Chinese Baijiu Association (Singapore) - Where To Eat Casual Dining 1

There is an old saying - if you have not visited Lau Pa Sat then you have not been to Singapore. Pa Sat means "market” in Malay while Lau means “old” in Chinese and collectively Lau Pa Sat would mean “Old Market”. Located in the central business district in Singapore, this famous food centre has the remaining of a Victorian filigree cast-iron structure which established in 1894. There are more than hundred food stalls in Lau Pa Sat and it does pose a good problem for visitors and food lovers.

Lau Pa Sat is also known as Telok Ayer Market. Telok Ayer means “bay water” in Malay. It was first opened in 1825 where it was extended over the sea so that it enabled the merchants to load and unload their produce directly onto the boats. As it was a simple timber and wooden structure resting on timber piles, it was not sturdy enough to face the natural elements and the market was reconstructed in 1836. This new market was also demolished for land reclamation purpose but was revived again in 1894, with a design by municipal engineer James MacRitchie. Famed for its octagonal building structure, Lau Pa Sat was subsequently converted into a famous gourmet paradise and by 1973 it was gazetted as a national monument.

Lau Pa Sat is most famous for its wide selection of local food and delicacies, where visitors can find almost everything and anything under one roof. The fact that it is open 24 hours daily makes it even more of a draw.

There are over hundreds of food stalls across a large variety of food types located at Lau Pa Sat. There are the authentic Thai, Malay Nonya, India cake and curry, Taiwan braised pork and tofu, Japan and Korean cuisine, Chinese and Hong Kong cuisine. It was estimated that a careful stroll to observe the various food vendors would take about one and half hours. Lau Pa Sat is truly a gourmet paradise without borders.

There is a famous night market called Shiling in Taiwan. Then Lau Pa Sat is the night market for Singapore. An interesting feature of Lau Pa Sat is the road situated on the west side is closed to traffic after 7pm and the hawker stalls sprang to life and make the night market come to life. Satay – meat on bamboo stick skewers grilled over burning charcoal - is a Malay traditional-style snacks which is regarded as one of Singapore's top ten foods. There are many types of satay such as chicken, mutton, beef, duck and even prawns.

Generally it is thick rice noodle soup, added with bean sprouts, shrimp, fish cakes and sometimes cockles. The taste may be overbearing for some due to its rich layering; chilli stimulus, coconut milk and mellow curry.

Old Hokkien Mee is baked with vegetable soup and a variety of ingredients resulting in a very refreshing soup. It is sometimes called the perfect match for the soft noodles with fresh seafood popping teeth. Compared with the Malaysian-style Hokkien Mee with soup, the local dish has a sprinkle of little lime and pepper which makes the taste even richer and fresh.

The Marinated Meat of Lau Pa Sat is very delicious and tasty. Highly recommended is the brine large intestine which is very silky and resilient!

Compare with the other cities, the marinated meat of Singapore is tastier; even the egg yolk is also brine-soaked.

Bak-Kut-Teh is cooked with a variety of spices, garlic and pork ribs. However its biggest feature is the unpeeled garlic; it is really good to eat.（■Singapore360°）

Twelve Cupcakes

Girls always have another stomach for desserts. Not one but twelve? Twelve Cupcakes will easily satisfy the cupcake fans.

Twelve Cupcakes was founded by local celebrities Daniel Ong and Jamie Teo. The menu was inspired by the flavours that she likes to bake and the flavours that he likes to eat. Encouraged by their friends and fans, they decided to set up shops. Now they have four branches on this island and each one is uniquely attractive in its own way. It has been six months since the shop at B1 Bugis was launched and the queue waiting for their cupcakes is the first thing that will catches your eyes. Behind the glass counter, there are twelve flavours for you to choose from – chocolate, strawberry, coffee, vanilla, cookies... and there is even a special flavour of the day. The colourful display of cupcakes is delightful and it’s easy for girls to pack them on the go. And the warm hospitality from the staff, always ready with their mesmerizing smile, is outstanding. （■Singapore360°）

Lavendar Food Square

Lavender Food Square is a favourite haunt among Singaporeans because of its accessible location and wonderful range of hawker stalls. Lavender Food Square is comparatively near to the city and hence it has also become a supper paradise for the late night foodies. Mention Lavender Food Square and almost everyone will talk about Kok Kee Wanton Mee stall. The queue seems to be always continuous and endless but its die-hard fans will vouch that the delicious mouth-watering wanton noodles is worth the wait. There are many more good food to be found here and for this edition let’s dig out some of these drooling options.

The fish ball noodles from this stall are tangy and smooth in texture. It's like those scenes you see in cartoons where they can slurp the entire noodle into their mouth in 1 breath. Although the soup looks plain and light but it can tell you what is simply delicious. The stall owners are not stingy with their ingredients to let you enjoy more. The fish balls can be ordered alone or with noodles; and the noodles can be dry or in soup. Then there are many choices of noodles; some are best when dry while others are best in soup. The type of noodles are; bee hoon (rice vermicelli), mee (yellow wheat noodles), mee kia (yellow wheat vermicelli noodles), kway teow (flat rice noodles) or mee pok (flat yellow wheat noodles).

The fish ball has the right balance of bounce and it has a taste that you don't get from other fish ball stalls. Making fish ball is not easy, you won't be able to produce that bouncy texture by just mincing it in a food processor. In order to get the protein strands to unravel and align to produce that bounce, the paste has to be beaten. Having said that, one can understand why simple delicious food does not come easily.

