Restaurant: Nanyang Old Coffee
Cuisine: Breakfast/Lunch/Coffee/Cafe
Last visited: April 26, 2010
Location: A few locations
Address:
Chinatown, Singapore
268 South Bridge Road (End of Smith)
Price Range: $0.90 – $3 SGD – about $0.50 – $2 CAD

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 6
Service: 5
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 5.5
Additional comments:

• Established in September 2007
• Specializes in authentic Singaporean coffee
• Best kopi/Singaporean coffee
• Great for quick traditional Singaporean breakfast
• Great for coffee break/snack
• Husband and wife operation
• Very casual
• Made upon order
• Free admission for mini coffee museum in backroom
• Very popular for locals and tourists
• Budget-friendly/cheap eats
• Local Singaporean snacks available
• Starting to franchise
• Winner of 2009 “Promising Franchisor Award”

**Recommendations: Singaporean coffee aka “Kopi”, Kaya Butter Toast, Half Boiled Egg

I am so glad that I stumbled upon this cafe while walking aimlessly around Chinatown in Singapore. If you travel to Singapore this is not to be missed! This is the best Singaporean coffee I’ve ever had. It is authentic and traditional Singaporean coffee made upon order and it’s truly amazing.

The owner is known as the “Kopi Master”  – this is the art of ‘pulling’ the coffee which takes several years to learn and perfect. I’m not sure what the purpose is but he pours the kopi at an elevated level repeatedly from one long spouted pot to another.

Nanyang Old Coffee is a husband and wife operation and they are truly dedicated to the art of real Singaporean coffee. They even have a free admission mini coffee museum at the back of their store. It’s super cute, basically just a back room, and they have locals and tourists coming in just to try their famous Singaporean coffee. No joke, I would even consider franchising it in Vancouver.

If you’re looking for a traditional Singaporean breakfast or snack then come here! Coffee, kaya toast, half boiled egg or “runny eggs” is as local as you can get! The prices are incredibly cheap too – that breakfast as a set meal is $2.80 SGD which is about $1.90 CAD.

Traditional Singaporean coffee or as they call “kopi” is so different – I’m confident that this is the best place for it too.

How to order Kopi/Coffee? (From museum)

Kopi O - Coffee with sugar
Kopi – Coffee with condensed milk
Kopi C - Coffee with additional of evaporated milk
Kopi Siew Tai – Coffee less sweet
Kopi Ga Tai – Coffee more sweet

On the table:

**Kopi or Singaporean coffee – 6/6

• Kopi (Coffee with condensed milk) $.90 SGD – about $0.50 CAD
• Freshly roasted, ground, and brewed.
• I don’t even drink coffee that much although I do like it. I just try to limit my caffeine intake… but this is THE BEST coffee EVER.
• Singaporean coffee is totally different than any other coffee. This is authentic kopi made by the best.
• Even the cup is a traditional coffee cup.  The green floral print and porcelain acts as insulation and keeps the coffee warmer for longer.

Those are the delicious coffee beans! I tried buying a box but they ran out of retail stock

• The coffee beans are Robusta and they’re toasted with sugar and butter so they have this wonderfully sweet flavour. The beans are coated in basically a caramel sugar and it’s actually their way of naturally packaging the freshness.
• Nanyang Old Coffee also blends their beans with Arabica Beans to give it extra aromatic notes and a smooth taste.
• It’s creamy, strong, bold, rich and the most aromatic coffee ever with a nutty and sweet flavour that’s almost like malted chocolate!
• It is naturally sweetened but the condensed milk gives it an extra creamy richness and added sweetness. It’s the most traditional way of ordering it.

This is what I learned from a poster in the Nanyang Old Coffee mini coffee museum.

This is the wife making the Kaya Butter Toast. She’s super generous with the ingredients and she double toasts the bread. It’s the perfect recipe for the best Kaya Toast in Singapore.

**Kaya Butter Toast – 6/6

• Singapore traditional coconut jam with butter toast $1.20 SGD – $0.60 CAD
• The recipe is so simple and it’s so easy to make, but for some reason I can’t make it like SHE does!
• This is Kaya Toast – the most traditional Singaporean breakfast or snack for locals and it’s commonly eaten with “runny eggs” or half boiled poached eggs. (This was breakfast #2 so I passed on the eggs)

• She toasts the bread (without butter) once, spreads the toast with a thick layer of top quality Kaya (coconut jam) and puts it in the oven to toast for again.
• She adds thin slices of butter as soon as it comes out of the toaster and just before serving. It melts perfectly and is so delicious!
• It’s crustless and has a very crispy outside and very tender and soft inside.
• Kaya is coconut jam and it has a wonderful flavour. It’s made with coconut milk, eggs,  sugar and sometimes Pandan (citrus pine herb). It’s sweet, aromatic and almost like a caramelized coconut puree paste. YUM!

