In my 20 years as a food writer in Singapore, I’ve eaten my way from Pasir Ris in the east to Yishun in the north, and in sweltering hawker centres, posh restaurants, and private home kitchens.
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The options on this food-obsessed island remain inexhaustible, which means nearly all my meals are consumed in the name of work, and I rarely get to eat where I really want to.
When I do have time to choose, I find myself going back to just a handful of places, most of them in my neighborhood in the east, where – as we Easties firmly believe – the food can’t be beat.
These are my comfort spots, where flavour and skilled, honest cooking trump finery and hype.
Neighbourhood haunts
The first place I head to after any trip abroad is Lau Lim Mee Pok at Bedok Road. Mee pok – flat wheat noodles tossed in a tasty chilli sauce – is my soul food, and I particularly love the lard-and-vinegar-laced version here, strewn with sliced and minced pork, fishballs and prawns.
This stall is so popular, it’s not unusual to have to wait more than 45 minutes for your bowl at peak hours. To keep your hunger at bay, order a plate of crisp kaya toast to munch on from the adjoining stall, cleverly run by the same owners.
About 10 minutes away by taxi is Soy Eu Tua Coffee House on the corner of Jalan Tua Kong and Upper East Coast Road.
I’ve been coming here for decades, yet I still find myself stumped for what to order because every stall serves such good food.
Typically, I cave to the prawn mee at Delicious Foods. I usually ask for a “dry” version with thick rice vermicelli tossed in a punchy chilli sambal and topped with a drizzle of lard and crispy fried shallots. A bowl of piping hot broth comes on the side, sweet and briny with the flavour of roasted prawn shells.
Wash it down with a bowl of chendol from Chendol Melaka – sweet red beans and pandan-scented jelly buried under a rubble of shaved ice drenched with (coconut palm sugar) and coconut milk.
Lead photo: Restaurant Fiz. Above photos: Meatsmith, Seroja, One Fattened Calf
When a laksa craving hits, I belly up to Janggut Laksa, a tiny stall in Roxy Square named after the late, sparsely bearded Ng Juat Swee (‘janggut’ means beard in Malay), who once hawked this dish on the streets, balancing buckets of noodles and broth from a wooden pole slung across his shoulders.
Katong has no shortage of famous laksas, but Janggut remains my favourite – its coconut milk-enriched broth is rich and fragrant without being cloying.
A word of warning: the proprietor at Bei-Ing Wanton Noodle, two stalls down from Janggut, has a shrill, piercing voice that will make you jump out of your skin when he calls out order numbers.
But his wanton mee (noodles with pork dumplings and char siu), tossed in a dark soy-based sauce, is worth the momentary fright.
Hua Yu Wee, one of the longest-operating seafood restaurants in Singapore, sits in a sprawling East Coast Road colonial bungalow that’s the last of its kind on this stretch. As a child, I spent a lot of time playing in my cousins’ grandmother’s house next door, inhaling the smoky aroma of salted fish fried rice and soy-glazed prawns, which are still on the menu today.
Generations of East Coast dwellers come to this family-run restaurant, lured by its piquant chilli crab that’s best mopped up with steamed buns; crispy-fried duck, and feng sha ji (flattened roast chicken) served with a potent chilli-garlic dip. Ask for an outdoor table and bring your own booze – corkage is free.
Photos: Lauryn Ishak, Bei-Ing Wanton Noodle, Casa Vostra
And beyond
For good South Indian comfort food, I make a beeline for MTR in Little India, where the dosas are bronzed with ghee and folded around creamy, spiced potatoes. One masala dosa is enough to send me into a carb coma, but that’s never stopped me from ordering a fresh-from-the-fryer uddina vada (lentil doughnut) on the side, served with chutney and sambar.
Of course, I enjoy a fancy meal as much as the next person, and Singapore certainly isn’t short on fine-dining restaurants. What excites me most is how, in recent years, chefs have begun integrating their native cuisines into these elevated experiences.
I’ve returned to Nusantara-inspired restaurants Fiz and Seroja for their thoughtful, modern takes on food from the Malay archipelago.
Their dishes are soulful and refined, shifting the needle on what fine dining in this region can mean.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit to being a junk food junkie. Hand me a plate of shoestring fries and I’ll inhale it even after a 10-course meal. Pizzas, burgers, deep-fried everything… I love them all.
Photos: Seroja, MTR, Restaurant Fiz
While Singapore has seen a boom in buzzy pizzerias over the last two years, my favourite pies are still from Casa Vostra, in Raffles City Shopping Centre. It’s helmed by pizzaiolo Antonio Miscellaneo, who sparked our national obsession back in 2017 when he began serving pizza omakase meals from his home.
His Neopolitan-style crusts are light, crackly, and topped with a beautifully balanced pomodoro sauce. It’s a good thing the queues here are interminably long, because otherwise, I’d be here every chance I get.
As for burgers, it’s a toss-up between One Fattened Calf and Meatsmith whose cheeseburgers deliver just the right balance of char, succulence and grease. Now, who can resist that?
