It's like having a tall girl in class and generalizing and saying all girls are tall.
Yes. There are good restaurants in France, there are good restaurants in Japan, etc...
In Singapore, you can find almost ANY food, food from any country/cuisine, and that food is of reasonable quality.
In Singapore you can find a Japanese restaurant, and the food is of reasonable quality. SAKAE doesn't count, SAKAE is terrible. But there are many many good Japanese restaurants around, which are as good as those in Japan. Ramen, sushi, tempura, whatever...
You can find French cuisine in Singapore and the food is of reasonable quality. Might not be the best, but good enough.
You can really find almost any food in Singapore which is of reasonable quality.
So we can come up with some statements.
In Japan you can find good Japanese restaurants.
Some restaurants in Japan are good, some are bad. Most are acceptable.
In Singapore you can easily find good Japanese restaurants.
Some are good, some are bad. Most are acceptable.
And you can say this for almost any cuisine.
HOWEVER... IF YOU FLIP IT AROUND. IT ISN'T TRUE.
You cannot say...
In Japan you can find good chicken rice.
It is very hard to find chicken rice in Japan.
And it isn't of good quality.
In Japan you can find some good French food, cos the Japanese are highly influenced by French cooking.
In France you cannot find good chicken rice. It's very hard to find any Asian food in France. And it isn't of acceptable quality.
You can hardly find a reasonable Japanese restaurant in France, unless you're really willing to pay premium dollars for it.
Whereas in Singapore, you can enjoy almost ANY cuisine with reasonable quality at a reasonable price.
It is like this in almost every country.
They stick to their own cuisine. In Korea, it's Korean food. Japan has Japanese food.
Italy, France, US... all stick to their own cuisine.
If you want to eat the food of another cuisine, it's likely not very good, OR it's very expensive for one that is good enough.
HOWEVER, in Singapore. That's not the case. You can easily find acceptable food in almost any cuisine for an acceptable price. And this is one of the few countries/cities that have this.
Kuala Lumpur is close, New York is close, London is close...
Close but not yet there. In Singapore, difference cuisine is found EVERYWHERE. Go to any malls. Vivo City, Suntec, Capital Malls, etc... You can find many different foods from around the world.
Not the case in the other countries. You can find good multi cultural food in NY, London, KL, maybe other countries. But you have to look for them, it's not available everywhere.
Now, mind you, I'm not saying Singapore has the best French, Jap, or whatever food.
I'm saying that in SG, you can easily find acceptable quality food (usually quite high quality) of almost any cuisine at acceptable prices.
Whereas in most other countries, you can only find their own cuisine easily, and any other cuisine is usually sub-standard or very expensive for good quality (fine dining prices).
Most people go to Japan and gush about how wonderful the food is... Of course it's "better" cos many people go to Japan on holiday, so their mental state is already different. The ambience is different, cos well... it's in Japan, service is definitely better.
Or people go to France, of course they will say how wonderful the food is, cos... THEY ARE ON HOLIDAY THEIR MENTAL STATE IS ALREADY IN A BETTER PLACE. Service is terrible though.
So think about it... Imagine if you stay in a country and you eat burgers and chips and bread for an extended period... I know people who go to US or Australia and get bored of the food after 2-3 weeks of honeymoon.
And yes... You can get bored of Japanese food if you eat it long enough. If you haven't gotten bored of it, means you haven't eaten it long enough.
And for me, as a Singaporean, I get bored of food quite fast, cos I'm used to a wide variety at cheap prices. Cos I can't find cheap Jappy food in the US. I can't find ANY cheap food in the US for that matter. Same as France.
I miss the carrot cake, wonton mee, I miss eating reasonably priced sushi, tempura bowls, curry fish head.
Interestingly, I can get quite ok Korean food in the US though, cos there's a lot of Koreans in the US.
So you see, Singapore is truly a food haven.
No other country comes close.
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