In the coffee museum: A traditional coffee barista wore pants without pockets to prevent them from pocketing sales.

In the coffee museum: In the olden days they poured the coffee onto the saucer to cool it down… how polite right?! =p… I can’t even imagine doing that nowadays.

Back then if you turned the cup over on the saucer it meant you would pay the bill on another day. Coffee was a luxury item so workers could only afford to pay the bill after they received their wages.

In the coffee museum: Empty condensed milk cans were recycled as take away containers or cups. (I’d be so scared to cut my lip on that edge)

Restaurant: Bukit Timah Market (Chinatown) & Hawker Food Centre (Hawker’s Centre)
Cuisine: Singaporean
Last visited: April 25, 2010
Location: Singapore
Address: 335 Smith Street, Chinatown Complex
Take the MRT to Chinatown or Outram Park stations.
Price Range: $3-6 SGD (about $2-4.50CAD)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: n/a – multiple stalls
Service: n/a
Ambiance: 1 (but it is what it is!… and there’s no air con)
Overall: 5
Additional comments:

• 2nd floor, open air
• Best place for authentic Singaporean food
• One of the best and most famous and popular Hawker Centres
• Almost like a food court
• Several hawker stalls located in Singapore
• Lots of stalls
• Very popular to locals – 99% local
• Extremely casual
• Budget-friendly
• CHEAP eats!
• Busy during lunch/peak hours
• Offers a variety of stalls
• Self-serve, tray service
• No air conditioning

**Recommendations: Ann-Chin stall: Popiah Roll, Terry Katong Laksa stall: Laksa, Terry Nonya Otah, Fried Kway Teow, Hoe Kee: Hainanese Chicken Rice, Yishun 921 Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee: Rice Cakes aka Chwee Keuh, Sugar cane juice

A Hawker Centre is a MUST TRY in Singapore. It’s THE best place to get authentic and traditional Singaporean food and it’s dirt cheap too. A hawker centre is an open air place where several food stalls gather to sell different Singaporean specialties at a cheap price. It reminds me of a ghetto food court, or a hole in the wall food court, or street side vendors except undercover… you get the point.

The food is clean too because health inspectors check them often and they have ‘letter grades’ representing cleanliness that they have to post publicly at their stalls.

It’s about 99% locals and the food is really good! The best part is that I can sample everything under one roof and it will only cost me a few dollars. It was a culinary tour of traditional Singaporean cuisine.

Singaporean cuisine is influenced by a combination of authentic Chinese cuisines so a lot of dishes I’ve tried before but from Chinese restaurants. The Singaporean version is different than the Chinese version. Some dishes I tried in Malaysia, however Singapore and Malaysia will continue to debate who started what first… all I know is that I have a good sample of how each country can interpret the same dish.

I had a relative who is a local in Singapore bring me around so I tried the right stuff at the right place! These are must try traditional Singaporean dishes.

On the table:

Stall: Yishun 921 Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee
Menu Item: Rice Cakes aka Chwee Keuh

**Rice Cakes aka Chwee Keuh – 4/6

• About $1SGD – $0.75CAD
• It was nice and salty with a crunchy pickled vegetable topping.
• The brown stuff on top was a stir fry of finely minced preserved radish, fried garlic and soy sauce. It had a sweet chili sauce on the side.
• These rice cakes are very soft, creamy, sticky and VERY oily. They’re surprisingly not chewy but they just melt in your mouth like puree.
• Almost every local was eating one, so I had to try it.
• There is something similar but totally different in Malaysia called Ketupat – which I tried at Devi’s Corner in Malaysia. I liked the Singaporean Chwee Keuh better.

Stall: #02-194 Terry Katong Laksa
Menu Item: Laksa, Nonya Otah

**Laksa – 5/6

• $3SGD/bowl – about $2CAD/bowl
• The laksa here has no MSG, no added sugar, no evaporated milk, no pork and no lard
• This is a traditional Singaporean laksa with a recipe from the 1950′s. Very different than what I see in Vancouver, BC.
• The toppings are cockles (salt water clams), prawns, fish cakes, very little slices of tofu puffs, bean sprouts and minced Laksa leaves. It comes with a spoonful of salty and spicy chili sauce on the side.

