Solo in Singapore: a bit of background; a school night in Joo Chiat, plus Asador review; authentic heartland Chinese chow; Singapore Polo Club and Boat Quay; what’s new in Orchard Road; Basilico champagne brunch and CHIJMES cocktails; Seletar and Sentosa; feeling at home
This is supposed to be Travels with Verne and Roy – so what was I doing gallivanting off solo to Singapore?
Well, I’d just taken on a new role at my long time employer/client, Expat Living magazine, a glossy monthly publication that’s been going for 20 years, It also has a fabulous website that’s invaluable to expats and equally beloved by local Singaporeans. (Do take a look!)
Roy and I were stationed in Singapore for more than 15 years – from late 2000 until he retired in May 2016. I’ve been with EL since 2005, with a brief lull during the recent Plague Years. Now, I needed to reconnect with the EL team, and to spend some time with its editor-in-chief, my friend Rebecca.
Day One
So, that was my excuse for boarding an overpriced Qantas flight from Perth to Singapore last Thursday. To be fair, at around $1,500 it was the cheapest one to depart at a reasonable hour. Also, the service was efficient and friendly enough, the food was fine, and we touched down at 5.30pm, more or less on schedule.
Leaving Perth:
My hosts, Paul and Florie
A $30 taxi-ride got me to Paul and Florie’s beautifully renovated penthouse apartment in the Serangoon area, where I’d be spending the week. Paul, Roy and I go back more than 20 years and have heaps of history together.
Dinner in Joo Chiat
And by 7.30pm I was knocking on the impressive old door of Sue’s gorgeous new home in Lotus @ Joo Chiat – a three-storey heritage shophouse development in the East Coast neighbourhood of Joo Chiat.
I hadn’t seen Sue or Malinda for nearly three years. Lynn, though, is married to Kim, a Western Australian. You might remember her from this post about Roy freezing his bollocks off when we glamped on their Margaret River property one wintry evening last year.
Asador
The upmarket Asador in Joo Chiat is a convenient 200 metres down the road from Sue’s. Though the highlight for me was the signature cochinillo, suckling pig ($118 for 1/4) that’s pre-brined and then roasted to crispy, succulent perfection in their wood-fired oven, the other dishes were outstanding too: anchoas, or anchovies on toast ($10 for two); col, or charred cabbage with burnt spring onion ranch, wakame and noisette butter ($12); calamar, or squid with caramelised onions and peppers ($28); and piquillo peppers ($14).
Though it was a school night, Sue allowed us back to her place for more drinks and late-night munchie snacks. Just as I was calling a cab, Malinda declared it was time to dance… so who knows what time that little party was eventually wound up?
Day 2 – Polo Club and Boat Quay
We like to say that Singapore has two seasons: hot and wet, and hotter and wetter. But Paul tells me that since May or June this year, they’ve been having the sort of cloudy, rainy and relatively cooler weather you generally get here only in December and January. Well, today it poured.
I met Rebecca and the EL editorial team on the deep, wide verandah of the Singapore Polo Club for their regular editors’ meeting, overlooking the verdant playing fields in the pouring rain. Well, why not? It was great to catch up with her again, and to meet new members of the team. We all ordered something self-righteously low carb, healthy and yet tasty from the Nourish section of The Paddock Bistro menu.
After some boring banking stuff, I met up with another lovely client, Kristen, at Belle Epoque on Boat Quay. We both chose the Yuppie cocktail, which went to prove that we’re kindred spirits. (But we knew that already.)
She heads up sales and marketing for Bawah Reserve, an Indonesian island paradise that has recently re-opened. Click on the link, and try not to drool. What with the plague and all, I haven’t managed to get there yet. But it’s on the cards… and if Roy plays his right, he might just get lucky too.
Going local – transport and food-wise
Having been in Singapore for less than 24 hours and spent nearly S$100 on taxis, it was time to switch to public transport – so I headed for Clarke Quay MRT station. My EZ-Link card still worked, and the $12 stored value on it meant I was good for at least seven or eight journeys by train or bus.
Back home in Potong Pasir, I found that Paul and Florie had booked dinner at Westlake Chinese restaurant. You never find it unless you knew where to go. It’s located in an HDB (Housing Development Board) residential complex that is typically and authentically local – the vast majority of Singaporeans live in this sort of development. They aren’t condos – they don’t have swimming pools and gyms – but they’re decent, well maintained, and well served by community facilities and transport networks.
We over-ordered, we over-ate (or at least I did), and still there were leftovers to take away or tapau (say ta-pow). Special fried rice, baby kalian in oyster sauce, black pepper crab, tofu, steamed pork dumplings, tender venison stir-fried with ginger and spring onions. You can bring your own wine to places like these, which is a huge advantage. Thanks, Paul and Florie!
Day 3 – Walking Orchard Road
I started by taking the MRT train from Potong Pasir to Dhoby Ghaut station, planning to walk back up Orchard Road to Scotts Road, which I’ve done so many hundreds of times in the past. (That’s because we rented at Belle Vue, Oxley Rise for our first four years in Singapore; and then in our own home at Townhouse Apartments, Cavenagh Road, for the next five.)
Translated from Hindi, Dhoby Ghaut means roughly “the place where laundry is done”, as there used to be a freshwater spring here, known as Sungei Beras Basah, where professional Indian washermen (or dhobies) would gather do laundry and lay it out to dry on the banks.
