Indian STREET FOOD Tour in Singapore!! BEST Banana Leaf Dosa in LITTLE INDIA Singapore!

Welcome to Chopstick Travel. I'm Luke Martin and today I'm in Singapore. This is one of the most multicultural cities in the entire world and one of the predominant ethnicities here in Singapore are Indians. So in this episode, I'm in Little India, Singapore. I'm gonna be taking you for an Indian food tour. Later on, I'm gonna be meeting up with my friend Foodie Mama Ki. We're gonna be eating some South Indian food together. But this morning, I'm heading to the Tekka Center, which is one of the top places to sample Indian foods here in Little India, Singapore. It's gonna be a great episode, so make sure you stay tuned until the end. Let's go eat some Indian food. So this is the Tekka Center. It's home to tons of hawker stalls selling Indian food. This is the place you wanna come to sample all kinds of Indian foods here in Singapore. And the first place I've come to is this little stall behind me here that's serving apam. So apam is like a pancake that she uses a tiny little wok that she adds batter to and then kind of works it around so the batter covers the entire surface of the wok. It gets crispy on the edges and then in the middle where the rest of the batter settles, it becomes kind of spongy and pillowy. And then you eat it with a little bit of sugar and coconut milk. Let's try it out. It's gonna be a perfect breakfast. All right, here is my breakfast. This is the famous apam. So you can see it's really spongy in the middle and then it's nice and brown and crispy on the outside. And then it's served with this red sugar and then a coconut milk back here. So it's meant to just be kind of dipped and enjoyed, especially for breakfast. This is a popular Southern Indian dish. I'm gonna try it with just a little bit of this sugar first. Yum. Got a little bit of a tangy, fermented flavor. Nice and sweet from that sugar. Crispy and chewy at the same time. Yum. It's actually a nice kind of balance between sweetness and a little bit of a savoriness because of that fermented flavor. I'm gonna go in a little bit deeper into this apam for that middle part and look at that. It is so fluffy on the inside. Go for a dip in the coconut milk. Mm. This is awesome. I grew up eating a lot of like pancakes and sweet things for breakfast, so this is a perfect breakfast for me. I love that coconut milk. It really saturates it. It's been sweetened, the coconut milk, so it's also a little bit sweet too. Just check out that middle layer. It's piping hot and it's so fluffy and soft. It really is nice with the sugar. And then you can go for a double dip here, sugar and coconut milk. Yum. Yeah, what a breakfast here in Singapore. Two of those apam go down like nothing. That was super delicious. I love that sour fermented flavor from the fermented rice batter. And you can also get a chocolate apam, egg apam. There's all kinds of other stalls though, so I'm gonna try out some other things now. I wanna try a paratha and maybe some biryani as well. So I just ordered myself up two pieces of plain paratha from this hawker stall here and they serve it with a beautiful looking mutton curry gravy. This is one of the most popular things to have here in Singapore when it comes to Indian food especially. Let's try it out. So a super flaky, crispy fried bread. Oh wow, it's super crispy actually on the outside, but then on the inside it looks like it's got a little bit of an elasticity to it. Go for a dip in that mutton gravy. Wow. Wow, that is seriously good. That gravy is phenomenal. It's really well balanced. It's got a little bit of a sweetness, a little bit of a tanginess and spiciness at the same time. And then the paratha is just the perfect medium for eating that. Soaks it right up. A little bit of an elasticity to it like I said. Oh yeah, that gravy is phenomenal, look at that. Super rich and a little bit oily, but not too oily. Again, you can get the paratha with eggs and onions and different things in it, but I just ordered the plain. And you can also get a fish curry instead of the mutton as well. Wow, that is such a good curry. The paratha is okay, but the mutton curry is just phenomenal. I could eat that every day. Perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner. So many layers of that paratha. Every last bit of this curry, if I can, because it's just so good. And I know a lot of Singaporeans like their parathas to be really crispy, but I actually prefer the chewiness and the crispiness contrasting is really nice. Thank you. The quintessential drink to have here in Singapore, the pulled tea teh tarik, and it's nice and frothy on the top, a little bit sweet, super creamy. Everyone's so friendly here, do well. So that is the Tekka Center. I really wanted to try the biryani, but the portion sizes are absolutely massive and I have a big lunch planned. So the main strip here in Little India is called Serangoon Road. It's lined with these beautiful shop houses that are colorful, bright pastel colors. And if