Day 1 (16.12.2019)
Today was our first full day in Asia~ 
The first thing we did today was go to Toast Box for breakfast. This is a popular coffee shop chain in Singapore.
I ordered kaya toast, which is a traditional breakfast both in Singapore and Malaysia. It is simply toasted bread spread with butter and kaya, which is a sort of sweet coconut jam. My Boyfriend ordered toast with pork floss and condensed milk, which you can also see in the above picture~ Both toasts also came with “half-boiled eggs”, which are basically soft boiled eggs, cooked for a short time so they are a watery/creamy consistency. Just crack a couple of eggs into a dish and mix with sweet soy sauce and white pepper, and you have a delicious mixture to dip your toast in~
After breakfast, Boyfriend and I walked around Bugis Junction, which is essentially a large shopping mall (actually, as I would come to learn shortly, the entire city of Singapore could be considered one huge shopping mall). We didn’t buy much, but instead mostly window-shopped. I think we went to 2 different Muji’s (one of my absolute favorite brands), which does have a few locations in NYC, but these ones were so much larger and one of them even had a cafe inside!
We ended up meeting with Ben, one of my Boyfriend’s friends who lives in Singapore. He took us to some of his favorite places, like Don Don Donki (a Japanese supermarket where the only music playing is this ridiculously catchy theme song on repeat), and Chicha San Chen, a Taiwanese bubble tea chain that uses high quality oolong tea to craft their drinks. I unfortunately didn’t have much of an appetite due to jetlag, but I did finally get to try something I’ve been yearning to try for years–A Singaporean ice cream sandwich! It is a slab of ice cream in between a lightly sweetened, colorful slice of bread. I tried mango and corn flavor, and both were absolutely delicious!
After eating lunch we went to the Botanic Gardens (unfortunately it was raining so I don’t have any good pictures, but it is worth a Google search), and walked around Marina Bay, which from what I could tell is a particularly wealthy area of the city. The mall there has an indoor canal (with gondola rides!), for any customers who want to relax in between shopping at Gucci and Chanel. I didn’t buy any clothes, but I did visit TWG Tea, a beautiful tea salon and boutique that originated in Singapore. I bought my sister the most adorable box of Christmas tea, scented with spiced fruits and wrapped in a red ribbon~
That’s going to be it for my first entry. I hope it wasn’t too boring, seeing as I mostly wrote about food and shopping ;; Hopefully the next entry, which takes place in Vietnam, will have more interesting cultural anecdotes~
That ice cream sandwich looks super delicious! I’m super partial to mango flavors, but I am curious- What was the corn flavor like? Was it like a sweet corn or a salty sort of flavor?
All of the food you described in this post is so interesting. I would never think to combine the flavors like that, and yet it seems (and looks) so tasty!
This sounds like a very fun first day of your trip! I can’t wait to hear more about it!
The corn was sweet. If you’ve ever had creamed corn, the flavor is very similar! Actually, corn is a fairly common ingredient for desserts in Asia. There is also a dessert called ice kachang which is shaved ice with condensed milk, ice cream, red beans, sweet rose syrup and sweet corn. It sounds kind of weird but it’s extremely delicious!
I’m really glad you found the post interesting. I am trying not to talk about food too much, but I must admit that it is one of my favorite parts of traveling ;; Thank you for your lovely comment~