Part 2: The cost of eating out, Singapore vs the West.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series, I suggest you start at part 1 here if you haven't read it yet.

Part 2 is going to be all about good food and eating out. Allow me quote 小凤仙 from the article:  "Food prices in Australia are also more expensive. An average meal in Australia costs on average USD $12 to $15. In Singapore, it can cost around USD $3.5 to $9. The variety is wider. One can choose to consume food in a Hawker centre or a normal café like Hans"

Firstly, an English lesson. What the hell is a 'normal café'? Gosh, is the writer a PRC struggling with English as a foreign language or what? A normal café? What is the opposite of that then, an abnormal café? LOL. I suppose s/he would consider Starbucks an abnormal café if Hans is a normal café? Besides, Hans is a restaurant and bakery, it is hardly a café. A café is a place where they primarily serve coffee and maybe a bit of food - a restaurant is where they serve hot cooked food and amongst other things, coffee. I am convinced that 小凤仙 is a PRC as only PRCs would write $3.5 - Singaporeans would always write $3.50. Surely 小凤仙 was thinking of the word 普通 which would mean 'ordinary' or 'average' - but I have seen PRCs translate 普通 as 'normal' before. So yeah, we're dealing with a PRC with very limited experience of Singapore - particularly when it comes to high end dining in Singapore.

High end dining in Singapore doesn't come cheap! S$11?! Are you kidding me?

Now I suppose the US$3.50 = S$4.26 could be like a bowl of noodles and a drink at a hawker centre - but US$9? That's like S$10.97, make that S$11. Are you fucking kidding me? What are you talking about? Even in a Starbucks in Singapore, a dark mocha java chip venti frappucino is already S$8.20 and that's just a fancy coffee. I have been to some incredibly good restaurants in Singapore and they are by no means cheap. Go to any of the restaurants at somewhere like Marina Bay Sands and you can spend hundreds of dollars a head on a meal. And if you wanna talk about Hans, check out their menu here: http://www.hans.com.sg/hans.html A set meal with the grilled salmon fillet costs S$15.80 - that exceeds 小凤仙's upper limit of S$11. Oh dear. Looks like someone hasn't actually done his/her homework. Like if you're going to use Han's as an example, at least check their latest menu prices, duh.

The fact is, in a city like Singapore, you can spend S$5, S$50 or even S$500 on a meal. Sure there are cheaper options in places like hawker centres, but you get what you pay for, or as we say in Chinese 一分钱一分货. If you want to have a good time at a nice restaurant with your friends or family, you should expect to pay for that privilege which isn't going to come cheap in a place like Singapore. What I am saying is just common sense, you can't expect to spend S$11 at a really nice restaurant in town, get real.

Yes I do love Singaporean hawker food, but there is more to eating out than the hawker experience in Singapore.

Likewise, in London (I shall focus on London rather than Australia since I can make a direct comparison) - the same principle applies. You can spend £5, £50 or £500 on a meal in London. There are a wide range of options available from budget to classy to just extravagant. The cheap options do exist of course, but they're hardly going to be particularly nice. Like I said,  一分钱一分货 - you get what you pay for.

I would also argue that the variety is probably wider in a place like London. Singapore is great for Asian food, particularly the cuisines represented by the three main ethnic groups: Chinese, Malay and Indian. But if you wanted something a little bit more unusual like Moroccan,  Hungarian or Iranian cuisine - then you might struggle. Furthermore, Singaporeans have a very, very bland idea of what constitutes as Angmoh/Western food: meat + fries + salad or cooked vegetables. Oh, either that or just fast food. Most Singaporeans have barely scratched the surface when it comes to European food - and this is reflective of the limited choices available in terms of European food in Singapore. Many Singaporeans who have never ever been to Europe will think that they know all there is to European food - so they are convinced there is more variety to Asian food than there is to European food.

Can you get authentic Iranian cuisine in Singapore easily? 

The fact is you can go to any hawker centre in Singapore and more or less expect to find the same kinds of foods on offer - you're hardly going to find a hawker doing something highly unusual and unique there. When you order a Char Kway Teow or a Laksa at a hawker centre, you can expect it to follow a certain recipe and you know exactly what you get getting. Heck, the variety of foods available at hawker centres in Singapore have not changed at all since I was a child back in the 1980s. There is a certain uniformity to the way hawker centres are set up as the Singaporean consumer is a creature of habit.

