Opinions. Everybody's got one.
And it didn't take me long to realise that pretty much everyone has a strong one on Singapore.
These opinions ranged from: "Yeah it's nice, clean, safe - old people love it!" to
"Totally soulless" and even a few straight out "Why?"'s.
And as much as he loves eating there, Anthony Bourdain recently dubbed
nanny-state Singapore "Disneyland with a death sentence".
Inspirational stuff.
I actually wondered if they were trying to talk me out of it, and if so why?
It was my trip dammit!
I just wanted to visit a city I'd never been to before. Simple as that.
I wanted great food (street food and hawker markets as well as high end stuff).
I wanted shopping (namely, Japanese department stores and old faves like Zara and Uniqlo).
I wanted unique boutique hotels and glamorous bars.
And I wanted a short flight to a nearby beach for a few days to balance it all out.
Newsflash naysayers! Singapore has all this.
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| Lobby, Quincy Hotel |
The thing is, for someone like me the naysayer stuff actually just serves as a big red flag.
It spurs me on to go forth and figure it out for myself,
do it my own way and triumphantly prove them wrong.
Sure, I knew the place had a long held reputation for being a bland, authoritarian, air conditioned cultural deadzone but then there was the recent Monocle feature, waxing lyrical about third-wave coffee merchants and designerly shopping, so I was confused. And intrigued.
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| Books Actually |
And then I'd heard that Jerome had added Singapore to the Laneway Festival touring circuit, so there had to be an indie rock element too (incongruous but true - just don't try lighting up any spliffs, kids).
and the Hainanese chicken rice certainly did nothing to deter my interest -
the street food thing was definitely a major drawcard.
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| Tian Tian's Hainanese Chicken Rice, as eaten by Bourdain. Maxwell Food Market |
A quick scour through the latest Singapore Wallpaper and Luxe guides further proved to me that in fact there was heaps to be excited about.
The old colonial-era building was dramatically transformed into a design hotel in 2006 and each of the 30 rooms is totally unique, after the developer gave carte blanche to a handful of local creatives to work their magic. The end result is something special.
I scored the very whimsical Weeds room (don't ask).
They had a great pool (a real plus in steamy Singapore) which had portholes at the bottom, through which you can actually see right into the dining room below - so remember to wax, ladies.
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| Pool at New Majestic Hotel |
Not far from the hotel is Tanjong Pagar, an area fast emerging as a bit of a pocket
for cool hotels, cafes, shops and the like.
I did a bunch of research before I went and was keen to check out 40 Hands a great little cafe run by an Australian guy but otherwise staffed by locals.
The food is solid cafe fare with some Singers touches and it's a popular spot for
expats and locals doing the weekend brunch thing.
And I'm happy to report that the coffee was exceptional.
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| Coffee at Forty Hands |
Singapore is crawling with god-awful chain coffee shops so it's nice to see some decent stuff being well received (see also Papa Palheta)
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Another good little cafe I found was Kith, at Robertson Quay. This too is a spot particularly popular with the jogging-with-strollers, expat crowd.
The main thing I took away from this trip is that yes Singers is kinda bland when you compare it to Hong Kong, Tokyo or Bangkok. It lacks the pulse of some of Asia's more exciting big cities and still seems to be devoid of an 'edge'.
But hey, if you find yourself plonked there on a long-haul stopover there is plenty to love about Singapore - most notably the awesome hawker markets, the rich cultural diversity, great rooftop bars, top shopping and proximity to nice beaches and big Asian hubs.
Think of Singapore like your studious, uptight little sister.
She's just starting to get into good coffee and cool music
and with a little encouragement further corruption may be afoot.
A short guide to the good stuff..
Hotels
I stayed at the character-filled New Majestic in Chinatown which was small, designerly and utterly unique. Highlights were the great Chinatown location and proximity to cheap eats, as well as the friendly service, fabulous pool and well-equipped gym.
