Singapore

Bourdain ate: The restaurant’s namesake, prawn noodles (虾面). Dinner date: KF Seetoh, widely hailed as the preeminent expert on Singaporean street food, photojournalist, entrepreneur, founder of Makansutra, a company that promotes Asian food culture through media and events.

Tony met with Singaporean- Malay entertainer and producer Najip Ali for Lontong (rice cake, coconut gravy, vegetables and hardboiled egg) and Mee Siam (fried rice noodles with chili paste, prawns, bean sprouts, and a spicy sweet and sour gravy, fried bean curd, and egg).

Bourdain ate: fried oyster omelets, fried prawns with chili paste, bak chor mee (fish ball noodle soup), beef satay. Dinner dates: Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh, author of Floating on a Malayan Breeze: Travels in Malaysia and Singapore; financial journalist Tania Angerer; and their friend Melanie Chan.

"The oldest Peranakan restaurant in Singapore, predating independence." Bourdain had: Sour fish curry with pineapple, brazed duck with tamarind and coriander, okra sauteed with sambal, beer. Dinner date: Damian D’Silva, chef and authority on Singaporean heritage food.

Tony had a meal with the family who runs this restaurant. They had pig trotters with black vinegar (and ginger, fried chilies, and asam), Hainan mixed vegetables (cabbage and glass noodles stir fried with bean curd, black mushrooms, pig skin, and shrimp).

One of Tony's favorite things to eat in Singapore is char kway teow. "Ordinarily this is a breakfast," Tony explains. "I eat it every time I'm in Singapore." It is made of crispy lard bits, cockles, shrimp paste, and noodles.