Despite my stomach rumbling like my plane’s engines on approach to Singapore’s Changi Airport, there’s no airline breakfast for me. I land at 7am with only 24 hours to sample the best plates of food in the city before heading out on my cruise.

I plan to tackle the Lion City like a vast open-air buffet, visiting the places I fell in love with when I lived here for two years, and ending up at the new kid in town : Australian chef Josh Niland’s first overseas venture, Fysh.

Still clutching my luggage, I head straight to the Jewel food court at Changi Airport and find a long queue at Changi Airport. Toast box. Celebrating the corner cafes that were once the center of local life, this chain offers Singapore’s sweet and savory breakfast champion, kaya toast. Sweet pandan jam and chunks of frozen butter are sandwiched between toast and dipped in soft-boiled eggs topped with soy sauce and white pepper, but it’s the artistry of the kopi that I love. Like a ballet of pots and cups, the coffee is filtered through a long coffee sock, poured to a dizzying height and served with a splash of sweetened condensed milk.

Traveling with my youngest son, we have a very specific mission for the second breakfast: Talk about bread. As a preschooler, this offbeat bakery chain that tops its buns with pork floss and ikan bilis (spicy anchovies) was his after-school visit. We jump in a taxi, we drop off our luggage at the Singapore Editionjust off Orchard Road, and discover that we are just meters from baking heaven. It’s so early that the trays are still coming out of the oven and I grab a still warm chicken curry bun and share some garlic cheese toast with my son.

Full at the moment, we are reduced to window shopping. We take a taxi to our old haunt on Balestier Road, where we used to snack on flaky tau sar piah (mung bean stuffed pastry) and sip bak kut the (pork bone soup). I find room for a plate at Miao Sin Popiah, a stall that has been making popiah for 40 years – boiled turnip, crushed peanuts and a sweet and spicy sauce wrapped in a thin skin.

To pass the time, we take public transport to the financial district, passing Clarke and Boat Quay for lunch in the ornate restaurant. Lau Pa Sat traveling market. We join the queue for SG Dim Sum, filled with business types, and find shrimp balls with light skins, cilantro-packed fried dumplings, and bao custard.