Adventures of a Corporate Lacky

Tian Tian, URA and Chinatown

Yesterday, I had lunch with my colleagues at Tian Tian on Maxwell Food Center. One of the best if not the only chicken rice that anybody should consider eating while in Singapore.  Anthony Bourdain himself ate the flavorfull and very tasty chicken rice, they use a special sauce to dip the chicken in and pour a little on the rice, its not too oily and helps the rice not dry, adds just enough flavor to it. The chicken is tender and some portions of the white meat almost melts in your mouth. 

We ate around 2pm and there was still a long line of Tian Tian addicts eagerly waiting for their turn to partake the chicken rice that sets the standards, Tian Tian's is the gold standard of chicken rice. I have tasted a fair share of other chicken rice from Hougang, Woodlands, Choa Chu Kang and the CBD, some would cost as cheap as 2 bucks and other as much as 6 bucks. But none can even come close to half as good as the 3.50 Tian Tian chicken rice, or was that 4 bucks, I could not remember, I was too caught up imagining the pleasure of eating the chicken.

Maxwell Food center is just beside the URA and right behind Chinatown, so a visit by tourist or non-familiar Singapore residents would make it worthwhile. The URA has a Singapore City Gallery on the first 2 floors and it is an interactive experience worth taking. Get to see scale models of Singapore Island, development plans and much more. Residents will enjoy knowing a lot more and opens your eyes on the daunting task and execellent results the URA has achieved in maximizing this tiny island.

Across URA is the Red Dot Museum so a stop there would be like hitting 3 birds with one stone for tourist, if you started from Chinatown, that would be hitting 4 birds, if the person was paying attention while at the food street in Chinatown and spotted the German stall in the middle, that is already a bargain 5 birds! I'd like to add that partaking sausages and German cuisine from a tower of a German chef in the middle of Chinatown is in itself already an experience that could only be uniquely Singapore. I'd like mention that the facade of the MRT station entrance on Chinatown is one of the best in the entire city, don't make the mistake of taking the stairs, it's a long way up, or down.

This City has so much to offer and one only needs to make the effort to look at the corners and obscure places to see the true Singaporean culture, visit the heartlands as well if you can.