Food heaven - Singapore...

I have never visited Singapore or eaten authentic Singaporean food!!! But, I have an unspeakable bond with this beautiful country where I had planned to work and spend the rest of my life. 

Let me rewind a bit,

In 2011, I had a got a good job offer in Singapore. I had resigned from my current job and packed my bags and waited for my visa to arrive. It was in those two months, after doing enough research, I knew more about Singapore than any Indian living there!!!! Whenever, you plan to travel to a different country the first thing you "google" is about restaurants, then maybe other stuffs like movie theatres, holiday spots, recreational activities etc. But the first thing on your list has to be about food. 

Being a vegetarian, I had my own insecurities of travelling to Singapore. Hence, my task was to find restaurants which provide good vegetarian food. After a few days of neck deep analysis of restaurants, I realized Singapore is a bliss for foodies like me. My entire assumption of vegetarian food not being available was wrong, however, the menu was lengthier for non vegetarians!!! Once satisfied, I gave my nod to Singapore. Ah, the most painful part is after drooling over those yummy food for two months, I couldn't travel to Singapore due to visa issues. Pity my taste buds!!!

Click here for Vegetarian Restaurants

Even today, whenever I look at some yummy Singaporean food, I drool. Literally!!!! And thanks, to Far East Hospitality for giving me an opportunity to go through those pages and drool some more and satisfy my taste buds once again through visuals. It would be even better if they parcel me some food from there so that I finally get to taste the mouth watering food of Singapore. 

There is only one food of Singapore which I can write about here - Popiah, which is more or less like a spring roll. Popiah is one dish which I thought I can prepare at home and fulfil my desire of eating Singaporean food. Most of the online sites said Popiah is very easy to make and homemade Popiahs are the best. So, just after losing my heart over the visa problem, I thought of bringing Singapore in to my home. Even in India, I love spring rolls and by the description of certain websites, I believed Popiah is the best of the spring rolls available in the world. Hence, I began my experimentation. But even after several attempts, I couldn't get the  Popiah skin texture right and failed miserably. If we ignore the mistakes, it still tasted delightful. Now I don't know if what I prepared was the authentic Singaporean Popiah or not, but I tried. I am sure after reading this you may all want to try preparing popiah at home and trust me, if you get the Popiah skin correctly then it is a very easy dish to prepare. 

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Popiah can also be made with egg, pork and other non vegetarian ingredients (just making the non veggies happy) but you can also make it without them. I had tried an Indian-ized version of the dish by replacing many of the ingredients which was not available. More like the Chinese Manchurians we get in India with a tadka on top!!!  

You can check this video for Popiah recipe, but this is a slightly difficult one. Google for more easier recipes and you can modify it like I did!!!! 

Now the question comes why did I choose to prepare this dish at home amongst the variety of other cuisines available? 

This looked easy to prepare and healthy. And also, my taste for spring rolls pushed me into preparing one. 

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Well, it's been three years since I experimented with this dish and failed in all my four trials and finally, I gave up. But definitely, I want to try it once again with all the right ingredients to get that flavour of Singapore which is still stuck in my head and not reached my tongue!!!

Life without good food

Is like a painting without colours

The flavours you savour with each bite

Takes you into a state of trance

You crave for it more and more

And images haunt you all night

Pay a visit to haven of food, Singapore

Your taste buds would experience

A pinch of everything, just right!!!

Vegetarian food in Singapore is not a myth!!!

So, for all the foodies like me, who drool over the images of foods and by the mere memory, it is time to switch on the gas, pour in some oil and experiment with some Singaporean food or even better, book a holiday in Singapore - a country which never fails to amaze me.

One suggestion - stop looking for Indian hotels in foreign lands. Eat their food, experiment and enjoy the endless variety you get to savour. I feel vacation is incomplete if you don't taste their food!!!! After all, food defines a land with its spices, sauces and ingredients. Give your taste buds a rejuvenation therapy in Singapore... 

PS: After my friend visited Singapore the first thing she told me was how amazed she was looking at Singaporeans who are slim, fit and fat free (majority of the population). May be we should seriously give a thought about their food habits, so to flaunt a curvaceous slim figure and of course, to remain healthy. 

***** All the collage images are downloaded from various sources via google. Only in the shuffling and scrambling is done by me!!!!

Discover a whole lot about Singapore - hotels and cuisines here : http://discover.stayfareast.com/ and during your next vacation do not forget to check it out!!!!

This post is written as a part of IndiBlogger contest in association with http://discover.stayfareast.com/