The Hungry Bunny

There are 2 places in Singapore that I'd recommend my out-of-town friends to visit; Little India and Arab Street/Kampong Glam. These heritage constituencies are little pockets of old Singapore that have resisted gentrification and retained their unique charm, so they stand out from the other cookie-cutter aspects of our legoland of a metropolis. It helps that the food in these ethnic enclaves are fantastic. You can't walk 100 meters without hitting up a must-try restaurant. Most will know the Race Course Road stretch of Little India as a "golden mile" of sorts for culinary treasures. Here's where the flagships of the famed Banana Leaf Apollo, Gayatri , and Muthu's Curry restaurants are based. While the aforementioned "big-three" mostly specialise in South Indian cuisine, there are a few which do Northern fare pretty well. Like Jaggi's Northern Indian Cuisine , a casual canteen-style, self-serviced joint that's propagated with Indians, both...

Adam Road Food Centre may be famous for its delicious nasi lemak peddlers, but the humble little hawker center has a bunch of other stalls worthy of a visit. Warong Pak Sapari The Mee Soto ($3.50) is one of the very best on the island, with a clear broth rich, heady and spicy all at once. Studded with shredded chicken chunks and beansprouts, this is a must-try. A tip is to drizzle that black sauce-chilli blend and swirl it in for an added kick. Apparently, their mee rebus is quite legendary as well, but alas, they'd sold out for the day when we popped by for dinner. 01-09 Adam's Indian Rojak We don't eat Indian rojak very often, but Adam's Indian Rojak ($3 minimum order) sure is tempting. Items are thickly coated with a flour batter and deep-fried to perfection. A robust punchy sauce, redolent of nuts and sugar, lends a lively tone to the fried mains. A must-order is the tempe, which boasts beautifully nutty overtones. 01-05 Ibrahim Mee Stall ...

Although a relative newbie in the hawker scene, Mr & Mrs Mohgan's Super Crispy Roti Prata have been consistently ranked as one of the top roti prata vendors in Singapore. Manned by the gentle, soft-spoken couple whose eponymous stall is distinguished by its unabating lines, you're happy to wait in a stuffy, old-school coffeeshop that's as dank as it is rank. Because you're ultimately rewarded for your sweaty efforts with a heaping plate of the best prata I've had in a very long time.  I'm partial to Egg Prata ($1.40), and these were beautifully crispy, torched with a golden hue, while fluffy and chewy inside. What's most surprising, however, was how little ghee and oil was used; there was hardly a trace of oil left on the plate when I was done. The default curry accompanying pratas is the Dhal Cha, a thick, beany yellow lentil-based curry that the chilli-averse will likely take to. Should you prefer a more meaty or spicier curry, there's the fish...

Recently, on one of our off-days, we made like tourists and went a-hunting in Little India to Bismillah Biryani , long regarded as the best biryani in Singapore. Unlike most biryani, which are slathered in a thick curry blanket, Bismillah serves its biryani the Pakistani-style, dry, sans gravy, with the meat buried beneath a mound of the most flavoursome long grains of fluffy bismati rice. For such a no-frills, nondescript shack of an eatery, service was surprisingly classy. Food was churned out speedily, and the boss-man came over to check on us a couple of times - asking if the food was too spicy, and suggesting that we douse the heat with the yoghurt-y cucumber cream. It wasn't easy locating the hole-in-the-wall stall, because its fraying signboard was in tatters. Just look out for this chalkboard - listing a decidedly limited menu of 4 variants of biryani, a couple of proteins and some thirst-quenching options. A must-try is their Mutton Biryani ($15), studded with ...

The Song of India is one of the few notable North Indian fine-dining establishments. Housed in a colonial monochromatic bungalow along Scotts Road, just steps away from Peranakan favourite Indocafe , the illustrious restaurant has been lauded for serving up refined Indian fare. Just like its contemporary interpretation of Indian cuisine, the restaurant is modern but lush, swathed in red velvet, sophisticated blacks and dripping in crystal chandeliers. We seldom eat Indian food, so even if we live within walking distance to the restaurant, this is the first time we've been here. We were surprised to find the restaurant bustling with activity on a Thursday night. Evidently, it's favoured by those of the expense account class; we saw many a business executive dining here that night. Service was faultless in terms of attitude but faltered on the execution front. I'd alerted them to my aversion to all things coriander/parsley/cilantro when placing our orders, but the currie...

We'd originally planned on hitting up Samy's Curry for lunch, but alas, they were closed. Luckily, there was The Muthu's Flavours (yes, they are affiliated to the famed Muthu's Curry chain) just around the corner in the Dempsey Hills enclave, so we got to have our Indian food fix afterall. Despite a modern sleek interior swathed in black and punctuated with bright orange hues, the food at this South Indian stalwart has stayed grounded, traditional, and authentic. In addition to modernising its decor and branding, The Muthu's Flavours has branched out into North Indian cuisine; a fantastic way of drawing in the chilli-averse, as North Indian fare tends to be less potent than its Southern counterpart. For easy reference, I'll sequence the dishes in order of spiciness, starting from the mild to the stomach-churning ones at the end. Their Naans , a trio of the Plain ($3), Garlic ($4) and Cheese ($4) varieties, were perfect foils for soaking up the addic...

Clearly, this is quite an outdated post, and I'm not sure if this will still be relevant after the revamp, but here goes! I've never noticed this but there's quite a large number of stalls at Lau Pa Sat serving North Indian cuisine. It may have something to do with the fact that there is a correspondingly large number of Indian expats working in the CBD that flock to this open-air food court. Beeps was hankering for some Indian food that day and so, we decided to try the Indian food here. The only North Indian food I've ever had were from fairly notable North Indian restaurants, and never from a food court, so I was surprised to find that this wasn't half bad. In fact, it was more than passable. What made it more palatable was the price points of the lunch sets here. I suppose they don't need to factor overheads such as air-conditioning and rental of nice restaurant digs. The Lunch Set ($6) comprised some masala potatoes, cumin-laced sauteed long beans an...

This was another invite to a childhood bestie's open house for Hari Raya celebrations. The food here had more of an Indian slant, seeing as my friend's an Indian muslim. Remember how there was a bit of talk that the majority of Singaporeans don't have a close friend of another race? What rubbish. A lot of my closest friends are of another race. And this is despite the fact that I grew up in an all-girls' missionary school.   The spread here may be a little limited, but what they lacked in variety, they made up for it with quality. And, oodles and oodles of love. I think that really is the secret ingredient that makes homecooked food so awesome. I mean, when you're cooking for your loved ones, you tend to be a lot more generous with "liao" and start off with the freshest, most premium ingredients because cost doesn't feature as a consideration, correct? The Mutton Biryani was one of the best we've ever had. The mutton, devoid of any game accent...

Ever since the girls introduced me to Islamic 's biryani, I've become a fan for life. I, in turn, made the Hubs a convert as well. We regularly "dabao" from here, and it's become our go-to eatery whenever a biryani or carb craving hits. Islamic Restaurant has had a long illustrious history of serving local politicos and foreign dignitaries. And in case you weren't aware of this little nugget of information, the blown-up photos of the many luminaries who've walked through Islamic's doors proudly plastered all over the walls of the tiny, hole-in-the-wall eatery will tell you just how many hotshot fans this little non-descript eatery has. Stepping into the dimly lit eatery is like visiting a friend's home in the 70's, with faded dated tablecloths, mismatched furniture and lots of personal decorative knick knacks doubling up as conversation pieces. Be sure to go early for meals, or to eat at off-peak hours, because the space is so constraine...