Katong and Joo Chiat Before Noon

Start on Koon Seng Road at about 9.30am, while the five-foot ways, the covered walkways that run along the front of the terraces, are still in shade. Its two rows of pastel houses are the picture most people come east for. By about 11am the tour coaches have found it too, so the morning is when to be here. The rest of Joo Chiat Road and the Katong end of East Coast Road are why you stay.

No MRT station sits on the tiles, so pick your way in. Marine Parade MRT on the Thomson-East Coast Line is the closest station to East Coast Road. For Joo Chiat Road, take the East-West Line to Eunos or Paya Lebar and hop on a short bus. From town, a taxi is simplest. If you're already on a bike, ride up from East Coast Park on the park connector. The sunrise cycle and kopi ride starts in the park at 6.30am and makes a good morning of its own.

Koon Seng Road's terraces

Walk the two rows slowly and look up, because most of the story is in the tiles and the window frames. This is Peranakan country, home to the Straits Chinese families whose tiles and cooking turn up all through this walk. These are people's homes, so take your photos from the road and keep the five-foot way clear for the resident heading out to work.

If you'd like to know why a window is painted that particular colour, join the Peranakan walk and laksa lab. It meets outside 112 Katong at 9.30am with the clan stories, a tasting flight of kueh, the bite-sized Nyonya cakes, and a laksa recipe that's been in use for 40 years. On a first visit we'd book it, because afterwards every doorway on the street comes with a story.

Laksa and kueh on East Coast

Laksa is a friendly argument out here, and everyone has a side. 328 Katong Laksa at 51 East Coast Road is the famous bowl, rich with coconut, its noodles cut short so a spoon is all you need. Gordon Ramsay has eaten it, which explains some of the queue. Marine Parade and the older Katong stalls have loyal regulars of their own, and if the 328 line wraps round the block, Marine Parade Food Centre is a short walk from East Coast Road. It has no sea view, and it's where residents have lunch. On a first visit we'd still start at 328.

Kim Choo Kueh Chang at 111 East Coast Road is the street's other institution, with the Singapore Tourism Board's visitor centre tucked inside, which is handy and only slightly on the nose. Buy a box of ang ku kueh and ondeh-ondeh for later, and eat the pandan sponge on the kerb outside, because it doesn't travel. Chin Mee Chin is a tiled kopitiam, an old-style coffee shop, that reopened after a long pause and still makes kaya toast the old way: a soft bun with butter and kaya, the sweet coconut and egg jam. Check it's open the morning you go. Rumah Kim Choo at the same address lists a Nyonya Kebaya Workshop on SISTIC, so check for dates.

Once you've eaten, Katong Square Antique Centre at 88 East Coast Road is a browse through 10 to 20 collectors' booths of retro, vintage and antique pieces in the mall's central atrium. Entry is free, it's open Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 7pm, and most of what you see is for sale.

Lunch at Old Airport Road

For a sit-down lunch, we'd head to Old Airport Road Food Centre, which we rate as the best hawker centre in the country. A hawker centre is a big open-sided hall of small cooked-food stalls around shared tables, and this one is closest to Dakota MRT on the Circle Line. Aim to sit down before 11.30am if you want a seat without circling.

Dong Ji at #01-138 fries char kway teow, flat rice noodles in dark soy, and closes on Thursdays. Lao Fu Zi at #01-12 does the Bib Gourmand version and closes on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so check the day before you set your heart on it. Nam Sing does Hokkien mee and To-Ricos does kway chap. If you'd rather come back after dark with a host, the after-dark hawker crawl meets at the centre, Block 51 Old Airport Road, at 7pm.

Two more centres sit nearer the terraces. Haig Road Market is walkable from Joo Chiat, and Dunman Food Centre sits between the terraces and the park. Either makes an easy lunch on a day you'd rather stay on foot.

Down to East Coast Park

When the pavements start to bake, head for the water. The train gets you as far as East Coast Road at Marine Parade, and from there the park is a short taxi or a bus ride along the East Coast Parkway. On the way, Katong Park is a lawn between the terraces and the sea, with Fort Tanjong Katong buried beneath it. There's more plaque than ruin, so ten minutes will do.

East Coast Park runs for 12 kilometres along the shore, with barbecue pits and bikes to rent. The open beach is for sitting and cycling, and the lagoon is where you swim. The lagoon food village does stingray, satay and coconuts on the sand, with nothing to book, and it's at its best in the evening.

NParks is redeveloping East Coast Seafood Centre along this shore, and Jumbo and Long Beach are both leaving. Jumbo's chilli crab flagship there, open since 1987, serves its last plate on 30 September at a private finale dinner, so book an earlier night. Riverside Point and Jumbo's other restaurants around the island carry on. Long Beach, known for its black pepper crab, is moving from the same centre to Coastal PlayGrove, so check its address before you go.

For crab closer to the terraces, we'd go to Roland Restaurant on Marine Parade, a no-frills chilli crab room, and book a table first. The lagoon food village stays where it is.

The Intan and Ceylon Road

The Intan is the reason we'd stay east an extra two hours. It's Alvin Yapp's private Peranakan house museum, full of kebayas and beadwork, and you can only see it on a small-group tour booked by appointment. It's the opposite of a blockbuster, which is the appeal. The Peranakan Museum is across town at 39 Armenian Street in the Civic District, open daily 10am to 7pm and until 9pm on Fridays. We'd keep the terraces for the morning and give the museum a day of its own.

Ceylon Road has two quieter stops. The Eurasian Heritage Gallery, run by the Eurasian Association, tells the story of a community most Katong walks leave out, in about an hour and for a few dollars. Sri Senpaga Vinayagar is a working Ceylon Tamil temple that belongs to this stretch as much as the terraces do. Shoes come off at the entrance, and ten minutes inside with the incense make a calm pause between laksa and the sea.

If you'd like to make something, the batik workshop is three hours of wax and dye, slow and a little messy, and the cloth goes home with you. The Peranakan cooking class is three hours of rempah, the spice paste behind Nyonya cooking. With time for only one, we'd take the cooking class, because it explains the laksa you ate that morning.

Museum of Food at 102 Joo Chiat Road is a non-profit cooking studio near Geylang Serai market that teaches heritage food through hands-on workshops. They run on set dates, so check the calendar and book a ticket first.

If bread is more your thing, the Sourdough Baking Class in Kembangan runs five hours, from 9am to 2pm, with a method built for Singapore's tropical climate.

Goodman Arts Centre at Mountbatten is an old school turned into artists' studios. It holds open-studio weekends now and then, and the rest of the time its grounds are free to wander.

Joo Chiat into the evening

Stay into the late afternoon if you can. By 4.30pm the coaches have gone and the terraces turn a softer colour in the lower light. After dark, Joo Chiat Road changes again, with grilled food and a bar in a shophouse, one of the old terraces built with a shop downstairs and a home above.

Near Paya Lebar, Geylang Serai Market is a Malay heartland market 10 to 15 minutes from the station, with nasi padang and kuih, and a wet market, the fresh-food floor where the neighbourhood buys its fish and vegetables. Dress modestly there. We'd make it a morning of its own, or an evening after the terraces if you still have room.

Later still, Geylang's night food spreads along Geylang Road and its lorongs, the numbered side lanes, after 9pm. Expect frog and durian among the zi char kitchens, cooking to order for the whole table.

A second morning out east could be the loop round Bedok Reservoir. For the first, keep the terraces for early morning and the sea for the afternoon, and take a kueh box home, leaking pandan into your bag.