The last time I had ever flown anywhere was from Singapore back in 2020, so it was funny that my first post-pandemic flight would be to there. I went on the 25th of March.
Singapore was my home for almost 12 years, so going back was a nostalgic trip. I had switched jobs in February – my former boss hired me back. But I’m the only one in Hong Kong while my teammates are in Singapore and New York. Sandra, our big boss in New York, decided to send me to Singapore for 3 days so I could reconnect with my teammates, which was really very sweet of her! I asked to fly in the weekend before so I could meet up with other friends.
Staycation with Jemma
When I landed at the airport on Saturday, Jemma, my former flatmate, picked me up. We rode a bus to Jewel, where I posed with the famous indoor waterfall and we had lunch at a food court. I was so excited they had Huat Huat bbq chicken, which is one of my fave SG dishes. I later joined the long queue for Birds of Paradise gelato and got my fave cacao mint flavour. I also got to try the famous expensive Laderach chocolate.
Jemma and I then checked into a hotel where we were having a staycation. We took a dip in the swimming pool which was really cold because it was raining that day.
Then we headed to Clarke Quay to look for dinner. I noted that Clark Quay is now dead compared to how it was in the pre pandemic times. A lot of restaurants had shuttered up, so the areas where they used to be no longer had lights on, and this had an impact on the river which used to be bathed with lots of light.
We looked at a lot of restaurants for local food that I missed, and eventually ended up at Jumbo Seafood. I made sure not to order crab – which luckily Jemma didn’t want to eat anyway – because I knew my teammates and I were having that for dinner one night. But we ordered the chilli crab sauce with the mantou or as my teammate calls it – the poor man’s chilli crab.
We also ordered cereal prawns and salted egg prawns because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted more. When the bill came, I was surprised at how expensive it was, for a Singapore meal anyway – over 100 sgd. I realized I had never paid for a Jumbo Seafood meal before ever. It was always for a work outing, so it was free.
This led to the realization that I rarely paid for expensive meals in Singapore before, I remember that I considered 50 sgd per pax to be very expensive already. That’s because my friends and I were usually eating at hawker centers or food courts which have really delicious food for under 10 sgd.
After our meal, we walked around Clarke Quay towards this colourful building.
The next day, we headed to a nearby hawker because I was determined to eat my most favourite food in Singapore – hokkien mee. That place had a famous one. Unfortunately when we got there, the stall was closed! Turns out it was closed on Sundays. Ugh.
So did we eat something else there anyway? Nope. We rode an Uber to another hawker – ABC Brickworks. Havelock Rd Blk 50 Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee had a stall there and they were open! Yay!
It was really yummy. Craving solved.
To be honest, in the past I never really cared about whether a stall was famous or not, I just bought hokkien mee when it was available at a food court, and most of the time, they tasted good!
We also had roast meat, baos, and icy desserts from a stall called Jin Jin Dessert.
Violet Oon with Elma and Bryce
For dinner, I met up with my friend Elma and her son Bryce at a restaurant called Violet Oon in Ion Orchard. I had never tried this restaurant before, but apparently it’s famous for Peranakan food. It looks so fancy!
Elma said Bryce was so excited to see me that he ran through the mall. Awww. I was very happy to see them both. Unfortunately Brian could not make it because he was not feeling well that day.
We ordered a bunch of different food. Maybe too much, because the servers kept forgetting to serve us something and we had to remind them several times. But the good thing about being in a nice restaurant is they make up for their mistakes, so they gave us what they forgot to serve – the kueh and desserts – for free.
Lunches with Colleagues
I stayed at Jemma’s place for a night, then checked into my work-provided hotel room at Village Hotel Katong on Monday morning. I was pleasantly surprised when they allowed an early check in. The room was enormous, with 2 huge beds.
Then I took an Uber to work and I wasn’t paying attention to the outside when the driver pulled up and asked me if this was the drop off. I thought it was the wrong one because it looked so different! During the pandemic, they had revamped our office building. The outside now has lots of plants and the lobby looks like a hotel.
The inside of our office also looked very different now. They had gotten rid of one of our floors and revamped the first floor to make way for the new normal – hybrid hot-desking.
The new pantry had Nespresso machines and I loved getting coffee there now. Our old coffee machines used to have acidic coffee beans which we didn’t like, so much so that my boss Evelyn brought her own Nespresso machine before.
While walking around, I ran into Marlon, a colleague who is now based in Canada but happened to be in town. Later, his boss Girish walked into the room where we were (named Hong Kong, which my teammate Yan Ming booked as a joke) and invited us all out to lunch with Marlon and a few other people. We asked if our former teammate Guohao could join, because we were supposed to be having lunch with him. He said sure. I worked with Girish a lot before, so he knows us well.
We headed to The Nest, a restaurant in Laguna Golf Club which was for members only. The place had huge windows that had a splendid view of the golf course.
The Nest had a lot of local food options on their menu, so I ordered beef hor fun. I also had some of the sides that they had already ordered and the fried chicken was so good. I was also very excited to see Magners cider on the menu because that’s my favourite cider now.
Not all my lunches would be this fancy, though, for the next 2 days I was happy to choose Song Fa bak kut teh and Wee Nam Kee chicken rice which Evelyn, Yan Ming and I could walk to from the office. It was nice to have lunch together with them again, like we used to do everyday.
After Office Dinners
Evelyn said that since I was now a Singapore visitor, I should be treated like one and we should therefore find a rooftop bar with a view of the Marina Bay Sands. She found a place called Altro Zafferano for our pre-dinner drinks. It does have a nice view indeed! I ordered the Singapore sling which was very refreshing and not overly sweet.
For dinner we went to a restaurant called Mama Diam, which has the concept of a speakeasy. The front of the restaurant has a fake shop that looks like this.
But then when you go inside it looks completely different, like a bar type restaurant. You can see the effect in an Instagram reel I made.
They serve fusion food, so it was really interesting, because they’re not common. I loved the green mango salad best. We were also really happy with the fried cauliflower that tasted like Korean fried chicken.
The next night, we met up with former teammates (and my former bosses) Vivek and Nic for pre-dinner drinks at The Winery Gourmet, a bar in Katong. They had a huge selection of wines to choose from, but Evelyn decided to choose a sweet one for me because she knows I like that even though most people don’t. The server recommended Valpolicella, a sweet red. It was very sweet, but yes I did like it, but it’s definitely not for everyone!
We also chose vegetarian appetizers to accommodate Vivek. They were clearly marked with [V] on the menu, and I cracked a joke that this must mean V for Vivek.
Vivek couldn’t join us for dinner, but the rest of us headed to Jumbo Seafood, this time in East Coast Park, so we could have chilli crab. It was yummy!
I was very touched that my busy former bosses carved out time to meet up with me. It was nice to catch up with everyone again.
The next night, my last night in Singapore, I was determined to eat my favourite Awfully Chocolate cake, which for some reason I craved so badly in Hong Kong.
Elma texted to ask what my plans were for the night and said she wanted to join me. It rained very heavily that night, so when we met up at the restaurant in Katong, we had soaking wet feet. I’m glad I bought an umbrella at the airport even though it was kinda expensive!
I don’t remember what we ordered as a main, but it was pretty good. I suppose it was overshadowed by the dessert – chocolate cake with Hei chocolate ice cream. Craving sorted!
I was touched that Elma wanted to see me again, and went out of her way to see me on a work night even though she lives far away.
I’m really grateful and happy that I got a chance to catch up with Singapore friends again coz I really missed them! I also really enjoyed eating all the food because one thing Singapore is really known for is the food – the delicious, cheap food!
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