you want to have a really authentic experience, Indian experience without going to India, Singapore Little India is the place to go. I've never seen a Little India quite as authentic and truly Indian as the one here in Singapore. And I've just come outside of this temple here called Sri Viramakaliamman Temple. So this is a Hindu temple right on Serangoon Road. There's so much to see here. I'm just walking up and down. It's really beautiful, but I'm going to go meet up with my friend, Ki. We're going to have a South Indian style lunch. All right, I'm with Ki Foodie Mama. We are at the famous Kamala Villas, open since 1947. Are you ready to eat with your hands? Yeah, I'm so ready. Gonna have some South Indian food. Let's go. So I'm just in the back kitchen here watching how they make the dosas here at Kamala Villas. He basically just takes the batter, spreads it very thinly on the hot pan, and then you can get it with aloo masala, or you can just get it plain. Rolls it up, nice and crispy. Oh yeah, that looks good. Let's try it out. I have all the Indian favorite drinks. I got a masala chai, but we also ordered a mango lassi. Let's give it a try. Ooh, yeah. Ooh, it's a little bit sour. Sweet, fresh mango in there. Yum. So the masala chai is served in these metal cups here, and I guess it's in this bowl for overflow, spillage. Let's try it. Looks pretty legit. Oh wow, yeah. You can taste all the spices in there. Wow, that is full of flavor. I'm surprised it's not too sweet. All right, check this thing out. This is called the dosa cone. He is hiding behind it. It's like a massive dosa. It's like leaning Tower of Pisa right now, and then served with some different chutneys and curries. Oh wow, the size of that thing is crazy. This is yours. Yeah. Are you gonna be able to handle it? It's falling down. That is pretty cool. I can't believe it's able to stand up without falling over. Look at it. It's like completely sideways. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh, look at this. There's a lot going on here. So mine has arrived. I ordered the banana leaf dosa meal. There are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight different things, and then this massive dosa. To be honest, I'm not totally familiar with all of them. This is definitely dal. This is some aloo. There's some chutneys here. This one, I think back here, might be sweet. It looks like it might be sweet. And then this looks like some sort of a bean with curd, and then the beautiful, crispy dosa. Oh yeah, oh wow. Yeah, that is super crispy. We have a lot of food in front of us right here, and we're in Little India, so we gotta eat with our hands, right? So we're gonna go in with the dosa. Oh wow, it is so crispy. You can hear the crunchiness. I think this is a dal. It looks like lentils with some other things in there. Yeah, oh yeah. Actually, it's got a tinge of sourness in there, and then super, super crispy, paper-thin dosa. I love it. The outside is crispy, but then the inside has a little bit of a spongy texture. And it's moist, yeah. Yeah, a little bit moist on the inside. Oh yeah, that's good. This brings me right back to India. Southern Indian, everything vegetarian. Wow, that's good. Healthy. To be totally honest with you, I'm not sure what this orange one is, but it's really thick and really creamy. It's actually mild, not as strong as it looks. Let's try the white one. This looks like yogurt-based, or coconut, maybe, yeah. I think there's some coconut in there. There's definitely some green chilies in there as well. Very mild coconut flavor. Yeah, wash it down with some chai. Cheers. Oh yeah. The cardamom is so creamy and refreshing. So this one's got some big beans. It looks like beans there. Yeah, yeah, I think it's like a green bean in there and then white base. Let me try it. That's a curd, really sour, really refreshing. It's not too hot. Yeah, this one looks like another type of dal. And I'm just working my way through this dosa. It really is easy to eat because it's so light and thin and crispy. Yeah, this looks like a dal. Lentils, yellow lentils. Actually, I'm surprised. Nothing is too spicy and nothing is really strong. It's pretty light. All right, I'm gonna try the aloo next, the potatoes. And this one looks like maybe it's got some heat to it. Big chunks of potatoes in there. Yeah, that one is the richest of all. Really strong masala flavor. Tons of different spices in there. So I think this is the last one right here. It's a really watery, thin chutney. Go in with a little bit of the dosa, which is the perfect medium for eating this type of food. Whoa, that one's spicy. Wow, that is a really unique flavor. It's a little bit tangy and oily, but that one's spicy. Yeah, wow. This one was served with a spoon and I'm guessing it's gonna be sweet. And if I know anything about Indian sweets, that means it's gonna be really sweet. Yeah, yeah, really sweet. Actually served nice and hot. There's little chewy things in there too. Oh wow, kind of burns off the spiciness. Resets your