Fly Into Changi Terminal 1 Canteen

I firmly believe all tourists flying into Singapore should make the Changi Airport Terminal 1 staff canteen their first stop. Forget about rushing to the hotel and trying to figure what a talkative taxi uncle is trying to tell you about some same-sex sex district (Geylang). Go to the secret, well, a little hidden, lift at the right side of Terminal 1 near the skytrain platform and Bengawan Solo shop, hit the B2 button and you will have arrived. A clean, robotically laid out array of multi-coloured (but mostly beige) tables and chairs in a large quadrangle lined by efficiently run food stalls. This is Singapore in a nutshell. Food glorious food at reasonable prices. There's a Yong Tau Foo stall where one picks dainty morsels of nibbly things (mostly tofu based) to be warmed in soup or lathered in sauces. There's a Malay stall that sells mee siam, mee rebus, kueh-kueh and curry puffs. The sardine puffs are da bomb. (Whoops, not quite appropriate words for an airport related post.). I've tried the shrimp dumplings from the wantan noodle shop. Not too shabby. They need to go with sambal and pickled green chili. The soup they're in is perhaps embellished with MSG I suspect. There's of course the coffee stall where tourists must must must attempt to learn the difference between Kopi-o, Teh-si and other colloquialisms. (The first time is always the hardest.) Oh there's kaya butter toast too. And soft-boiled eggs. At the far end, there's a nasi padang stall with a perpetual queue. I didn't see any prata stall, perhaps the only glitch in the tale of superb delights alongside the world's busiest tarmac. It'd be miracle if a person spends more than $5-6 on a meal here. It's the most economical place to eat at the airport. Ok, cheap. Not the prettiest but this is the true Singapore food at its most convenient. There's a famous mee goreng at the Terminal 2 canteen but that's hard to get to through the carpark. We don't want tourists to get run over before they fill up on local fare. Yup, Changi Airport T1 canteen, so happening, so underappreciated. Someone tell Tripadvisor.