Traveling with the Jones

Last week we took the Chinatown Food Tasting & Cultural Walking Tour with Leo and Mindy of Food Tours Singapore.

After meeting them at the Tanjong Pagar MKT subway station, we headed to the nearby Singapore City Gallery for an overview of the history and transformation on Singapore over the last 50 years.

Leo and Mindy are from different generations, so it’s was fascinating to hear both of their perspectives.

Next we started the eating portion of the walking tour at the Maxwell Food Centre. Throughout the 4-hour tour we sampled more than 10 different foods popular with Singaporeans in a variety of locations from markets to street food to hawker stands.

First up was the famous Chicken Rice from the Tian Tain hawker stand.

When we put too much chili sauce on our chicken, a glass of fresh-pressed sugarcane juice hit the spot.

Next we tried the peanut soup from Ah Balling.  Initially, it tasted a little bland until you bit into the rice balls in the soup.

With each dish Leo and Mindy gave of both a Singaporean and personal history. They were also very conscious of any dietary considerations and sensitive to our food “comfort zone”.

Already getting full, we walked again and explored the market at Chinatown, with Mindy explaining Pandan leaves, a plant that is used in Singaporean dishes.

This market is spotlessly clean, although there are many unusual (to us) things for sale.

We bought some spices from Anthony the Spice Maker.

Upstairs, we sampled 3 more dishes from the food stalls.

Chwee Kueh is made of rice cakes that are topped with diced preserved radish and chili sauce. It’s delicious.

Another favorite was the Poh Piah — a fresh spring roll made with a soft, thin paper-like crepe wrapper stuffed with fresh vegetables and served with a chili sauce.

Ice Kachang is a dessert of shaved ice, beans, corn, mango – very unusual and yet very tasty and cooling in the Singapore heat and humidity.

Next we headed to the Chinatown Food Street, shut off to traffic and filled with all types of food.

This outdoor space has been shaded with a giant overhead umbrella-like structure.

We sample Pandan cake at the Pure Pandan bakery.

Then we watched the long line of people waiting for their turn to be served a large helping of Curry Chicken Noodle at Ah Heng in the Hong Lim Complex.  As good as this looked, we were simply too full to try it.

Finally, we cooled off with Iced Coffees and the famous Kaya Toast at Ya Kun. The toast is covered with butter and a sweet coconut and egg concoction while the coffee is made with a sock filter.

Leo and Mindy were a real pleasure as they patiently fielded our questions about the food and culture in Singapore.

Mindy wrote out recommendations for other food establishments for us to try while in Singapore.

We would easily recommend this tour. While we find it easy to get around Singapore, we never would have discovered the food locations and cuisine we experienced on this tour by ourselves.

We look forward to booking with Food Tours Singapore again on our next visit.

What’s your favorite Singaporean food? Please share in comments below.

We enjoy exploring new destinations through food tours.  You may want to check out”;..

• History, Food and Fun in San Juan with Spí¼n Food Tours
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We wanted to tour the Tiger Brewery during our visit to Singapore, but discovered that the brewery is located in an industrial area on the western end of the island not near an MRT station.

While it is possible to reach the brewery from downtown Singapore using a combination of the subway and buses, we decided to book the 3.5 Hour Singapore Tiger Brewery Tour through Get Your Guide, which includes bus transportation to the brewery with a pickup from your hotel.  This Get Your Guide tour costs just slightly more than buying the tour at brewery (without transportation).

We were picked up at the Conrad Hotel in a mini-van, and then transferred to a gathering area in Chinatown. As we were the only people for the Tiger Brewery Tour, we shared the same bus with those touring the Jurong Bird Park.  Once our bus dropped the others at the Bird Park, we headed to the brewery.

Once at the brewery, we were given a 90 -minute tour (which luckily for us it ended up being a personal tour by intern LeAnn.)

Like most major-brand brewery tours around the world, this one started off with a video of the history of Tiger Beer, and a collection of the bottles and advertising and promotional items for the beer over the years.

Launched in 1932 as a joint venture between Heineken International and Fraser and Neave, Tiger beer became Singapore’s first locally brewed beer.

The “It’s Time for a Tiger” slogan for Tiger Beer has run for decades since its inception in the 1930s.

Today Asia Pacific Breweries controls 30 breweries in 14 Asia Pacific region countries, selling more than 40 beer brands. APB is listed on the Singapore Exchange and is wholly owned by parent company Heineken International.

After learning about the brewing process for Tiger beer, we paused for a photo near the “bottle” sculpture that leads into the Packaging Gallery.

Here we learned the proper way to pour a draught beer.

Mr. Jones required extra lessons.

At the end of the tour we headed to the Tiger Tavern for a tasting session.  Being that this was late in the day on a Friday afternoon, we got to witness a going-away party for two Tiger employees, which was fun to watch as we enjoyed our beer.

We also enjoyed shopping at the Tiger Den, the store with unique Tiger souvenirs.  Our favorite: a mini-fan that keeps you cool in the Singapore heat and spells out “Here’s to Tiger Time.”

What brewery tour have you enjoyed? Please share your thoughts in comments below.

Planning a visit to Singapore?  Check out these other posts from our visits:

• A Little Walk Through Little India with The Original Singapore Walks
• Photo Friday: White Tigers at the Singapore Zoo
• Photo Friday: Elephant Feeding Time at the Singapore Zoo
• Anthony Bourdain Knows What He’s Talking About: Unbelievably Good Food at the Singapore Grand Hyatt Hotel
• Destination Discovery: Marina Bay Sands Sky Park, Singapore

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We are exploring Singapore this week and decided to take the Dhobis, Saris and a Spot of Curryâ„¢ – A Little India Walk walking tour with The Original Singapore Walks.

We had previously taken some walks with this same company three years ago when we visited Singapore, and had found them interesting and informative on different neighborhoods in the city.

We also like the flexibility of The Original Singapore Walks — you just show up at the scheduled time and location and pay the guide on the spot — no advance booking required.

As we are heading to India on a cruise out of Singapore, we taught it would be interesting to start learning about the Indian culture in Singapore.

We were not disappointed.

Lifelong Singaporean Carol Dragon was our guide, and she is a wealth of knowledge on Little India and Singapore in general.

We learned about the history of little India, and the different influences on architecture in this area of Singapore.

We visited an Indian food market and learned the secrets to making a proper curry.

We learned about this long bean-like vegetable used in India cooking, an its amazing health properties.

We learned about the importance of bright, 24-karat gold in the Indian culture.

One of our tour group participants volunteered for the henna demonstration.

The sari store was a brightly-colored delight for the senses.

Another tour participant volunteered for the sari-tying demonstration.

Finally, we headed to a Hindi temple, watched the service in progress, and got a detailed explanation of Hinduism.

These were just a sampling of the things we learned during this 3.5 hour tour.  If you want to learn about the history and culture of Singapore, try to take one of the walks with The Original Singapore Walks.

Do you enjoy walking tours? Please share your thoughts in comments below.

Planning a visit to Singapore?  Check out these other posts from our prior visit:

• Photo Friday: White Tigers at the Singapore Zoo
• Photo Friday: Elephant Feeding Time at the Singapore Zoo
• Anthony Bourdain Knows What He’s Talking About: Unbelievably Good Food at the Singapore Grand Hyatt Hotel
• Destination Discovery: Marina Bay Sands Sky Park, Singapore

Follow us on Twitter or interact with us on Facebook