Singapore Food Trail

Any time I can eat in a hawker center is a good thing. I actually ate at the Singapore Food Trail twice last June. The first time was on the day I arrived and the next was with the whole group led by KF Seetoh.

Singapore Food Trail is a 1960s themed food street. Seetoh calls it a sanitized hawker center. Whatever it is it’s a good place to eat authentic Singaporean street food when going to the Singapore Flyer.

I really wanted my first meal in Singapore to be char kway teow but the stall selling that was still closed. So I gave the prawn noodle soup a try.

I also ordered my favorite oyster omelette. Look at all those trays of eggs. It should be good since that’s the only product he’s selling.

We requested the dry noodles thinking it was sautéed noodles. Instead it meant the soup was separate. This was Eros’ noodles which was the traditional egg noodles.

I requested rice noodles for my bowl with just a small amount of chili. The soup stock was really flavorful. It tasted of long simmered shrimp shells and other shellfish. The problem was when I combined the soup and noodles together. The noodles tasted too bland and boring. I also ended up removing all traces of chili because it was way too spicy for me. I didn’t finish my bowl of noodles.

I was very, very happy with my fried oyster omelette. The oysters were fresh and briny while the eggs were soft and cooked just until set. I finished this entire plate all by myself. This was a very good first meal indeed.

My second time in Singapore Food Trail happened on my last day in the country. Talk about coincidences.

I left the choosing of food to Alya and Monique since it was their first time there. Alya chose all fried fish balls in different shapes and textures served with a side of satay sauce. I was surprised how good it was. I specially loved the peanutty and mildly spicy satay sauce.

She was also given a small plate of satay bee hoon for free to sample. Even though there was no meat the rice noodles were very tasty.

I didn’t try Monique’s fish ball noodle soup but she liked it.

This was the stall I wanted to buy char kway teow from on my first day but they were closed.

I just met Mike Aquino, travel writer for About.com, yet I sat beside him just to ask for a taste of his char kway teow. I would have ordered my own but I was still full from breakfast. Anyway, Mike was nice enough to let me try some noodles and it was really, really good. My char kway teow from Thye Hong the night before was nothing in comparison. This one had a richer and more complex flavor and the noodles were more al dente. If Mike wasn’t a new acquaintance I would have asked for seconds.