Tradeshow food is bad pretty much anywhere you go. Although, there are few places where you’ll find some surprising top-notch, tastey selections, like Asia or some shows in Europe. There, the food is pretty darn good and worthy of reporting back.

Oh yeah, the boys suffered through hockey-puck burgers and just strange things over in Vegas for CES, but out here in Singapore, we eat good.

Any meal that starts with Tiger Beer and salted deep fried peanuts and a dash of red-chilies is going is going in the right direction. Understand, Bubba like hi-end 5-star food, but Bubba love street food.

In Singapore, it’s all over the place. If you eat anywhere outside of a hawker square, hawker center, hawker plaza, or hawker cart, you’re probably missing out on some of Singapore’s best known foods.

They could put the word “hawker” in front of toilet, and there’d be good eats there! That’s how good hawkers in Singapore are.

They’re mostly feisty who you’d better hurry up and order with, or else they move onto the next customer. Order fast and the food arrives just as fast. Hot, cheap, and 9 out of 10, delicious. This is fast food, Asian style. No Burger King, In-N-Out, MacDonald’s here. You don’t need it. With hawkers, they crank out tastey dishes that’ll run you cheaper than a Big-Mac, fries, and a drink.

Cheap and fast? That’s the definition of great food. In Singapore, you’ll find some of the best food Asia has to offer. A blend of raw tropical sweat, Malaysian spice, Indian heat, and Chinese fire. All mix together in a tiny City State to shake out some of the best cooking found in the Pacific.

You’ll find in Singapore, as with many warm climate areas, that spice is never far behind in any dish.

It looks like a simple dish and it is. Pork, tofu, eggs, and salty goodness. Really no explanation. Pour this thing over white rice throw in a healthy dollop of red-fire chilies, and you’ve got an awesome little meal. Served piping hot, it make a fine Tiger chaser. Tofu is silky smooth and the eggs add a nice richness that, well, words just can’t describe. It makes me feel like a kid on Saturday afternoon, everytime I have it. I don’t know why, it just does.

The fish couldn’t be any simpler. The fish is steamed, whole, then removed to a plate where fresh scallions are chopped show-string style over it. Then a sweet mix of soy sauce and salt get sprinkled over it. The maker of this dish is the smoking, boiling oil that’s ladled over it instantly cripifying and blending soy-salt-fish-scallions, all into one gorgeous sweet taste. It’s really awesome, for something so simple.

Man, what can I say here? This dish is just spectacular. The history behind it is uniquely Singapore. Marmite is a British import that’s mixed into Singaporian food bceause, well, the Brits used to run the country for a while way back when. Fusion before fusion became a hot LA dinner club theme. Ming Tsai ain’t got nothing that Singapore hasn’t done in spades.

Marmite, is a yeasty fermented little bugger that’s really what you get leftover from making beer.

In essence, it’s very similar to soy sauce as you make soy sauce like you make beer…almost. So it’s natural that it would make it into Singaporian cooking.

Salty, sweet, almost bbq but better, and just a tad spicey, round out this dish. Deep fried pork in sauce? How can you go wrong?

Singapore’s signature dish is called Chili Crab. If you come here and leave without getting it, you didn’t come here. I’ve had it tons of times, but decided it was time for a change. So, we tried something with lobster. Not the double clawed lobster most Westerners are used to seeing, but a rich meaty, buttery, single big-clawed, with pincer lobster found only in Asia. This lobster, has a bigger tail and an overall more silky texture compared to Maine lobster. Don’t get me wrong, lobster from anywhere is great, but in Asia, it’s just different enough for you to take notice.

This is just a simple chopped, floured, whole lobster (everything), then deep fried. Once finished, it’s tossed salad style with scallions, salt, white pepper, black pepper, garlic, onions, and diced chilies.

It’s gooooooood man.

My favorite dish. In looking at it, you’d think you wound up in Popeye’s, KFC, or some other southern fried chicken joint. But you haven’t. This is a chicken soaked in a fish flavored sauce, with Indian red curry spices, lightly floured and deep fried to perfection. If the Colonel had this recipe, he’d have taken over the world.

It’s salty, fishy, spicey, flavored chicken that just melts and then each spice just comes at you with on mission.

What you find in Singapore food wise, and in Asian countries in general, is that food here plays on a few simple spices and ingredients: Salty, sugary, fire-y, and sour-y. It’s how those 4 simple things are blended and coaxed that makes the flavor magic happen. Throw into Singaporian cuisine the influences from Western cooking, Pacific Island cooking, Malaysian and Indian spice, and you have one super food culture that cranks out dishes like nobody’s business.

I come for the Airshow and stay for the food.

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