- [TJ] In this Singapore food tour,
we are trying cuisine as seen
in everyone's new favorite movie, Crazy Rich Asians.
A big thanks to award winning Quincy Hotel
for hosting us.
It's perfectly located for travelers
and just a walk away from Newton Circus Food Center
where Rachel, Nick, and friends ate
a ton of delicious Singaporean street food.
Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications
because in part two, we will
be trying luxurious high end food in Singapore
that screams crazy in presentation and rich in flavors.
Let's begin today's Singapore street food experience.
We are here at the Newton Circus Food Court
and oh my gosh the energy here
is absolutely insane.
There's so many people.
It actually took us like 20 minutes to try and find a seat.
It was that crazy.
We were just standing around stalking tables
so if you guys come, just know that
it's gonna take a little bit to find an area
where you can actually sit.
So how this hawker center works is,
you have to find a table first
and on each table there's a table number.
Then you can start ordering your food.
So you go to the stall and you put in your order
and you give them your table number.
They'll actually come and deliver the food to you.
Now here's the kicker, and I had no idea this was the case,
they actually have people who clean up the tables too.
So they actually work for the hawker center.
Clean the tables, they deliver drinks, all of that.
This whole thing is so different
from a night market where every stall
is, you know, kinda their own.
It feels like this is a business center.
It's just insane.
There's so much energy sitting here.
(upbeat pop music)
So of course, this is a Crazy Rich Asian food tour
so we are starting with items that
they have eaten in the movie.
The number one thing is satay.
Now, here's a fun tip, the movie is filmed
at this hawker center, Newton Food,
but in the book it's actually filmed
at Lau Pa Sat Food Center.
Now the reason why Lau Pa Sat is mentioned
in the book is because at a certain time
around like five or six P.M.
There's a whole street full of satays
and people are just grilling it out.
I don't think we get a chance to go there
on this trip, however, we have found satay
here at Newton Center and I'm pretty excited to try it.
So right over here, 10 sticks, and I have chicken and pork.
You can only choose two type of meat
and they give you this sauce.
I'm salivating already, so let's just dig into it right.
So we're gonna, this is, I think, the pork.
We're gonna dip it into the sauce.
Let's take a bite.
(crowd chattering)
Oh my God.
Whatever they glaze this pork meat with,
it is sweet, super savory.
It's almost like a honey barbecue glaze,
it tastes delicious.
And the sauce is so spicy.
Oh, that is so satisfying.
So you have to order 10 sticks
and each stick's about 70 cents.
This is the chicken one,
so we're gonna dip it into this sauce.
I think it's a peanut sauce, but it's
more of a spicy peanut sauce.
Here we go.
(crowd chattering indistinctly)
This sauce is a beautiful, grainy, peanutty sauce
and it coats the meat so well.
(hums satisfactorily)
That's so good!
I need to eat more.
I think I can finish this all by myself,
seriously, it's that good.
And here we go.
We have the satay shrimp.
I think each stick is either $1.50 or $2.00.
Oh yeah, it was $1.00.
So for a dollar for a shrimp.
They have these massive prawns, seafood prawns,
and they're about $16 for one.
I know.
So I got the mini ones and the mini ones
still look so great.
Oh it's already peeled for you!
Thank goodness, I know a lot of people don't like skin.
My favorite part of a shrimp is actually the head.
We're gonna rip the head so we can see
some of that meat there.
Oh my gosh, look at that!
Wow, look at that!
(exclaims with joy)
My gosh, do you see all that meat right there?
Looks amazing.
It's just so so juicy and so flavorful.
Mmm.
Oh my God, that is yummy.
Oh my God.
I love shrimp, and satay shrimp is the best.
Such a nice thick chew.
Whatever they glaze these satays with, it's amazing.
It is so sweet and savory, it's yummy.
Ooh, we have one more item coming!
Oh, thank you!
Okay, the food was just delivered to us.
So this is the hokkein mein.
This is a Singaporean, Malaysian type of noodle dish.
And check out this big spicy paste right here.
We're just gonna mix it in.
Ready?
(crowd chattering indistinctly)
You guys check it out, it looks like
there's two different types of noodles in there
because there's a yellow one and then it looks
like there's a transparent one.
Oh my gosh, this is so interesting.
Oh, (speaking foreign language).
- [Announcer] Hello, welcome to our hawkers' center.
Please take a tray and return the trays to us
to keep the tables clean.
- I'm a big noodle fan, as you can tell from my t-shirt,
which you can grab at the Cup of TJ merch store.
Link right here.
Yes, that's right, always gotta do a lil plug
in there, you know?
You know what, while you're at it, thumbs up this video.
Okay.
Let's take a bite.
