When eating becomes an adventure

After the walk, the enthusiastic student tour guides lead you into a state-of-the-art chrome kitchen. An Indian master chef teaches the students, in pairs, to slice, mince, and use a mortar and pestle to create chili crab.

Offered April 3, 10, 17, and 24.

High up on the western end of the island is the 50-acre Jurong Birdpark.

As well as showcasing a myriad of tropical trees and flowers, such as bright-red heliconias and bromeliads, it is home to more than 600 species of birds – 8,000 of them in all.

While seated on a balcony overlooking a lake filled with flamingos, a guide shows off some of the park's avian treasures.

At the same time, two Indian chefs prepare the roti-prata, a thin pancake that is hand-stretched, fried on a hot plate, then stuffed with either savory or sweet fillings: mutton curry, cheese, peanuts, bananas, strawberries, and the fruit everyone seems to dread trying – durian. (It tastes like dirty socks smell.)

Offered daily April 1 to 30.

Participants in this event cross the suspension bridge into the 100-acre Night Zoo. It provides a dazzling view of the secondary jungle that grows here, as well as a good place to hear all the wild animal sounds. Inside, you board a tram with candlelit tables for four.

As you are served dinner – sumptuous lamb grilled on an open spit – a guide talks you through the four stages of the tour: the Himalayan foothills, an island-dotted lake of a Nepalese River Valley, Savanna grasslands of Equatorial Africa, and dense jungles of Indo-Malaya.

Along the way, you view 110 species of animals – Cape buffalo, African bongo, striped hyena, golden jackal, and the one-horned rhinoceros among them. The guide also discusses the zoo's conservation center and its attempts to breed and preserve endangered species.

Offered two Friday nights – April 5 and 26.

This event – a four-course meal at a quartet of premier restaurants – was the highlight of the preview.

The evening began at the highest vantage point in Singapore – the 70th floor of the Equinox Complex. The food was as heavenly as the panoramic view: a crown of smoked duck breast served atop a Thai papaya salad with coconut curry vinaigrette.

We then motored on to the Rang Mahal at the Pan Pacific Hotel, portrayed as the best Indian restaurant in Singapore. There, we were served tandoori jumbo prawns enlivened with snappy seafood stuffing. Mmmm.

If you aren't yet salivating, wait until the next course. At the trendy Restaurant 360, we were greeted with pan-seared tenderloin of beef, with creamed morel in sauce perigueux. There just aren't words....

To top it off, we bused to the Asian Restaurant Bar, which is in one of Singapore's oldest restored buildings. Once the Thong Chai Medical Institution Building for Chinese immigrants, it has been refurbished, but contains much of the original, charming 19th-century decor.

We were seated in a sort of covered veranda that runs along all four sides of an open courtyard. Under the pale moonlight, in a tropical sea breeze, we were served cream of pumpkin with black glutinous rice, sago pearls in coconut ice cream.

Ahhh – what more is there to say?

• For more details about the festival's 48 events – 32 of which are new this year – see www.singaporefood festival.com/sg/home.html, e-mail sff@cemssvs.com.sg, or telephone 011-65-6278-2467.

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