Best Food In China

Location

Orang-3 is a comfy local place with good Singaporean food. It aims to be as much a place that people come to spend time and ‘liv3’ as it does provide good food. It might not have you crossing town to go there but if you live in Gubei, it is worth a visit.

A couple of quick tips to help you find the establishment (I am reluctant to call it a restaurant – to be explained later):
- The name is pronounced ‘Uh-rang three’ (nothing like ‘orange’ if that is what you were thinking)
- It is on a pedestrian precinct, so if the taxi is going in circles and there is no ‘Huangjin Chengdao’ to be
seen, do the last bit on foot.
- Do make your own way up the stairs – it is open!

Orang-3 is a pleasant place but tries to be all things to all men – coffee on the patio in the morning, family lunch, sports on the tv and a beer in the afternoon, wine, smart restaurant and cocktail lounge in the evening. I like all of these things, however not necessarily under one roof! For me, by way of example, being a better sports bar means being a less good cocktail bar or vice versa. But do visit and make up your own mind on the subject.

That said, I did have a good meal and introduction to Singaporean cuisine. If you know as little as I did - Singaporean cuisine unsurprisingly is closely related to (if not part of) Malay cuisine and as such has strong Chinese and Indian influences. It is also very spicy.

There are some really interesting tastes here. The star of the show for me was the Penang Laksa – rice noodles in a hot and sour soup with fish and fresh mint. We also had chicken satay, Tahu Telor (fried bean curd and eggs with cucumber, peanuts and a molasses-like hot and sweet homemade sauce) and ‘Curry Chicken Bread Bowl’, which was quite a conundrum to eat with chopsticks. This last dish is a variation of curry with roti prata that uses European bread. Roti prata is itself the Singaporean adaptation of Indian paratha. Orang-3 aspires to create an authentic Singapore/Malay taste with a bit of something extra or different.

‘Orang’ means ‘people’ in Malay and the ‘3’ in the title refers to the founding values of ‘eat’, ‘drink’ and ‘live’. At Orang-3 a lot of emphasis is put on the third of these values – Orang-3 tries to be a local gathering place for any occasion with affordable food and drinks. If you live in Gubei, this could even become the place where you get your breakfast at the weekends or regularly meet friends for a late afternoon drink - they have a nice patio and told us that it is a great place for a drink on a balmy evening. On the wet February evening when we visited, my dining partner I had to use our imaginations. However, if you do not live near Gubei you will probably not make the journey out there just for Kaya toast or a curry.

-by Charles Prior

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