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Bukit Timah has long been one of Singapore’s most leafy districts, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to find some of our city-state’s most upmarket grocery stores in the area. The stores boast anything from instant noodles featuring shirataki (Japanese for white waterfall) made from konnyaku – instead of vulgar flour-and-starch ones – to gourmet sausages made from free-range animals.
If you like Australian produce that’s fresh and organic, The Fishwives is your homeground. You’ll find cookbooks, fine wines, upscale chocolate, and fresh organic meats. They have frozen sustainable seafood from Noosa Seafood Market in Australia; fresh, floury pasta made in Melbourne, and pasta sauces and spices to add flavour to your palate. Grass-fed meats, Akaroa king salmon from New Zealand, and gourmet cheeses are part of the product lineup at The Fishwives. The store also does online delivery, but the minimum order is $180 for free delivery. The fresh pasta isn’t cheap, at $12.50 for a four-portion serving of linguine, but it makes other offerings taste like dry twigs resurrected in boiling water.
Where: 501 Bukit Timah Road #01-05B, Singapore 259764 (next to the French Embassy).
Operating times: 10am to 7pm on weekdays, 9am to 7pm on Saturdays, and 9.30am to 5.30pm on Sundays.
Helpful note: Plastic bags will cost 20 cents each, so bring your own environmentally friendly tote to stock up on goodies.
Eat Organic purveys numerous wellness and organic brands across two floors of space. There’s a section on the ground floor dedicated to fresh organic produce and frozen meats, and another for household items such as recycled toilet paper, unbleached waxed paper, and recyclable sandwich bags. Get your organic acai and dairy-free ice-cream from the freezer section, and gluten-free bread from the tiny bakery basket.
Up on the second storey, you can find numerous toiletries, supplements, and little niceties to add to your vanity drawer. You can get a konjac body sponge for $28, unbelievably soft bamboo socks for $12 a pair, organic bee pollen for $20.90, and henna botanical hair dyes for $18 a pack. There’s handmade goat’s milk soap free of palm oil, a cupboard’s worth of essential oils costing $20 to $40 on average for a 15ml vial, and environmentally friendly makeup tools.
Where: 619H Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 269728 (near Coronation Plaza).
Opening times: 10am to 7pm from Mondays to Saturdays and 11am to 4pm on Sundays.
Helpful note: Eat Organic does not provide free plastic bags, so bring your own environmentally tote (or buy a $45 handwoven rattan shoulder bag onsite and support the aboriginal Penan folk from Sarawak).
The first thing that greets you before you enter the store is a large poster advertising Welsh spring lamb in both English and Welsh. Meat the Butcher also sells Motobu Wagyu, Kagoshima Kuroge Wagyu, Australian lamb, and many more organic and free-range (grass-fed!) meats. Barbeque lovers can also select from a lengthy smorgasbord of marinated steaks, kebabs, and schnitzel. Meat the Butcher also has a cold cuts selection with Hungarian salami, German white salami, lyoner, and bierschinken, which is adjacent to a modest sausage counter stocked with good old-fashioned favourites, including English Cumberlands and spicy Italians. The freezer section carries foie gras chunks so huge they look like steaks, and the famously delicious Magret de Canard duck breast. You can also get some other staples here, such as graisse de canard (duck fat) for $14.50, six dozen snails in a tin for $24.95, and sauerkraut. This store also has less common meats, such as guinea fowl, rabbit, and pigeon. They don’t always keep non-staple meats in supply, though.
Where: 615 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 269716 (near Coronation Plaza).
Opening times: 10am to 6.30pm, Mondays to Sundays.
Read more:
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- EXPAT HOMES: A family cluster in Bukit Timah
- Where are the best Singapore neighbourhoods to live in as a family?
The décor reminds you of an old-school mama shop but the goods on the shelves are most certainly not local. Candies and cake mixes are German in origin. There are rye bread mixes and Italian gnocchi mixes wrapped in German packaging. Household items, including dishwashing liquid and detergents, are German. Many of the snacks and mixes are inexpensive, with most small items costing less than $20. The chilled section carries instant spätzle, an egg pasta commonly cooked in Germany, and if you’ve ever been to Austria or Germany, you’ll recognise the picture of giant dumpling balls on a packet of potato dough ($8.90 for 750 grams). Butter and drink syrups are also German in provenance, and there’s a selection of wines and liquors next to the payment counter, many of which are German in origin. Yes, of course there’s Jägermeister.
Where: 609 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 269710 (next to Coronation Plaza).
Opening times: 10am to 7pm from Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 5.30pm on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays.
The store is modest in size, but it packs an impressive variety of premium goods. Organic vegetable bouillon, vegetarian luncheon meats (made from nuts) and nut roasts (a meatloaf alternative), and organic free-range meats are on display. There are pantry picks, from organic red, black, and brown rice bags to nut milks. The store even has artisanal cup noodles made with konjac jelly for a low-calorie alternative or sprouted buckwheat ramen. There’s a small but quality meat selection and a particularly interesting is the Australian saltbush lamb. This is lamb heavily raised on the grey-blue herbal saltbush shrub so that its meat carries exceptionally fresh flavour. There’s also kampong chicken fed with digestive enzymes, and a neat array of sausages made by Ryan’s Grocery (although not onsite). These are unique, gluten-free combinations such as pork cranberry and chestnut, wagyu herb and garlic, pork apple sage and rosemary, pork-and-beef Italian casalinga, and curry coconut chicken. According to an employee, the free-range meat extravaganza means the animals were very happy prior to slaughter and therefore had yummier meat.
Where: 29 Binjai Park, Singapore 589831 (same row as Ivins Peranakan Restaurant).
Opening times: 9am to 7pm, Mondays to Sundays.
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