![The interior of one-Michelin-star Labyrinth in Singapore. Photo: Labyrinth restaurant](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/2439f9db-4cbf-4050-b68d-d0adbc18a84f_812028c5.jpg)
Memories of Newton Food Centre features otah – a Southeast Asian fishcake – a roti john or omelette sandwich, chicken wings and coin prata flatbread.
For added authenticity, the dish is served on a tray resembling the top of a hawker centre table, complete with a printed message reminding diners to return their tray.
![A dish at Labyrinth. Photo: Labyrinth restaurant](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/3fbaecf8-fbf1-47a3-aa99-795cb95e683a_81189d0d.jpg)
LG Han is not the only Singaporean who takes inspiration from childhood memories.
I later find myself on a street corner in Singapore’s Chinatown, gazing at the spot where a tradesman once slaughtered snakes and sold their flesh, according to Yip Yew Chong, a local street artist who used to walk past him on his way to school.
Yip’s murals, which have been commissioned by both Chinatown residents and businesses, are not just for selfie-snapping foreigners – they are for Singaporeans too.
It takes just 15 minutes to reach on a 12-person boat that sputters out of Singapore’s Changi Point Ferry Terminal.
![A cyclist on Pulau Ubin, a lush haven containing one of Singapore’s last traditional kampong villages. Photo: Tamara Hinson](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/d20065b7-53ff-45bb-9627-afac3c7487f0_b3ee84ec.jpg)
The island, which was once pockmarked with granite quarries, has fewer than 50 residents, most of whom live in one of Singapore’s last traditional kampong villages.
After renting a bicycle at a rustic store next to the pier, I join one of the trails weaving across the island (Ubin has no hotels or cars; the main mode of transport is bicycle).
The last of the quarries, whose granite was used to build Singapore’s public housing estates, closed in 2000.
The quarries have been transformed into nature reserves, where I pass binocular-touting “twitchers” on the lookout for rare bird species.
At the now-flooded Pekan Quarry there are heron nesting platforms, and at nearby Butterfly Hill a grassy knoll is blanketed with flowers chosen for their ability to attract rare butterflies.
![Many of Pulau Ubin’s granite quarries are now flooded, and have been turned into nature reserves. Photo: Shutterstock](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/fb2b235e-93ca-4bbb-b66e-e34b21a273e6_1126e908.jpg)
Ah Ma Drinks Stall serves as a reminder of the island’s past. It was founded by Madam Ong, whose parents worked on the island’s prawn farms, and is housed in a traditional kampong-style structure.
Ong, now 85, went into the drinks business with her late husband. They built the wooden stall using timber salvaged from abandoned kampong houses, and began selling juice made with locally grown coconuts.
In 2018, her structure was renovated with the help of architecture students from the National University of Singapore.
Today, information panels and faded photographs pinned to the stall give information about the island’s history. Ong still hacks open coconuts for thirsty hikers with her machete.
![Madam Ong at her Ah Ma Drinks Stall in Pulau Ubin. Photo: Tamara Hinson](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/a1efa13d-19ca-4df1-8e6b-16b3052e3312_22810d24.jpg)
Straits Enclave may be a private museum, but it feels more like a private home. Its owner, Clarence, amassed such a huge collection of artefacts that he opened the museum as both a storage space and a place to spotlight Peranakan culture.
Clarence might soon need bigger premises – the narrow stairway leading to the museum is lined with beautifully painted chamber pots, and in the main room are larger items such as wooden desks and wardrobes adorned with ornate details typical of Peranakan furniture.
![Shophouses on Joo Chiat Road, where the Straits Enclave museum of Peranakan culture is located. Photo: Tamara Hinson](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/dda717c0-3f97-49d8-ba92-5a707f188de7_22810d24.jpg)
The biggest item is a four-poster bed, the kind in which newlyweds would spend their first night together (typically supervised by the bridegroom’s mother).
Clarence tells me his favourite pieces are his kamcheng – beautifully painted porcelain jars once used in Peranakan weddings.
While I am all for authenticity, I am pleased to find no chamber pots in use in the shophouse I am staying at.
![Duxton Reserve Singapore, Autograph Collection is a boutique hotel housed in a Chinatown shophouse. Photo: Shutterstock](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/766ec569-4f88-4dfd-97ff-acc355387695_58dda525.jpg)
The Duxton Reserve Singapore, Autograph Collection is a boutique hotel tucked into a row of heritage shophouses in Chinatown.
I sleep in a four-poster bed inspired by those once found in Chinatown’s opium dens – semi-enclosed to reduce draughts, which could have extinguished the flame of an opium lamp.
Geylang Serai, one of Singapore’s oldest Malay settlements, is next on my list of underappreciated attractions. My guide is Jan Chow of Wok ’n’ Stroll, a tour company that helps visitors delve deeper into Singaporean culture.
![Pasar Geylang Serai, an enormous wet market and food centre in one of Singapore’s most authentic neighbourhoods. Photo: Shutterstock Images](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/e23d39bc-021e-4781-a08b-8d5e9117543c_df2f87be.jpg)
The area is home to an enormous wet market and food centre (I recommend pisang goreng, or banana fritters), a beautiful mosque and rows of colourful shophouses.
It is a more authentic, blue-collar version of Kampong Glam, says Jan, referring to Singapore’s Instagram-famous Arab Quarter where residents are hard to spot among the crowds.
After the tour, I take the MRT to Orchard station, on Orchard Road.
![Orchard Road is Singapore’s most famous street, and its shopping hub. Photo: Singapore Tourism Board](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/26/a129667d-2200-47a2-893e-e5afabff7d47_e2077168.jpg)
When I disembark, a jingle inspired by a Singaporean folk song announces the arrival of a train on the opposite platform.
It prompts a frown from a tourist showing off her shopping bags on a video call, but a smile from an elderly Singaporean lady sat nearby.
And another from me, a pisang goreng-loving tourist with a new-found appreciation of chamber pots, snake flesh sellers and opium den beds.