Singapore’s market feasts and street treats

Though old school Singaporeans will tell you this pricing of under 60 cents a stick is expensive, I can only marvel at the value. It’s easily some of the best satay I’ve ever had and I love that it’s actually been cooked in the traditional way with the chefs fanning the flames to ensure consistent cooking and flavour absorption from the smoke.

The satay plate comes with sticky rice cakes too, perfect for mopping up every drop of the satay liquid in our bowls. The beef and mutton are tender and flavoursome, but the chicken is the really exciting meat. It is melt in your mouth; smokey and oh so delicious. I could have sat there eating skewers forever.

Inside Lau Pa Sat is a more typical market, which is open 24/7 to the public. There’s a diverse offering of cuisines of Asian descent, but I only had eyes for one place. A little stand in one corner which had at least half the people inside the market lining up in front of it. I was guessing it had to be good based on the popularity!

This stands serves three dishes only – char kway teow, carrot cake and fried oyster. All delicious things in my opinion! But we decide to share a plate of char kway teow between us, and though it’s a bit difficult since the elderly couple that run this place speak no english, eventually we get there and have our food cooked fresh to order.

The kway teow is a smokey as it should be from having an extremely hot pan. The balance of flavours is spot on and I like the mixture of ingredients that all seem to play an important part in the quality of the dish.

Crunchy bean shoots, salty oysters and chewy fish cakes. There’s the flat noodles which are traditionally used in this dish but there’s also some egg noodles which normally I wouldn’t appreciate in my kway teow but they just seem to enhance the overall taste.

Also in Chinatown is a great selection of a dish that I grew up making and eating in my household. Cong you bing is basically a Chinese pancake made up of flaky pastry like ingredients and scallions. It’s cooked on the stove like a pancake and is best eaten when laden with chilli sauce of even a fried egg on top.

The cong you bing in Chinatown is delicious – and oh so cheap. Think S$2 for the two slices we got take away – one plain, one chilli. The chilli one is by far the best. It’s oily, spicy and just incredibly moorish. It’s the perfect snack or if you get a couple, a delicious meal for cheap.

Takashimaya

While Takashimaya on Orchard Road isn’t quite your traditional market,  and is actually a shopping centre, there is down the bottom a gorgeous little food market.

This part of the building is incredibly busy; with people walking around munching away happily and lines forming behind each stand. You can tell what’s good here because the lines (like always in Singapore) demonstrate which place you should eat at.

Since we’d already had lunch on this particular day, Jeremy and I decided to go for something light – something like takoyaki. The line was incredibly long, but when we finally reached the start, we settled on three octopus and three prawn balls. They come served in little containers with sweet sauce and mayonnaise and bento flakes on top. All for a cheap couple dollars.

The batter is light; the filling delicious. The seafood is fresh and tender; the flavours true as you would find in any Japanese restaurant. It’s a definitely delicious afternoon snack!