Our last full day in Singapore was spent doing – what else – shopping!

Wheelock Place, Orchard Rd

Singapore is a Mecca for shopping. But on this past trip to Singapore, most of our time was spent with family and friends. Whether it was eating at Annie’s Aunt’s place, going to Noble House for dim sum, Imperial Treasure for Peking duck, or Rider’s Cafe for Western food, we didn’t really have time to ourselves to just shop.

So for our final full day in S’pore, we left the kids with Grandma and took a cab down to Orchard Road. Here, block after block of the glitziest malls are lined up for your shopping pleasure. We started at the newest and glitziest of them all, Ion Orchard.

Ion Orchard, Singapore

Malls aren’t just built above ground. They also go 2, even 3 levels down below ground. You can find fashion stores of every price range and kind, from cheap and cute flip-flops / slippers…

Havaianas, Ion Orchard

…to more expensive shoes.

Charles and Keith, Ion Orchard

We spent a little while trying on shoes at Charles and Keith. (Okay, Annie tried on the shoes. I just sat and watched.) She fell in love with a couple of pairs of heels there – they were quite reasonably priced! But we had a lot more shopping to do, so Annie put the shoes on hold, hoping to return later to purchase them.

We had arranged to meet our friend at Takashimaya a couple of blocks down, then go for a ramen lunch at Ippudo. Takashimaya is a huge department store. They are arranged like a Macy’s or a Nordstrom’s with jewelry and perfume on the main floor, with clothes and household goods on the upper floors. But the basement holds a grand bazaar of food stalls and counters.

Everything from fancy chocolates, teas, meats, you name it, are found here. We browsed around in awe. One counter was selling mochi ice cream balls of different flavors. We bought a few to try. They were good, but not as good as the mochi ice cream from Bubbie’s in Honolulu.

Mochi Ice Cream at Takashimaya, Orchard Rd

We came upon an artisanal choclatier called Jewels in another part of the Takashimaya food complex. They were featuring these specially flavored macarons. Our favorite was this macaroon with a salted egg and almond cream, topped with black sea salt from Hawaii. It was a deliciously surprising balance between sweet cream and salty egg.

Macarons from Jewels Artisan Chocolate, Takashimaya

In yet another corner of the bazaar, we found the 1A Curry Puff stall. They sell these amazing curry puffs that are beautifully patterned. Their curry puffs come in many different flavors, from the normal chicken curry, to Singapore chili crab (yes, it really tastes like chili crab), and the DURIAN cream puff. Of course, we had to try them.

Were they good? Oh, yeah.

Singapore Chili Crab Puffs from 1A Curry Puff, Takashimaya

There’s a Cold Storage in the basement of Takashimaya. We had arranged to meet our friend in front of the entrance there. We got there a little early, so we decided to browse the aisles. I got stuck drooling at all the cheeses they had on display. It was almost like being back home in a Trader Joe’s.

Cheeses at Cold Storage in Takashimaya

Well we waited and waited outside Cold Storage for our friend, but somehow didn’t make the connection. After waiting for half an hour, we decided to go on our own to Ippudo. On the way back, we were able to reach him on his handphone. It turns out, he was in the Takashimaya basement just then, still looking for us after having lunch at Tampopo Ramen!

So we hung out for a bit, but it was getting late and we had another appointment to make that afternoon. We had run out of time to shop. We never even got to go back for those shoes.

Annie’s still sore about that.

Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Aloha, Nate