Our 20 (ok, 22!) Top Makan Spots

In no particular order. And only because I'm feeling bored this afternoon...

1. Blanco Court Prawn Mee at Beach Road - I insisted on eating here even though I was well into labour. We arrived at 9.30am. I ate hurriedly in between contractions and left the place when my contractions were coming 1 in 3min. Mum, who was with us, was fretting and nervous but dad was cool - he said in his laidback way that I still had to eat - in labour or not! I finally birthed Owain around 11am-plus! So much for the power of good food!!

2. Wanton Mee at Tembeling Road - AAS Chairman Gerard Ee gets his carbo fix here too. On occasion, we go to Feifei around the corner but we find that the standards have dropped. The chicken (as in chicken rice) is still very good though!

3. Tai Tong Prawn Mee at East Coast Road - followed them all the way from the old MacPherson Market, to Kitchener Road, to Owen Road and now to East Coast. Isaac loves the intestine noodles here.

4. Bak Chor Mee at Blk 85 Toa Payoh Lor 4 - a Saturday staple if I am not teaching.

5. Carrot cake at Blk 111 Toa Payoh Lor 1 - Lee Hsien Yang ta-paos from here too. We saw him early one Sunday morning picking up his order. According to the owner, he usually calls to order first.

6. Sushi at any Genki Sushi outlet (but usually either Forum or United Sq)

7. Any Pastamania outlet

8. Breakfast at Queensway McDonalds

9. Maxwell Market - for the China Street Ngoh Hiang, the tiny DIY hum chin peng, Guangdong Wanton Mee, steamed radish cake, pumpkin cake and chee cheong fun and raw fish from any porridge stall - at least until the chinatown one comes back!)

10. Fatman Satay and Cho Kee Wanton Mee at Old Airport Road Food Centre

11. Chicken Rice (any one will do! But we like the one at Braddell Road, Toa Payoh Lor 4, Pao Sing at Gardens - KH refuses to buy from them because they have a very bad queue system, so I always have to do it if we want to buy from them!)

12. Pork porridge and raw fish and the chee cheong fun at Chinatown Complex (closed for reno). The porridge and raw fish have been around since my late grand-father's time when the whole clan - 11 uncles, aunties and many assorted cousins - used to descend on the place. Today, the tradition still lives on. I bring my kids and I see my cousins there too sometimes with their kids. And yes, all my kids eat raw fish from the time they are past 1 year old. And they love it!

13. Thien Kee Steamboat at Golden Mile Complex. Also a family fave from waaaay back.

14. Braised duck at Serangoon Gardens Market

15. Come Daily Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at Toa Payoh Lor 1 Market (always sold out by 7pm. So now we call in advance. KH has the owner's namecard and handphone number!)

16. Zi Yean zhi char and dim sum at Redhill (everything we've tried there is superb!)

17. Toa Payoh Lor 1 Market - for the fried breakfast beehoon, carrot cake, freshly baked muffins, min jiang kueh, handmade teochew pau and at night, Pots n Pans which serve decent western grub.

18. Wanton Mee/satay/chicken wings, sambal stingray at Chomp Chomp (though we seriously hate the parking! Even waiting to ta-pao is stressful!)

19. Dark fried hokkien mee at Lau Fu Jian, Amoy Street or Qian Xiang Yuan, Jalan Besar

20. Ramen at Ramen Ramen at Plaza Singapura (though this is not KH's favourite)

21. Hoover Rojak at Whampoa Market. Also, the duck rice, the duck porridge - yum.

22. Outram char koey teow at Hong Lim Complex. Long queues too at the Serangoon Gardens Market stall, the one from Newton Circus. But IMO, not worth the queue - the cockles tend to be over-cooked. For char koey teow, when I'm alone, I hit the Tangs Island Cafe - done penang style, savoury not sweet but can't beat the real deal up north.

As with any self-respecting Singaporean, we love food. We like to suss out good food places, here and in Malaysia (one day I'll do my Malaysia list). We used to rely on the makansutra, but these days we've found it to be quite disappointing - food standards drop, typos, wrong addresses, information etc. So we no longer rely on it so much.

Over time, we realise that we keep going back to the same old places - probably because the food is good. So the above list is representative of where we usually get our food fixes.

Right now though - and this is hardly gourmet! - we're eating our way through BK Kids' Meals. Yes, thanks to the Spiderman 3 craze. Owain is nuts about the Kids' Meal toys - which I have to say do look quite cute!