Singapore Street Specialties
Anyone who has been to Singapore knows that there is an array of cultures that have intertwined over the past few decades. After living in Singapore for almost two decades, I can confidently say that one of the best things about Singapore, without a doubt, is the food. Recently, a hawker—street vendor—even won a Michelin Star for his cuisine.
Authentic Singaporean food seems to be difficult to find in Europe—and, no, "Singapore-style noodles" do not qualify as Singaporean food. There are so many popular dishes from Singapore that it is impossible to list them all, but here is a list of the ten best eats in no particular order.
Char Kway Teow
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Chensiyuan
Singapore has a variety of noodle dishes and this is just one of the five on this list! The one characteristic of this noodle dish that sets it apart from the others below is that the noodles used are flat and wide. At 0.5 to 1 centimeter wide flat rice noodles are stir-fried in a wok with eggs, bean sprouts and chives in light and dark soy sauce over very high heat. The dish is then served with a dollop of chili sauce on the side. Many variations of this recipe exist; some like to add calamari, cockles, meat or additional vegetables. This is a quick and easy meal to make that is still really enjoyable due to its fragrant flavors.
Sambal Stingray
Image Credit: Flickr/Kyle Lam
Stingray may seem like a strange seafood to opt for, however, many don't realize how tender it truly is. Sambal is a type of hot sauce that is especially found in Indonesia and Malaysia. It is composed of many ingredients including shrimp paste, fish sauce and an array of chilies, pounded up using a mortar and pestle (or blended) and then cooked over low heat. Sambal stingray is simply, as its name suggests, a barbecued stingray topped with sambal. Served over a banana leaf and a Calamansi lemon, people often order it with a side of steamed white rice and sambal kangkong.
Wanton Noodles
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ProjectManhattan/CC-BY-SA-3.0
The second noodle dish in this list consists of egg noodles tossed in oyster sauce and light soy sauce, served with fried or boiled wanton dumplings, kai-lan vegetables, and, often, char siu meat as well. While this seems to be most popularly ordered as a "dry" noodle dish with a small bowl of broth on the side, it can also be found in a soup form. In the photo above, sliced green chilies can be seen. These are often marinated in light soy sauce and are used either as a dipping sauce for dumplings or in addition to the noodles.
Chili Crab
Image Credit: Flickr/megawatts86
There is no way you can go to Singapore and miss this—unless you're allergic to seafood, then please, do proceed to miss this. It is one of Singapore's National Dishes. But here's a couple bonus fun facts: CNN named chili crab the 35th best food in the world in 2011—beating chicken rice that came in at 45th—and was then voted the 29th best food in the world later that year!
If you don't handle spice well, don't let the name frighten you as it really isn't that spicy. Chilies in this dish are especially used for flavor and not for heat, but if you're looking for a hotter version, try the black pepper crab. Generally, this is a dish to be shared at a round table with a Lazy Susan—a super Chinese custom, might I add—with other mains such as herbal drunken prawns or sides such as deep fried mantou.
So, what's in this non-spicy chili crab, you ask? Generally, mud crabs are stir fried in a tomato and chili based sauce.
Mee Pok
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Lai Seet Ying
These noodles are yet again different in appearance: flat but springy, slightly thick—though usually not as thick as the rice noodles used in char kway teow—and yellow. Mee pok comes in two main variations: mushroom minced meat, also known as bak chor mee, and fish ball or yu wan mee pok (pictured above).
Most often served dry with a small bowl of soup on the side—just like the wanton noodles—the sauce in this dish is what makes it so special and delectable. It uses chili—often that has been fried or has gone through a multitude of steps—vinegar, soy sauce, pepper and oil.
Chicken Rice
Image Credit: Flickr/Yamaguchi Yoshiaki
This dish is one of the most well-known dish in Singapore. You probably don't think rice and chicken could be that interesting. You're probably even rolling your eyes at this and asking yourself why people would even be that impressed. But here's my question to you instead: how could you possibly go wrong with rice and chicken? You can't, that's how.
This is another one of Singapore's National Dishes and not just according to Singapore's Tourism Board. Chicken rice was voted the 13th best food in the world according to that poll CNN took in September 2011—and for good reason. Originating from Hainan province in Southern China, there is much more to this dish than meets the eye.
In basic terms, the chicken is poached with ginger and garlic, creating a tasty broth. Then, the rice is cooked in the broth, making the rice absorb all of that juicy goodness. Light soy sauce and a bit of sesame oil are poured over the chicken and it is always served with cucumber. The sauces which chicken rice is always served with are sometimes people's favorite parts of the dish. If you love spice, chili sauce is fantastic. The picture above is an accurate depiction of how the dish is traditionally served, though the rice doesn't always come in a separate plate.
Hokkien Hae Mee
Image Credit: Flickr/Soon Koon
Little did I know, this dish is also one of Singapore's National Dishes. More commonly known as Hokkien Prawn Mee, the dish consists of a medley of different noodles (egg and vermicelli), which are stir-fried with bean sprouts, sliced pork, eggs, prawns, calamari, and chopped chives. All of that is then served with a dollop of sambal and a Calamansi lemon—which we Singporeans just call lime. I once made the mistake of ordering Hokkien char mee, which is also delicious, but really wasn't what I was expecting, so do be aware that there are two rather different types of Hokkien mee.
Roti Prata
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Sahil Tiwarie
Here is yet another national dish. This time, although this was created by Singaporeans and Malaysians, roti prata has Indian roots. The dish was voted as the 45th best and most delicious food in the world according to the CNN poll, because truth be told, nothing can beat some really good ol' bread. Roti prata is a flatbread that is fried, usually served with a sort of curry—fish or vegetable—or with sugar. It can be cooked with a variety of foods ranging from eggs to condensed milk and because it is so easily personalized, it's really hard to go wrong with this dish.
Laksa
Image Credit: Flickr/Tiberiu Ana
This is the fifth and last dish that appears on the list of Singapore's National Dishes and is probably my favorite noodle dish of them all. It is a spicy, rich, curry-based soup with rice noodles and seafood. The curry is made up of coconut milk, dried chilies, dried shrimp, turmeric, shrimp paste and a whole bunch of other spices. There is another kind of laksa that is sour, whereby its soup is made from tamarind. But from what I have gathered, it doesn't seem to be quite as popular as the curry version. According to the same poll that placed chicken rice at 13th and chili crab at 29th, laksa was voted the 44th best food in the world.
Sambal Kang Kong
Image Credit: Pixabay/cegoh
Using sambal tumis—tumis meaning stir-fried in Malaysian—and kang kong, this is yet another effortless course if you already have a jar of sambal sitting around that packs a hefty punch of flavors and spice. Although this is not exactly the healthiest vegetable option in Singapore, it is a staple side dish. The kang kong stems are crunchy while the leaves are flimsy and suck up all the savory juice and sweet tang from the sambal.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
So that's my take on the 10 best eats in Singapore. Now, what are you waiting for? Start planning your trip down to Singapore! For more information about the modern city-state click here. And if you're interested in all of Singapore's National Dishes according to the Singapore Tourism Board, click here.