Well, there is a very simple answer to that. When our Hokkien forefathers brought this dish over from Fujian Province, there were only 5 different types of fritters that the dish was comprised of. These are the Prawn Fritters, Pork Rolls (Ngoh Hiang), Pork Liver Rolls, Egg Rolls and the Pork Sausage and hence the given name. But as time went by, we added other stuff that could be deep fried and served with the same dipping sauce; such as the tofu, fish balls, sotong balls and rolls of many different flavours. Most shops have decided to outsource the items instead of making it themselves and of all the hawker dishes in Singapore, this particular dish suffers most from hawkers being more like traders rather than cooks.

The owner honesty told us that they ordered their items from Ngor Hiang suppliers. Actually the Ngo Hiang from this Lavender Food Square stall is not bad. The pieces were freshly deep fried to make every piece of Ngoh Hiang extremely crispy and still maintain the taste of original ingredients. Like their spring roll, after deep fried the spring roll still retains the fragrance of cabbage.

The timing control of the cooking fire is essential to produce good Ngo Hiang. The owner of this stall must have this kind of know how. Another selling point of this stall is the special bright pink colour homemade sweet sauce, the owner has also generously disclosed the recipe; the sauce is made from eggs, sugar, artificial pink colouring and pandan flavour. It is a must try dish when you are at Lavender Food Square.

The owner of this stall used a wide shallow brim wok to fry the kway teow noodles so that he can spread the kway teow noodles over a wide area enabling the noodles to be evenly heated. The Char Kway Teow is very fragrant and cooked with the right amount of heat. It is mixed with fish cakes, bean sprouts, vegetables and some cockles. Most importantly, the cockles do not have the pungent fishy smell. To put the finishing touch to the fragrant dish, a magical coat combining sweet sauce and lard are added giving the Char Kway Teow its distinct flavour.

The Char Kway Teow here is indeed very good; a meal worth adding on a few calories for.

|||||Fried Carrot Cake

This Fried Carrot Cake may not be visually appealing. The stall owner may think that there is nothing special to his Fried Carrot Cake apart from his frying techniques. To make sure that the carrot cake is not too heavy; he prepares fresh lard every day and mixes it with vegetable oil. This carrot cake is expertly fried; crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. It is served with the appropriate amount of fish sauce and the chye poh(salted radish). It is a great protein-carbohydrate combination that will definitely stimulate your taste buds! And this stall usually closes around midnight and it is a good choice for quick supper.（■Singapore360°）

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East Coast Lagoon Food Village

The East Coast Lagoon Food Village is located on the eastern half of Singapore accessible by the East Coast Parkway or ECP. It was established along the Marine Parade beach, overlooking the Singapore Sea and on a clear sunny day, you can even see the coastline of Indonesia island - Sumatra. If you are searching for a causal eating area where you can be casually dressed in your beach wear and then to chill out with tasty satay and cold sweet sugarcane juice under the coconut trees, then the East Coast Lagoon Food Village is your destination.

Satay stalls are plenty and it is an interesting sight for the shutterbugs to see long stretch of satay stalls vying for your attention. The odour of tasty barbequed meat-on-sticks fill the air. These meat can be chicken, mutton, beef, duck and even tiger prawns. By large pork is not available as most of these stalls are operated by Muslims. However you may find a couple of satay stalls manned by Chinese and the pork satay is equally tasty.

A meal of satay comes with the meat-on-sticks, slices of cucumber, onion and the ketuput - a malay term for steamed meshed rice-cakes wrapped in leaves. And you will also have the satay gravy, made from their homemade recipe of peanut sauce, for you to dip the satay and once the barbequed tenderized meat enters your mouth, its celebration time !

Your friends can recommend you a satay stall, but it will be a lot more exciting to check out yourself. You will be surprised that the stall next door is as good as the one you are patronising.

This is an evergreen popular dish which many of our great grandparents had eaten many years ago. It is called the satay bee hoon. The dish comprises of cooked bee hoon (rice noodles) spread with condiments such as cooked prawns, squids, fried beancurds, bean sprouts and cockles. It is then covered with a thick layer of satay sauce and it is ready to be served. Simple but a tasty charming dish.

At the Ming Kee Satay Bee Hoon stall, the owner has a secret recipe of peanut sauce which he used on his plate of bee hoon (rice noodles). It is cheap and yet super delicious.（■Singapore360°）

Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice * Porridge

The Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice*Porridge has outlets in areas such as along the East Coast, along River Valley and at Upper Bukit Timah.
Using kampong chicken, reputed to be leaner and has less fats than the ordinary chicken, the Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice*Porridge has provided reliable and consistent service to its large customer base for many years. The chicken rice is equally tasty and it can be eaten on its own. The rice served is not oily because during the cooking process, the chicken broth is used instead of the chicken fat. The homemade chilli sauce and ginger are also excellent companions to this fragrant dish. Besides chicken meat and chicken rice, there are other available dishes such as their famous Hainanese pork chops and their homemade beancurd (tofu).（■Singapore360°）

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About us：

Taste Singapore at Lau Pa Sat

Twelve Cupcakes

Lavendar Food Square

East Coast Lagoon Food Village

Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice * Porridge