One of our favorite places in Singapore is Chinatown. We love the food, the cheap shopping and the lively atmosphere. It's also very accessible from where we live, which is one of the requirements for a place to make it to our favorite list.
We come here when we're craving for the best Chicken Rice, the best Kway Teow, the only Oyster Cake that I eat, the best Egg Tarts and the best Char Siew Pastries in Singapore. Suffice it to say, with all the the food I crave for, we are here quite a lot! This is also one of the places that we recommend our guests to visit.
It's even more lively in Chinatown just before Chinese New Year. There are so many stalls that sell anything and everything connected to celebrating the new year.
It looks like they're welcoming people to walk through the shopping street
Lanterns and Flowers for the home
Lucky Bamboo Plants
Artificial flowers for those who don't have a green thumb
Lucky Charms for the New Year
More lucky charms
Lion Puppets
These are really giant pomelos
There's a lot of Taiwanese Jellies and Mochi that they sell by weight
Fif bought candies from the stall that had Orange Gummis
It reminded me of Orange Swits from my childhood, except it was more posh.
There are always artists who will make something for you while you wait.
name painting and stone carving
This one caught my attention.
The notation on the side completes my name!
Maybe I should go back for it tomorrow. No waiting time. Hahaha.
This was one of my favorite buys.
Ang Pao (red envelopes) where they put money to give for good luck
but this one was in coin purse form
A visit to Chinatown is never complete if you don't eat. Here is our normal Chinatown Walking Lunch or Walking Dinner Tour:
The highlight is normally Maxwell Food Centre
It's across this big temple, so it's very easy to find
On the way there, we passed Chinatown Food Street, home of the best Fried Kway Teow, so we asked the nanny to buy us some tapao (take away) so we could eat it with our dinner in Maxwell.
Chicken and Mushroom Kway Teow is the best.
The most popular stall at Maxwell Food Centre is Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken, made famous by Anthony Bourdain, when he featured it in his show No Reservations.
The line at Tian Tian is normally so long at lunch time, it snakes to the side, all the way to the back, near the parking lot. If you're going on a weekend, it's normally best to arrive around 2pm so the line is manageable and it's easier to grab a table. If you're going for dinner, it's best to arrive early (around 6pm) or call them to check if they're still open, because they close once all the chicken has been sold.
This is what Tian Tian looks like now.
They have expanded to double the size, with one side for paying and the other side for collecting orders.
They have a prominent sign where they quote Anthony.
It even comes with Chinese translation.
Half Chicken Order
It goes really well with this:
They sugarcane and lime juice is really refreshing
You can order it from this stall directly across Tian Tian
Part of the menu is to get Oyster Cake from here:
I normally do not eat Oyster Cake
They also have Anthony Bourdain bragging rights.
This is the only oyster cake that I eat.
We normally just buy some veggies from a random stall to complement our meal.
Vegetables with Oyster Sauce
Our other favorite stall at Maxwell is the Fry-Your-Own dough fritters stand.
Choice of Salty or Sweet (go for Sweet!)
It's really good value, but then you do all the work!
After stuffing ourselves, we normally decide to walk around for a bit. On our way back to the shopping streets, we normally stop here to buy some snacks for later or for breakfast the next day.
Tong Heng Confectionary
I love it, di sya bake shop or bakery, It's a confectionary. In fairness, they really do make the best Chinese pastries.
Yummy egg tarts, especially when served warm, with crust that crumbles in your mouth
The best Char Siew (BBQ Pork) Pastries in Singapore
After we work up an appetite by looking at the different stalls with souvenirs that look the same, which is hard work in humid weather, we normally take a break at the Traditional Desserts place to cool down.
Mango and Strawberry flavored snow ice
Then we start walking to Chinatown Station, where Sofia likes playing on the garden bridge, before we head home.
2012 is the year of the fire dragon
this is the one on the garden bridge
This is the dragon on Eu Tong Sen Street and North Bridge Road welcoming people to Chinatown
We immediately decorated for the New Year when we got home.
We wanted to welcome good luck, prosperity and energy in the coming year.
Just Kidding. It's really just like this.
Can you spot the difference?
If you answered this, you're right!
Instead of bargaining, I discovered it was easier to ask for gifts.
These are some things some of the nice vendors we bought from gave us.
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