The real culinary action in Singapore is in the streets — at food stalls and hawker centers, all open to the street and serving just about anything you can imagine. The Sheraton Towers Singapore is close to the well-known Newton Circus Food Centre; it's large and specializes in seafood, but many visitors complain that it's too touristy and expensive compared to what's available at other hawker centers. Try the Chinatown Complex Food Centre on Smith Street or the Lau Pa Sat Food Center instead — or just follow your nose and sidle up to the counter wherever it leads. The unofficial national dish of Singapore is Chicken Rice, and locals love to share their favorite place for this simple yet infinitely variable comfort food. Ask the Sheraton's concierge for his or her recommendations, or go with one from from this list of some of the best.

Another quick tip: Singapore's Ministry of Health rates restaurants on an A-D scale not on their quality but on their cleanliness. Oddly, the rating you want to watch for is C, not A, according to Serious Eats. "Here's the local logic: Being generally one-man outfits, if the hawker's food were any good, he would be flat out busy taking orders, cooking, serving, collecting payment, and doling out change. Where would he find time to clean the stall to the obsessively nit-picky standards of a government official? Therefore, only nonpopular stalls with sub-par food would be able to earn an A or B grade."

[Photo by Alpha Lau]