High tea and other food matters

After that sombre experience at Fort Siloso in the morning we went back to the hotel to buy our own light lunch.

The hotel was close to the Raffles Centre so we went over there to look around. It’s a multi-level shopping centre where you can shop till you drop if that’s your fancy. We found a food hall offering all kinds of Asian meals but it was crowded and very noisy so we passed on that and found a bakery/deli offering wraps, sandwiches and the like. We bought a club sandwich each, expecting little triangles like you get in recovery in a hospital. The sandwich turned out to be huge and it came with salad. We could/should have settled for half each. Oh well. We left as much of the bread behind as we could.

This afternoon we were going to partake of High Tea at the Fullerton Hotel. There was a dress code – long pants and proper shoes for men, Dress to Impress for the ladies. We wouldn’t have won a prize in the fashion stakes but we complied as best we could. Tea in this elegant building harked straight back to colonial Britain but the morsels on the china plates included a dash of the East.

The fare is below, for two people. Have fun matching a morsel with the menu 😊

You’ll notice one of the offerings is Ya Kun coffee or tea. We’d planned to stick with boring old English breakfast tea but our delightful waiter persuaded us to try this Singaporean offering. Ya Kun coffee, also known as Nanyang coffee or Kopi, is a traditional Singaporean coffee made by roasting Robusta beans with sugar and margarine, then brewing it using a “sock” filter. It’s served with condensed milk to sweeten.

As it happens, Pete and I had tried it before on a previous visit to Singapore. We’d asked a shopkeeper where we could get a coffee (you, know, a nice Australian flat white – but we didn’t say that). He escorted us down to a little place where they sold coffee – and it was one of these. It was okay, but I’ll stick to Aussie coffee.

That evening dinner was at our own expense. After another long day, we opted to eat something light at the hotel. The dining room wasn’t busy, we figured we’d eat a quick meal then go to our room. We ordered a salad for me and fish and chips for Peter. After over half an hour of looking at each other and the walls Peter went to ask what was happening with our meals. We were assured we’d be served soon. More twiddling of thumbs ensued. This was ridiculous. Once again, Peter approached the restaurant manager. We’d waited an hour before the meals appeared. That’s simply not acceptable from what is supposed to be a 5 star hotel. The manager at least made sure we were not charged for our food but it shouldn’t have come to that.

The hotel was remiss in other ways, too. On our second morning I’d had my shower to find there were no bath towels. I did my best to dry myself with hand towels while Peter phoned management. Used cups were washed but not put away, one day we had no bathmat, the next we had two, toilet paper was put on the sink not in the toilet, the bathmat was left on the toilet seat not on the rail. It’s all down to training and management.

Our tour guide told us the company didn’t normally use this hotel, they had a long-standing arrangement with another supplier. But the world swimming championship was on in Singapore and that hotel had opened the rooms which normally would have gone to our group. It seemed a large group of fans followed a Chinese diver and they were expected to take those rooms. But Karma’s a bitch. The diver was injured so she didn’t attend. The hotel ended up with a lot of empty rooms. Such a shame.

By the way, if you’ve come here by accident and want to follow the whole trip, tap here.