I'm really curious because it looks
like there's two different types of noodles
or they're just two different colors.
They are so much slimier and just glossed up in sauce.
So let's do this.
(blows air)
(slurping)
Oh my God, oh my God.
See it was really, really good
and then the spicy kicked in and now it's great.
Holy smokes, I didn't expect that.
Okay, I'll be honest when I saw this noodle,
I just thought, "Oh it's like egg noodles and some sauce."
but wow these noodles are so moist.
They are so slippery and they just,
they are the most slurpable noodles ever.
Oh my gosh.
Wow, holy smokes.
Thick soup clinging onto the noodles,
and it just makes it the most enjoyable bite ever.
And look at this, it's filled with seafood and egg
and that spicy paste, whatever it is,
I need two bottles of that.
I would put it on everything I eat.
Wow.
(slurping)
Mmmm.
I don't wanna move onto the other items,
can I just finish this one?
Alright, alright, one more slurp
and then we can finish this one later.
(crowd chattering indistinctly)
(slurping)
So good!
Alright, everybody, moving on to more food.
(sings in a high pitched voice)
Usually I get a lot of food coma
and I'm just get tired but for some reason.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah (speaks in foreign language)
five dollar (speaks in foreign language).
Just keeps on coming, ladies and gentlemen,
the food just keeps on coming.
Okay, you guys, as you can tell
the food just keeps on coming.
I may have been too excited and just tried
to order everything but these are all of the items
I have seen in the movie.
Whether it's shots of it, like a small b roll.
Let's get into it.
So, these two items are from the same shop
and this is actually oyster omelet and this is carrot cake.
Fried carrot cake.
And they kind of mix it all up
in this bunch of things.
Oyster omelet is something we are
very familiar with in Taiwan.
Taiwanese oyster omelet has this sweet sauce over it.
It is more like a pancake, more like a omelet style.
But this really just chopped up and fried.
So let's give it a try.
I don't know how I feel about cooked oyster,
but for this dish, I will give it a try.
Here we go.
Alright, we're gonna get a chunk of this oyster.
Oh, it's so fried.
It's super crispy on the outside.
We're gonna get an oyster as well.
Here we go, dip it in this sauce.
Yes, I love that everything is saucy and spicy,
just like me.
Ooh, that's right.
Okay, ready, let's take a bite.
(indistinct crowd chatter)
So, this oyster omelet, and it's either good or bad
so you can really taste that oyster.
It's got that oceany oyster taste.
And some people really enjoy that.
I am unsure if I do like the taste of that.
I know the version, the Taiwanese oyster omelet version,
you can barely taste the oyster.
It's more of a slimy texture because of the way they cook it
but this, you can taste that oyster.
The way they fried this egg and I believe this is
like starch, potato starch or tapioca
to make it really thick and chewy.
It's so crispy.
It's like a crispy outer layer
with a chewy inside and it's good.
Mmm, do you hear that crisp?
I gotta take another bite.
(soft crunching)
(hums in satisfaction)
I love the crispiness.
It's like a crispy flaky skin.
Mm, mm, mm.
Yummy.
So when I was ordering, the chef was like,
"What kind of radish cake do you want?"
And I said, "Wait, there's different kind?"
And he said, "There's black kind, there's sweet kind,
there's salty kind."
(speaking in foreign language)
And so I just pointed to whatever he was cooking
and said, "I want that kind."
So this is what we got.
If you check it out, it's pieces of radish cake
and it's just stir fry in, I don't even know
what sauce is this.
It looked like soy sauce.
I mean, it's just madness.
Radish cake is one of my favorite things in the world
so I'm stoked for this dish.
Even though it looks kind of crazy,
you know, it's like black.
It's like a mountain of blackness
but I am sure it's gonna be tasty.
Let's take a bite.
Alright, (laughs), there was so much concentration
because it's very slippery and I wanna
get a big bite but.
Oh, there we go, okay, ready?
Let's take a bite.
(slurping heartily)
(whoops quietly)
Ooh, this is good.
They use radish cake coated in egg
and they add additional little pickled radishes
so you get a nice crunch.
It's very savory, there's a lot of texture going on.
I don't know how they cook this
because this radish cake is so soft and gooey inside.
This is like a marshmallow radish cake.
And then it's weird because on the outside,
that egg is super fried.
Fried, gooey, flavorful, spicy.
It's just a lot going on and I love it.
♪ Next up on the menu. ♪
♪ This is a legit food crawl. ♪
I know we're just sitting in one place
but technically we're hopping around a lot of stalls here.
So this right here is a popiah
and it's basically a spring roll
but fancier and much cooler.
