Singapore is the smallest of all the Asian countries and it is a melting pot of different cultures and races, making it the home of the original fusion food.

Singaporeans have blended Malay cooking with Chinese, and Indian cooking with Indonesian, resulting in some of the most delicious food to be found on the planet.

So, on this hot and humid night we headed straight into the heart of Chinatown, which was bustling with dozens of street vendors selling their food down one side of the street. We walked up and down, checking out what people were cooking and which seemed like the busiest stall, which as any traveller knows is the fastest way to find the best food.

We settled on a stall with an elderly lady who must have been in her 80s and half the size of her huge wok. She cooked for us the most divine food: chilli crab (a must when in Singapore), noodles with shrimps and bean sprouts, pak choi with oyster sauce, Chinese greens with ginger, chilli and garlic, a type of omelette with prawns and chicken, all served on what I think were banana leaves, as well as a big bowl of laksa with chicken and rice noodles.

Laksa, meaning "many" and referring to the soup's many ingredients, is a popular spicy noodle soup with flavours and influences from all over Asia:

Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Sumatra and Bali, all mixed together in one delicious bowlful, to be served with chopsticks and unashamedly slurped up.

After all the wonderful food and a couple of deliciously cold beers we felt ready again to sit on a plane and sleep all the way to Adelaide.

ROSEMARY KEARNEY'S CHICKEN AND COCONUT LAKSA
Serves 6-8
THIS recipe comes from Rosemary Kearney who co-wrote Healthy Gluten Free Eating with Darina Allen. It is one of my favourite recipes: a perfect clean, healthy meal in a bowl with wonderful fragrant flavours. This recipe calls for a lot of coriander but is still delicious if made with less, so don't let that put you off.

150g fine or medium rice noodles
2 red chillies, chopped with the seeds
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2-3cm piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
150g fresh coriander, stalks and leaves, coarsley chopped (leave a few leaves aside for serving)
2 chicken breasts (or legs), skin removed
Juice of 1-2 limes
50ml sesame oil
2 tins coconut milk
700ml chicken stock
1 tbsp fish sauce
6 spring onions, finely sliced at an angle

Place the noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to soak for about five minutes, until soft. Drain and set aside.

Put the chilli, garlic, ginger, coriander and juice of one lime into a food processor and pulse to a coarse paste.

Thinly slice the chicken and set aside in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Heat the sesame oil in a saucepan and fry the paste for three minutes. Add the coconut milk and the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for five minutes. (The soup can be prepared ahead up to this point. ) When you are ready to serve, add the finely sliced chicken to the boiling soup and simmer for a couple of minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add the fish sauce (you may need more than one tablespoon) and some more lime juice to taste.

To serve, divide the noodles into serving bowls, ladel in the hot soup and scatter with the sliced spring onions and any remaining coriander leaves.

CHILLI CRAB WITH BLACK PEPPER
8 cooked crab claws, in the shell
4 tbsp groundnut or sunflower oil 2-3 dried red chillies, deseeded and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp finely grated ginger
2 tsp coarsely crushed black peppercorns
12 curry leaves
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
4 spring onions, finely sliced at an angle Place a wok on a medium heat for about five-eight minutes to get good and hot.

While it is heating up, using a rolling pin or a hammer bash the crab claw shells just enough to break them a bit, but not completely . . . the claws should remain intact (you could remove the shells altogether but in Singapore they seem to be prepared like this).

When the wok is very hot, turn up the heat to high and add two tablespoons of the oil.

Stir fry the chillies and garlic for about half a minute until the garlic turns light golden (do not burn), then quickly add the remaining oil, sugar, ginger, black peppercorns and curry leaves and cook until the leaves darken, stirring with a metal or wooden spoon all the time.

Add sweet chilli, fish and soy sauce and the crab claws and stirfry for another fiveeight minutes, until the crab is good and hot, pushing the bits of sauce into any little crevices in the crab.

Taste and correct seasoning with slightly more fish sauce if necessary.

Transfer to a plate (or a banana leaf ) and sprinkle with the sliced spring onions.

CHINESE GREENS WITH GINGER & GARLIC
Serves 4
4 tbsp groundnut or sunflower oil
2cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
1 red chilli, chopped (leave the seeds in if you like it hot)
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
250g mixed greens: pak choi (bok choy), gai lan, choy sum broccoli, spring greens, trimmed and halved if large
2 tbsp chicken stock or water
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
Heat a wok or large frying pan until very hot. Add the oil, then the ginger, chilli and garlic, and cook for a half to one minute, just until the garlic starts to turn light golden.

Throw in the thicker stemmed greens and cook for a minute, add the rest of the greens and the stock or water and stirfry for two minutes or until tender. When the greens are cooked add a splash each of sesame oil and soy sauce. Taste and add more if you like.

SINGAPORE NOODLES WITH PORK & PRAWNS
Serves 4
250g rice vermicelli noodles
4 tbsp groundnut or sunflower oil
150g pork fillet, cut into strips
12 raw peeled tiger prawns
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 red or green chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 onion, sliced thinly
1 red pepper, sliced
1 tsp turmeric
300g bean sprouts
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp chopped coriander
3 eggs, beaten

Soak the noodles following the packet instructions and drain. Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a wok and fry the pork until it is browned and just cooked through. Tip onto a plate. Add the prawns and fry until cooked, about three or four minutes. Add a little more oil to the wok and fry the garlic, ginger, chilli and onion until light brown.

Add the pepper and cook until just beginning to soften, then add the turmeric and cook for a minute. Add the bean sprouts, noodles and about two tablespoons water and toss everything together. Add the soy sauce and chopped coriander and stir for another minute.

Push the noodles to one side of the wok and drop in the eggs. Cook, stirring for one minute, then stir through the noodles.

Add in the pork and prawns, toss on the heat for a minute, then taste and add some more soy sauce and a squeeze of lime juice if necessary.

One wonderful aspect of the increased popularity of ethnic cuisines in Ireland is that people are now conscious that there's so much more to vegetarian food than nutloaf and lentils. Having said that, veggie restaurants aren't plentiful. Denis Cotter's wonderful establishment, Cafe Paradiso, in Cork is, for many people, the finest example of vegetarian cooking in this country. His third book, Wild Garlic, Gooseberriesfand Me has just been published and it's a beautifully written collection of his thoughts on food, as well as imaginative recipes. Try this delicious recipe for roast parsnip mash.

Serves 4
400g/14oz parsnips, peeled and diced
Olive oil 600g floury potatoes
50ml milk
4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 1900C/gas 5.

Toss the parsnips in olive oil then roast in an oven dish covered loosely with baking parchment for about 12-15 minutes until tender and golden. Remove them from the oven and puree in a food processor. Peel the potatoes and steam them until tender. In a separate saucepan, heat the milk and butter until the butter begins to melt, then add the potatoes and mash them. Stir in the parsnips and chives and season with salt and pepper.