Eating in Singapore is a national pastime so compelling that more than 5 million tourists visit annually to participate. While some opt for the five-star tables, those in the know come for the street food. We were clueless and consequently delighted when we learned that the city was filled with “food courts” where hawkers selling every sort of Southeast Asian cuisine congregated. We further learned that the stalls were heavily monitored by the government and that the hygienic standards were top-notch. It was a license to taste with reckless abandon. As luck would have it, we stumbled across a food court on our first day in the city. We quickly decided that dinner would consist of a series of visits to various stalls. Carter and Katherine got in line for giant bowls of pan-fried beef noodles while Russ and I applied the rule we had learned in Paris: when you see a queue in front of a food store, simply get in it and buy whatever the locals are buying; you’ll never be disappointed. In Singapore, this resulted in Russ sampling the Hainan chicken rice, prawn-broth noodles and hand-made croquettes filled with fried octopus and me trying a Vietnamese dish called rojak, a fabulous blend of fruits and vegetables tossed in a molasses-like sweet and spicy sauce. The version I tried had pineapple, cucumber, jicama, lime, and chili, and was so good that I went back again the next day for lunch.  We missed out on the Peking duck wraps, served in boxes of five tiny steaming rolls each - the line was just too long! The dessert options were even more overwhelming. Should we try the sweet sticky rice cakes or the banana-filled chocolate waffles shaped like fish? What about the pumpkin soup with cubed yam or the red bean custard with lotus seeds?  The Singapore version of a croissant, next to a little sign that said "Wassant"?  Steamed bread cupcakes like Wonderbread muffins?  Sticks of Japanese rice balls with sweet soy or chocolate flavored icing on top?  And let’s not forget the Singaporean version of an ice-cream sandwich: a wedge of exotically-flavored ice cream nestled in a slice of pretty pink and green bread. But what flavor?  In the end, we couldn’t decide so we each tried something different. Katherine opted for sweet corn ice cream with real kernels, I had red bean, Russ had the infamous durian fruit flavor (super smelly but sweet, sweet, sweet), and Carter brought us home with classic chocolate. We were all quite pleased with our selections and Russ and I were pleasantly astounded by the prices. Like a dim sum outing, each dish is priced individually. Everything we sampled ranged from the USD equivalent of $.80 to $5.00. In the end, our evening culinary tour of the cuisines of Southeast Asia cost well less than $50. Now that’s something to write home about. NOTE:  we only had brief time for touring in Singapore - a fascinating visit to the cleverly arranged Asian Civilizations Museum near the Raffles landing point - and wished we had allowed a few extra days.  We hope to return someday.