The rooms are well sized with Keihl's amenitites and Nespresso machines but decor won't be to everyone's taste.
I also stayed at The Quincy in Orchard, which is great location-wise if you want to do the hardcore consumer frenzy thing down Orchard Road. The Quincy tags itself as a boutique hotel though its actually a fairly large highrise.
The gym and pool are exceptional - having a reviving lol around in that pool in the early evening before a night out is something else - the skyline views are unbeatable.
Others worth checking out are Wanderlust in Little India (same owners as New Majestic and it's smaller, cheaper sister Hotel 1929) and Klapsons (slightly out of the way but cool hotel). Restaurants
With so much good, cheap hawker food on offer it seems a little silly to go too crazy for Michelin stars in Singapore, though the Lion City certainly has its fair share of world-class dining and is clearly going from strength to strength on that front.
My high-end highlight was Osteria Mozza, the new Singapore version of Mario Batali's LA original.
Located at the very swanky Marina Bay Sands casino/hotel/shopping complex on the waterfront, Mozza is dark, brooding and sexy and most appealing of all, despite its location, it's kinda rock.
The lights were down waaaaay low, the maitre d' was like some kind of swaggerish Soprano's extra and the soundtrack was The Black Keys. Loud. All night.
I loved it.
The service was exceptional and the big, open mozzarella bar (modelled on recent MFWF guest, Nancy Silverton's same bar at the LA original) made great entertainment for this solo diner.
I ate the magnificent burrata with speck, peas and mint followed by the best pasta dish I've eaten in some time, Spaghetti alla Gricia, a salty-licious explosion of chewy guanciale, punchy chilli and garlic finished off with grated pecorino and a shed-load of EVOO.
The very persuasive waiter later talked me into ordering the truly excellent dessert of rosemary olive oil cakes with olive oil gelato and rosemary brittle (see below).
The excitement of eating this was ratcheted up several notches when said waiter informed me that Ariana, Batali's pastry chef from Babbo in NYC was "in the house" and had prepared my dessert (if you've read Bill Burford's book 'Heat' then you'll be familiar with this lady and empathise with my excitement).
Others
Yantra - Tanglin Road, does for Indian food what The Press Club does for Greek
True Blue Cuisine - trad Peranakan food
Iggy's - Swank-tastic, Michelin starred Euro-Japanese fusion at The Hilton hotel
Straits Kitchen - The Grand Hyatt's designer homage to Straits street food. It's buffet, but not as you know it (and another Bourdain recommendation)
Coffee
Shop
The Club Street area is great for stylish little Frenchy bistros and wine bars as well as Euro/Nordic furniture and homewares shops.
My fave shop in this area was The Little Drom Store, which is the kind of shop that will appeal to readers of Frankie magazine, if you get my drift. I bought some cool stuff here including a super-cute screen printed owl brooch, which I'm loving.
Strangelets on Amoy Street does quirky designs in homewares and various other unique bits and bobs
Books Actually is full of great titles, international mags and cool stationery. The kids play some pretty good music too. Oh and it's right across the road from an awesome coffee shop (Forty Hands) - so there's a whole morning sorted.
A Curious Teepee spanking new boutique shop/cafe/bar combo in Orchard Road from the dudes behind Tanjong Beach Club and The White Rabbit. Features local and internationally designed homewares and clothing as well as seriously good Papa Palheta coffee
ION Orchard is a monolithic temple to consumerism and a whole lotta fun. Treat yourself to a post-shop cocktail upstairs at Luke Mangan's Salt Sky Bar up on the 55th floor of ION.
I also had a fun time eating at Opera, ION's hawker-ish food centre.
Paragon is also worth a look - it's more about the high-end labels but they do have a Muji. There's also a great little cafe there called ProjectShopBloodBros that has a clothing and accessories shop attached (with great bags..).
Takashimaya on Orchard Road is an awesomely huge Japanese department store and you'll also find things like Shanghai Tang in the same centre.
