Insider's guide to Singapore: Where to eat and drink
From bustling food markets to a secluded tropical hideaway, restaurateur Loh Lik Peng takes us on a weekend of epicurean delights
Loh Lik Peng opened Hotel 1929, Singapore's first boutique design property, more than a decade ago and now has three - adding the New Majestic and Wanderlust - where you'll find his collected furniture and a quirky selection of rooms designed by local artists. He also has a growing empire of eating places in redeveloped heritage spaces - among them barbecue kitchen Burnt Ends and upscale tapas joint, Esquina. Passionate about Singapore's food scene, he is the perfect guide for a weekend of good eating and drinking.
Singapore is one of the best foodie destinations in Asia, thanks to its mix of modern Chinese, Peranakan, Malay and Indian cuisines and its unique hawker centres, where you'll find scores of stalls under one roof. Peng, as he prefers to be called, has two popular recommendations for a lunch: Maxwell Market in Chinatown and Tiong Bahru Market, an elegant two-storey food centre which is located within an old residential estate.
"I'll go once a week to Tian Tian Chicken Rice at Maxwell because I like the fact that it's local, it's fast and it's reliably good," says Peng. "I get there early — before 12.15pm — for my fix of chicken rice, because any later and there'll be too big a queue." At Tiong Bahru, head to a roast meat stall called Lee Hong Kee. "You can tell which one it is by the lines snaking round the block at lunchtime. This place is legendary; a lot of people buy two whole ducks to take home. By late afternoon, they're closed, having sold out."