So inside it, I'm gonna lift it up for you guys to see,
there's radish cake, there's eggs,
there's vegetable, there's a whole lot of stuff.
And it's wrapped in this beautiful crepey layer.
It's an elevated spring roll, might I say.
And the egg inside, it's not regular kind of scrambled egg
or fried egg, this is actually boiled egg.
So they chop up boiled egg and
then they add the pieces into the spring roll.
Ready, let's take a bite!
Make sure it is.
Oh my God.
This is so good (laughs).
Why has everything been so good?
The inside is like a mushy, gushy goodness
and the only really thick chew of this entire dish
is the outside crepe.
It's got a nice springiness to it.
(mumbling through mouthful of food)
This is so good.
(upbeat pop music)
Everything we tasted today has been so good.
I could not believe it.
I'm moving to Singapore!
The flavors and the texture,
I think it might be because a lot of the stalls
that we went to have been awarded
and they're delicious and they've been doing this for years.
And I'll leave the description to all the stalls
where we got the food in the description.
But really, that was fantastic.
When I saw the hawker center in the movie,
I was like, "Wow, that looks really good."
but I never knew it was actually that good.
And being here, you know, compared to movie,
it's like, this is so vibrant, there's so much energy
and it's just blew my expectations honestly.
Very last item, it's a sugar cane juice.
I'm gonna take a sip so then I can continue eating all
of this and we can put the camera away,
you know what I'm saying?
Okay, ready?
Cheers to good food!
Singapore, I love you.
I'm moving here, seriously.
That was so good.
Even the juice is great.
(funky electronic music)
Back to Quincy Hotel to wrap up
with something sweet, colorful and delicious
as seen in the movie.
Dessert in Crazy Rich Asian is portrayed
very colorful, very vibrant.
One particular scene that really comes to mind
is when the aunties are sitting around,
they're having bible study,
and on the table is just platter of these colorful treats.
That's actually known as the nonya kueh
and I'm probably pronouncing it wrong.
I'm so sorry.
But it's popping up here.
So here at our hotel, this is the Quincy Hotel,
they actually serve breakfast and snacks all day
and a light dinner.
So basically they serve food all day
which is really why I'm here.
(laughs) They know me.
They actually have the nonya kueh available.
And it's basically an assortment of treats
made from pandin, coconut, glutinous rice,
it's just a bunch of amazing sticky, chewy texture.
One of the thing that really sticks out
is the kueh lapis, if you check out right here,
and this is they layer cake.
This one is rainbowed and it has a very jello-y texture.
Super sticky, and it's layered
so you can literally peel the layer off one by one.
I'm gonna put it back though.
Mmm, good.
It's like sticky rice flour.
A lot of the sweetness, I think, comes from the pandin.
This is really good.
Guys, check this out.
Sticky rice with pandin on top.
Oh my God.
Sticky rice on the bottom, almost kinda savory,
and grainy pandin on top.
So inside, if you guys ever had salted egg yolk,
and it's very grainy?
That's what it tastes like but it's not that.
It's just almost like a bean paste inside.
One item that is really popular for the dessert
is called ondeh ondeh and I have no,
I'm butchering it again, aren't I?
Actual ondeh ondeh is a sweet glutinous ball.
It's chewy, it's covered with grated coconut
and once you bite into it, burst of palm sugar.
This is a ondeh ondeh cake.
See the grated coconut on the outside
and I believe this is pandin cake.
And I don't know what the filling is
so I'm pretty excited.
Let's get a bite of this.
Mmm, oh my God.
The filling is actually vanilla filling.
The cake is super fluffy
and the texture of the grated coconut, amazing.
Alright, well, no need for a food tour.
I'll just eat the dessert.
(funky electronic music)
There you guys, that was a full hawker center food tour
and we're ending it with some yummy yummy desserts.
What'd you guys think?
It's actually crazy to watch all of the cuisine
and all of the scenery of the hawker center on the movie
and then being there and feeling the energy
of the hawker center and being able to try the food.
It's very exciting.
So shout outs to Crazy Rich Asians.
Remember, that there is another part
where we try a more luxurious version
of everything we sampled today
and to really see the Crazy Rich Asian side of Singapore.
Now it's the part of the video
where I turn it back to you guys
and I ask which of the food that we sampled today
was your favorite?
Thank you guys for watching.
Thumbs up this video.
And I'll see you guys next time.
Bye!
(upbeat pop music)
Ugh, this bang.
Don't ever get bangs.
Okay, here we go.
(crowd chattering indistinctly)
The food is really good
and when the setting is great
it is so easy to get in the zone
and just like pump it out, you know?
And not describe the food.
- [Camera Woman] Are you gonna eat everything?
- Yes, this is actually so good.
(upbeat pop music)