Singapore

Mango pudding, apparently.

I stayed in Singapore for two nights, which gave me time to recuperate from my lengthy journey from Cambodia. Although I love many different aspects of this city, the main activity for me is to steadily work my way through the many varieties of international cuisines. As far as I have discovered, Singapore serves the best food in the world. I have so many favourite dishes, and I think I managed to eat most of them in my short time here.

From the Malay stalls in the food courts there's laksa, a spicy coconut soup with thick yellow noodles, crushed peanuts, and crispy pieces of fried beancurd and king prawns floating on the top. You can find nasi lemak; coconut rice fried with pandan leaves and ikan bili, dried anchovies. Crispy roasted chicken rice topped with sliced pickled green chillies makes an excellent breakfast. From the Chinatown bakeries there's chicken baozi, a crispy Chinese pastry filled with dark meat and sesame seeds; an excellent snack between the frequent meals. One night I ordered crispy seafood noodles, which arrived sprinkled with various sea creatures with and without tentacles, and all delicious. You can order fish head curry, which looks exactly how it sounds, or carrot cake, which does not. There are giant, soft, fresh spring rolls, and tiny crispy fried ones. On to Little India and its red-orange tandoori chicken served with tiny limes; prata, a thin flaky roti dipped in curry sauce; and enormous dosa, a rolled pancake a foot long, filled with curried potatoes and served with masala, coconut and chilli sauces. For me no trip to Singapore is complete without satay: marinated meat brochettes - chicken, pork, lamb, beef - dipped in spicy peanut sauce and served with fresh cucumber and Tiger beer.

I keep myself sustained between meals with iced coffees laden with condensed milk, and every imaginable iced fruit juice: pink watermelon, an instant rehydrator; papaya, foamy fresh orange; lime with tiny fruit halves bobbing around in it; sharp appley guava; tart and grassy starfruit; mango so thick it's served with an extra wide straw; and of course the fresh coconuts. There are other beverages: bubble tea, barley juice, soya bean juice, and tea bars serving different flavours of tea, including "coffee tea". When I asked if this was coffee, the answer was "yes". I was suspicious, so I asked if it was tea. The answer was "yes". I hadn't yet had my morning intake of caffeine and the risks were too high for me to try it, so I remain mystified.

Fruits line the side of every market: bright pink dragonfruit with green scales and white spotted flesh; pisang mas, the tiny, sweet bananas; juicy segmented mangosteens with a dark red shell that stains the fingers, little longans with their translucent lychee-like insides; hairy maroon rambutans; bright thick-skinned Chinese apricots; juicy yellow mangos and unripe green mangos, eaten with a salt-chilli-sugar mix; and the large spiny durians with their pale creamy flesh, so smelly that they are banned from public transport.

Chinatown bakery

For a more sugary dessert you can buy ice kachang; a towering multicoloured cone of shaved ice, dripping with brightly coloured sugar syrups, condensed milk, red beans, and sweetcorn. I wanted something fairly small and light on my first afternoon, so I ordered a mango pudding, expecting a simple puréed dessert. Instead I was handed a huge bowl of ice, condensed milk, green and red jelly, and white and coloured tapioca pearls, with a mango pudding perched precariously on top, drenched with more sweet milk.

Each time I come to Singapore the list of foods I want to eat grows longer, as I return to my familiar favourites and discover new ones along the way. There are never enough mealtimes.

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