[birds chirping]
I only knew about Singapore from what I'd read.
Very strict, a lot of rules.
No littering is good.
No spitting makes sense. I like that.
But no walking nude around your house?
No bothering people with your musical instruments?
Chewing gum is not allowed in the country.
Don't pee in an elevator. That's a rule.
I-- I wasn't planning on it, but now, well, I'll make sure
I don't even have an accident.
[theme music playing]
♪ A happy, hungry man ♪
♪ Is traveling all across The sea and the land ♪
♪ He's trying to understand ♪
♪ The art of pasta, pork, chicken and lamb ♪
♪ He will drive to you ♪
♪ He will fly to you ♪
♪ He will sing for you ♪
♪ And dance for you ♪
♪ He will laugh with you ♪
♪ And he'll cry for you ♪
♪ There's just one thing he asks in return ♪
♪ Somebody feed, somebody feed ♪
♪ Somebody, somebody feed Phil ♪
♪ Somebody feed him now ♪
[Phil] If you're like me, you might not really know exactly what Singapore is.
A city? An island? A country?
Turns out it's all three, and look at this.
Awe-inspiring architecture, cutting-edge engineering,
all with these beautiful, quaint little villages mixed in.
The very modern skyscrapers that seem to erupt from the jungle.
The whole city seems to have been built in and around beautiful nature,
and that nature's been incorporated into every element
of the architecture and the city itself.
You know you're somewhere special when the minute you step off the plane,
a boring airport terminal becomes this.
Aptly named "The Jewel,"
it has a giant five-story atrium
with the world's tallest indoor waterfall pouring right through the center of it.
This is a great example of taking a building that simply serves a purpose
and deciding it should be something spectacular instead.
This is an airport.
Look, we all know airports are places we gotta endure, right?
But if I had a seven-hour weather delay in this place, I'd be all right.
I don't know if TV can capture the scope of this thing.
It's crazy big.
It's like the size of Times Square.
But while this place is straight out of The Jetsons,
there is a lot of history in Singapore.
Known as the Lion City,
Singapore has been a critical port at the bottom of the Malay peninsula
in Southeast Asia since the first millennium.
In the 19th century, it was colonized by the British,
and today it's an autonomous republic.
[in Mandarin] Welcome to Singapore.
[Phil] Just like the US, it's a country made up of immigrants
from all over the region and the world.
[indistinct chatter]
And if there's a place where all of Singapore gathers,
it's in one of the city's many food courts,
known here as "hawker markets."
This is the thing here. This is a way of life.
The national pride are in these hawker stalls.
This is braised noodles.
It says, "Deep-fried shark nuggets."
Yup, that's the name of the game at this stall.
Bjorn Shen is a great chef,
and he's also a judge on MasterChef: Singapore.
He's taking me to try some of his favorite things
at his local neighborhood hawker market, Tiong Bahru.
So that's braised duck and all the different duck parts.
There's duck intestines, duck feet.
-I like the outer part with the skin. -[chuckles]
-You've had duck rice before, have you? -Never.
Nev… Can we get one duck rice?
Done. Dig in, dig in.
Oh, yeah.
This is rice that's soaked in soy sauce, right?
Cooked in duck stock and soy sauce, and sometimes you find chunks of yam inside.
-Really? -So they cook it in chunks of yam.
I think this is one of those sleeper dishes.
Everyone in Singapore eats this sort of thing,
but it's not your chicken rice or your chili crab
or your laksa, one of those top things to eat.
I love it.
You know what I say now?
-Next. -Next. Let's go.
Can we get two cups of sugar cane?
Check out how he's doing it.
He's got these canes. He's just putting them through this, like, pasta machine.
It's shooting all that juice out. He's going to strain it, put it over ice.
Wow. Look at… I… Who… There's so much juice in there.
-So these things are actually very porous. -Yeah.
You'll see that if you put them straight on the floor,
they'll suck up anything from the floor, like detergent and, and, and…
you know, nasty things that you don't want them to suck up.
So they'll always keep them in buckets or on top of…
I'm glad they do. Wow, look at that. Wow.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you.
Try this. It's powerful.
-This is delicious. -Yeah.
Delicious!
-Okay, thank you. -Thank you. Never had that.
So the next stall we're gonna go is right up the end of this alley here.
Yeah.
And that's where we get that famed watercake.
-So it's steamed rice cakes. -[Phil] Yes.
But not the bouncy kind. This is soft and melts in the mouth.
[Phil] Uh.
[Bjorn] And then on top is preserved radish.
We each get two of these long skewers. The way we do it is we cut.
-[Phil] Huh. -Get some of that radish on top.
A little bit of chili, maybe. We poke and then we eat.
