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Singapore Food - A Write Up

What is Singapore food? Briefly, It has its origin in Malaysia, Indonesia, China and India. Malay, Chinese, Indonesian, Peranakan, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Korean cuisine, and more compete one another in the "battle of the taste buds"! On top of that, there is Singapore's vast array of hawker stalls and restaurants that range from global franchises to gourmet delis to posh six-star settings.

As a large portion of the population are muslims, halal food is available everywhere. There are Malay Muslim and Indian Muslim food, you'll know when you see one as there's always a sign written in Arabic prominently displayed.

Indeed, all these attractions have created a food paradise like no other. Food has become something that is thoroughly appreciated by every Singaporean and visitor. Below are some of the foods.

Chinese Cuisine

Here are some of the Chinese eateries:

Cantonese: Dishes such as Spring Rolls, Shark’s Fin Soup, Crisp Deep Fried Chicken, and Dim Sum are very popular.

Hokkien: Some of the famous Hokkien dishes are Fried Hokkien Mee and popiah (rolled pancakes filled with shredded yam bean and bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, prawns, omelet and sausage).

Hainese: Hainanese Chicken Rice is very popular among the Hainese. There’s also the Steamboat.

Hakka: Yong Tau Foo, which is bean curd, is famous among the Hakkas.

Sichuan: There’s the Deep-Fried Shredded Beef, Chicken/Prawns with Whole Dried Chilies and Duck Smoked Over Tea Leaves and Camphor.

Peking: This Chinese cuisine features mutton, in mutton soups and stews. Peking Duck is also very popular.

Malay Cuisine

For the Malay cuisine, rice is the staple food. One of the restrictions of Malay cooking is that pork cannot be used. Islam forbids the consumption of pork.

Coconut is a key factor in the Malay cuisine. This rich milk is used in a lot of dishes. Another important ingredient is the pungent dried shrimp paste called belacan. It is combined with pounded chilies to make the popular sambal belacan. Fragrant herbs like kaffir lime leaf and lemon grass and various other dried spices are blended into the dishes.

Satay (picture below) is one of the best-known Malay dishes. Small chunks of skewered meat—mutton, beef or chicken, are barbecued over charcoal and served with a thick peanut sauce rich with coconut milk and cucumbers and pressed rice. Other famous dishes are Mee Soto, Nasi Padang, Beef Rendang, Mee Siam and  NasiLemak.

Indian Cuisine

North India: The dishes are rich with cream and ghee. Northern desserts such as kulfi ice cream or ras malai, dumplings are steeped in a rich cream sauce.

South India: South Indian food centers around curry leaves, mustard seed and chilies. There is a widespread use of coconut milk, rice and rice-flour breads.  Some of the features of Indian dishes are Nasi biryani and murtabak. The most popular Indian food in Singapore is the roti prata -- flaky bread fried on a griddle and eaten with gravy. There’s also the fish head curry (right picture).

Western Food and other Asian cuisines

American: In Singapore, there is American food such as mushroom pizza, Broccoli Dip, Farmer’s Chicken Dinner with onion, mushroom & applesauce, Spinach Casserole and Sweet Potato Casserole.

Australian: An Australian restaurant called moomba has Australian dishes like yabbies, roo steaks (kangaroo) and other interesting dishes.

Italian: Italian food sold in Singapore are porcini; crespelle; bruschettas, risottos, frito misto de pesce, squid ink pasta with a sauce of tomato and ricotta cheese, tagliatelle alia salsa genovese, pasta brava.  

Japanese: There is a wide range of sushi in Singapore. Other foods sold here are sashimi, teppanyaki, unagi (eel) meal, shabu-shabu, yakizakana (deep fried mackerel, chawanmushi, yakitori, agedashi (deep fried tofu in soya sauce), beef Bowl yoshinoya, teriyaki chicken and wasabi onigiri.

Mexican: Mexican food sold here are Margaritas and mushroom burrito Magarita's at Faber Garden.

French: French food in Singapore are food like salmon, Escargot, potato soup, apple pie, lobster in butter sauce and etc.

Thai: Thai food in Singapore are foods like Sweet and Sour Thai Fish, Fish Maw Soup, tom yam soup, coca Thai steamboat, Thai Beef noodles, Thai honey chicken, green curry and etc.

Russian: Some of the Russian foods sold here are Beef, Chicken, Chicken a la Kiev, Baked Alaska, Warm Russian Coffee, Borsch soup, Fresh mushroom soup.

Korean: In Singapore there are Korean dishes such as, Kim Chee, Hummus, Cheich Kebab and salmon terrine Cakes are famous and there are also other interesting dishes.