As seniors, we still enjoy good meals. What is even better is when we can have good meals without having to pay through the nose. I don’t claim to be a foodie but I would like to share with you some good and value-for-money eats which make me go back for more time and again.

I think the fish soup at the IRAS staff canteen is the best I have tasted so far. For $4.50, you get a generous amount of fresh sliced fish, lettuce, bitter gourd and fried egg floss in a bowl of tasty soup. You can also help yourself to as much fried shallots, chilli sauce and taucheo (preserved soya beans) as you want. My usual order is a bowl of sliced fish soup with less egg floss and more bitter gourd, and a bowl of brown rice. This combination costs $5.40 which is relatively cheap in the Novena area. The stall owners are flexible and willing to accommodate my request.  It is the most popular stall in the canteen and the wait during the lunch hour of 12 noon and 1 pm can be from 35 to 45 minutes. You need to obtain a queue number and pay for your food first. The queue number can be misleading because there may be multiple orders (in my experience as many as eight) for one queue number and “phantom” orders – orders with no queue number which have been placed and paid for in advance usually by IRAS staff.

I am a regular customer of the shop selling Korean food in the basement of Concorde Hotel which is situated next to the Istana. I started eating their food when the old Korean lady operated a stall at the Orchard Point food court. It is a no-frills shop but I think the food here is authentic. I always order the spicy bean paste soup with red bean rice. The small pot of piping hot and spicy soup comes with prawns, squid, clams (or lala), beancurd, shitake mushroom, vegetables, seaweed sheets and sliced cucumber. You can choose a side dish of kimchi, pickled cucumber or anchovy. All for the price of $8 or $7.50 if you choose white rice. Yes, it is still possible to get a satisfying meal for less than $10 in Orchard Road.

If you have tried and like the food mentioned here, watch this space for more good and value-for-money eats!