It’s only been three years, and much of Orchard Road looked the same. (To me, anyway – but I am famously unobservant.)
This is something new – Design Orchard, a retail space that promotes Singapore designers and local brands. (In fact, I’ve been assigned to write a feature on it for Expat Living magazine.)
This was also new – a bar advertising $5 glasses of wine and $3 oysters!
Eggslut? Bizarre.
My main purpose in coming to Orchard today was to have a fantastic facial at the highly recommended La Source Spa & Salon, located in what used to be the Hilton and is now the oddly named Voco Hotel. (The new Hilton is now where Meritus Mandarin used to be, upstairs from the massively in-your-face Victoria’s Secret shop window.)
Raffles City
The North-South MRT line took me the four quick stops from Orchard to City Hall and what used to be my favourite mall, Raffles City. We stayed at the Westin here the very first time I came to Singapore, with Roy, in the early 90s. I’d heard that the famous Robinsons department store had closed its doors forever, but it was still a shock to see how totally changed the mall was since the departure of its stalwart anchor tenant.
Beauty Spot
Located in Wisma Atria mall on Orchard Road, Yann Beyrie Paris is one of Singapore’s top hair salons. As Yann is a client of Expat Living, and I’m the magazine’s lucky new Beauty Editor, I had the pleasure of a superb hair treatment. Here I am with stylist Nich.
Day 4 – Sunday Champagne Brunch
Sunday brunch buffet with free-flow drinks (meaning eat and drink all you can) is a Singapore expat institution. It’s an occasional treat; and when you do it, it’s generally the focal point of the day.
If I remember correctly, the price for the package including beer, wines and Duval Leroy champagne was $195 a head. It’s less if you take the Prosecco option, and less again if you limit yourself to soft drinks. (Fortunately, none of us was pregnant, to our knowledge.)
Here we are at Basilico, Regent Hotel: me, Lynn, Malinda and Bas, Paul and Florie, and Paul and Salinah. They gave us a private room, which was nice! Top marks went to the cold seafood (though no oysters, sadly), the truffle-infused mushroom risotto, and particularly the cheese. I reckon the Ritz-Carlton’s Colony offers a wider, better Sunday brunch selection complete with foie gras, oysters etc. (or at least it did); but Basilico was fine.
Once they’d kicked us out, well after closing time, someone suggested CHIJMES* for another drink. It seemed like a good idea, so here we are. (Note: CHIJMES stands for Church of the Holy Infant Jesus, and is an F&B complex located in a converted convent.)
DAY 5 – More Orchard Road, and Diwali Dining
Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung is one of my favourite places of all time, and there are more than several branches in Singapore. Orchard Road shopping mall Wisma Atria has a branch, and that’s where Rebecca treated me to lunch: truffled pork dumplings, vegetable dumplings, beef tendon soup, seaweed vegetable salad, all washed down with green tea.
Some things never change
I’m glad to report that some things hadn’t changed. The shopping mall linking Orchard with Wheelock Place, Shaw House and Tangs was as bright, beautiful and crowded as ever. (Not in this pic, which I took before the shops open at 10 or 11am.)
Though Robinson’s and Marks & Spencer have disappeared from Raffles City, the M&S at Wheelock Place continues to flourish – even looks bigger than before. In celebration, it seemed only fitting that I should buy a bra from the world’s best lingerie department.
And the ice cream vendors continue to ply their trade along Orchard Road. I would have stopped for a slice of bright-green durian sorbet sandwiched between two wafers, but the queue was too long.
This being the Deepavali (Diwali) holiday, the larger-than-life Paul and his sweet wife Salinah kindly took me to dinner at Punjab Grill in the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes. Afterwards, tea at the TWG teashop, and then home in a cab with a hilarious driver from Schenzen. (If you want to know what’s really going on in the country, ask a Singapore cabbie.)
DAY 6 – SEO in Seletar, and Sentosa Cocktails
Today was devoted to Expat Living. I took a cab to Editor-in-Chief Rebecca’s house in the British colonial black-and-white* enclave of Seletar, and we spent a couple of hours going over fascinating stuff such as SEO. For lunch, I’d brought chicken rice and pastries from the hawker centre at Potong Pasir. (You can tell I think I’m on holiday.)
- Black-and-whites are the colonial houses built between 1903 and 1928 for British military officials. Only about 500 are still standing.
That evening, a staff get-together at the new One Altitude Bar at The Outpost, Sentosa. Present: Rebecca, Judit, Jacqui, Karin, Patricea, Susan and Georgina. I had at least one too many cocktails, naturally.
DAY 7 – Wrapping Up
The Potong Pasir neighbourhood of Toa Payoh town is wonderfully conveniently located – thanks again for having me, Paul and Florie! With an hour or two to spare, I took a walk along the Kallang River, and then through Poiz Centre at Potong Pasir MRT station, through the hawker centre to another smaller hawker centre near this Indian temple.
Before I knew it, it was time for a last shower to wash away the Singapore stickiness, close my bags and use the Gojek app to call a cab to Changi airport.
Feeling at home?
It took a day or two for me to settle down to Singapore life, but then I felt completely at home once more. Roy and I will both be back for a week at the end of January 2023, followed possibly by a week in Thailand.
And my bones tell me it won’t be long until the next trip, either.
Fascinating reading about Singapore today, from an ex-resident’s viewpoint. Congratulations on your new position!
Thanks, Gay!
What a lovely article Verne. Would love to actually visit.