Tian Tian is famous for its Hainanese chicken rice. (Lawrence Ferber)
The Singapore Sling was born at Raffles. (Raffles Singapore)
I pop a grape-sized, smoked quail egg into my mouth. It bursts like a cherry tomato, the sea salt-dusted white flesh unleashing a luxurious, smoky liquid yolk. Heaven!
I’m having dinner at Burnt Ends (20 Tek Lim Rd., burntends.com.sg), where everything is smoked, cooked or singed by apple- and almond wood-fed ovens and open grills. Australian chef David Pynt’s Sanger, containing juicy pulled pork shoulder, chipotle aioli, jalapeño and coleslaw on a soft brioche roll, bests any barbecue sandwich I’ve sampled in the American South or Brooklyn’s own Smorgasburg.
I’m far from Williamsburg or Dumbo, though. This is Singapore’s Chinatown, where eclectic, upscale restaurants, bars, boutique hotels and artisanal coffee shops currently rule the district (which also features a clutch of gay bars). This scene is also far, figuratively, from the Singapore many Anthony Bourdain followers know solely as a street-food haven.
Indeed, hawker centers, semi-enclosed food courts where tiny stalls dish up dirt-cheap, delectable specialties, pepper the city-state. In June, Bourdain appeared at Singapore’s first annual World Street Food Congress, advocating for international hawker culture and ranting for laksa, a spicy noodle soup, the way a meth head would for a fix. “I need laksa . . . I need it badly . . . I need it now.”
The annual, indispensable Makansutra (makansutra.com) guide and iPhone app list and review hawker delights, including messy chili crab, sweet kaya toast and ubiquitous Hainanese chicken rice: slices of delicate, steamed meat, a scoop of ginger and broth-infused rice. Maxwell Road Hawker Centre’s Tian Tian (tiantianchickenrice.com) is among the most famous spots for the latter, but I prefer dedicated (and air-conditioned) restaurant Boon Tong Kee Little Gourmet (425 River Valley Rd., boontongkee.com.sg).
Eating is Singaporeans’ top leisure-time activity — about two new restaurants opened daily in 2012 — and every local seems to maintain a food blog, just like Los Angelenos have all written a screenplay. I Eat I Shoot I Post (ieatishootipost.sg) and Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow (rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com) are two worth checking, while The Dining Table (thediningtable.sg) keeps tabs on new venues and trends, and HungryGoWhere (hungrygowhere.com) is Singapore’s Yelp.
Although hawker fare represents the great equalizer for Singapore’s 5.2 million denizens — a melting pot of Chinese, Indians, Thais, Filipinos, Malays and expats from all over the globe — well-off locals (some 157,000 millionaires and at least 3,100 multimillionaires amongst them) and tourists hunger for elevated international dining.
The recently renovated Rang Mahal (Pan Pacific Hotel, 7 Raffles Blvd., rangmahal.com.sg) serves high-end, innovative North Indian cuisine, including tandoori lobster fired over smoked cinnamon and truffle oil naan, in chic surroundings. Literally elevated, Sky on 57, atop the iconic Marina Bay Sands (http://www.marinabaysands.com) casino resort — with a guests-only infinity pool overlooking the cityscape — presents local celebrity chef Justin Quek’s French-Asian fusion, like foie gras soup dumplings and gourmet takes on hawker staples. Equally high-profile, Willin Low, a lawyer turned chef, twists native flavors and ingredients at the must-try Wild Rocket (10A Upper Wilkie Rd., wildrocket.com.sg). His signature laksa pesto is made with bird’s eye chili, basil and candlenut.
Candlenuts figure into the distinctive traditional cuisine of Singapore’s Peranakan populace, which you’ll find at the swank Candlenut Kitchen (Dorsett Residences, 331 New Bridge Rd., #01-03, candlenut.com.sg) and neo-rustic Immigrants Gastrobar (467 Joo Chiat Rd., immigrants-gastrobar.com). Both serve dishes made with buah keluak, a nut that’s toxic when raw but deep in flavor when prepared — a laborious, days-long process. You won’t find this in Brooklyn. Yet.
