SHIOK: VERY SHIOK LAH!

Singapore.

For a lot of people, hearing the name of this tiny island city-state immediately conjures up a ton of colorful images: the ultra clean streets; ubiquitous water-spewing Merlion; the friendly locals and their super addictive way of speaking (lah!); Orchard Road and its plethora of altars to consumerism; Clarke Quay and Boat Quay's achingly hip bars and clubs; and Geylang's, uhm, quaint houses.

But for others like myself, Singapore is synonymous with just one thing: mind boggling eats. Now if you ask me, this is a place that, once you get past the initial thrill, can be sort of, well, vanilla. I've always been of the opinion that you can only get so excited about being there. It is just a little too antiseptic–something I've heard many a traveler share with me. But tell me who doesn't get thrilled at the prospect of a plateful of steaming, tender Hainanese chicken? Who doesn't get hunger pangs at seeing a big bowl of spicy, sexy curry laksa (seafood, tofu and noodles in a curry-coconut soup laced with fiery sambal), or pepper crabs, or char kway teo (flat wok fried noodles topped with assorted yum yums)? Or…or… well, you get my drift.

You can argue all you want about it, but I really believe that this is home to some of the most delicious food in the world. Here is a fine example of a place filled with people who love to eat, and how! Even when you get down to the most humble street foods (which are, of course, also the most popular things to eat there), it is a known fact that locals will not patronize you if your food is not up to snuff. Period. You have to be on top of your game at all times (as all good restaurants should be), even if you're just serving something as simple as a bowl of soup noodles.

Here in our fair country, you would think that by now Singaporean food (or semblances of it) would be more common, but for some reason, such is not the case. Some have tried and some should try a little more, perhaps (no names, okay?). But what I do know is this: in this day and age when everyone's palates are a little more sophisticated, this cuisine's time has come to be sprung onto adventurous taste buds all over the metro.

Thankfully, there are restaurateurs with aspirations to do just that, like this likeable fellow named Nicco Santos, proprietor and chef of the newly opened Shiok. A culinary grad of American Hospitality Academy, he honed his skills in the (Mer)lion's den of Singapore and Malaysia. Originally serving the fruits of his labor at a food stall in PBCom Tower called Mahkan Singapura, Shiok is his new baby.

"Shiok" is a term used in Singapore when one experiences extreme pleasure ("Wow! Jessica Alba accidentally bumped into me... very shiok lah!") or in the case of food, sheer deliciousness. A fun name, and very apt–his food is well done indeed, and quite reasonably priced too (as Singaporean hawker type food should be).

During my visit, my friend and I had the unfortunate job of having to try several dishes (I have to do my research, right?). First up was the classic Hainanese chicken rice (P245). If they pulled off this dish decently, for me that was already reason to come back. The steamed chicken was both tender enough and quite tasty and went well with the accompanying trio of sauces (ginger, sweet soy, and chili)–not bad for a non-Singaporean trying his hand at it, as this is one of those dishes that are easy to make but have many tricks to perfecting it, making it a bit hard to master. It's served, of course, with some of the cooking broth, and a little mound of flavorful rice – good enough to please the rabid, hardcore HCR fans that give the quality of the rice almost equal importance to that of the chicken.