Singapore Foodcation during Chinese New Year

I'll tell you very frankly , I was very annoyed . Annoyed over the fact that the island republic had garnered so many Michelin starred food outlets , I just had to go find out for myself if this was indeed a farce or not . 

How outrageous !

A lot of Malaysians ( muah too ) , did suspect that perhaps those Caucasians in charge of awarding the coveted little sparklers , did not know what to look for in South East Asian cuisines and thus insinuated rather glaringly that it had been awarded rather unjustly and unfairly  . I can understand where they are coming from , completely , since , you know , most of us think that it is our people who go there and cook up fantastic fare for them . Still , that nagging feeling of a what if sits at the back of the head and stays there for good till you really need to get down and see for yourself to set things right once and for all .

So this Chinese New Year , seeing how Bangkok was so wet , balmy and prone to flooding , as was the rest of the peninsula , and the fact that the island was just one and a half hour's flight away ( was so bloody cheap I tell you , it would have cost more for us to fly to Langkawi or even KL ! ), we packed our bags and went to see if THEY were wrong or WE were indeed wronged .

I swear I wasn't trying to strike a retro Shanghai chinese sausage tin babe pose , the wind was so strong that my strap fell out on one side but I didn't know that thus I had to crop that tooooo sexy part out 

I can now report back to you that I have been humbled by the experience .

Their food versions are quite different from ours . There is no freaking way , we can lay claim to what may seem to be a similar named dish served in Singapore when tastewise , it can sometimes be world's apart .

Have to admit that most of the Sinkie food operators are indeed good at what they do , and their cuisine is indeed as ours was once upon a time  ( because let's admit it dammnit , our standards are really going down the longkang ) , simply marvellous and unforgettable , with impeccable standards no home chef can replicate on their own . 

Which is the main reason why we eat out so much in the first place .

With the Malaysian dollar at such a staggering limbo rock level , one might think it was a mad capped plan to go down there , when they all come up here to eat right ?

By the time we convert our ringgit , one rightly feels like a pauper .

That's fine if you emphasise on cheap ( think JB ), but if you insist on quality , that 3.35 exchange rate , is the price you have to pay , that entrance ticket that gives you access to and takes you back to the good old times .

Great old food at sky high prices , that is the reality for us Malaysians when we choose to dine in our southern neighbours quarters .

While , we were able to see a lot and travel almost everywhere for under SGD 6.70 a day with the help of the Tourist Travel Card above , the majority of our moolah went to food . Which turns out to be pretty costly even if you limit yourself to foodstands and food court complexes .

Was it worth it for us ? Well at this time of the year , even though there were not many places open , I have to say that we did have a positive experience .

Also , there will be more local folks ( more Sinkies  , less Malaysians ,less PRC's , a lot of Indians and pockets of Pinoys ) which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you view stuff and race relations but hey , we even went right into the heart of Little India which took some of them by surprise that if they could , they would have rolled out the red carpet for us . Now that was special .

So yes , it was a worthwhile , eye opening , stomach filling trip which left us hankering for more .

It may have been a rushed and quick jaunt , so rushed in fact , at some places all I took was one pic after we were done , thus in the following posts , that is sometimes what you will see , as I absolutely did not see any other baboon apart from yours truly photographing her food !

Which is a shame really , so do please get down to the business of eating when you are there because it is so worthy of that Michelin honor , you don't need to feel shy about bragging anymore .

Just do it . Puh leezzz.