Singapore Food Tour
DAY ONE
Hi From Singapore
It was dark and cold when setting off on our Oriental Cuisine Tour – The only forward thinking person was Caleb – who brought hot coffee!
However, it was not long until we were in Tullamarine having gone through queues and more queues. Finally we got through tickets, security, customs and passports when we then had some breakfast!
The flight was good with everyone on the in-flight entertainment or sleeping with lots of choice of food, lunch, fresh fruit, ice-creams and cheese and biscuits, and Dim Sum – Yum.
Landing in Singapore it was hot – even in the airport.
We met Jasmine who will be our tour guide for the week taking us to our cooking classes.
We arrived at our hotel and then all met to walk and find somewhere to eat.
Nathan was so excited with the smells of all the outside eating places, the atmosphere as it was so busy and so much to choose from.
He was getting so many good ideas to try on everyone back at school.
It was a long day – but we are all so excited as to what the rest of the week will be like.
DAY TWO
This morning everyone attended breakfast in our hotel. Jasmine our lovely tour guide arrived to meet us at nine o’clock, the first place we visited was one of the incredible temple called Lian Shan Shuang Lin in the photos, everyone was really respectful and the experience broadened everyone’s perspective and thoughts about it all. We then had a tour around the city and had lunch at a hawker market, typical Singapore eating, with lots to choose from. Second destination was the Marina Bay Sands high end shopping centre, which was very eye opening as we don’t have that back at home. Third stop was the bum boat ride around Clarke Quay and Boat Quay and the old district of Singapore where the cargo boats used to arrive. This was quite peaceful and nice to take in the scenery. But then we were entertained by the Singapore Air Force formation flying in very loud jets, they flew over us lots of times. Last but not least we all went back to the hotel and got ready to go out for dinner! This was at Din tai Fung Dumpling shop we had 11 different types of dumplings and four types of different ‘green’ Spinach, bok choy, be-ling and other healthy looking food.
Looking forward to cooking classes tomorrow.
Kyren & Imogen
DAY THREE
It was a very very very hot and non stop day. It all started in the morning where we learnt how to cook and create Roti Prata. The majority of us failed on this mission to be Prata chefs. We were given pink dough to practice with so it did not get mixed up with the real stuff. We learnt to pour the traditional tea, which was very sweet. We had an amazing Asian lunch, sampling everything from the buffet. After this was a cultural tour to the Singapore Museum. This gave the history of how Singapore evolved over the years, its involvement with the British, the Malay and the Chinese and a section on the future and its nature. Next we were given some shopping time in Orchard Road. To a ‘Food Lovers Fiesta’ which was lots of sweet food and savoury nuts and seaweed. There was lots to sample including Durian Fruit which everyone found disgusting to eat, definitely an acquired taste and smell. Finally dinner time at Newton Circus Hawker Village where we all looked around at the different stalls and all chose a different type of Asian dinner. Nathan choosing Chilli Crab which he took lots of photos before enjoying his eating. This was very hectic and crazy busy whilst also being yum. Took the MTR home on the train with no driver. It was good to finally relax.
Aaron and Tavish
DAY FOUR
Today we started the day with our tour guide Jasmine at 9 am.
Here we went to China Town and had a heritage cooking class, we made chicken curry and a dessert. It was great to learn some of the techniques used in Chinese cooking. After this we went and looked at the China Town market then we headed back to our motel for a rest before walking to the spice garden. It was great to see where the herbs and spices we use in our cooking come from before they are on the store shelves. After the spice garden we went back to China Town to look around at some of the other stalls at the market, then we had Chinese for dinner in the markets. After dinner we walked down Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre to watch the light show.
Georgia
DAY FIVE
Today We went to an old Peranakan house in the East Coast, in the old Chinese District of Joo Chiat. In the Heritage centre we saw the women’s clothes and how they developed throughout the generations. We learnt about the wedding ceremony and how the man decides if he wants to marry the woman or not. Then we tried some Chinese desserts.
Then we went to an Indian Muslim Bakery and tried some curry puffs that were made with oil instead of butter. Then we went to a seafood shop where they actually keep the fish alive in little tanks. After that we went to Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah for our cooking class where we made traditional spring rolls. Following our class we went to a market and then we went to Vivo city for lunch. We caught an MRT back to our hotel to get cleaned up and we then went to an Indian restaurant where we had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor.