Imagine if you didn't like Asian food - damn, then you're stuffed in Singapore. In a place like London or New York, because of the many immigrant communities, you can have food from all over the world. If you like Asian food, then simply head on to Chinatown but if you are after variety, then a city like London or New York has plenty more to offer than Singapore. Of course, I am slightly biased as I grew up in Singapore and I adore Singaporean hawker food - but objectively speaking, Singapore is really only a culinary heaven if you really like Asian food.

Are you a fan of Singaporean hawker food?

In terms of Asian food in London, I may not get some quintessentially Singaporean dishes like Katong laksa, popiah and fried Hokkien mee, but there are plenty of restaurants representing Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and the various Chinese regional cuisines available. The only country that is under represented seems to be Singaporean cuisine given that there simply are not that many Singaporeans here and do I miss Singaporean food? Sure I do, but in the meantime, I have grown to love cuisines from other parts of the world. Take Indian food for example - Singaporeans tend to confine themselves to a few dishes they are familiar with such as roti prata, biryani and dosai. Those are the best sellers in Singapore - but once again, that's barely scratching the surface in terms of the rich array of regional Indian cuisine. I have spent many years exploring the rich culinary traditions of Indian cuisine - especially in Brick Lane (or 'Banglatown') in East London.

Singaporeans are barely scratching the surface when it comes to Indian cuisine. 

So much of this really boils down to eating local! For example, if you really like jackfruit (nangka), then sure you can find that in most Chinatown and Banglatown supermarkets, but be prepared to pay a lot for it because that fruit has been imported all the way from Asia. Whilst the fruit itself isn't expensive, it needs to be flown in as fresh fruit has a limited shelf life. When you buy jackfruit from a supermarket in Singapore, it has probably come over from Malaysia on a lorry. It's a lot cheaper to move fruit around by lorries than aeroplanes - do the maths.

Jackfruit! I love jackfruit! 

Likewise, if you like blackberries (the fruit, not the phone), then it is going to be extremely expensive in Singapore as it is a fruit that grows in cold countries. If you're desperate to have some in Singapore, you might get some imported from somewhere like Tasmania or New Zealand but it is simply not going to be cheap. Blackberries, on the other hand, grow wild in the UK - even by the side of the road, like a weed. In late summer, you can go foraging in the parks or woods for wild blackberries as they grow so abundantly. They taste great on their own - or you can use them in making deserts (pies, tarts, cakes, ice cream etc) and smoothies. So if you insist on eating jackfruit in London or blackberries in Singapore, then you are going to find it very expensive to satisfy your cravings. However, if you are prepared to eat local - food that has not been flown in halfway around the world - then it is going to be so much cheaper.

Wild blackberies growing in the park. 

In London, I hear so many Singaporeans and Malaysians complain about how expensive Asian food items like satay, laksa, kaya and pandan cake are. I was once in a Chinatown supermarket when I heard this woman comment, "Wah! This small jar of Kaya here is £4.10 - that is like 20 Ringgits! In Malaysia, for 20 Ringgits, do you know how much Kaya I can buy? Some more this Kaya is made in Malaysia one and they still dare to charge so much for it?" And I'm like duh woman, you're paying for that Kaya's air fare from Malaysia - how did you think that jar of Kaya made it from a factory in Malaysia to a supermarket in London Chinatown? So beware of Asians complaining of expensive food in the West - many of them are comparing prices unfairly without taking into account the fact that they are insisting on eating Asian foodstuffs that has been flown halfway around the world! Heck, their food would have accumulated far more air miles than them! 

So there you go - it is a fallacy to assume that eating out costs more per se in the West. In all big cities, you will always have the full range of options from budget to luxury. Really, the only difference is in very small towns, when you have few choices when it comes to eating out as there are only a few local options and that applies equally in small towns in Malaysia (gosh, I am thinking of my dad's home town now which is a very small town in Johor). The range of options are obviously different because of the local ingredients and culture - but it is really a fallacy to try to say that one is better than the other. It's like trying to say that "Laksa is better than Bouillabaisse" - the two dishes are so different that it is hard to compare them. Sure you can express a preference for one over the other, but doesn't that depend entirely on your personal taste? 

Onto point 3 here, let's get back to the hard nosed world of finance and money by analysing some statistics. http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/part-3-working-hours-in-east-vs-west.html