Malay heritage in Singapore

When I was small I kept on hearing about Arab Street whenever my relatives were discussing about Singapore. Now I realised they were referring to many textile outlets located in the area. They were talking about shopping.

However, Arab Street is located within the Kampung Gelam, a heritage area associated with the Malays and their culture. This may not be exactly true as Malays and Islam, like in Malaysia, are used interchangeably. 

In fact I would say the influence of Muslims originating from the Middle East are stronger. Well, that is not the topic of this posting but this is an issue which could create perceptions and mis-perceptions in many other places when a particular group of people is blanketly associated with a particular believe or practice.

The Sultan Mosque is also located in Kampung Gelam, adjacent to the Kampung Gelam Malay Heritage Complex. Within that area, we could find many Halal eating outlets with variety of foods from many parts of the Islamic world. 

One of the famous outlets here is Zam Zam Restaurant where you could have among the best murtabak in the world in addition to the Beryani that it serves. One can have a choice of lamb, beef or deer murtabak. Many Malaysians bring back the murtabaks.

Coming back to the textile outlets, this is also a great place for shopping, especially for those who want to prepare early for Hari Raya! Oppss, my wife is with me and she could think the same as well.