Chef Bjorn Shen’s Artichoke (161 Middle Rd., artichoke.com.sg) — an organic-minded, Middle East-meets-Asia spot ) — would certainly be a huge hit in Greenpoint. Thin, crunchy black fungus, which I find repulsive in Chinese preparations, takes on a delectable new identity in Shen’s marinated mezze.
Located in the tony Dempsey Hill district, Tippling Club (tipplingclub.com) is downright avant-garde. Chef/owner Ryan Clift’s “modern gastronomy” is cutting edge in both form and flavor (Clift is also a TV celeb and producer, with Food Network Asia’s “Mobile Chef” series to his credit). The tasting menu I tried included a crisp, white truffle-infused cracker, kingfish with yuzu sorbet and black radish, a glass prescription bottle containing cheesecake tablets, plus award-winning bartender Zachary de Git’s bespoke cocktails.
Singapore cocktails, incidentally, can be crazy expensive — nobody bats an eye at $25 drinks — but spots like Jigger & Pony (101 Amoy Street, jiggerandpony.com) and The Cufflink Club (6 Jiak Chuan Road, thecufflinkclub.com) offer world-class concoctions. Opened in October 2011, speakeasy 28 HongKong Street boasts an herb garden on its roof and potted Venus flytraps on the bar. Drinks include Prohibition-era “Old Familiar Friends” (e.g. the gin-based Monkey Gland) and “New Kids on the Block” created by Northern California mixologist-turned-expat, Michael Callahan. Callahan’s bestselling Whore’s Bath, with Manuka honey vodka, plum wine, Mathilde pear liqueur and a sprig of baby’s breath, is dazzling.
Requiring a password to enter — get it from next door’s Keong Saik Snacks — Chinatown’s The Library (47 Keong Saik Rd.) is hidden behind a mirrored bookshelf in what appears to be a design boutique. Canadian bartender Stefan Ravalli’s craft libations evince a playful novelty typically missing from oh-so-serious speakeasies. The Rub-a-Dub-Dub — gin, green tea, honey, vermouth, apple juice — is served in a miniature bathtub, while the Grand Theft Nacho incorporates nacho chip-infused tequila. It actually works.
The Singapore Sling, now 125 years young, still reigns at its birthplace, Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar , which evokes 1920s Malaysian plantations with antique overhead fans and a peanut shell-covered floor. Adjacent restaurant Halia offers a Hendrick’s Gin-based Sling and mess-free chili crab spaghettini. I spend a couple of nights at Raffles (from $450, raffles.com/singapore), soaking in its colonial-era luxury, relaxing by its outdoor pool and green Palm Court, and taking in an aromatherapy massage at its spa. Raffles’ location is superb, too, just across the street from a shopping center and subway stop.
Fellow five-star hotel Shangri-La (from $272, shangri-la.com) is a stone’s throw from shopping center-lined Orchard Road. Having undergone a $54 million renovation in 2011-2012, Shangri-La’s Garden Wing offers a lush resort feel, while the Valley Wing is downright stately (Obama stayed here). Have your buffet breakfast or lunch at The Line, a 16-station Adam Tihany-designed labyrinth of international fare popular with both locals and tourists.
To close out my visit, I head back to Chinatown’s Amoy Street Food Centre for a parting taste of hawker fare, but this time from a “new generation” stall, A Noodle Story (anoodlestory.com). Many young Singaporeans are, sadly, allowing their parents’ beloved stalls to shutter forever when they retire — “Their children don’t see that culture as desirable,” notes Makansutra founder KF Seetoh — but food lovers can take some comfort in the knowledge that new generations of self-motivated chefs like A Noodle Story’s Gwern Khoo and Ben Tham (32 and 31, respectively) are finding hawker stalls an ideal and inexpensive start-up venue. I tuck into their Singapore-style ramen, a soupy symphony of springy noodles, pork belly, wontons and crispy potato-wrapped shrimp. If he isn’t already, I imagine Bourdain itching for a bowl of this soon enough.