Happy eating at Clarke Quay Food Street

It's the Singapore Food Festival 2010. One of the highlights of the Singapore Food Festival is the Clarke Quay Food Street that is held on the Clarke Quay, Read Bridge. The view from Read Bridge is pretty scenic on a clear and good day.

Read Bridge, according to Singapore Infopedia, was named after William Henry Macleod Read. Now, I realised I don't know much about the person whom the Read Bridge was named after. It looks like I have much to learn about this bridge that I have often been crossing whenever I am in the Clarke Quay area.

I was told that back in the 1950s or so, before the rebuilding of the current Read Bridge, many folks would go to Read Bridge to listen to story-tellers tell their stories. The story-tellers charged by time. Before the start of their story-telling endeavours, they would light up a joss-stick before telling their stories. Once the joss-stick finished burning, audience yearning for a continuation of the story would have to pay for more of the stories to be told.

Back to the Singpaore Food Festival, this year's Singapore Food Festival "is about celebrating not only the vibrant Singapore Chinese dialectic tastes that our forefathers brought here, but also the evolution of these unique fusions today" (source: brochure of Singapore Food Festival 2010).

I was pretty attracted to the uncommon Hainanese chicken rice balls. These rice balls are rather unique because I normally find Hainanese chicken rice, but not rice balls in Singapore. They tasted a bit like glutinous rice with a chicken flavour. It was only natural that I decided to get myself a set of Hainanese chicken rice balls with chicken and vegetables. Each set costs $7.

Visitors and participants at Clarke Quay Food Street may wish to take note taht all payments at the Clarke Quay Food Street has to be made using the Singapore Food Festival Souvenir Card or a Kopitiam Card. The minimum top-up value per card is $10.

One of my favourite food was the seemingly simple Hakka black-bean cake from Kew Garden Restaurant Private Limited. You may find out how it looks like by referring to the brown-colour item on the left of the above photo. It costs $3 per two pieces. I decided to find out Kew Garden Restaurant is located so that I could go there for some Hakka black-bean cake fix if I crave for one. The address is: 315 Outram Road, #02-313, Tan Boon Liat Building, Singapore 169074. Tel: 62222313.

Visitors to the Clarke Quay Food Street can also look forward to popiah-skin making, live! I have a lot of  respect for people who can make good popiah-skin. In addition, visitors can purchase handmade popiah, kueh pie-tee and hand-rolls from the very same stall.

I also treated myself to Four Seasons' "Mao Shao Wang" durian gelato. It was yummy and I was pleased that I had got myself a serving of it. I may prefer durian puree paste though.

Whatever it is, if you have yet to check out the Clarke Quay Food Street, you may wish to make some time to experience the various Chinese delicacies. There were other food items such as Chilli crab, cold crab, roasted duck, carrot cake, Teochew yam paste, traditional Chinese cake, and lots more. Just please be prepared for a bit of mingling on peak hours as the turnout of the visitors seem to be more than what Read Bridge could comfortably accomodate.

Singapore Food Festival 2010 Clarke Quay Food Street
Date: 16 July to 24 July
Time: 4pm to 11pm
Venue: Clarke Quay Read Bridge
Pricing: Payment via Singapore Food Festival Souvenir Card