-Two sticks, it takes. -Uh-huh.
-How am I doing? -Not too bad.
As long as you got it to your mouth.
-[Phil] This is great. -It just disappears, right?
I don't know who's the first person who said, "Let's eat this with sticks."
There's no easy way, even for me.
Ah!
"How can we make it a little more awkward for people?
Give them two of these toothpicks."
I do like it, though.
I would never get this. I would never know to get it.
Thank God for you, Bjorn.
I'm now a water cake guy.
-[Bjorn] Yes. -[Phil] Who knew?
Does it sound great? No. Is it great? Yes.
-By the way, they could change the name. -What would you call it?
Scrumptious nice things.
[chuckles]
Okay, moving on!
So we'll leave the market behind. We'll get out to just across the road.
So this is Tiong Bahru. Tiong Bahru is a very old neighborhood.
-[Phil] Yes. -But that's what makes it cool.
-[Phil] So you're saying old is cool. -Old is cool.
That's what I tell people.
Originally undeveloped hills and swamp,
Tiong Bahru was cleared for Singapore's first public housing in 1927.
It gained a reputation as the seedy part of town,
but it turned itself around.
It now draws people to the cafes, boutiques, and markets
set in the pre-war architecture.
Thank you!
-Thank you. -Wow.
Welcome. Yummy, yummy.
-Yummy, yummy. -[Bjorn] Yes.
I like yummy, yummy. Wow. Look at this. Wow. Wow.
-[Bjorn] So… -[Phil] Yes, sir.
This food right here is the perfect expression of Singapore.
-It's a country made of migrants. -[Phil] Right.
And each of them have their own cuisine.
-[Phil] Yeah. -Together, we've made another cuisine.
-Yeah. -Singaporean cuisine,
and this is an example of that, because you have soy sauce,
which is Chinese.
[Phil] Right.
You have curry, which is both Malay and Indian.
You have pork chops.
And this is like a tomato-based sauce. This one's got British influence.
So put a little bit of everything on your plate
and mix it all up together, and it's a whole clash of flavor.
I'm doing it. I'm putting the world on my plate.
-Look at me go. -[Bjorn] This thing right here.
That's a tofu puff. This is the sponge of the food world.
Tof… I thought it was beef. Looks like beef.
It soaks up any flavor that you cook it in.
[Phil] It's very good.
The same kind of thing that the duck just now was braised in.
-[Phil] Yeah. -[Bjorn] The master stock.
Just mix everything up. I mean, this is everyday food, man.
This is comfort food for the people.
[Phil] I'm thanking you so much for this because I wouldn't even know what to get.
[Bjorn] When you walk up to a storefront like that, there's no menu.
It's intimidating for people who have no idea but--
-[Bjorn] Exactly. -[Phil] Look at me go.
We ordered more than most two-person tables would order.
-[Phil] But we must show the people. -Yeah.
We're doing a public service here, ladies and gentlemen.
[laughs]
[soft music playing]
This is a must.
You have to take what's called the "bumboat," perfect for me.
You go at night on the Singapore River
and you see this city of the future gliding by.
Look how beautiful that bridge is and look at the lighting.
Charming.
We seemed to have had the whole river and even the whole city to ourselves.
It's so peaceful and, like, romantic.
I actually wish my wife was here.
Maybe it's the scotch.
In Singapore's early days, these riverways were filled with bumboats
carrying goods in from larger ships offshore.
Today, they're mostly used as water taxis or for sightseeing.
Singapore!
[Richard chuckles]
Well, I've had three sips of whiskey, and I'm loaded.
Cavenagh Bridge, hundred years old, built by the British.
Oldest bridge in Sing--
[man] One of the… at least.
Or the oldest.
I'm gonna say the oldest.
Because facts don't matter anymore.
I built this bridge myself.
[crew laughing]
This bridge is the Herschel Schwartz Memorial Bridge.
He ate something spicy on that bridge and died.
I don't know if you know this.
This is where the blooming onion was invented.
[Richard chuckling]
This scene has been very strenuous for me.
[whimsical music playing]
Peranakan cuisine is the indigenous cuisine of Singapore.
Peranakan means "born here."
It's gorgeous and very delicious,
and it's very complex.
Luckily, I'm with a great food writer and chef herself, Annette Tan.
-Cheers. Nice to meet you. -Cheers. Welcome to Singapore.
And we're at a beautiful restaurant called Candlenut,
which is the first Peranakan restaurant to have a Michelin star.
So you specialize in writing about Peranakan food. Is that right?
Well, I'm Peranakan myself. So, yeah, I suppose you could say that.
-Were you born in Singapore? -Yes, born and bred.
oh, hello.
Oh, boy.
[Annette] Peranakan's the culture. It's not so much a race, right?
