Relishing Singapore Cuisines

Ask people in Singapore for the name of a good restaurant and they will always ask what kind of food you want to eat.

Say Chinese, Indian, Malay or even French, and they will again ask what kind. Variety is the spice of dining in Singapore, and the variety can be bewildering to visitors.

Take the Banana Leaf Apolo restaurant. Scrupulously clean, the tables have large pieces of banana leaf at each setting.

We were warmly welcomed. Soon after sitting we were surrounded by waiters carrying steel pots filled with steamed rice, curried vegetables and papadums --a crisp Indian bread made from chickpeas.

Stop here and the bill will run about $3 Singapore per person, for all you can eat. If you want meat (we tried a moist and very spicy chicken and fishhead curry) the bill will double. Add lassi , a yogurt drink, or a beer, and you might spend $10. You can eat with a spoon or with your fingers.

Cheap Dining

Dining in Singapore is ridiculously cheap. We figure that about $30 Singapore a day will buy three squares and a couple of snacks in between. What you get for that is remarkable. (Prices listed are in Singapore dollars that recently exchanged for $1.85 per $1 U.S.)

But if your travels are to include taxis, find out where you are going from the hotel concierge, take a map and be prepared to direct the driver.

Annalakshmi restaurant is another Indian experience. It is vegetarian cooking at its best, and the selection of vegetable and rice dishes is huge. We chose the buffet for $15.

You fill up big silver platters and small bowls with noodles, lentil soup, curried vegetables such as squash, potatoes and onions, and various chutneys and condiments, including a wonderfully cooling dish of radishes in yogurt. Fragrant tea, mango lassi (a habit-forming drink of yogurt and ripe mango) and hot bread were brought to the table.

The room was quiet, decorated with rich fabrics and filled with Indian families. The restaurant is part of a cultural foundation that offers classes in Indian dancing and musical instruments. You may see a class in progress in one of the spaces outside. Several shops sell costume jewelry and clothing used in dances.

Hawker Stalls

Singapore’s fascination with food is most evident in the famed hawker stalls that are now found in the various food centers around the city. “The hawkers are an old Singapore tradition,” said Violet Oon, an expert on the cuisines of Singapore.

“The hawkers used to come through the neighborhoods with bicycle carts laden with food. We could recognize them by their calls, and would know when the especially good ones were coming. The stalls you see today are the descendants of those carts, often with the same families running them. Today a hawker license is the hardest thing to get in Singapore. Everyone wants one; it’s good business.”

On Oon’s recommendation we sought out the Ellenborough Market Stalls.

Ellenborough’s stalls are on the third and fourth floors of a large Chinese market, with vendors selling huge quantities of dried seafood.

We stopped on the third floor and selected a variety of grilled and steamed fish, a great cabbage broth and chili noodles, all for about $3. The hawkers were delighted to see us and helped us select local specialities.

Not Many Westerners

Oon had assured us that Chinese business leaders regularly entertain at fourth-floor stalls but that the food seemed to be about the same. Dining at Ellenborough is a real adventure, and you won’t see many other Westerners.

Most visitors head for the stalls at Newton Center just off Newton Circus. At night the crush of people can be overwhelming, although the hawkers will help you find a table from which you can venture forth to select from dozens of stalls. (One member of the party should stay at the table to maintain possession of it.)

Satay vendors serve chicken or beef grilled on bamboo sticks with a spicy peanut sauce--20 came to $6. We ordered two dozen chili prawns for $15 and the huge shrimp arrived whole and ready to be opened by hand.

We ordered Pomfret, a small local fish that was grilled and served on a banana leaf. Fruit stalls sold fresh litchi, durian, rambutans and star fruit. Mangosteens were in season, so we bought a huge bunch of the sweet fruit for $8.

We also tried hawker stalls at Empress Place, where we breakfasted on chili noodles for $1.50. At Bugis Square the won-ton noodles in broth and the chicken rice were both excellent. The Satay Club is well known and popular, but we preferred the satay at Newton Circus.

You can feel secure eating anywhere in Singapore, as the country has one of the toughest health departments anywhere, and each stall and restaurant is visited daily by a health inspector.

Food Guidebooks

Because food is a national obsession in Singapore, the quality and variety is exceptional. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (8484 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 510, Beverly Hills 90211), phone (213) 852-1901 offers several guidebooks to eating in Singapore.

Or you might consider joining one of Violet Oon’s culinary tours. They are an easy way to sample a variety of Singaporean cuisines. She also is responsible for a monthly publication called “The Food Paper” that provides information on what is new in Singapore dining.

Near the end of our stay in Singapore Oon suggested that we try another side of Singapore food. We found ourselves at the Brasserie at the Marco Polo Hotel.

“It’s a well-loved restaurant in Singapore,” she said. “It gets a lot of local business and the food is very good.” We agreed, as we dined on fresh white asparagus flown in from France, green asparagus from Thailand and a wonderful chicken that came from a local farm.

You really can dine around the world in Singapore.

Recommended: Annalakshmi, Excelsior Hotel Shopping Center, No. 02-10, 5 Coleman St. The Banana Leaf Apolo, 56-58 Race Course Road. Brasserie La Rotonde, Omni Marco Polo Hotel, 247 Tanglin Road. Ellenborough Market Stalls, Tew Chew Street. Violet Oon, The Food Paper, P.O. Box 102, Farrer Road Post Office, Singapore 9128. Other restaurants and hawker centers are listed in the booklet, “Singapore 101 Meals,” available from the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board.