Singapore swing

MILLIE: Best friends are forever and they are they best to accompany you on a journey through peaks and valleys. They are the best rocks to cling to when you stumble or fall. They are there for you through good times and bad, through laughter and tears. I recently took a break with my best friend, Verne Reyes, and we had a grand time in Singapore! It’s not the first time we’ve traveled together in the 37 years we’ve known each other. We were together at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She used to live in LA and we’ve traveled to San Francisco and Napa Valley together, Las Vegas, Acapulco, Hong Kong and Macau, to name a few places. We get along very well and like to do similar things, like eating and shopping.

In Singapore, we stayed three nights at the posh Marina Bay Sands, comfortably enjoying and just being ourselves. One of the highlights of the trip was taking a dip in the infinity pool on the 57th floor, which overlooks the Singapore skyline, while sipping champagne. We explored and dined in Singapore’s finest restaurants and had some unique finds, and we did a bit of shopping as well.

I was exceptionally impressed by Marina Bay Sands’ Chinese restaurant Jin Shan’s Kitchen, which served exquisite dim sum! Their steamed siomai with baby abalone and caviar was simply delightful!

A healthy option: Spinach prepared with three kinds of egg

Dinner at the Majestic Hotel’s restaurant with Verne and my Singaporean friend John Tan, who hosted us, was simply memorable. Between the three of us, we finished off two bottles of wine and shared so much laughter we were almost in tears. The chef-patron Yong Bing Ngen outdid himself again with a fusion menu that surpassed gastronomic expectations. We savored salmon tartar with a small mixed salad in a light soy vinaigrette. Braised shark’s-fin broth with crabmeat served in a clay pot was simply wonderful. Next came a pleasing combination of fried coral prawns in chili sauce served with rice crackers and buttery-tasting fresh oysters fried to a light crispness. The next course was totally perfect, pan-seared fillet of rib eye in a special homemade sesame sauce. To end a great meal, we were served chilled avocado puree with ice cream and sago, which John and I both shared.

Breakfast at the hotel was heavy and hearty and we would skip lunch every day. There was a selection of cereals, freshly baked breads and breakfast pastries, from muffins to Danishes, as well as an assortment of cold cuts and salmon, soft and hard cheeses, salad greens, fresh fruits, fruit juices and a wide variety of hot dishes that would satisfy hunger pangs to the max!

KARLA: My Singapore trip was about a month before mom’s. And unlike her, my trip with my friends was budgeted, of course, because we were spending our own money. We stayed at a rather small but clean hotel, but we didn’t really mind because it was really just a place to drop off our shopping bags and sleep at the end of the day.

As Mom and her best friend were living it up, by contrast, my friends and I were exploring Singapore on foot and by MTR. We felt like we were locals shopping in Bugis and various outlet stores like Charles & Keith, and even had a taxi service on speed dial on my Singapore SIM just in case we didn’t know where we were anymore.

I was traveling with RJ Arciga and Sigrid Esguerra, whose main purpose for the trip was to shop. Miguel Balmaceda and I, our main purpose was, well… to eat! So our itineraries were basically built around where the two girls wanted to shop and where Mig and I wanted to eat, which was a good balance for the trip. While mom and Tita Verne enjoyed staying in the hotel or within the vicinity, my friends and I were going as far from the hotel as possible, and the smaller and more hole-in-the-wall the restaurant, the better. At some point, we even had a 7-Eleven dinner to compare with the 7-Eleven food we have back home.

Breakfast was our lightest meal of the day. Although we stayed at a small hotel, we did have free breakfast but they served only vegetarian food. So we decided to venture out for breakfast every day. We discovered iced Horlicks, the Milo Dinosaur, and an interesting dish perfect for appetizers called kueh pie tee. It’s a thin and crispy pastry tart shell filled with thinly sliced vegetables, peanuts, spicy-sweet sauce, onions, parsley, etc. Well, it’s just like fresh lumpia but in a crispy cup. I’d rather call them lumpia shots. Haha! As soon as I got back, I made my own version using filo pastry filled with creamed mushrooms. Yum!

Other interesting snacks we tried were the wafer iced cream, which we saw on the street on the way back to the hotel, and the crispy pancake in Bugis. It’s basically overcooked pancake — enough to make it crispy — with different kinds of fillings you can choose from.

When the group said they wanted to have some Hainanese chicken rice, I immediately thought of Boon Tong Kee on Balestier Road. Every time we’re in Singapore, Boon Tong Kee is a must stopover. For dinner, we had the chicken rice, of course, and spinach with three kinds of egg.

A taste of Singapore: Mildly chili-spiced Szechuan prawn

My friends were pretty worried that I’d take them to some expensive restaurant, but boy, were they surprised when we got the bill. Our meal was actually very affordable. Now, don’t expect something with a really nice ambiance. Boon Tong Kee is really just a side-street restaurant for casual dining. 

On the third night, we tried another popular Hainanese chicken rice place named Wee Nam Kee. Although their sauce was pretty good and their cereal prawns were good, the group agreed that Boon Tong Kee still had the best Hainanese chicken rice.

MILLIE: A trip to Singapore would not be complete without a meal at the popular Boon Tong Kee for Hainan chicken rice and the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant for chili crabs. I’m glad we found time to do both. It’s quite unfortunate that we did not get to visit the Banana Leaf Curry House that serves the best fish-head curry in Singapore. With all the eating we did, it’s a wonder we did not gain a pound! That’s because my best friend, who’s sexy, fit and trim, is such a good influence that she knows how to make me either walk or dance off the unwanted pounds. My dad thinks she’s also a “bad influence,” but, hey, at our age, I’d like to think we’re just having good, clean fun! After all, that’s what life is all about so … enjoy it!

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read on articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.