328 Katong Laksa, East Coast Road

Most of the hawker food found in Singapore are similar to the ones in Malaysia. Just like the famous 328 Katong Laksa, its very similar to the Nyonya laksa. Katong is said to be a peranakan area, thus famous for peranakan dishes. The Katong laksa with its slightly spicy coconut milk (santan) broth is delicious. The laksa noodle comes with prawns, cockle (siham) and fish cake. They don't provide chopsticks. The noodles are cut to allow easier consumption with spoon. Personally, i would prefer the noodles to be normal length, allowing me to slurp away with chopsticks :)  Costs $4.50 per bowl. They also have nasi lemak which was also selling fast, but i didn't get to try it. As for the otak-otak which was $1.20 each, it was good, but not memorable.Nonetheless, i would definitely head back for another bowl of laksa if i'm in the neighborhood. Even Gordon Ramsay loves it. aha. To locate their stall: click here. Yeap there are multiple stalls :), On East Coast Road itself, there are two 328 katong laksa stalls. I got lost as i made the stall my landmark to head back to the hotel,and then i found out there were two! haha. One's on the right of the hotel, one's on the left. 

Along East Coast Road, there is a Peranakan Food Stall, selling more than 8 variety of dumpling, known to many as zhang. It has been forever since i eaten one. Grandma used to make it for me every year but now no one makes it, in the family. I became very particular about the taste of zhang sold outside since grandma's zhang, to me, is the best. I can say that the dumpling at the Kim Choo stall was not bad. :D I bought a chili dried prawn one, and the meat dumpling. Both tasted okay. They also sell cakes (kuih) like tapioca cake, glutinous balls with sugar filling (onde-onde), kuih ketayap, and many other sweet varieties. There are also instant ingredients to cook peranakan food. :)

  

Another Laksa we tried was at the Ah Meng Cafe near the Singapore Zoo, it was yummy too but compared to the 328 Katong Laksa, it lacked cockle and the noodles were different. Broth was different too. Costs us $7.90 per bowl not including the tax, well cause it is tourist spot. An option if its difficult to head to Katong. For me, the original Katong Laksa is better :)

River Safari, Singapore

Here's my post on another place to visit in Singapore, *drumroll* River Safari! It is located right beside the Singapore Zoo. Other famous spots often talked about would definitely be the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park and Night Safari. Admission to River Safari costs $25(adult) and $16(child). Opens at 9am till 6pm. Their theme is about animals located in different rivers around the world. They are host to many species of common and rare fresh water fishes. My knowledge on freshwater fishes can be said to be close to zero *embarassing*, thus not really able to appreciate them, unlike other visitors, which i stalked watched from afar, sharing stories about the fishes. For me, I found the Giant Panda forest, The manatees, piranhas and squirrel monkeys, the highlight of my trip. :)
We spent around 3 hours in the River Safari. The place isn't that big but there's plenty of information on rivers and the animals that live around it. Lots of interesting knowledge to gain..

Houses the Mekong Catfish and the Giant Stingray

Boy and his pet alligator :P 

Red panda - Real active ones :)

Kai Kai and Jia Jia ( reminds me of the pandas at Ocean Park Hong Kong- An An and Jia Jia)

Kai Kai taking a looooooooooooong nap

Jia Jia exercising excessively. (she was walking in circles around the enclosure)

Next, The Amazon River Quest is a 10 minute boat ride which lets you view animals up close. It was complementary when I went, but currently they are charging $5(adult) and $3(child) for the boat ride. The boat time slot has to be booked at the counters before entering. A boat can fit around 12 people. Unlike the shaded galleries, it was hot during the boat ride, so make sure you bring a hat or put on sunscreen. We were slightly splashed with water during the boat ride but nothing to be worried about, it was due to the wavy terrain. To our disappointment, we only saw 50% of the animals on display during the boat ride, most of the time we were busy looking for the animal. It was rather comical. They were playing hide and seek :P As for the animals we did see, we were definitely at a close range.

As we entered the jaguar enclosure, we only got a glimpse of the jaguar, as we exited the cave. Felt like rowing the boat backwards. aha -.-'' Too bad it was a automated boat. 

who's there? Squirrel monkeys, small tiny size..

Piranha! they drop food (chunk of meat) about every 10 seconds, you get the picture :)

Manatee (Sea cows) whats with the frown? They have about 8-10 manatees i guess, living in a huge tank. I sat for 15 minutes here just watching them. They have feeding times for the manatees too where you can watch the divers feed the manatees lots and lots of veges.