Which is why you'll find that Peranakan culture
is very much an intermingling of Chinese and Malay and Indonesian, uh, influences.
And that is especially evident in the food.
-[Phil] Are we expecting others? -[chuckles]
[Annette] There's no such thing as a one-dish meal in Peranakan food.
If you're making a meal for a family, you're making at least three dishes
and some rice.
The traditional name for a Peranakan party is tok panjang, which means "long table."
So the entire table would be covered in dishes.
-We like that. Yes. -[Annette] Yeah.
-[Phil] Should we start with salad? -[Annette] Do that.
This is a very Indonesian specialty.
It's marinated in torch ginger flower, lime, and chili.
So it's a very complex, uh, fresh salad.
-Do you like that? -Oh, yeah.
-It's nice and sharp and fresh. -Oh, my goodness, that's good.
[Annette] So you'll find that certain dishes might be familiar.
Chicken curry is one of those dishes in Singapore
where every culture has its own version.
[Phil] Right.
It's a very emblematic dish for Singapore
because it has influences from all over the region,
from Indonesia, and Thailand, and Java, Malaysia.
You like that?
-Fantastic. -Really good, right?
Now this is buah keluak. So it's a black nut from a tree
that's indigenous to Indonesia.
It's a delicacy only found in Peranakan cuisine.
So the Malays don't really cook with it, not the Chinese,
only the Indonesians, the Peranakans, and the Singaporeans.
-Tell me the name of the nut again. -It's called buah, which is fruit.
-Buah. -Buah. B-U-A-H.
Which is the Malay word for fruit,
and keluak, which is the name of the nut itself.
So, in its raw form, the nuts from the tree
are very, very poisonous.
Um, full of cyanide. So have some more.
-Seriously? -Yes.
Is this like the fugu
where if you couldn't cook it exactly right, you're dead?
In its raw state, it's full of cyanide.
What they do is boil it, and then they bury it for 40 days
so that all that cyanide leaches out of it.
-Who found this out? -I'm not sure how many people died
before they realized 40 days was the sweet spot.
"How many days now? Well, hold on."
"I think we better try one more day. Okay, you taste it."
[Annette] So the closest thing that I can think of
in terms of flavor is kind of like a mole.
-Okay. Well, here we go. -Here we go.
[Phil] I'm just hoping that this was buried for enough time.
[Annette chuckling]
You like that?
Worth dying for.
[chuckling]
Delicious. Who wouldn't like this?
[Annette] Mm.
-Oh, by the way… -[Annette] Yes.
You could tell by looking, that was going to be spicy.
-Do you like spicy? -[Annette] Yes.
I'm a Peranakan girl. If I didn't like spicy…
-[Phil] It'd be rough. -Yes. My mother wouldn't approve.
Tell me if that's spicy to you.
It's all right. I think it's just you being a bit of a lightweight.
[all laughing]
She knows me ten minutes.
She's figured it out.
[chuckles]
Spectacularly delicious.
Totally unique.
The spice and all the other tastes are so well-balanced.
I think it's great.
This food is what Singaporeans would say is shiok.
-Shiok. -S-H-I-O-K.
-It means nothing in any other language. -Right.
But in Singaporean, it means,
-"This is phenomenal. It's awesome." -Shiok.
Yeah. So, you put something in your mouth and you say, "Shiok, man!" You know?
It's shiok.
Yes, exactly.
And this is food for lying down after. There's no…
[chuckling]
Now you tell me.
-You'll be all right. -I will.
Nobody comes to Singapore and loses weight.
[birds chirping]
[Phil] The height of colonial elegance in Singapore is the fabled Raffles Hotel.
Named after the British officer who founded the country,
it's one of the oldest and most glamorous hotels in all of Asia.
And it's home of the Long Bar,
birthplace to the world-renowned Singapore Sling.
Let's have one.
I'm Rodolfo. Nice to meet you.
-I'm Phil. -Welcome to Long Bar.
Thank you. This is beautiful. Look at this.
-Have you tried a Singapore Sling before? -I've never tried a Sling.
I'm very glad you want to try in the iconic place.
-This is where it was created. -[Rodolfo] Yeah.
So we're gonna start with pineapple, some lime juice…
So far, this is a very healthy drink. Yet.
Here is the booze and the sweet part of the cocktail.
Cherry liqueur, curacao, grenadine.
[Phil] Yeah. And this being a colonial-era British concoction,
a couple thingies full of gin.
What's going on here? Look at that.
This our shaker machine. We can do 18 cocktails in just one roll.
Before you had to do it…
Eight hundred per day.
-Wow. -Eight hundred per day.
-[Phil] This saves you-- -You want me to do it or you wanna try?
