Asia Pacific is the world’s largest and most diverse culinary landscape. Some dishes, such as Tokyo’s soy-cured tuna, encapsulate a city’s backstory in a single bite. Some destinations, like the culinary crossroads of Singapore, are worth visiting for the food alone. From tasting menus to street eats, sampling local cuisine is like tasting a city’s soul.
Be streets ahead in Singapore
In Singapore, history is stirred into every snack. Since 1819, when it was established as a trading nexus, the city-state has been a lighthouse for travelling ingredients. The Chinese purchased pak choy and tofu to steam and stir fry. Malays bought pandan and lemongrass to season satay. South Asians carried fenugreek and tamarind to flavour flaky flatbreads known as roti prata. Orchard Road was so-named as it hosted fields of rambutans and mangosteens to feed the growing population. Singapore was a living larder.
As life was busy, folks ate on the go. Singaporean street food reaches its apogee nowadays at Chinatown Complex Food Centre, where several of the many hawkers have gained mentions from the Michelin Guide. The 200 food stalls include Lian He Ben Ji Claypot, where rice, pork belly, duck sausage and salted fish are steamed to perfection in a ceramic dish. CMY Satay is another hawker to gain the Michelin nod, having taken decades to finesse a single grilled bite.
Orchard Road now hosts Singapore’s ultimate foodie address: Hilton Singapore Orchard. The hotel’s version of the national dish, Mandarin chicken rice, has been considered the benchmark since 1971. Best of all, Hilton Singapore Orchard is a springboard into the constellation of cuisine that surrounds the hotel. Staff eat and drink at neighbourhood eateries and are proud to share suggestions for the best Fujian cuisine, such as Hokkien mee, Singapore’s must-eat noodle recipe, or bubble tea, which pops with taro bubbles and coconut jelly. The hotel is wonderfully connected. The MRT line runs directly to Chinatown Complex Food Centre and Little India, home to south Asian street-food vendors.
Back inside Hilton Singapore Orchard, its Shisen Hanten restaurant is a specialist in Chūka Szechwan Ryori, a unique fusion of Sichuan flavours and Japanese techniques. Chef Chen Kentaro calls on his family’s culinary heritage to craft dishes such as Matsutake xiao long bao, which bakes earthy mushrooms inside a featherlight bun. Shisen Hanten is among the most accesible of the 42 Michelin-starred restaurants in this food obsessed nation.
Evolve your palate in Tokyo
The greater Tokyo area is home to more than 37 million people. The city’s very first international hotel, Hilton Tokyo, sits at its heart. The hotel was built near Shinjuku train station (the world’s busiest terminal) in time for the 1964 Olympics, when the first bullet trains wowed the world. Trains still zip to the country’s culinary hotspots, including Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe.
Yet Japan’s most flavour-intense cuisine sits on Hilton Tokyo’s doorstep. Guests can stroll to ramen stands and yakitori grillers in the historic Omoide Yokocho alleyways. Or visit octopus ball sellers and sushi conveyors in the Kabukicho nightlife district. Every interaction showcases a simmering display of street food. Your best guides to the local scene are hotel staff, whose hard-won opinions will direct you to the tastiest addresses.
Bear in mind that Tokyo’s epicurean origin story was born in the bay. Clams and seaweed were simmered with sake and miso to create Fukagawa-meshi, a life-affirming fisher’s stew. To preserve the catch, cooks took to salting, pickling and seasoning seafood to extend the shelf life. The result was Tokyo-specific lip smackers such as soy-cured tuna, simmered eel and vinegared mackerel. All these recipes influence flavours at Hilton Tokyo.
The hotel restaurant that best embodies an array of Japanese culinary techniques is Junisoh. At lunch, bento boxes are packed with sashimi, tempura and miso soup. At dinner, traditional multi-course kaiseki dinners rinse every flavour from pickled fish to the teppanyaki grill. Eat the history of Tokyo in a single sitting.
Taste the world in Sydney
Sydney is a fusion. Australia’s window to the world has welcomed Italians, Greeks, Vietnamese and a dozen other gourmet cultures, stirring timeless flavours into new recipes. A local staple is Korean chicken burgers, where radish kimchi and gochujang chilli paste are smothered inside a brioche bun. Stroll Sydney’s balmy streets and pick up Turkish gözleme wraps or wood-fired pizzas topped with kangaroo salami.
Hilton Sydney unlocks the culinary scene from its unrivalled location – slap-bang in the city centre. Few addresses are closer to the international kitchens, from upscale gelato to modern Malaysian. Inside the hotel, Glass Brasserie is where fusion meets foraged ingredients. Spaghetti vongole gets a dashi butter treatment, while crudites can be dipped in hummus made from wattleseed, which has a chocolatety tang. Exploring elsewhere? Steps away from the hotel lobby, Sydney’s tram line connects all corners of this food-fixated city.
Sydney has a new dining trend: turning the clock back to homegrown ingredients. Indigenous flavours include Tasmanian pepperberry, which is used for barbecue rubs. For the best foraged bites, uplifted by overseas techniques, try the restaurant Bush. Warrigal greens are pounded into a pesto. Rosella berries and macadamia nuts make up a pavlova. At Bush, rabbit is turned into schnitzels – a “schnitty” in the local vernacular. The dish turns another page on the Sydney fusion menu. Your Hilton Sydney concierge can book a table.
Feast in Bangkok
The canal district near Millennium Hilton Bangkok was once a workers’ neighbourhood. When Bangkok became Thailand’s capital in 1782, northern lacquerware and southern fish sauce arrived by riverboat to feed the growing city. A common dish was khanom chin nam ya – fermented rice noodles bubbled up in a fish stock. Street meats were rubbed with fingerroot (Chinese ginger) and galangal, then grilled on an open flame.
These authentic eats can still be sourced, just steps from the hotel, at floating markets and bustling kiosks. Hotel staff will pinpoint their preferred hawker on a Google Map, then send you on your way. Millennium Hilton Bangkok is a microcosm of the capital where old and new are stirred together. In one direction guests can stroll to ancient alleys where the smoke of incense mingles with searing grills. In the other sits the glittering mall Iconsiam, where they can score a Thai hotpot or a coconut dessert.
Bangkok still operates on a full stomach. This is a city where recipes carry the weight of generations past. In place of the greeting: “How are you?”, locals ask: “Have you eaten?”. Wedding ceremonies feature portentous servings of food, such as the layered jelly dessert khanom chan, said to resemble a stepping stone for life. Even the city’s most affordable Michelin-starred restaurant, Suan Thip, is a voyage back in time to royal court recipes. Try banana blossom salad with tamarind puree, or river fish curry with wild leaves.
Few restaurants boast a better view than Oxbo at Millennium Hilton Bangkok. You can try river prawns and pork belly grilled over an open flame, or other dishes such as sea bass carpaccio with orange truffle ponzu (citrus soy sauce), drawing inspiration from the modern city beyond.
Still hungry? Ride the Gold Line Skytrain from the hotel to the staggering 50,000 restaurants, kiosks and stalls estimated to exist in Bangkok. You won’t go hungry.
For your next Asia Pacific culinary treat, whether Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney or Bangkok, find your tasty stay here
