The Bruner Family Journey: The Tasty Treats Of Singapore

Hungry?

Within 15 minutes after our arrival at the hotel in Singapore, we were deciding what to order at one of the city's famous “hawker centers.” These are the city's ubiquitous frenetic open-air food-courts, some open 24 hours a day, serving a dizzying variety of street foods from all across Asia – Indonesian satays, Malaysian curries, Chinese dumplings, Indian rotis, pan-Asian snacks, and oh so much more. In a spontaneous burst of joy, Jeremy smiled and exclaimed: “Singapore is one of my very favorite places on this trip!”

Singapore's picturesque skyline

A few days into our visit, however, Jeremy expressed a slightly different sentiment: “It's so clean and neat, it's like it's not real. It's like an artificial New York City. There are no dark and dirty alleyways.” Eden had a similar feeling, like being in a giant pan-Asian Disneyland - pretty and fun, but unnaturally sanitized. One shiny shopping mall after another, each one as spotless as the last. Everyone seems to follow the rules – and, as you might expect, there are plenty of rules to follow. The "Little India" neighborhood was so clean and orderly, it really didn't seem like India at all. Where are the honking tuk tuks weaving in and out of traffic, where are the colorful masses of people in the street, where are all the cows? Without the cacophony, it left me with a bit of an empty feeling inside. The nearby Islamic quarter of Kampong Glam is equally calm and tidy, a world apart from the hustle and bustle of the market streets of Cairo and Istanbul.

Restored colonial architecture

But Singapore does have its charms. First and foremost, the food is amazing. The hawker centers are a feast for the eyes, ears, nose and taste buds alike. In just five days here, we ate three different types of Chinese cuisine (Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Taiwanese), Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese (the kids also ate once at Burger King). I could have stayed longer just to eat. Second, Singapore has done a great job of preserving some of its historic architecture. A number of streets are lined with colorful wood-frame old shop-houses that have been beautifully restored. Singapore therefore combines some of the most cutting-edge modern structures in the world with an impressive array of pre-World War II colonial buildings. Third, Singapore has a very interesting ethnic mix – many residents hail from different regions in China, others are of Malaysian and mixed Malay-Chinese descent, there is a substantial Tamil population from southern India, there are plenty of western expats, and an army of migrant workers from Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines keeps the city running smoothly (and keeps it clean as a whistle!). There are mosques, Hindu temples, churches, Buddhist temples, Confucian and Taoist shrines, and we even found a synagogue. And fourth, after months on the road and seven weeks in India and Sri Lanka, immaculate bathrooms and gleaming modern shopping malls showing first-run children's movies in English are not unwelcome sights.

So, we spent our time here eating at hawker centers and restaurants of all stripes, exploring different neighborhoods, riding shopping mall escalators, visiting the zoo, and even hiking in what's left of Singapore's rain forest. It was a very enjoyable way to spend a few days. And as soon as we left, Jeremy asked if there was any other place on our trip that would have the same type of food...