A Taste of Authentic Malaysian Cuisine - Malaysian Food Street @ Resort World Sentosa

Aktifitas jalan-jalan pastinya tidak akan terpisahkan dengan wisata kuliner. Baik yang dilakukan secara khusus dengan perencanaan, mengunjungi destinasi-destinasi kuliner yang sudah menjadi target, ataupun yang tanpa perencanaan terlebih dahulu dan dilakukan secara otomatis ketika rasa lapar datang. Yang kami sekeluarga lakukan waktu itu adalah yang kedua, saat sedang berkunjung ke Resort World Sentosa di Singapura.

    

Malaysian Food Street yang berlokasi di sini menjadi tempat persinggahan kami untuk breakfast pagi itu. Kawasan yang penampilannya seperti food court yang cukup besar ini terdiri dari sejumlah counter makanan dan minuman yang bisa Anda pilih. Anda punya dua opsi, jalan kaki untuk browsing ke counter-counter yang ada, atau mengambil selebaran yang disediakan di sini yang mengiklankan menu-menu yang ditawarkan. 

Menu yang menjadi pilihan kami waktu itu adalah Heun Kee Claypot Chicken Rice yang merupakan cabang dari pusatnya di Kuala Lumpur yang sudah berdiri sejak 25 tahun yang lalu. Nasi ayam Malaysian style ini dimasak dengan api dari arang, dan disajikan dalam mangkuk yang terbuat dari tanah liat sesuai namanya (claypot). Menu yang merupakan campuran dari tiga jenis nasi yang berbeda yang memberikan nuansa tekstur yang lembut, dilengkapi dengan sajian ikan asin dalam kuah minyak wijen yang wangi, dan sedikit aroma arak China. Pada saat membuat tulisan ini, saya seakan-akan terbawa kembali ke memori menikmati keharuman dan kelezatan santapan ini. Saya sangat merekomendasikan menu ini jika suatu saat Anda berkunjung ke sini.

Menu-menu lain yang ditawarkan antara lain Penang Assam Laksa, Klang Bak Kut Teh, Wanton Mee Kuala Lumpur, Penang Hai Beng Hainan Lor Mee dan masih banyak lagi. Jadwal operasional tempat ini adalah jam 10:00-22:00 di hari Senin, Selasa, Kamis; jam 09:00-23:00 di hari Jumat dan Sabtu; dan jam 09:00-22:00 di hari Minggu waktu setempat. Food street ini tutup setiap hari Rabu, jadi pastikan Anda tidak berkunjung pada hari tersebut jika tidak ingin gigit jari.

Getting there

Penerbangan Jakarta-Singapura dilayani antara lain oleh Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, AirAsia.

Untuk mencapai lokasi yang mendapat penghargaan dari TTG Travel Awards kategori Best Integrated Resort di tahun 2011 dan 2012 ini, bisa menggunakan MRT jalur North-East Line dari pusat kota dan turun di stasiun HarbourFront. Dari sini perjalanan bisa dilanjutkan dengan beberapa pilihan:

• Naik bis RWS 8 dari depan VivoCity yang merupakan mall yang letaknya hanya bersebelahan dengan HarbourFront.
• Naik monorail Sentosa Express dari lantai 3 VivoCity (Lobby L) dan turun di stasiun Waterfront. Harga tiket SGD 3.
• Jalan kaki melalui jalur Sentosa Board Walk. Harga tiket masuk SGD 1.
• Taksi.

Tersedia area parkir bagi yang membawa kendaraan sendiri. Untuk ketentuan dan biaya parkir selengkapnya bisa dilihat di www.rwsentosa.com

When to go

Untuk mendapatkan rate yang paling bagus, bulan Juli dan Agustus adalah waktu kunjungan yang terbaik. Peak season jatuh antara bulan Desember dan Juni, dengan waktu yang paling ramai adalah dari pertengahan Desember sampai ke masa perayaan Tahun Baru China yang jatuh pada bulan January atau February.

Where to stay

Beberapa hotel di Singapura yang tengah menjadi trending topic ini mungkin bisa Anda pertimbangkan sebagai tempat tinggal saat berkunjung.

• Pan Pacific Singapore (7 Raffles Blvd  Singapore 039595, T. +65 6336 8111, www.panpacific.com/en/singapore)
• Mandarin Singapore (6 Raffles Boulevard Marina Square Singapore 039594, T. +65 6845 1188, http://www.marinamandarinsingapore.org)
• Conrad Centennial Singapore (Two Temasek Boulevard, Singapore, 038982, Singapore, T. +65-6334-8888, http://conradhotels3.hilton.com)
• Marina Bay Sands (10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956, 2 Bayfront Ave Singapore 018972, T. +65 6688 8868, www.marinabaysands.com)

Atau, kalau ingin yang penginapan budget yang lebih murah, tinggal cari di situs booking.com atau Hostelworld.