• The cockles taste like raw baby oysters. It was really interesting to have them in there – I can’t decide if I like them though.

• The noodles are thin and round and remind me of “lai fun” or Chinese rice noodles. They’re also cut up really short (how it’s supposed to be) and it’s supposed to absorb the soup that is almost like a gravy more than a soup.

• In the end almost all the gravy is absorbed by the noodles.
• It’s delicious gravy! It was very creamy and tastes like Thai Peanut curry sauce. It’s very peanutty and almost like a peanut coconut sauce as well. It’s sweet and salty but not that herby in flavour.

**Nonya Otah (Otek Otek)

• $.50SGD or $.40/stick for 5+ (about $0.38CAD)

• It’s a traditional Malaysian/Singaporean (debatable) fish mousse or fish cake.
• It’s a snack/appetizer usually served with bread or white rice or along side a salad.
• It’s minced white fish, red curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, chili, lime and eggs made into a cake and steamed or grilled in a banana leaf.
• In this case it was grilled, but they grilled it a bit too long so it was a bit flat and wrinkly rather than fluffy.
• It’s called “Otek Otek” in Malaysia and it was my first time trying it there. I loved it there as well – I liked the texture of that one better.

Stall: Ling C____? (I cut off the name on accident)
Menu Item: Fried Kway Teow/Char Kway Teow

**Fried Kway Teow or “Char Kway Teow” – 4/6

• Small $2.50 Large $3SGD – about Small: $1.90CAD Large $2.25CAD
• Lots of stalls offer it, but this is THE man to buy fried kway teow from. He has the longest line of locals in the whole Hawker’s Centre so I knew it was a sure bet. That wok is never at rest.
• Char Kway Teow is fried rice cake strips… basically fried flat rice noodles.

• A traditional Singaporean char way teow is fried with dark soy sauce, chili, tamarind sauce, prawns, bean sprouts, egg, pork lard, and cockles (salt-water clams).
• It reminds me of the popular fried rice noodle with beef slices you find at Chinese restaurants in Vancouver.

• Fried noodles in Singapore and Malaysia are all made with dark soy sauce and they’re a lot more saucy and wet than the Cantonese version.
• It was like a wet pile of slop and the noodles were very soft – almost mushy. This is how they like it in Singapore though – that’s authentic… just not for me.
• Besides the added cockles (which taste like raw baby oysters) and the slight tang in flavour another difference is that they use 2 different kinds of noodles – flat rice noodles and round chow mien noodles. They did this in Malaysia at Madam Kwan’s too.

• Another big difference is the pork lard! They actually have little pieces of crispy pork lard they fry into it. It’s almost like crackling on roasted pig or thick cut bacon.
• I’m not a big fan of stuff like this so I thought chewing on a piece of salty grease fat was gross. It was SO oily!! The noodles were oily enough already! Everyone else loves this part though… so it’s just me.

Stall: Hoe Kee Hainanese Chicken Mee
Menu Item: Hainanese Chicken set

**Hainanese Chicken Set – 6/6

• This is THE guy to buy Hainanese Chicken from. He has the longest line for this particular item and he’s famous for it.
• I’ve tried several in Vancouver, BC but this is the Singaporean version. It’s originates from Hainan, China but is commonly associated with Malaysian/Singaporean cuisine.

• This is perhaps the best Hainanese Chicken I’ve had.
• The chicken was small, but the meat was so slippery and well marinated probably because of the size too.

• The rice is cooked in chicken oil and fat so it’s very flavourful, but not oily. It’s made like that in Vancouver places as well.

• In Singapore the traditional way is to pour this sweet thick really really dark soy sauce on top. They really like sauce there!

Stall: 02-168 CMY Satay
Menu Item: Satay Sticks

I really wanted to try their satay sticks and went back 2 days in a row but the first time their satay cook was off duty and the second time he had a day off. I was SO mad! Instead I tried this…

Satay Bee Hoon… which ended up looking like this… ?

Satay Bee Hoon – 2.5/6

• $3SGD – about $2.50CAD
• See what I mean! They LOVE sauce in Singapore!! Just like in Malaysia! See the noodles in Malaysia. Everything is just soaked and drenched with sauce. Mind you I DO love sauce, but this is a bit much and it was really bland sauce which is disappointing.

