37. Day / 4th winter trip

Since I knew that the 'Scarlet' is located directly opposite 'Maxwell Food Court', I had booked without breakfast.

Due to no breakfast we slept-in, then, at 10:30, directly left for the food court to have some food.


Destination was 'Tian Tian Hainan Chicken Rice'.


Yes, it is a little touristic, especially since they won the battle over Gordon Ramsey. In addition also Anthony Bourdain had awarded TianTian the title for the best chicken rice.


We arrived and after only about 15 minutes our half-chicken with two servings of rice and chili sauce was served, at about US $ 10 (expensive for Singapore).

We took a table and glazed at our breakfast,


mouthwatering!

Now I'm not a big friend of Chicken-Rice, often t's just glibbery & tasteless. But at 'TianTian' it's different: already the rice is wonderful, not overcooked, with great chicken flavor - one could eat it solo with the chilli sauce. But one would miss something, because the chicken is outstanding, as far as taste and consistency are concerned. Nothing is rubbery, no piece dry. In combination with the light sauce, the cucumber pieces and, above all, the coriander, this dish is hard to beat.

Actually, we were full already, but we needed to get an oyster cake, greasy, full of flavor. So to the appropriate stall (Fuzhou Oyster Cake)


and had one of these deep fried pastry, filled with oysters, pork, and herbs, at S $ 2.

The bite in this hot piece is an experience of greasy, oyster, spices ...


V. wanted something sweet, I urgently needed 'kopi', the typical Singaporean coffee from a 'kopi team', a coffee shop. Anyone traveling to Singapore should avoid coffee from Italian outlets and especially this store for brown water, Starbucks. The best coffee one gets at a kopi tiam, many of them located in Hawker centers (food courts). Looking at the preparation is fun, the way the glass-cup is heated by means of hot water, then the kopi is poured, reminds a bit of a tea ceremony.

The coffee is strong and sweet on request, costs S $ 0.90.


Afterwards we wanted to look at the development of Singapore, went to the Singapore City Gallery (free of charge, opposite of Maxwell Food Court).


Here one can learn about the history of modern Singapore, from a fishing village, including great models.






Innovations from Singapore are also being displayed, e.g. this collection bag for dog droppings.


Back to the hotel,


recovered - before I went to the gym.

I had also chosen 'The Scarlet' because it offers a gym. But the gym was just a great disappointment:


Although there was one of this stupid multifunctional machines - however, all the necessary parts and bits were missing. The internet worked so badly I could not even hear music.

So I completed what was possible, was finished after an hour. V. was surprised I came back so quickly.

Had my Protein shake and went off, V. was already hungry again, incomprehensible to me. Again to Maxwell Food Court, where we got a portion of highly praised fried Shanghai-Tim-Sum,


8 pieces at S $ 4,


V. ate 6, me one. I must confess that these fried 'pelmeni' tasted were very tasty.


These were served with two very different dips, I preferred the garlic-ginger-vinegar variant, V. the chilli sauce.

When we wanted to return the plate with still one Tim-Sum remaining, the elderly stand owner rejected, we would have to eat the one piece left. Okay, Fifty-Fifty shared and the grandma was happy.

V. was still hungry, and so there was once again the wonderful BBQ honey duck, but today with noodles.


We both agreed, with rice version tasted better.

A quick cup of steaming hot kopi was sipped, and we went to the Buddha-Tooth-Temple, which we had already seen from the outside when we went to change money.

Inside, there was a prayer going on.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Ko...ature=youtu.be

Since V. could not enter wearing hot-pants, we went further down the street


to the Hindu shrine.

There were capes for V. available, I was allowed in in shorts and T-shirt (sometimes it's good to be a man).


Everything was quite nice and, unlike in India, very clean and odor free. Here we came to the conclusion: a Hindu shrine without the dirt and smell = missing atmosphere.

Out to the street, through Chinatown, passing great buildings,




back to the hotel.

In the evening, we were meeting friends who are living in Singapore, at the Japanese restaurant 'Hakumai'


inside International Plaza, about 750 meters from our hotel.

Since we had lost the way, we arrived a bit too late, our friends were already waiting.

It was funny that exactly in this restaurant, by accident, we had lunch last year - without knowing that it was the restaurant our friends selected to dinner that evening. They were also somewhat surprised, that we knew this somewhat remote restaurant already.

Our friends chose the 'Omakase' menu, so to speak the 'surprise menu'.

At this point it's better to let just photos talk:




















The offer was brilliant, only the ice-cream wasn't at the same level, was basically too simple after the other dishes.

We together walked to our hotel, past a few very interesting vending-machines,


took a drink (or two) at the roof terrace of 'The Scarlet', had a very pleasant conversation.

Around midnight we called it a night, our friends took an UBER, we were still packing suitcases.