I traveled to Singapore last November for a small vacation. It was pretty muggy and the temperature was a little high for my liking but regardless of the climate, Singapore was worth every dollar I spent getting there. The diversity and uniqueness of the food is really what made my trip and while normally my vacations focus on landmarks and World Heritage Sites, this vacation was mostly about eating.
Every year, Singapore puts on a massive Food Festival. It’s filled with carnivals, workshops and promotions. Of course, I missed the Festival by a few months (it’s held in July) and I only know about it because of the tourism site I looked at while in the city. But it’s probably for the best that I missed the Festival because without carnivals and promotions, I was able to enjoy the diverse foods of Singapore in relative quiet and solitude.
My first stop was Singapore’s Little India. In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I’m a raving fan of Indian food. I love all of it but my favorite is North Indian and my tastes are fairly traditional. Singapore’s Little India had some of the dishes I was used to but the channa masala and dal makhani that I normally seek out were in short supply. Instead, Indian food in Singapore is heavily influenced by Tamil cuisine and most of the dishes I encountered were South Indian.
I hade some really great dosai while I was in Little India and one of the more curious places I stepped into was Komala’s. Komala’s is an Indian fast food restaurant where the menu is exclusively vegetarian, I had a masala dosai there and was surprised by the quality. In fact, I even looked them up to see if they had any international locations where I lived and although they have one restaurant in Ontario, there is no Komala’s in the United States.
Upset by the absence of Indian fast food franchises in my homeland, I decided to visit an historical site (something I’d been too distracted by food to do on the first three days of my visit). So with history in mind, I traveled over to the island of Sentosa to visit Fort Siloso.
Fort Siloso was a coastal battery constructed by the British in the late 19th century. It was destroyed during the Japanese invasion but was reconstructed as a museum during the 1970s. Today, it’s the only British-era battery open to the public. The tour took me about an hour and change and while it was an enjoyable site to see, it certainly wasn’t better than the food. That being said, it was fascinating to see a restored WWII battery complete with the guns.
Visiting the fort wasn’t the highlight of my trip but it was important to me to tour some of the historical sites while I was there. However, I did a lot less historical sightseeing than I usually do because I’ve never been to a place with such a diverse selection of fantastic food.