I want you to do it because I want it to be good.
Okay. [chuckles] Okay. One, two, three, let's go.
[whirling]
Shaken not stirred.
Wow, it's beautiful.
So the tradition here in Long Bar always is Singapore Sling…
-Cheers, my friend. -And peanuts.
-Uh, I get a bag of peanuts like this? -[Rodolfo] Yes.
-[Phil] I'm gonna make a mess. -[Rodolfo] No, that is the idea
because you eat your peanuts and throw it in the floor.
-On the floor? -On the floor.
Let me help you. This one.
All right.
I feel guilty though.
Come to Raffles, drink the Singapore Sling.
It goes down really easy. Maybe a little too easy.
You do not taste the alcohol.
-[Rodolfo chuckles] The silent killer. -"The silent killer." Rodolfo.
So now it's your turn.
-[Phil] Ready? Here I go. -[Rodolfo] Ready.
[whirling]
-I'm exhausted! -Yeah.
High five. Well done.
[laughing]
I'm an excellent bartender.
[Rodolfo chuckles]
[Phil] Oh, yes. Somebody's gonna be happy.
Who would like a Singapore Sling?
-Did you have one yet? -I have not.
[Phil] Katie?
Give that to John over there.
Ian.
There you go, buddy.
Get in there, you guys.
-Cheers! -[Phil] Cheers, everybody! To Singapore.
[clinking]
♪ One for my baby ♪
♪ And one more for the road ♪
Good job. Well done.
[Phil] Rodolfo, we're splitting tips, right?
About six years ago, an Australian chef named David Pynt
opened a restaurant here in Singapore called Burnt Ends.
And tonight I'm having dinner there with the owner, Loh Lik Peng.
[Peng] Cheers, man.
[Phil] He's a Singaporean restaurateur
behind some of the most shiok places in town.
[mellow music playing]
[sizzling]
Every single part of it kissed by fire. That's the specialty here.
We didn't know it'd do well, right? We were just kind of on an adventure,
and neither of us really knew
if Singaporeans would take to an Australian barbecue, you know?
Cooking with flames…
But why not? It just sounds good, right?
-There's certain universal truths. -Exactly.
-"Food over wood fire taste good." -Delicious, delicious.
[Phil] This is no Outback Steakhouse.
Small bites and a Japanese influence is not what you'd expect
at an Australian barbecue place, right?
-What are we having? -[chef] A smoked quail egg and caviar.
[Phil] Smoked quail egg and caviar. Hee-hee.
This is a Burnt End's classic. Been on the menu since the beginning--
Of course it is, because it's phenomenal.
It's downhill from here, so make sure you enjoy that one.
So we've got burnt-flour crostini and taramosalata.
[Phil] Okay, that's amazing.
[chef] This is the beef marmalade and house pickles.
Beef marmalade and house pickles. This food makes me so happy.
This food is unbelievable.
So creative. So cool.
Come on. Do you make a big version of that?
-No. -You don't want advice from a guy, do you?
[laughing]
[David] So this is the beef, uni, and caviar.
[Phil] Wow.
-More decadent ingredients all together. -[chef] Yeah.
[Phil] Sea urchin.
This is barbecue omakase.
I don't want to put you on the spot, but this is the best one, isn't it?
-[laughs] Absolutely. -[Phil] Yes?
Absolutely.
This place has everything I like in a restaurant.
A chef who's been all over the world,
doing something that maybe you wouldn't find in the city we're going to.
-Like Australian barbecue in Singapore. -Singapore.
So I have to ask you guys.
-"Why Singapore?" -Why not?
-[laughing] -"Why not?" is good.
Why not? We started as a pop-up in East London,
where I built the ovens and the grills.
It got to winter, so we had to shut down, and me and my wife went traveling.
Got a phone call from Peng and ended up in Singapore.
-You built those yourself? -Yes, we did.
It's four tons, dual cavity,
and gets up to, sitting, just under 650 Celsius.
[Phil] That looks like unagi.
[chef] Unagi. Eel and bone marrow.
-Eel and bone marrow. -I heard you. I was just…
I was just, like, "Really?" This might be two bites, I think.
-I think it's two bites. -I've seen it been done in one.
I did it.
So many courses! So many little things.
So many different flavors!
Whoo-hoo!
An accordion of pork.
[Peng] The pork's so juicy. That's good, man.
-It's all right? -Yeah, it's all right.
[chuckling]
There's a delicate quality to all the food so far
and a beautiful quality. Beautiful barbecue.
When do you see that? Come on.
[chef] King crab, garlic brown butter, and a bit of truffle.
"Little bit of truffle," he said.
[all laughing]
-Love that. -Sometimes you just feel lucky.
