Singapore Street Festival in Little India

One of the great pleasures of Singapore (if you can take the heat) is the cultural diversity of its population. And along with that comes an amazing diversity of food.

While Chinese and Malays make up the majority of the population, Indians make up 9% of Singaporeans.

If you count expatriates, professionals on employment passes, and temporary foreign workers, there are several hundred thousand Indian residents, by some estimates. Which translates to: If you like Indian food, you've come to the right place.

We had a restaurant recommendation from our friend Kristina, who'd lived in Singapore for a few years, so we headed over to Little India on a crowded bus. Google had already told me which stop to get off at. But a friendly guy riding with us insisted we get off at an earlier stop (which I resisted because it was hot and I was hungry).

But, rule #1: Always heed the advice of a friendly local.

So we got off as instructed and stepped into this spectacle. An enormous street festival for a holiday called Deepavali, also known as Diwali.

During Deepavali, Little India transforms into a massive carnival. Serangoon Road is decorated from beginning to end with spectacular, towering light installations and arches. We just stood in the street in awe (like idiots while traffic backed up behind us).

And the whole area is packed with people. Families crowd the grand festival bazaars to shop for traditional Indian attire, jewelry, sweets, and decorations, and everybody is eating.

Eventually we worked our way down to our original destination: a restaurant called Khansama Tandoori Restaurant, a Little India institution specializing in North Indian tandoori cooking since 1999. It looks so ordinary that if it hadn't been recommended, I would have walked past it. Don't do that. The food is great.

If you're not in Singapore during the festival between late October and early November, at least go to Little India to enjoy the food.