The late Anthony Bourdain’s food based TV shows really helped me to be a lot more daring when diving into international cuisine and I subsequently gained a much greater appreciation for food-related travel. Going to this particular place soon became far more appetising than it had ever done in the years before when I travelled around much of Asia without much thought for visiting the city-state-island-country of Singapore.

A night flight was immediately followed by a taxi to Changi Village Hawker Centre to have nasi lemak for breakfast from the very same stall that Bourdain visited in the inaugural episode of ‘The Layover‘ on the Travel Channel back in 2011.

After that I walked round the coast in search of Changi Beach; site of the Sook Ching Massacres. Sadly though, the boardwalk didn’t extend all the way round to that historical sight where 66 Chinese males were shot by the Japanese military police on 20 February 1942. Not a place with a pleasant history but one that I was interested in seeing having read ‘The Railway Man‘ by Eric Lomax just before this trip, and that sure included some dark tales of what prisoners went through in WWII.

Continuing the dark theme, the Changi Museum was my next destination and, along with the village food centre, was the main reason I decided to start my trip in the area surrounding the airport. The museum is free (although you are quite heavily encouraged to purchase an audio set for $8) and features some compelling letters, drawings, photographs and personal artefacts that chronicle what the POW’s suffered during the Japanese occupation in 1942.

I then headed towards the city centre via train and disembarked at Paya Lebar MRT to hit another food court for lunch in the Geylang area. I wanted to try claypot rice and still hungry for more after that, I purchased some wanton noodles. Both were fantastic and the beauty of these hawker centres is that you can sample two or even three dishes as the prices are very reasonable.

My hotel in Chinatown was a rather cheap run-down one. The room was tiny but it did the job of providing me with a place to shower and lie down at the end of a long, long day. It wasn’t over yet though as I walked around looking at some nice buildings before getting dinner at my third and final hawker centre of the day.

Maxwell Road Food Centre possesses more than 100 food stalls and going there made me realise I had kind of wasted my time with the other ones as this place had it all. I had Lor Mee which is basically a thick starchy gravy with thick flat yellow noodles, and this was  quite possibly the best dish I ate in Singapore.

Merlion Park is quite possibly the most popular sightseeing spot in Singapore. The place was packed the following day with tourists capturing their moment in front of the water-spouting half-fish-half-lion.

City Hall, The Padang and Fort Canning Park followed as I explored some sights of Singapore. There were some other interesting little buildings dotted around, and it was nice to amble round the slopes in a city/country possessing quite a lot of greenery.

Maxwell Road Food Market (again!) was my final destination and I joined the huge line to get chicken rice from Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice restaurant which featured in ‘Anthony Bourdain No Reservations‘ (S04E01) on the Travel Channel in 2008.

This food stand was by far the most popular one, and it even had a picture and quote from Bourdain out the front. I’m not one to usually line up for any food but I made an exception for this one but I’m not really sure if it was worth it! It was of course very nice but I don’t know if my taste buds are strong enough to tell the difference between a plate of chicken rice at this place and the same thing from one of its competitors!

Fish head soup and rice tasted way better than it should with a name like that! The soup, in particular, was very nice and reminiscent of the noodle soup dishes I’d previously  sampled in Vietnam.

What better way to start my final day in Singapore than with some mixed pigs organ porridge for breakfast at Tiong Bahru market and it was actually very nice.

Carrot cake may be the name given to a delicious sweet cake in the west but in this part of the world it is actually radish cake stir-fried with eggs and other seasonings which is then steamed and then pan-fried. Oh and there aren’t even any carrots in it! Chai tao kway is the local name and there are two types; black (uses sweet sauce and the egg is mixed in) or white (without sweet soy sauce and fried on top of a beaten egg to form a crust) with the latter being the one I had and it was rather tasty.

The famous Raffles Hotel was a place later passed by and I honestly had no intention or interest in going inside it but I was a little intrigued so poked my head in to see what it was all about. Well, what do you know but one thing led to another and somehow I ended up having a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar! The red cocktail, which no Singaporeans actually drink, was actually quite nice and it certainly helped me offload some of my remaining dollars!

Chin Chin Eating House was a place that featured on the aforementioned episode of ‘The Layover‘, and of course the rude meaning of the name in Japanese meant I had to at least see the exterior!

I wanted to try chicken rice at this popular place but it sadly wasn’t as simple as at the hawker centres. The place is geared towards groups of people sharing the food so, as a lone diner, I was left with no choice but to order half a chicken for myself! Naturally I couldn’t finish it all (and didn’t really want to as I needed to save room for some evening dishes)  but it was still good to try it and thankfully I didn’t waste too much.

Feeling rather full, I thought it best to walk it off so I continued heading north via Bugis, Arab Street (including the Sultan Mosque) and the Thieves Market. Although I didn’t buy anything I did enjoy the latter, named as in the past it was the place to buy stolen goods, which is basically just a flea market selling all kinds of bric-a-brac.

An evening stroll round the Little India area took me to the very colourful and bustling Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple.

Some Indian grub followed by way of chicken biriyani eaten with the hand (not the left one though!), and then I found the Tekka Centre which I wish I had started at as it was packed full of stalls selling all kinds of Indian fare. I sampled a few little things before calling it a night. I would return for breakfast the following morning for one last culinary experience on a trip which had been pretty much been dominated by mouthwatering food.

Click on the following to read my Singapore 2014 blogs:

Day 1; Day 2; Day 3

Click here to read ‘Singapore 2015 Pt I: The Force Is Strong At Changi Airport’

Click here to read ‘Singapore 2015 Pt II: A Day In Singapore With My Wife & Mother-In-Law’