-[Peng] Mm. -Right?
He's fire-roasting crab, he-- And then-- And then--
You think you're done, and then this comes.
[dramatic music playing]
Oh, that's serious.
Now we're talking.
[Peng] Yeah.
-[chuckles] That's a specialty. -[Phil] Wow.
-How long do you age it for? -[chef] This one's had 78 days.
[Peng] "Seventy-eight days."
[Phil] Whoa!
And I got Peng a salad.
-[Phil] Vegetable? -[chef] He's on a diet.
He has instructions from my wife.
[all laughing]
It is perfectly, beautifully rare.
Wow.
It's the best.
Mm.
This is an awesome grand finale.
So now you're dead from the steak, and it's a happy death, but you're done.
And then…
you gotta have dessert.
A pulled pork sandwich.
Hee-hee.
This is crazy.
-[Peng] This is the legendary one. -It's all been legendary.
[Peng] Oh, it's gonna be good. Oh.
[Phil] Hee-hee.
Pulled pork, slaw, cheddar cheese, on a black sesame roll,
and since he's Australian, he calls this a "sanger."
All right, when we do the cookbook of the show,
that's going to be in it.
[stammers] Best in world. Yeah.
[Peng laughing, clapping] Whew!
I found love in Singapore!
[Peng laughs]
I just love the skyline of Singapore.
It really is one of the wonders of the world.
It's regulated by the government
with an eye toward finding innovative ways to maximize space on this small island
while also providing real benefits to its citizens.
And some of the best examples of that have this man in common.
An Israeli Canadian architect named Moshe Safdie.
We saw his water-falling Jewel at Changi Airport.
[kids screaming]
But his firm's literal towering achievement in Singapore
is the jaw-dropping engineering feat that is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel,
which you've seen in movies now.
It's kind of the iconic building of Singapore.
Opened in 2010, it's three towers
holding a convention center, a casino, and a hotel,
topped by the world's longest infinity pool.
[Charu] What happened was there was no space below for all these amenities.
So one of the things Moshe said was, "Why not put it at the top?"
Which sort of makes common sense, right? It was like, "Yeah, why not?"
But this has never been done before…
-I've never seen it. -…where you have a connecting thing.
Charu Kokate is the lead architect here in Singapore for Moshe Safdie Architects,
and I'm lucky enough to see her today.
This building is not just spectacular and unique, but it is also fun.
I mean, we felt very excited when we designed and constructed.
We have to feel excited. Otherwise, it will not be an exciting result.
-Of course, that's it with anything. -Yeah.
You know, we-- we focus a lot on food in the show,
and the chef has to be happy with the dish.
[Charu] Yeah.
[Phil] But the more I travel,
the more important I realize architecture is
to the city itself and to the world as a whole.
-Yes. When this building was designed… -Yes?
…it was designed with the intent
that the building is going to be part of this neighborhood,
part of the city. So we meet the program need,
but we also meet the civic need of the society.
How are the people going to use the building?
-[Phil] Long term goal. -[Charu] Long term goal--
[Phil] That's the answer, right?
[Charu] When we started this project,
we couldn't even get to our site because the roads didn't exist.
-Nothing existed. -[Phil] My goodness.
I can't imagine the challenges.
When a regular person looks at it, it seems impossible.
"What do you mean that's a pool on the top going across three buildings?
How is that even…"
-Held together? -Yes.
I think the pool is not so difficult as much as this cantilever
projecting out by its own.
As soon as you said, "cantilever," I got weak in the knees.
[laughing]
Let's walk to that side.
[indistinct chatter]
[slurping]
Young Thai coconut. I recommend this.
Okay, now it's time for more hawker markets
because that's what you do when you're in Singapore, especially when you're me.
I've never been to a place where the food is so part of the culture
and, in fact, is the culture.
[indistinct chatter]
When every neighborhood hawker offers a different specialty dish,
you've got to hop around. So now we're at the Maxwell Hawker Center.
-Hi! I'm Phil. -Hi. How are you?
-I'm Damian, Phil. -Hi, Damian.
Your hands are cold.
Yeah, because I've got this ice-cold bowling ball
filled with water.
Damian D'Silva is a great chef
and another judge from MasterChef: Singapore.
Perfect person to take me for the national dish, chicken rice.
Adapted from a dish brought over by early Chinese immigrants
from the southern province of Hainan,
chicken rice was popularized here in the 1950s
and has become a staple of these markets ever since.
There's three ingredients. Chicken, rice, and chili.
Right? That's it. But before you cook it, you have to do a good stock.
-Sure. -This guy does a good stock.
You can see the color of the rice.
-Yes. -That's from the stock.
[Phil] That's white rice that's been soaking in the stock.
