As mentioned before, I was invited to attend the San Pellegrino dinner, but also took the opportunity whilst there to do some research about Peranakan food in Singapore, which was quite an experience. But this post isn't about that.
Most of my other trips there I had stayed in hotels along or just off the Orchard Road which is great, it goes without saying, for shopping. Not too far to go back and dump all your spoils before heading out again. However this time round I decided to try a different part of town, and booked myself into a hotel in Chinatown and you know what, it was really quite fun.
The Inn on Temple Street is one of those boutique hotels which seem to be the trend nowadays: entrepreneurs who buy up whole stretches of old shophouses then converting them into retro-style hotels. It's beautifully done but they tend to be rather small with rooms squeezed into niches and nooks and very few facilities. And this one didn't even have a lift so I had to trudge my bag up 3 floors; no fun when you've just travelled all the way there. The room I was in was so tiny I could sit on my single bed and practically touch both walls if I stretched my hands out. But it did have an ensuite bathroom attached.
For the third night I checked into The Peranakan Hotel right on the other side of town, in the Katong District, courtesy of the Singapore Tourism Board who had kindly sponsored some of the activities I was pursuing in the course of my research. Again it's another of those renovated and refurbished buildings but to be frank apart from some lacquered furniture in my room I couldn't really see where the "Peranakan" bit came from. It did however have a lift!
Much of Singapore's Peranakan community lived in the Katong area, which is also famous for a lot of food - everywhere you go around the city state you'll see mention of "Katong Laksa" and "Katong this" and "Katong That" ... rather like stalls all over Malaysia say "Penang Laksa" and "Penang Char Kuey Teow" etc. Whilst there I managed to visit quite a few places - more about them later - but on my way back to the hotel I passed by the Tian Tian Hainan Chicken Rice Shop which had just opened that very day - the bouquets and flowers outside their shop were testimony to that fact. So of course kay poh that I am I had to pop in and try the food.
This shop is the branch of the famous Chicken Rice shop in the Maxwell Food Centre, which has been going for the past couple of decades. It's quite decent value: for SGD5.50 I got a fair bit of silky white chicken and rice, and their chilli sauce (very important) is freshly made every day. It was good, although I do believe some of our stalls are just as good and a few are better.
However, I'll say this for the Singaporeans - they have succeeded in branding their country to the extent that if you say "Singapore" the images that come to mind immediately are Chilli Crab, Chicken Rice, Orchids etc - despite the fact that such things are prevalent all over South East Asia. I think the Penang State Government should take a few lessons from them. After all, we have quite a few things to shout about as well.
1 comment:
I agree Singapore as a country has branded itself very well in the past few decades. As for Penang as a state more would have to be done, but there is no denying that it is famous for its Hawker Food, Northern Nyonya Cuisines and Durians which Singaporeans flock to whenever is an opportunity.
What we need to look at in Penang now is to keep the consistency in the products(food) that we promote and sell in the world market.
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