Singapore Culture

The food is definitely worth stopping here for! Eat fish head curry rice with your fingers off a banana leaf in "Little India" (Serangoon Rd) or try drunken prawns (marinated live in rice wine til sozzled, then thrown in a hot wok) or chilli crab or pepper crab, real Singapore dishes if you ask me. The mixture of different cultures has created a wonderful variety of delicious dishes so you'd be missing out if you didn't try them.

Buy an EZ-Link card, easy way to get around (can be used on buses and trains etc) For a great way to experience traditional food, go to a hawker centre; open air food courts with mixed-cultural foods

If you really want to experience the varied gastronomic culture of Singapore, there are a few places you MUST visit, and a few dishes you MUST try. You must visit Chinatown where you can find the wet market, and many strange and unusual foods. Turtle foot soup, anyone? A visit to Little India will leave you thinking you have stepped into a different country. Make sure to try the curries, preferrably at a Southern Indian establishment.
Here is a list of foods that are easily enjoyed by nearly everyone and reflect the fusion cuisine of Singapore.
Satay with peanut sauce - the street vendors in hawkers centers do it best.
Roti Prata , with or without the curry to dip it in.
Chilli crab - spicy, but not too hot, and very flavorful.
Nasi Lemak - make sure to be careful of the chilli sauce in this Malay staple if you can't take the heat.
Laksa - this coconut creamy noodle dish is like no other
Chicken Rice - the quintessential dish of simplicity, chicken and rice.
Char Kway Teow - flat rice noodles stir fried with garlic, soy sauce, and egg. Everyone can eat this...

The list goes on and on.... for photos and locations of the best food stuffs, visit
www.makansutra.com

Singapore is the little island that could - it's probably the only country in the planet which decides that it can't survive without foreign visitors and get their acts together (hello, there's less people to organize over there - and they can do it quicker by brute force - stop smoking, spitting, and chewing gum or you're fined - so cold and yet so cool since it works). It transformed itself into a green beauty with shady large trees lining their streets and despite space constraints, still manage to provide us with plenty of public open spaces. Even a swimming pool on the 5th floor of a bldg offer a lofty view to die for. It offers almost everything any kind of tourists want, except nature trekkers and adventurers. Shoppers might not get the best deals since everything tends to be costlier here, but they will find it. So would the foodies type. Stylish culinary spots offer great ambiance, like Chijmes or Clarke Quay, and the latest, Tanglin. The culture vulture will never run out of options with every major bands, circus, and whatnot performers gracing its monumental theatres the Esplanades. With good preservation policy Singapore has some European grandeur left in its architecture, vestiges of its British colony days. The National Museum is a great place to start learning about the place! Kids would love the night safari and bookworms wouldn't want to leave the massive vast Kinokuniya store at Ngee An. Most hotels (all int'l chains are available here) are pricey, even the windowless, damp, 'cheap' ones. MRT/subway and bus systems cover most places (and there's not much to cover to begin with) so it's still explorable on the cheap. Otherwise, there are the "uncles" taxidrivers, and you can call these taxicabs companies to order one and avoid the queues. They are convenient, some accept credit cards payment and most will give you receipts.

If you ever want to go somewhere that has a bit of every asian culture singpore is the place to go, it may be small but there are many suprises!!