-Right? -[Damian] Yes.
Oh, thank you.
Wow.
[Damian] In terms of condiments, you're free to choose whatever is preferred.
I want to do what you do.
-Are you sure you wanna do what I do? -I do.
-[chuckles] Okay. -I want to do it the right way.
Okay, sir. I tend to take chili.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
And put it in my rice.
And then I take a little bit of black sauce.
And then I just mix it all up.
This is how I've been eating it ever since I was a kid.
-Do it how you want to, people! -Exactly.
-Made to taste. -Yeah.
What is the black sauce exactly?
-It's basically soya bean… -Yeah.
-That has been caramelized-- -'Cause it's thicker than soy sauce.
Okay, Phil, go ahead and have your first taste of…
You want me to just eat the rice by itself first?
Yes, please.
Oh, yeah, that's delicious.
-I could have just eat this. -For sure.
I mean, the chicken, to me, is basically the bonus.
-The rice, to me, is the king. -Yes.
Okay, but now I gotta do this.
Mm.
Mm!
-Juicy, right? -Juicy.
-Yeah. Yeah. -A little salty.
This is fantastic. So much flavor.
[Damian] It is. And the flavor is just from the stock. That's it.
Now this is… served cold. I didn't realize…
-Kind of like… -Like room temperature.
Do other places do hot?
-No. -It's always like this?
Everybody does room temperature.
I think if it's hot, it won't taste like this.
It won't be as juicy as well.
This is a very different chicken experience if you come from America.
It's fantastic.
Gonna need napkins…
just because I'm going to eat a lot of chicken.
But I can't stop at just one market today, so I'm moving to another
to see what treats they're hiding from me.
This one is called Changi Village.
There's many, many hawker markets with many, many stalls.
You got to try everything. That's why I'm here.
This used to be an old British army barracks,
and they turned it into something much more useful…
food center.
And I'm meeting a new friend to show me around.
This is the most delicious culture in the world.
This is KF Seetoh,
who is probably the number one champion of Singaporean culture
as seen through food.
-Hello! -Hello.
Look at that.
Who wouldn't stop dead in their tracks when they see this?
[Phil] You want that fried chicken. Yes.
-[KF] Crispy anchovy… -[Phil] Yes.
How many stars on Yelp does this have? This must be a good one.
KFC, as I like to call him,
brought me to this market for the local hawker specialty,
the Malay dish, nasi lemak.
So we are in this "nasi lemak war zone."
So there's about, what? Five, six nasi lemak stalls.
-[Phil] How do we know which one? -[KF] You don't.
So we need to try a few of them.
Exactly.
[sizzling]
Nasi lemak is normally eaten for breakfast.
Wow. So this is a little fish. What kind of fish?
-Mackerel. I think it's a mackerel. -Mackerel?
[Phil] That looks killer spicy. Is it?
Yes. Murderously good.
"Murderously good."
[chuckles]
So this is called nasi lemak, translation, "rich rice."
Don't ask me why, but it's cooked in coconut
with flecks of salt and pandan leaf. You get it? You get it?
-Salty, sweet and aromatic. -Beautiful.
[KF] But this one,
they crush a lot of shallots, garlic, dried and fresh chilies.
Some people add shrimps, dried shrimps, and even lemongrass,
and then they blend it
and then they fry 'em up into a… How long have we got in this show?
And then to please everybody, they put fried stuff on top.
Fried chicken, fried fish, and they have crispy…
[munching]
…anchovies.
-These are anchovies. -Yeah.
-Richard! -Oh, hey. Hi.
What do you got there? More?
It's the same but different toppings.
[KF] Yeah, different toppings.
So that's how people who don't know nasi lemak eat.
You go for the meat.
-So if you are a nasi lemak connoisseur… -Yes.
This is what you do, you desecrate the thing.
[Phil] Ahh.
[KF] Essentially, these two are the stars.
The main star is the chili paste and coconut rice.
[KF] Exactly. Everything else are supporting actors.
-Supporting actors. -This is the main deal.
Our job is to find Best Supporting Actor.
And the Best Actor and the Best Movie.
-Shall we? -You might be the best actor. All right.
Yeah, all the sideshows are just mere sideshows.
-[Phil] Yes. -And you do this.
I love that I showed you how not to do it first.
That's-- I'm very good at how not to do things.
By the way, there's a fried egg over here.
-[KF] Yeah. Another great sideshow. -[Phil] Yeah.
Excellent. I love it.
It's like an all-day national breakfast.
-It's got a-- -Here's my waiter. Hello, waiter.
What do you got there? There's a hot dog.
[KF] Anything goes.
If you are the supporting actors, anything goes.
-[Phil] Anything goes. -[KF] Yeah.