palate. Yum, what a meal. So our meals are different and one of the things Aki was served is different than mine. And you said it's pretty good. Yeah, before I finish it, you should try it. Let me try a little bit of it. This is another yellow. I'm surprised, it's really light. Nothing is super heavy on the spice like some Indian restaurants. Yum, yeah, that one is good, isn't it? Creamy, yeah. That was some yummy South Indian food. Really healthy feeling and light. I could eat probably three or four of those dosas. There was a lot of side dishes too. So we're gonna go get some dessert now, some Indian dessert here in Little India. So this is a little place called the India Arcade and the shop that I've come to is called Mogul Sweet Shop. It's a popular Indian sweet shop and you know if I'm gonna have Indian sweets, it's gonna be Gulab Jamun. All right, here's the Gulab Jamun and it is absolutely swimming in the sugar syrup. This is my favorite of all the Indian desserts. I'm gonna try to just bite this in half because it's quite a big one. Wow, wow, that is sweet. Man, oh man, it is so saturated with the sugar syrup. So the sweetness is just completely infused into it. And there's not a whole lot of flavor, it's more just about the texture. It's so soggy, but it retains the structure of the ball. You can see inside, it's soaked all the way through to the very middle there. Wow, it's pretty good Gulab Jamun. Can't eat too many of those. My top Indian dessert, let's try. Sweet, super sweet and cold. It's gonna go down with, it's gonna go well with the tea. Yeah. Actually. Are you gonna drink the leftover sugar syrup? I'm good with this, it's saturated. Is it sweet? Do you like it? No, maybe too sweet. That was some good Gulab Jamun and I'd have to say that the Indian food here in Little India, Singapore is as authentic and the exact same flavor that you're gonna get in India is really, really good. And this is actually the Indian Cultural Heritage Museum, I believe. About 15 minutes away from Little India on Arab Street and I've come to have a famous Murda Bakh at a place called Zam Zam. So yes, Murda Bakh is found in a lot of different countries. It's not necessarily Indian food, but they do say here at Zam Zam that it's Muslim Indian food. It's right across the street from the mosque. You can see it behind me here, so let's go try it out. This place is super popular. It's crazy busy in here and it's all because their Murda Bakh is so delicious. They actually thin out a really thin piece of dough and then they put another piece of bread inside, which is different than how I've seen it prepared before, and then an egg on top and then whatever meat you wanna order. It's all halal, so they have mutton and beef and chicken. They also have deer, which is a super interesting ingredient, but I'm gonna have the beef Murda Bakh today. Thank you, Milo. Oh, is it good? Got myself an iced teh tarik milk tea. I asked for less sweet, but it's still pretty sweet. So the beef Murda Bakh has arrived. It's got this really interesting texture on the outside. It's got all these kind of bumps all over it, crispy looking bumps, and then it's served with a gravy and then also with some cucumbers that are completely drowned in this chili sauce there. You can see. And it looks like there's actually some vegetables inside there too. Is that right? It's like onions inside. Onions, I think. I'm gonna go for a little dip here in the gravy. Oh, it is hot, isn't it? Yum. That is a good Murda Bakh. Is that the beef on the outside? I think it's minced beef on the outside, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. The beef is actually on the outside. So I thought that was just pieces of the bread, but it's actually the beef on the outside. And this gravy goes well with it. It's just mild, but a little bit spicy, actually, at the same time. The flavor is not too strong. Yum. It is definitely greasy, very oily, but I love the onions in there. And it's really unique that the meat is actually on the outside of the Murda Bakh. Let me chase it with some of these cucumbers with chili sauce. I don't even think they're pickled. Just raw cucumbers. That was a good Murda Bakh, but I'd say it's a little bit too greasy for me, really oily. And you can see they've got the deer kind. Maybe I'll try it next time. And the staff was friendly, but one guy was really rude because Kayla spilled her drink. He was super rude about it and complained that he had to clean it up because it was busy. But other than that, pretty good experience. All right, guys, that's it for another day here in Singapore. Today, eating all kinds of delicious Indian foods here in Singapore. Big shout out to Foodie Mama. Check out her channel. All the information down in the description box. Thank you for showing me around today and for bringing the cutest kid in the entire world, the youngest food reviewer in the game. Make sure to subscribe to both of us. Hit the bell icon, and I'll see you guys on the next episode of Chopstick Travel. Bye.