As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again

You'll never be hungry in Singapore.

The food is fresh and plentiful. Singapore has hawker stands, food courts, and restaurants everywhere. You can get any kind of food you want, Asian, Indian, European, Western. Anything. Anywhere. If you stay away from the touristy spots, you can get your food cheap or at least very reasonably priced. And best of all, they make it for you fresh on the spot.



You need a lot of places to eat when you need to feed nearly 5 million people every day. To compare that to California, if you combine all the cities in Santa Clara County, it comes to about 2 million people in 1,300 square miles. Singapore has less than 300 square miles for almost 5 million people. That’s less than a quarter the area for more than double the population. It works out to about twelve times the population per square mile. So I figure Singapore needs about twelve times the number of restaurants per square mile. And that means a lot of places to eat.



And that how it is. You can find something to eat everywhere. The only thing you can't find (a least not at a reasonable prices) is a good beer or glass of wine. Singapore has very high tariffs on alcohol, so you have to pay a premium for your drink. To make matters worse, you can't find good California wines here. There's some OK Australian and New Zealand wines and a few decent bottles from France. But nothing compares to our great California wines, and there's almost none here. It’s terribly sobering.



Are you coming to visit from California soon? Singapore allows you to bring in 1 liter of wine duty free with each adult. If you are wondering what to bring us in Singapore, please stop by your local Trader Joe's and pick me up a good bottle of California wine. (If you forget the wine, Singapore also allows you to bring in any amount of currency.)

Eating in Singapore can also be a surprise. We've been eating fish every day. Not intentionally. See, there are all kinds of pastry shops that sell perfectly normal-looking breads, donuts, and pastries. Some of them are indeed perfectly normal, filled with chocolate or custard or cream or something else appropriately sweet. Others only appear normal. When you bite into them however, you find your doughnut is filled with fish or pork and some greasy secret sauce inconsistent with your anticipated donut experience.



The other thing about eating in Singapore is you have to bring your own napkins. Not in the expensive restaurants catering to westerners--they have all the usual western amenities. But in normal restaurants where the locals go, everyone carries their own little tissue packs and napkins with them.



More importantly, if you eat to the hawker stands or indoor or outdoor food courts, you need your little pack of tissues to reserve a seat. Due to the other 5 million people trying to find a place to eating at the same time as you, there aren't enough tables in all 300 square miles for everyone to sit. So before you order, you have to reserve an empty seat. If you skip this step, you'll end up holding a tray of food with nowhere to put it down. You reserve your table by leaving your little tissue pack on the table. Only then can you go order. When its really crowded here (uh, all the time), you'll see people hovering over likely tables to be first to claim them when the current occupants are finished.

I suppose you could claim a table with your umbrella, or cell phone, or shoulder bag, or anything else, but you'll be less disappointed to loose my tissue pack if it turns out that the Singaporeans are bit less "law and order" than they say.