[Phil] That's really good.
-I'm gonna look for this. I love this. -[KF] In LA?
-[Phil] Yeah! -[KF] Not as good though.
And definitely not as cheap.
What would you pay for this back home?
-Decently. -This…
I'm gonna say this would be $15.
Do you hear that? Fifteen bucks.
What are you guys doing selling it for four?
[Phil] I read that because this food in the hawker center is so inexpensive,
most people don't eat at home.
The public hawker centers alone serve up one million meals a day.
-What? -People don't cook
because we have been spoiled by cheap deliciousness.
So how do they make a living?
-They sell a lot. -Volume, volume.
And people fall off the edges when they don't make it.
This is the most expensive city in the world to live.
-Ironic, isn't it? -[Phil] Yes.
[KF] I have an affinity for these hawkers.
They are protecting our culinary legacy, which is why--
-[Phil] It's just the culture. -[KF] It is a culture here.
And look closely at all the cooks around.
-A lot of them are old. -[Phil] Yes.
[KF] I fear we're going to lose a lot of this unless way more is done.
[Phil] This whole culture is in danger of dying out.
Just like at home, we need to value food and the people who make it.
And that's why Seetoh and others are pushing to protect hawker culture
by having it declared a UNESCO Intangible World Heritage.
I wanted to taste the sauce from the different…
-Okay, taste all the sauce. -Yeah.
Can you taste the difference?
I don't think I can. Can you?
-That's very polite. -[Phil] "That's very polite"?
[KF] I think this one was the rudest of all.
The spiciest? Yes?
It gives you a sweet sensation
and then it slaps you when you're not looking.
[laughs] Like it's my wife.
[chuckling]
You might have seen a movie that was set in Singapore
called Crazy Rich Asians.
Well, Tan Kheng Hua played the mom!
And I'm meeting her at Gardens by the Bay
that features a tropical jungle inside.
They have a lot outside, but they wanted inside too.
-Wait a minute. Wait a minute. -What?
It looks like the world ended, and this used to be a parking garage,
and this is what happened.
[Tan] It's like a different sort of theme park.
-[Phil] Yeah. -Yeah, look at that.
-[Phil] These are the real fly traps. -[Tan] Yeah.
That's a Venus flytrap, but that's a carnivorous plant.
Carnivorous, all right? Watch your nose.
Let's…
-Yeah, that'd be a real feast for a plant. -Watch your finger.
[Phil] Wow!
-[Tan] Yeah, look at that. -[Phil] We're going up there?
So I have a question about the movie. The title.
[Tan] Uh-huh.
Like, if you said Crazy Rich anybody else,
it's almost a little derogatory, isn't it?
So, what do you think?
-[Tan] Okay, I'll just speak for myself. -[Phil] Yeah.
Because we're Asians,
I take the license to poke fun at myself.
-Of course. -And I don't feel so bad.
[Phil] I'm Jewish. That's-- All our humor is this.
[Tan] Yeah.
Wow.
[Phil] That's awesome.
Oh, my goodness.
This should be a little higher.
[chuckles]
You see, we don't have natural waterfalls, you know?
[chuckles]
-I didn't know that. -No, we don't.
So you have to have them at the airport and in a dome like this.
-We gotta make our own, right? -Yeah.
Beautiful. I love it.
"If you are feeling unwell or dizzy,
suffer from heart or blood pressure condition,
or have a fear of heights,
you're advised to refrain from proceeding beyond this point."
[Tan] Yeah, because look at this, Phil.
We are mighty high. Mighty high.
By the way, shouldn't this be at the bottom before you come up here?
[chuckles]
[Skype call ringing]
Hello!
How you doing?
We're good!
-Look what I have. -[Max] What is this?
[Phil] What does it look like?
[Max] What is it?
-[Monica] Looks like a coconut. -Very good.
Wait, there's a dish here for you.
Chicken rice.
See, you can put the spicy chili sauce in it,
you mix up the rice, and you put the chicken over it.
It's actually the national dish.
Very comforting.
-Is that for breakfast, lunch, or dinner? -I think they eat it all the time here.
Is it very international?
Are the architects from all over the world building in Singapore?
There's a famous Israeli-Canadian architect named Moshe Safdie.
He and his firm built the world's largest infinity pool
on top of this massive hotel.
You can't swim over this, right?
-No. -[Max] Is there protection someplace--
There's some protection. You don't just swim
off the edge of the building, no.
Would you like to swim in a pool like that?
-[Max] No. -[laughing]
I don't like to swim in a pool, period.
[Phil laughing]
But he likes looking at it.
-Looking at it is okay. -See? There you go.
Do you have a joke?
What's his favorite singer? The, the…
With the guitar? What's his name?
