Steph's Guide to Food in Singapore

I’ve been getting requests from my regular readers to write a blog post on food in Singapore. So to appease the fans, I have come up with a sort of guide to eating.

There is no real defining characteristic of Singaporean food—Singapore is made up of various ethnicity's, and the food is reflected in the different cultural representations. The most prominent culinary influences are from Malay, Chinese, and Indian traditions. Singaporean food is a combination of these pallets.

Nasi, Malay for rice, and Nee, Malay for noodles, are two of the most common ingredients in food.

Chicken and Rice is a signature Singaporean dish, usually garnished with slices of cucumber. Satay, or spicy meat skewers, are also very popular. Singapore is also known for its Chili Crabs, which I haven’t tried yet, and laska, a noodle soup.

I’ve noticed that egg is used in a lot of dishes as an added ingredient. Also, it is very common to throw chili’s into the food. This is a great addition to any dish, but it is not for the faint of heart.

Chili Sauce is also used regularly as a condiment, especially with Western food. Of late, I have been enjoying chili sauce with much of my food, usually French fries or hash browns, or anything that needs extra flavor. It has quite the kick.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures here is Kaya Toast—which consists of two pieces of bread, toasted, with a spread of coconut jam in between. Unfortunately, I think what probably makes it so good is that they layer it with a slab of butter. Kaya toast is often served with coffee or tea (usually milk tea, which is very sweet), and one or two soft-boiled eggs. You can find these at the Kopitiums or even at local food chains devoted to serving Kaya Toast.

If you want your food to go, you order it for “take away.” This usually means, that if you’re at a hawker or café, they’ll pour your drink into a plastic bag, with draw-strings, and a straw. Or, if you’re at a food court or chain restaurant, they’ll give you a typical fountain soda cup, but put the cup in a plastic bag with handles. OR, and this is my favorite method, they create and attach a plastic handle to the cup so that you can just carry the cup as if it were the bag. (If this is confusing to anyone, let me know and I’ll take pictures next time.)

Chinese food is very popular here. I’ve come to like Dim Sum a lot, which is basically a variety of dumplings. My favorite is what I like to call the “soup dumplings” (somehow, they have managed to put soup broth inside the dumplings, and once you take your first bite, it flows out, so you have to be careful not to squirt the soup everywhere. It’s still a mystery to me how they get that soup in there!) It is common (and quite tasty) to eat the dumplings with soy sauce topped with ginger.

There’s a good, cheap dim sum restaurant next door to my HDB, Swee Choon Dim Sum. It is open very late, and my roommates and I get laughed at cause we sometimes go there two, three times in the night, especially when we’re “studying.” Food breaks are our favorite way to procrastinate.

I’m getting accustomed to using chopsticks. I will be honest, I’m not very good at it, but I’m learning. I find you just have to hold them and use them the way that is most comfortable for you, so that eating will be the easiest and therefore most efficient.

And of course we can’t forget Indian Food. I live in an Indian food haven, which is a heaven. There are excellent restaurants ranging from the basic local joints to some fancier restaurants, but there is an array of both North and South Indian food.

North Indian food tends to consist of thicker sauces, such as the popular Tandori Chicken dish, and is often accompanied with bread, such as Naan, cooked in a clay oven.
South Indian food, emphasizes rice over bread, and includes many vegetarian dishes. South Indian food tends to be spicier, especially with the addition of lentils, curry leaves and coconut milk. Thali is a popular South Indian dish, which consists of small portions of various dishes and condiments. I love Indian food, and I love the process of eating it! It’s all about combining tastes and textures—and using your hands!

A favorite restaurant of my roommates is an Indian restaurant that serves primarily Western food. It’s called, Salvation. This place is like some surreal world. It plays cheesy music that sounds like its straight out of Top Gun. Covers of 1980s pop music turned elevator jazz. And they have it on a loop with the same five songs playing over and over again until you want to scream! The décor consists of bright pink and orange polka dots—giant polka dots. The waiters are all incredibly attractive—tall skinny guys with Hollywood smiles and the wind blowing in their hair. They serve food such as the Kidney-bean Quesadillas, which I know they make from scratch, but they won't put kidney beans on their nachos if you ask. This place is so random, and we’re always on the verge of not being invited back, for one reason or other, and sometimes we’re even too embarrassed to come back, but for some reason, we just can’t stay away.

I also like this vegetarian restaurant next door to me, Food #03, it has a very artsy clientele, it’s like that coffee shop that you always picture artists circles and writers sitting in dark corners writing with the coffee stains on their pages. Well I’m that writer. The food is decent and the staff is really friendly—they get to know you.

Now let me define for you the different types of places to eat.
Hawker Centers consist of a lot of local stalls condensed into a relatively small space. This is where you can get a meal for $3 or $4 Sing dollars and a beer for $5 or $6. They’re very local, and each stall is specific to a certain food genre. There are separate stalls for juice (you can get fresh watermelon, kiwi, apple-pear, sugar cane, lime, etc etc); beverages; and various types of Singaporean/Malay dishes. Each stall has their specialty. The hawker center across the street from me has a stall that has dishes that all consist of crocodile in one form or other. Hawkers are appealing for their incredible prices, and often delicious food, but they tend to be the least healthy of options.

Kopitiums (or kedia kopi) are like upscale hawker centers. Kopi, I believe, means coffee in Malay. My guidebook says Kedai Kopi’s are “no-frills neighborhood cafes that usually offer a limited range of dishes at cheap prices, but are not much by way of service and ambiance. However, culinary standards are reasonably high.” I guess that’s as good of a definition as any. I tend to prefer the Kopitiums over the hawkers, I guess they feel more intimate. The Kopitium next to my HDB is situated in an alley with plastic chairs lined up (oh, restaurants in Singapore are furnished by cheap plastic and Ikea furniture, through and through) and there are two TVs there, so locals are there watching soap operas and football in volumes.

Food Courts are what you find in shopping malls. There tends to be a variety of Chinese, Japanese, and Western dining venues throughout. And there are malls on every street corner, and even more in between street corners. So you can imagine, these are the every day places to eat. I would say on average I eat more in the malls than not, not by preference, but that’s where the “choices” are. My favorite lately has been a Japanese fast food chain, Yoshinoya. I like their beef vegetable bowl. Especially when I can get their student discount on the weekdays. A lot of restaurants here have student discounts, but they’ll only give them to you if you’re at specific Singaporean schools. However, some do accept the Student pass (my visa) as an acceptable means to the discount. I tend to favor such places.

Oh, and then there are Restaurants. These tend to have overpriced food, so I tend to avoid them, except occasionally.

You don’t really need to tip here, which makes eating more economical. The food courts/restaurants will add a GST, but other than that, you’re not really tipping.

Foods I miss the most:

1. Salads
(ooh, especially the big salad bars—lettuce just doesn’t feel fresh here)

2. Sandwiches (especially deli’s, etc.)

3. Guacamole—and good Mexican food like burritos (tear, Chipotle) and loaded nachos