ASIA NEWS

Food is cheap in Asia and I ate like a king. I’m adventurous in this regard: I generally don’t mind shoving random foreign foodstuffs into my mouth, and Singapore is good for this. The only thing I literally couldn’t eat was a “Snow Fungus” dessert in Changi Airport in SG – it had the texture of cartlidge.

Anyway one of my favourite places to eat in the whole world is Lau Pa Sat festival market in the financial district of Singapore (if there can be such a thing). Three rows of stalls representing the three main Singaporean cuisines - Chinese, Malay and Indian – stretch out from the centre. I ate some Indian food, I really can’t go into any more detail than that, I have no idea what it was. It was great though, and cost about a quid.

Despite foodie renown, Singapore doesn’t really have a cuisine of its own, other than a dish called congee, which is fine.

Outside, the market is ringed by satay stalls selling chicken and beef satay by the stick. Satay hawkers grab tourists and shove a simple menu in front of them – it feels rude not to get stuck in. One evening I sat there with a cold beer and some chicken sticks: life does not get any better than this, I thought.