Intinya, jangan mengaku culinary enthusiast atau food expert kalau belum mencoba menu ini ataupun segudang kuliner lain di Singapura yang notabene merupakan culinary heaven. It's your high time to discover!

- SW - 

Feliz Ano 2015, Singapore!

I was walking down the MRT station at Marina on my way to see the new year’s fireworks, or what’s left of it, anyway. My hope and sweet anticipation flew out of the window the very second I saw crowds streaming down my way in the station’s tunnel. Translation: IT’S OVER. My first reaction was to forget them all, the what and why I was there for, walked back to the train with them and go home. The most sensible thing to do, wouldn’t you say? But I was all but sensible that night, which apparently had just turned into morning ten seconds ago. It’s the freakin’ new year anyway, people get high or drunk on it. Some even write a resolution! So I was not just gonna let go. I was already there, so I decided to make the best out of whatever’s left. It’s ME for Vendetta!

So I painfully (and shamefully) kept walking against the crowds, while singing Phil Collins’ Against All Odds, no, not out loud (what do you think I’m crazy?), in my heart.  When I finnaly got out of the station building, I naively, some would prefer ‘stupidly’, looked up to the sky. Where the fireworks had been. Fine, I missed it. Big deal. The ambience was still there. Lots of people were still flooding the street. Some were partying, which from the look of things, would last till daylight. So eventhough I was going solo, there were tons to keep me company. So in the spirit of vengeance, I decided to live in the moment. Carpe diem. I was going to do something cool and classy. Something worthy of my lifetime memory. Moments later, I finally did something not meant for the faint-hearted, munching a vegetarian sandwich at Subway. I people watched too, mind you.

That was years ago. When Marina Bay was just was just a marina, without Bay Sands.

So when I got the chance to revisit the place near the end of 2014, I was all game. Instead of going blind, I did some research about the year end events. I even printed the map detailing the vantage points. As it turned out, there were seven strategic spot to end the year fireworks gazing.

On D-Day, I left earlier around 10 pm so history wouldn’t repeat itself. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against sandwich munching while people watching, but I have something different in mind this year. From the map, I learned that I could reach the vantage points from either of these MRT stations: Raffles Place, Esplanade, Downtown, or Bayfront. The Marina Bay station I took years back was not even specifically drawn in the map. Obviously it’s a bit far out compared to those four. The plan was to visit Merlion Park first, and since Raffles Place is the nearest point, there I started.

After some walk from the station, the night view of Cavenagh Bridge just couldn’t be missed. It’s lighted with ever-changing colorful lights. A must take. The nearby Fullerton Hotel and Anderson Bridge were equally snap worthy. But my excitement didn’t continue for long. The access to Merlion Park was already over crowded and blocked. I was left with the option to hang out somewhere near the bridge and wait for the count down, or try must luck elsewhere. Didn’t take long to decide, I was there to explore. So I kept walking, towards Marina Bay Sands, but only managed to get as far as somewhere in ‘The Promontory @ Marina Bay’, with the Bay Sands before my eyes already unreachable because of the crowd. It was almost midnight so I waited there. Groovy beat from the live music concert not too far from where I was standing definitely made up for the not too cool spot. I would still able to see the fireworks without question, just not take quality pictures.       

Cavenagh Bridge

Boat cruising under Anderson Bridge

Marina Bay Sands

So when the MC announced the countdown, and seconds later the fireworks started painting Singapore’s sky, I hopelessly tried to immortalize the moment and failed miserably. Worse, I was not completely capturing the moment with my eyes either. I was distracted, needless to say, eventhough I’ve watched Rachel McAdams’ About Time whole heartedly. I messed up. I hope you’ll never make such a human error. Recording or taking your own pictures is cool, but not when you have to compensate for the “is ness”, the “NOW” that is really happening in front of your artificial lens. The beauty of internet era, is we can always relive the moment through other’s craft. Exactly what I’ll do in this post.

Minutes later, when it’s all over, I hung around for a little bit just to enjoy more of the atmosphere. And to avoid plunging into the first batch of human sea. Not for too long cause I couldn’t afford to miss the last train. But with thousands of people in the area, the fact that I waited almost half an hour didn’t quite matter. From the moment I decided to walk back to the station, to the second I actually stepped into the Raffles Place MRT, it was almost always shoulder to shoulder. Wait, scrap that. There was no leeway even in the train! So when the MRT passed a bumpy spot, in the spirit of new year, all the passengers without seats and straphangers “had each other’s back” :)

@ Marina Boulevard

Crowdsharing Raffles Place MRT

Feliz Ano Nuevo 2015, Singapore!

- SW -