I went to Singapore 26 years ago but the area where the beautiful hotel is was just docks and warehouses.
I would love to go back but couldnt stand the long flight now.

Judith wrote:

Pictures from 5 different countries, some different cuisines, lots of French influence in Laotian food, Indian, Chinese, Malay and European in Singapore, so it's a bit silly to lump them all together just because they are all in the same part of the globe, bit like lumping France, Germany and the UK together because they are all in western Europe.

Not really Judith,
The cuisine mainly has something in common which I cannot stand - I hate soy sauce or anything that has the sweet taste that comes with it. I've tried to eat Asian food on a number of occasions but no matter how many times I ask for this abomination not to be included in my meal, there's always that cloying, sticky, sweet consistency which I cannot stomach.

I don't eat Chinese food for the very same reason and many workmates when they were planning a night out to an Asian restaurant used to tell me how I could have steak or chicken "English style" meant it was still cooked with an Asian influence and again, "that" taste.... So I've given up with it. Compare it if you will with a vegetarian being served a dish that's been cooked in a pan using meat stock and you may understand my problem.... Sadly, I cannot help my tastebuds.

Indian food is perfectly fine, I love it! But if I want Indian or European food for that matter, I prefer to go to the country of destination to try it or at the very least where the chef comes from the country that relates to the food I want to eat.

Saying that, we very much prefer western style Indian curries we're more used to so had a small problem in finding a hot curry when we travelled around India many moons ago. At one restaurant, they simply brought us a dish of chillies so we could add our own heat! Won't stop me going back to India though, loved it!

I don't go to a Greek restaurant in Cyprus and expect to get an English Sunday roast. Quite simply, it just doesn't happen - unless you have all the produce you're familiar with shipped in and the chef is British and uses the correct ingredients when cooking it. Some may come close but it will never be the real thing. We had (as advertised) a "British Sunday Lunch" towards the end of last year at a local restaurant. It came swamped in gravy as well as with an extra gravy boat (a nice touch) but the gravy was not meat stock made gravy. It was almost grey in colour and very, very sweet. I ended up leaving most of it and they charged 13.50 EUR per head for it.

I might add here that the bar and restaurant is English run..... although they're not really "hands on" and the chef is Lebanese.

I'm surprised that you find soy sauce sweet, the overwhelming flavour that I associate with soy sauce is saltiness rather than sweetness. I'd agree with you that a lot of Chinese food served in restaurants here aimed at the British palate can be cloyingly sweet but that is usually because they add sugar or even syrup to the dishes rather than because of the light soy sauce used in the cooking. I rarely eat Chinese food up here in Scotland because it is so often over sweet and gloopy but it is big treat when back home in Liverpool.

I've not experienced the same tendency to sweetness when eating in Thai and Vietnamese restaurants here.

SM

Singapore is a country whose Population is made up basically from Chinese, Malay and Indians with a minority of Europeans or Westerners so the food is authentic, if you eat at an Indian restaurant you will get authentic Indian. In a western type restaurant the Chef will more often than not have trained in the west.

I can't say I had a problem finding hot curries on my visits to India though in many areas the chef will possibly be more concerned with getting the flavours right than the actual heat of the meal.

I took a Thai cooking class once when stranded in Bangkok and neither of the meals I cooked contained soy sauce, but were flavoured with fish sauce. Although many dishes in Thai cooking are flavoured with soy sauce it isn't native to Thailand and was introduced to the country from China and lots of ethnic dishes are still made without the addition of soy.

One of the best fish and chip meals I've ever eaten , something I can't buy where I live, was in Hong Kong,
definitely no soy sauce added.

edited to correct spelling.

I think Soy Sauce is salty too, I wonder if it's Oyster sauce?

Seven I think -went to Pai many years ago, Mae Sot, Cameron Highlands, Marina Bay Sands, Angkor Wat, Ko Lanta and Chiang Dao. Went to Chaing Rai years ago, but there was no White Temple then.

Still loads of places we want to visit in SE Asia. To us its one of the most exciting places to visit. Great food, great sites, hotels, shopping, beaches, friendly folk, loads of culture - to us its got the lot.