• This is what’s underneath the pile of sauce… there ARE noodles!
• So they were boiled vermicelli noodles and then topped with several ladles of satay sauce.
• The satay sauce was nutty and made with ground peanuts but not very salty at all. It was just soupy and tasted watered down.
• It had cockles (salt water clams AGAIN, just like all the other noodle dishes I had), sliced beef, bean sprouts and green onions.
• It looked like minced pork, but there was none. I wanted ground meat. It looks a lot more flavorful than it was.

Stall: Ann Chin
Menu Item: Popiah Roll

**Popiah Roll- 6/6

• $1.60SGD – about $1.20CAD
• I loved this roll! It was like the Singaporean version of a Vietnamese salad roll, but better!
• She’s the only stall selling them and everything is handmade from the popiah skin to the roll. It’s made upon order, unless you order it deep fried. Deep fried is almost like a Chinese spring roll.

• It’s stuffed with braised cabbage, carrot and onion sautee, a mild curry sauce, lots of fried garlic chips, dried BBQ pork slices, bean sprouts, lettuce, hard boiled egg bits, ground peanuts, and a little hoisin sauce. It’s all wrapped in a soft freshly made crepe that was nice and chewy but very thin.   
• It was packed with so many ingredients and each one was so different! I loved this thing! The texture, flavours, the crunchiness and the sauciness… I want one now!

That’s the cabbage, carrot and onion braise on the right. On the left in the box is the dried soft pork jerky she puts in.

Ho Fun – 2.5/6

• I don’t remember which stall this is from.
• Rice noodle soup with fish balls and fish cakes $3 SGD – about $2.50CAD
• This is a typical Cantonese dish and I think it’s better in Vancouver or Hong Kong.
• They do make ho fun differently in Singapore though.
• The broth has a very strong seafood flavour and the noodles are really soft to the point where you think they’re overcooked.

Pork’s Hock/Knuckle or Pig’s Foot – 2.5/6

• I don’t remember which stall this is from either.
• Another traditional Singaporean dish, but again just not for my liking. I would rather have Bak Kut Teh in Malaysia – that was the best of the best so now nothing will ever compare.
• The meat was fall off the bone tender and it was made really well, but I just don’t like it.
• It was a very fatty with a little bit of lean meat.
• The soy sauce broth it soaks in is nice and salty with a dominant dark soy sauce flavour. Not much garlic flavour and barely any herbal taste.
• I love the cloves of garlic they give you. They’re whole bulbs and they’re very creamy, sweet and tender.

Stall: Fresh Fruit Juice
Menu Item: Sugar Cane juice, Pink Dragon Fruit juice

**Sugar Cane Juice – 6/6

• This is fantastic! It’s so refreshing too. It tastes like Mountain Dew but not carbonated. They put lemon in it as well. It’s sweeter than lemonade but light like lemon tea and floral in flavor. It’s not too sweet at all for being sugar cane.

He makes it from fresh sugar cane.

**Pink Dragon Fruit Juice - 5.5/6

• The pink dragon fruit one is always sweeter than the white one. This one was no exception. I think it might be better in Malaysia though.

Restaurant: Ice Cream Cart
Cuisine: Dessert
Last visited: April 26, 2010
Location: Singapore
Address: On Orchard Road – main street with all the shopping malls
Price Range:

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: n/a
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• A few ice cream carts on Orchard Road
• A few outside schools
• A few located in Chinatown
• Popular street side/sidewalk dessert or snack

**Recommendations: n/a

There’s a lot of ice cream vendors located randomly on Singapore’s most popular shopping street – Orchard Road. I decided to buy my ice cream sandwich from this ice cream vendor because of the cute husband and wife operation. They work so hard and they’re so old and I just wanted to pick them up and put them in my pocket!

This isn’t the only item he sells. He has other things too, but I ordered this one because it was the most different and the sign said called it the “”pure traditional taste” ice cream sandwich.

On the table:

Singaporean Ice Cream Sandwich – 4/6

• $1 SGD – about $0.60CAD
• It’s literally an ice cream sandwich.
• They also have a variety of frozen cut ice cream (rectangular blocks of ice cream) to chose from. Flavours included Tin Roof brownie, durian, mint chocolate chip etc. The block of ice cream will be sandwiched the same way.
• The bread is a really soft multicoloured Pandan bread that tastes like that Asian egg bread you can buy at T&T Supermarket. It’s a sweeter bread with a very mild citrus pine Pandan flavour and it’s very soft and fluffy.
• The ice cream on top is chocolate, strawberry and sweet corn flavoured ice cream.
• I know SWEET CORN flavour!?… but it was pretty good. It was sweet, not starchy and there were a few frozen corn kernels in it. So random.

