Hospobaby on Holiday

Maxwell road Hawker centre- Ice Kachong!

I hate airplane food. If you are travelling to anywhere in Asia (cattle class) your likely meal choices will be a) chicken with soy sauce or b) fish with soy sauce. Travel with a toddler and your meal experience will be transformed. Flying to Singapore and then to Bali, hospobaby got the best meals. Spaghetti with meatballs, chicken nuggets, penne with cheese, chips, yogurt, chocolate, biscuits, juice, ice cream…. everything a kid and in our case adults want. We hoped she would be asleep at meal times so we could try some of her delicious fare.

No signboard restaurant- waiting for Chilli crab

Once in Singapore we couldn’t wait to try the renowned hawker markets. We had heard of the famous chilli crab and once we figured out how ordering at the market worked, we got stuck in. Satays, chilli crab, steamed rice and cold sugar cane juice. Hospobaby loved the succulent crabmeat and the sweet and spicy sauce.

East coast Hawker centre

Chilli Crab

I stood in a line at the legendary Tian Tian Hainanese chicken rice stall in Maxwell hawker centre for 20 minutes and I must say that the simple roast chicken and rice with hot sauce was well worth it. The markets felt festive on Boxing Day. Communal dining has its own charm and I wish there was more of it in New Zealand.

Serious shoppers have serious appetites; the food courts in the malls were my saviors. I could lure hospobaby and her dad again and again into shopping with the promise of good food. The tastiest Vietnamese Banh mi bale sandwiches, Japanese wagyu burgers, Indonesian fried chicken, murtabak, beef rendang, dumplings and hand pulled noodles, Zoya was experiencing food from cultures she had never come across. I must admit we couldn’t get hospobaby to eat out every meal; she also had some home cooked food to help her along the way as we were lucky to be staying with whanau.

Balinese Crispy fried duck

Balinese food was a bit more of a challenge. Unlike Singapore, hawkers in Bali are not monitored by the government and organized into one space. I was a bit wary, as eating joints were peppered all along the roads. After a disappointing dinner at out hotel restaurant we had to experiment. We had some great Balinese food as well as some disappointing meals. My worry was well founded when our little one came down with a tummy bug. The rest of our trip we had to ply her with the familiar…cheeseburgers and chips.

Travel is the biggest adventure of all, the sights, the culture and the food- everything is new and exciting. It’s hard to come back home and explain to an almost two year old that the holiday is over- especially if she demands chilli crab for dinner every night.