Singapore Food Tour

Today, your private gourmet guide will accompany you on convenient public transport to check off several time-honored food brands all at once. Meanwhile, you’ll uncover the stories behind each dish to delve into Singapore’s diverse culinary history.
► All eateries and delicacies listed below are provided for reference only. You can choose whether to try them at your own expense on the spot.

This morning, you may enjoy breakfast at your self-booked hotel, or meet your guide first and head to the nearest Ya Kun Kaya Toast from the hotel for quintessentially Singapore-style breakfast. It’s recommended to order an authentic set meal of Kaya Toast, Soft-boiled Eggs, and Kopi Coffee. Take your first bite of the freshly baked toast and savor the perfect blend of chilled salty butter and sweet Kaya jam. Then, crack open the eggs before seasoning with a touch of soy sauce and white pepper, and dunk the toast into them the way locals do. Pair it all with a cup of Coffee-C (coffee with evaporated milk) or Coffee-O (sugared black coffee without any milk) - their smooth bitterness right counters the toast’s sweetness.

Later, let’s dive into Chinatown, the cultural heart of the local Chinese immigrants. Enter Buddha Tooth Relic Temple; apart from Shakyamuni Buddha’s tooth relic housed on the 4th floor, its open-air garden on the top floor offers you a vantage point to admire the entire district: brightly colored shophouses, solemn temples, and bustling food centers are interspersed harmoniously along the streets. As you turn onto Sago Street, catch a glimpse of traditional Chinese pastries like Mooncakes with Lotus Seed Paste, Wife Cakes, and White Square Rice Cakes, which are still wrapped in traditional pink oil paper as they’ve been for years. After visiting Singapore’s largest, oldest Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple, stop by Maxwell Food Centre, where a mixed aroma of stir-fried rice noodles, pork rib soup, Indian curry pancakes, and coconut rice encased in Pandan leaves will coax your stomach to rumble with great anticipation. ► Lunch is at your discretion. Hawker Chan at Chinatown Complex stands out as a budget-friendly gourmet stop. As the globe’s most affordable Michelin one-star restaurant, it will treat you to delicious soya sauce chicken rice and noodles for just SGD 10 (USD 8) per head. Tender chicken pieces with silky skin, fluffy separated rice soaked in sauce and chicken fat, plus chili sauce and a handful of braised soybeans - the layered flavors of saltiness, sweetness, and mild spiciness will pop on your tongue one after another. Please arrive early if you’re interested, since it gets crowded at midday and you may have to wait for a long time. 

We’ll then continue to Kampong Glam, a Muslim settlement with a seamless fusion of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and European civilizations. Gaze upon the magnificent Sultan Mosque marked by two golden onion-shaped domes, whose black pedestals are inlaid with the bottoms of glass bottles donated by needy worshippers a century ago. Capture your joyful moments before the distinctive graffiti walls on Haji Lane, an Instagram-worthy hotspot, and get lost on Arab Street flanked by rows of stores selling Turkish handmade lamps, Persian carpets, Middle Eastern attire, intricate furniture, and hand-painted tableware. You can also rest your feet at the century-old Zam Zam Restaurant and share a mutton- or chicken-stuffed Murtabak with your fellows, plus a cup of Indian Milk Tea to wash away your lingering fatigue. During the hottest part of the afternoon, your guide will accompany you indoors to the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, two world-famous glasshouses at Gardens by the Bay that reveal the key to Singapore’s reputation as “Garden City” through 3D greening. In the Flower Dome’s crisp, dry climate, be amazed by rare flora from the Mediterranean, South African grasslands, and arid deserts at close range, including a great variety of cacti. Columnar night-blooming cacti may surprise you - they bear dragon fruit, while pitahayas resemble dense clusters of rolling hills. Once you step into the Cloud Forest, you’ll be greeted by both the planet’s tallest indoor artificial waterfall and a 42-meter (138-foot) manmade Cloud Mountain populated by lush orchids, pitcher plants, and ferns. 

Afterward, wrap up our exploration at Merlion Park. Vest-pocket as it is, the park always steals the show among multiple iconic landmarks. Take a glance at the half-lion, half-fish Merlion statue, and you may speculate whether the country’s moniker “Lion City” is associated with it, and the answer is yes. Your well-read guide will walk you through the age-old legend: Singapore was once called “Temasek”, meaning “coastal city”. In the 14th century, a Sumatran prince landed here and mistook an unknown creature for a lion, so he dubbed this land “Singapura” - from Sanskrit, “Singa” for lion and “pura” for city, hence the “Lion City”.  

Eventually, your guide will escort you to your personally booked hotel via public transport, or you may say goodbye to your guide at the Merlion Park before a leisurely self-guided adventure.► Nighttime Recommendations (at your own expense):
1. At Merlion Park during dusk, take in how the setting sun drapes the modern CBD skyline in a warm golden hue. Stick around for 20:00 or 21:00, when a 15-minute Spectra Light & Water Show at Marina Bay Sands across the bay will illuminate the dark sky on schedule. From here, you’ll get a superb front-on view of the water screen spectacle. 
2. Song Fa Bak Kut Teh comes highly recommended for dinner. Its two branches opposite Clarke Quay Central are top picks, for both are within a 15- to 20-minute stroll from the Merlion Park.