Lunch
Visiting Tim Ho Wan PEAK wasn’t part of my plan, but the inviting aroma drew me in. I was simply passing through The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands when an irresistible aroma stopped me in my tracks, the sweet, smoky scent of perfectly roasted char siu. It was one of those smells that pulls you…
I didn’t set out to become the guy who maps Korean food and Korean restaurants across every mall in Singapore. It just happened, one meal at a time. Over the past couple of years, I’ve eaten my way through most of what ION Orchard offers from the food court downstairs to the spots scattered across…
The first thing I did was take off my shoes. I hadn’t expected that. You climb the steps into Shinjuku Restaurant, and a staff member gestures, politely but clearly, toward the rack by the entrance. Shoes off. And something about that small act made me slow down before I’d even looked at the menu. Cuppage…
I wasn’t planning to dine here. It was a regular weekday in Singapore, hot and sticky, and I was killing time along Orchard Road. Then I spotted the balcony on the fourth floor of Orchard Central: a few tables, a decent breeze, people eating what looked like very good bowls. I went up. That was…
The first time someone brought me to Cuppage Plaza, I almost walked past it. It sat there off Orchard Road, a little worn at the edges, nothing like the polished malls nearby. My friend just said, “Trust me,” and led me up a quiet stairwell that smelled faintly of grilled fish and soy sauce. Then…
The first time I ate sushi in Takashimaya, I was eighteen and completely broke. My aunt slid a plate of salmon across the counter and told me to eat slowly, because good fish deserves patience. I’ve never forgotten that. Over the past six years, I’ve eaten my way through nearly every Japanese restaurant and sushi…
I almost walked past it. Fortune Centre isn’t the kind of building that makes things easy. The corridors are narrow, the lift is slow, and half the units look like they haven’t changed since the nineties. I took it up to the third floor, turned left, and found Izakaya Hikari tucked behind an unassuming door.…
The first time I really understood chirashi don in Singapore, I was sitting alone at a counter in Cuppage Plaza, rain on the old windows outside. I’d ordered it on a whim. What came back was a comforting bowl of cool vinegared rice topped with cubed sashimi, a spoonful of salmon roe catching the light.…
I wasn’t planning to eat at Food Opera Singapore that afternoon. I’d come down Orchard Road for something else, got ambushed by the heat, and ducked into ION just to cool off. The escalator brought me down to B4, and the smells started before I even saw the place: garlic, coconut broth, something charred and…
The first time I brought a friend from overseas to Orchard Road, we walked for forty minutes and ate nothing. We started at ION Orchard. Then someone said the food looked better at Ngee Ann City. So we crossed over. Then a queue at one place made us doubt ourselves, and we wandered toward Wisma…