rice carbonara and liquefied peas.
One of the most talked-about restaurants to open in recent years, Tippling Club is the brainchild of über-creative British chef Ryan Clift, formerly head chef at Melbourne’s acclaimed Vue de Monde. The dining room is unassuming; the real eye-candy here is the cuisine. Whimsical dishes (try the scallop ceviche with dehydrated yogurt, Campari tofu and crisp apple) are paired with equally wonderful cocktails, including the Wie Bitte with Italian vermouth, amaro Montenegro, pineapple citrus and aromatic bitters.
Just down the road, The White Rabbit occupies a renovated church, its dining room at once austere and a little louche. Chef Daniel Sia’s modern menu revamps the best of yesteryear with more than a touch of humour. The working-class macaroni cheese arrives scented with truffle sauce, while the baked Alaska offers an immaculately constructed meringue that cocoons strawberry ice cream and vanilla mousse. •
TRAVEL FACTS
where to eat
• Au Jardin: 65/6466-8812; lesamis.com.sg
• Fifty Three: 65/6334-5535; fiftythree.com.sg
• Guy Savoy: 65-688-8513; marinabaysands.com
• Iggy’s: 65/6732-2234; iggys.com.sg
• Jaan par André: 65/6338-8585; swissotel.com
• Santi: 65/6688-8501; marinabaysands.com
• The White Rabbit: 65/6473-9965; thewhiterabbit.com.sg
• Tippling Club: 65/6475-2217; tipplingclub.com
• Waku Ghin: 65-6688-8507; wakughin.com
Singapore Tourism Board: 1800-736-2000; yoursingapore.com
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