Here I am, back at home in Stockholm. It’s dark and minus degrees Celsius – the opposite to warm and colorful Singapore. How many times I thought while walking on the streets of the city state, how nice the warm and humid air feels on my skin. Yet this is home – arctic Sweden. But before the blog returns to the Nordics, I thought I would recap our week in the tropics. There were a few new places I can really recommend.
The pictures in this post are mainly from Chinatown. I took one Sunday morning just to walk around and take photos. It was quiet and I could take pictures of the architecture undisturbed. The Singapore Chinatown is a great place for cocktails. There are always new places and even the old favorites are still there. Here is a link to my post about Singapore’s cocktail bars from 2016.
Speaking of cocktails, we visited a few new places, the most interesting being Native on Amoy street. The bar is located on the second floor of a traditional Chinese shop house. Its not secret, but not something you would wonder into without a purpose. At Native, be prepared for weird cocktails. Weird, but wonderful. I had for example a cocktail called strawberry and kimchi (the name says everything), and grass.hopper containing grass, lemongrass, coconut ice cream and of course grasshoppers. Both cocktails were awesome, and something I had never tasted anywhere else. The bartenders at Native were very social, explaining where the inspiration for each drink had come from. A tip for those living in Stockholm, the Native mixologists are visiting Bar Homage in Stockholm in the beginning of February (we are definitely going).
Another great new cocktail bar was The Other Room at the Marriott Tang Plaza. Its hidden behind an unmarked door, with just a doorbell for those who wish to be let in. The cocktails were from different eras, more classic that the drinks at Native, but well made and impressive. It was too dark for photos, and that’s a shame, because the cocktails came very well presented. The music was a bit loud and there are no windows, so it felt a bit too clubby for a Tuesday night.
What else was new in Singapore then? Foodwise, smokehouses and barbecue seemed to be the new trend. Several new meat restaurants had opened in the areas we usually hang around in. We had time for two of them: Meat Smiths in Telok Ayer and Deckers on Robertsson Quay. Meat Smiths had very good food, but the service was way too Singaporean (read poor). They forgot my side dish totally even though I asked for it several times. For coffee, I warmly recommend Glasshouse at the Chijmes. The beautiful cafe is a very friendly place and in addition to great coffee, their banana loaf is to die for.
Enjoy the pictures!
xx Soile
