Wednesday September 16th 2026

Originally for our trip to Germany we were flying Emirates via Dubai but earlier this year we felt that the US-Iran situation was a big unknown so we decided to look into shifting our booking to a flight through Asia. The best price we could get was with Finnair but we had to spend a night in Singapore on the way and come home from Italy a couple of days later than we initially planned. That meant we had a whole day in Singapore.

Last week I did some last minute research and we decided to do the Hello Singapore 6 hour food tour. We organised to get picked up from our hotel (Crowne Plaza Changi) at 11:30 am. That allowed me to do my run on the hotel treadmill, shower, breakfast, a quick nap then pack and check out.

Pamela our guide met us at the hotel and organised a cab to take us to our first stop. In the cab she filled us in on the basics of the establishment of Singapore by the British as their own deep water port so their traders didn’t need to use the many Dutch ports already set up in the area. Today would be a trip through the cuisine of the various migrant groups that make up Singapore’s population.

Our first stop was in Katong (the Chinese area) at Soon Soon Hat on East Coast Rd. Like most of our stops on the tour this is a multi-generational family business. The specialty is curry puffs. These were amazing, with a super light and flaky pastry. We also had Kaya toast with a soft boiled egg. You crack the egg into bowl, mix in some soy sauce and white pepper then dip the kaya toast in to eat it. Kaya is a coconut jam, and although it sounds like a strange combination the sweet kaya with the salty soy sauce worked well. We also had kopi (coffee) or the (tea) with condensed milk and sugar.

We walked to our next stop, making good use of the covered foot paths to stay out of the hot sun.

On our way we stopped by the historic multicoloured shophouses of the Peranakan Chinese community.

Our second stop, still in the Katong neighbourhood was Kim Choo. Their specialty is Nonya bak chang, a Peranakan rice dumpling. We had pork. The filling is encased in a rice covering, then wrapped in pandan leaves. It has a lovely savoury sweet balance. Afterwards we tried  ondeh-ondeh. These are little balls of glutinous rice infused with pandan encasing a little ball of pandan sugar. You put the whole thing in your mouth and when you bite into the center the liquid sugar bursts out. This was probably my favourite stop, The Nonya bak chang was the stand out for me.

Next up was Katong Laksa at Marine Parade Laksa in Roxy Square. This laksa contained a variety of seafood and was lightly spiced. Our guide put the sambal on the side to mix in to our own bowls as G is not a huge fan of spice whereas I like a decent amount. I ended up mixing all our sambal into my bowl.

We then caught the bus to the Old Airport Rd Food Center, one of the many Hawker Centers in Singapore. The Hawker Centers started when the government decided to move food vendors off the streets to improve the hygiene (including access to clean water). These centers are now an integral part of Singapore’s food scene, recognised by UNESCO for their cultural heritage. We ate fried hokkien prawn noodles, carrot cake and drank fresh sugar cane juice.

Next we took the bus to Kampong Glam, Singapore’s muslim quarter. The Sultan Mosque is a major landmark in the area. We had beef rendang at Rumah Makan Minang. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of this but it was really good. The beef was cooked down but not stringy and the sauce was super thick instead of being liquidy.

While in the area we also had The Tarik (iced tea). It is made frothy, not with a milk frother, but by repeatedly pouring the milky tea from a height. It is served in plastic bags because there were no cup holders in cars initially and so a bag was practical as you could hang it from the indicator or rear view mirror when driving.

Our next stop in the area was at Victory for some mutton murtaback which is a flaky flat bread with a mutton filling served with curry sauce.

By this time we were stuffed to the eyeballs and even our walk to Little India didn’t help remedy this. We were not to be deterred though, and we did our best to eat our way through a Paper Dosai at Kamala. I think the three of us got through about one third of this.

Pam organised a taxi for us and we headed back to the hotel, collected our bags and then walked to the lounge. We didn’t need any of the food but we did need the showers, after sweating through a day in Singapore’s hot humidity. I would not have wanted to get on the plane for the 13 hour flight as we were. Of course everyone had the same need so there was a wait for the showers. We were given our buzzers and went to wait our turn. The buzzers going off throughout the lounge gave off Aussie pub vibes which was a bit jarring. Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed my shower once it was my turn and was happy to be able to board clean and ready to attempt to sleep.

How would you like to spend the day in Singapore if you had a layover?