day one: we took peter’s suggestion to try Folklore. We had Sambal buah keluak fried rice, Ayam Masak Lemak Chili Padi, Beef Cheek Randang and Kueh Bengkah with Ice Cream & Gula Melaka.
We loved the fried rice, it was rich, nutty and had great texture. The randang was incredible, melt-in-your-mouth goodness! The rich, high-fat content meat was balanced by the spiciness of the dish, the best rendition of beef randang we’ve had to date. Unfortunately, the chicken dish was a little one-note for us, it was on edge of too spicy, so that was foremost when we tasted the meat. I’m sure we missed the other complexities the chef wove into the dish.
the dessert, as Peter noted, was not to be missed. Our only regret was that we didn’t have room for Baked Custard with Gula Melaka. Service was friendly and warm.
thank you peter for your wonderful review and recommendation!
we cooked (and ate!) spring rolls, nyonya laksa and kueh dadar. I strongly recommend this course if you like to cook, well-organized and the instructors were wonderful.
day 3: we didn’t want to leave singapore without trying chili crabs! Decided on Holy Crab for its proximity to our hotel and good reviews on google. The crab was prepared in a fabulous green curry sauce. Very expensive but delicious! Almost ordered another five fried mantou to mop up the sauce but managed to back away from that caloric cliff.
Glad you did Folklore. Chef Damian D’Silva is one of the best proponents of native Singaporean cuisine, combining Nyonya and Malaccan-Portuguese Eurasian cuisine into one exciting spread of dining options.
many years ago I had a meal in singapore that was memorable for what I ate and didn’t eat. At the behest of a client, I had invented a new type of low-latency trading system where the underlying architecture and platform could be used to quickly solve general purpose computing challenges. My client flew me to singapore and arranged a lunch meeting with a firm interested in licensing the technology.
We sat down for a 12-course Cantonese lunch at a swanky restaurant. Introductions were made over the first few courses and I just couldn’t believe my luck, the food was the best cantonese I’d ever had’. After the fourth course, my client asked me to sit between the ceo and cio of the other firm and we dove into a deep technical discussion. After each course, the CEO would ask questions while the CIO ate and then they’d switch roles. As I was answering their questions, I noticed my plates piling up and then the waiters, to make room for new courses, started removing my untouched old courses. At the end of the meal we shook hands, they left and as I started to tuck into the three courses that were still on the table, my client said something like “c’mon, what are you doing, lunch is over!”
to be fair, he realized I was still was hungry and later in the day we stopped at a hawker center. The food was good but not as good as the food we had today at Glutton’s Bay. We had dark carrot cake, satay, rice rolls, mee goreng, hainese chicken and hot custard buns. We loved every dish, a memorable end to our stay in singapore.
I have the same problem, a meal that I’m too involved in conversation, food can easily become of second importance. Sometimes I have a hard remembering the meal, only a very general impression.
Enjoying reading, I haven’t visit Singapore yet but planning one day, so all information in HO will be handy one day.
I’d certainly would’ve also liked to know which restaurant they brought you to. The best Cantonese restaurant title has changed hands many times in Singapore in the past 3 decades: Lei Garden → Tung Lok → Crystal Jade Palace → Hua Ting → Imperial Treasure → Taste Paradise, and so on.
I’d certainly would’ve also liked to know which restaurant they brought you to.
Peter, it was 15-20 years ago. Unfortunately, none of us that were there that day recall the name of the restaurant.
I did have another memorable meal that trip: The in-country managing director was part-owner of a floating fish farm that sat between Singapore and Malaysia. We took his boat out to the farm and he asked the resident manager to pull up some live spiny lobster (or maybe it was crab) and fish from the nets and prepare a meal for us. The fish was perfectly prepared cantonese style and was wonderful!