• This is how you eat it. You fold it up and the bread sticks to the ice cream so you eat it like a hot dog. It’s pretty damn good!
• The ice cream starts to melt a bit and the bread acts like a sponge and gets really soft and juicy… almost like it was dipped in a milkshake.
• I just don’t like fake strawberry ice cream though – it reminds me of that cheap $1.99 yellow 4 litre bucket of Neopolitan ice cream Asian parents bought for their kids growing up…

Tasty Twist Idea (Credit goes to dad for this one!):

• I like to say my dad invented these ice cream sandwiches first. He’s not a cook AT ALL but he invented these things when I was 3 and it was always my treat.
• My dad’s are better though because he toasts the bread. I know it sounds weird, but try it!
• Ice cream on toast – recipe from my dad. The toast gives it an extra crunch although the ice cream does melt a bit faster. Just think French toast with ice cream. LOVE it.

Restaurant: 101 Durian – Famous King of Durian Stand
Cuisine: Fruit
Last visited: April 25, 2010
Location: Chinatown, Singapore
Address: Ground floor of Chinatown Complex Food Centre (Hawker Centre)
335 Smith Street, Chinatown Complex
Take the MRT to Chinatown or Outram Park stations.
Price Range: $5 SGD – about $3.75 CAD

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Durian: 6 (I do NOT like Durian, but this one was amazing)
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Most popular durian stand in Singapore
• Famous durian stand
• Popular for tourists and locals
• Serves only durian (sometimes mangosteen)
• Specialty: Mountain Cat Durian
• Fresh, freshly cut
• Imported daily
• Take-away
• Open late (around 10pm)

**Recommendations: Mountain Cat Durian

First off, I do not like durian. I’ve tried it a few occasions when it’s in season and I’m still not a fan. It is something I hope I can appreciate with age… but I haven’t acquired those taste buds yet.

The smell is rancid and it smells like 10 year old garbage. Every time I come near it I have to mask myself… yes I know, it’s immature. But seriously, imagine walking by a landfill – you’d do the same. On the other hand, people that enjoy the fruit consider this smell aromatic… I have yet to become one of these people.

Durian is popularly known in Asia as “the King of fruits”. I’d like to believe it’s because of its pointy thorns that make it resemble a king’s crown, but I really don’t think that’s the reason why. I mean it can’t be because it’s superior in taste, or could it? Well I wouldn’t have believed in its capabilities to “wow” me so quickly, but a bite of durian from this famous stand in Singapore made me a “I only like durian in Singapore” fan.

On the table:

101 Durian is a famous durian stand in Singapore and it’s known for the type of durian they sell – The Mountain Cat Durian. It’s called “Mau Shan Wong” which is translated to “Cat Mountain King”.

The lady tosses the durian and by doing that she can tell if it’s ripe enough to cut and serve. She’s wearing gloves… so no blood bath.

The other staff/family member cuts and packages the durian. You can either eat it at one of their small tables and stools in the front (outside), or you can take it home.

They also have a small mangosteen stand nearby, but it’s not their main focus nor is it always there. I bought a bag and they were also quite sweet.  These are one of my favourite fruits, but too bad they’re about $7/lbs in Vancouver.

**Mountain Cat Durian – 6/6

• $10 SGD – about $6CAD
• This type of durian is known to have a small seed. It’s also known to be the sweetest variety of durian.
• I kid you not that this is the best durian I have ever tried and I actually really liked it. It’s a super fatty fruit and so indulgent.
• It still smells like a**, but it was delicious!! You get over the smell fast when it tastes this good and it really does become “aromatic”.
• It tastes like very creamy and velvety rich cake batter. It was so buttery, rich and thick like custard.
• It was like eating stringy fiberous melted ice cream. So pungent, so sweet and so delicious. I know my description sounds kind of gross, but it wasn’t.
• For durian this is a 6/6, but on a wider scale of fruit it was a 4/6 for me.
• Now I really won’t be able to enjoy another durian unless it’s from 101 Durian. I tried it again in Vancouver to see if my taste buds had “matured” yet… and nope… I still don’t like it at home.
• I think this Mountain Cat Durian was actually imported from Malaysia and I kind of regret not trying one while in Malaysia.