-Bruce Springsteen. -Bruce Springsteen.
I think Bruce Springsteen went there, and they named the city after him.
Sing-a-poor.
-[Richard] That's his joke for the day. -Wow. That's the joke of the day?
Sing-a-poor.
I got it the first time.
Poor singer.
I got it. It gets funnier the more you explain it.
That can't be the joke. You have to have a good joke for me.
I could tell you another joke. I don't know if you can use it.
We already have one of those, but go ahead. [chuckles]
[Max] Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg went to the doctor.
Mrs. Goldberg said, "Would you examine my husband?"
So he checks him out. He comes back and says,
"Your husband has a problem with sex.
He says to me, 'The first time it's good,
but the second time, I start perspiring, and I sweat,
and I'm completely soaked after the ordeal.'"
The doctor said, "Could you explain it to me?"
She said, "Yes.
The first time is in November, and the second time is July."
[laughing]
Very good! Max, everybody.
Do you know a guy named Fred Summer?
No, why?
He introduced me to your mother.
And?
And he died.
Sorry.
[Richard] Thanks for the good ending.
That's showbiz.
[laughing]
Oh, jeez.
Goodbye!
[laughing]
[light thunder rumbling]
[pouring]
[Phil] It's the last stop of my trip,
and I'm meeting back up with Bjorn to eat at his restaurant, Artichoke,
where he gives classic Middle Eastern food his own Singaporean treatment.
Wow.
What's this?
Roasted eggplant, samphire,
hummus and mushroom, beetroot, and dukkah.
This is great.
I wanted to share this meal with some of my new friends like Damian,
KF, and our great local fixer, Milton.
And it was pouring outside.
[pouring]
Listen to that rain.
Is there a better thing to be doing when it's raining outside?
-[Damian] Nice, isn't it? -It's very nice and cozy in here.
That's what happens when you choose to come here in December.
-Yeah. -[Bjorn] Only in December.
You'll go back and they say, "How was Singapore?" "Very wet and delicious."
"Wet and delicious." That's what they call me.
Oh!
Wow.
What is it? It looks like a bagel with caviar and cream cheese.
[Bjorn] Crab Suzuki
with caviar and chicken skin.
Awesome!
[KF] A Middle Eastern take on Singaporean food.
[Bjorn] It's Middle Eastern food through the lens of the Singaporean boy.
[Phil] The world is great when we mash it up.
I love people who have talent and who appreciate delicious things.
It makes the world better.
[Bjorn] Anyone can cook well. That's a good cook.
If you want to be a good chef, you need to transmit experiences,
create memories,
tell culture.
[Milton] Do you think the traditional hawker culture,
will it fade away?
Yes, if we don't save it.
Preserve the culture, value the culture.
And find fresh possibilities
for the humble, single dish,
-the one-dish entrepreneur. -Yes.
-We have cuttlefish. -[Phil] Wow.
[Bjorn] That's a cuttlefish shawarma with schmaltz.
-[Phil] Chicken fat? -Chicken fat.
Who's ready to die on this sword?
Oh, look at this guy, he's killing us.
-[Bjorn] Green harissa prawns. -[KF] Harissa prawns.
[Phil] I love it so much. Little bites of everything.
-That's right. -Make mini sandwiches.
-[Phil] Yes. -[KF] And talk as you eat.
"And talk as you eat," of course.
Life is short, man.
[chuckles] Life is short. Talk with your mouth full.
[KF laughing]
[Milton] If there were three words you could use to describe Singapore cuisine.
-Yes? -What would they be?
-"Give me more." -That's quite true.
[Phil] I'm in love with everybody. The sweetest people.
The nicest culture.
The greatest food.
The convergence of so many amazing influences,
it's an embarrassment of riches here in Singapore.
A short stay just isn't gonna cut it. It's not a big place,
but something tells me I barely scratched the surface.
Did I miss anything?
-My chili crab. -Yeah, bak kut teh. Didn't do bak kut teh.
He didn't. Not yet.
You didn't do char hae mee, char kway teow.
Blame Richard.
[laughing]
-Cheers! -[Phil] To Singapore.
-[Milton] To Phil. -To coming back!
[Phil] All right!
♪ Somebody please, somebody please ♪
♪ Somebody ♪
♪ Somebody please, somebody please ♪
♪ Somebody ♪
♪ Somebody please, somebody please ♪
♪ Somebody ♪
♪ Somebody please, somebody please ♪
♪ Somebody ♪
♪ Somebody please, somebody please ♪
♪ Somebody ♪
♪ Somebody please, somebody please ♪
♪ Can somebody, somebody feed Phil? ♪
♪ Oh, please somebody, somebody feed Phil ♪
♪ Somebody feed him now ♪