Dining With Jewelle

The last time we went to Singapore, hubby dragged us over to the Smith Street a.k.a Chinatown Food Street for dinner. Although I liked how the buildings around this area looked like, all restored and beautified, the food street itself did not impressed me.

This time around, we stayed in Chinatown so obviously, there is no escaping it and we had dinner there one night when hubby had a craving for fried “kueh tiaw” as he noticed that most food courts did not serve this dish.

Even though Chinese New Year is long over, the red lanterns were still up around this area and it looked so festive and I stop every few minutes taking pictures.

Since I’ve fed both the girls earlier on and did not have to order food for them, I decided to be adventurous and tried their “Mee Rebus” which is a little spicy. It’s thick but I kind of like it, although I’m not sure I’ll try it ever again. While hubby, faced with so many choices (he walked up and down the streets a few times), finally decided on some fried mee (I think he had forgotten about this fried kueh tiaw craving then!).

I didn’t check out the other stalls but I think they serve mostly Chinese food. The shoplots behind the stalls were mostly Chinese restaurants.

After our simple dinner, we walked through the bazaar and had I been on my own, I’d surely be stuck there for ages as there were just so many interesting things to see. I only managed to get 3 shirts from 1 store and even then my entourage was about to complain

because I took a little too long! Lesson learnt : go shopping alone.

I was not impressed with the Food Street on my first visit and that did not changed much on my second. For one, they did not have my ultimate Singaporean dish, tonic soups.

But it’s worth going to feast your eyes on the restored historical buildings and to stock up on Singapore souvenirs at the bazaars.

The first night we were in Singapore, we went to Chinatown for some dinner.

We headed straight to Smith Street a.k.a the Food Street, which is a little walk away from the MRT exit.

As all my friends know it, I am not a fan of sweating it out when I eat so of course I requested for an air-conditioned eatery. So when we reached the place we went to a small corner restaurant that did not look too fancy (fancy equals expensive and who wants to eat $10 mee goreng?). We went in and got ourselves a seat surrounded by “orang putih” patrons (doubtlessly trying to escape the heat just like me). Browsing through the menu, it was quite expensive and it was so easy to say “we changed our mind” when the waiter could not even offer warm water.

Air-con or no air-con, I am particular about prices and if I could save the money so I can splurge on other things, why ever not.

So out we went to the open hawker stalls and just ordered ourselves some fried noodle and laksa.

I thought the street was a little dim and not as bright as I expected a busy place to be. There were a lot of tourists as well as locals and later on, there was a lion dance performance a little ahead from where we were sitting.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see what is the attraction at this place.