Guide to Singapore Pt 5 of 8

Food

One of the best things about Singapore, as many have said, is the food. There’s an enormous range of choices, food from different cultures and different cultures. There are many choices available – sometimes you might even be spoilt for choice. For the guide we’ll talk about food generally, and about some dishes that are a must-try when you come!

In general:

Here in Singapore, most of the time what you want, you can find – Chinese, Malay, Indian, Thai, French, Italian etcetcetc. Also, Singapore is multi-cultural, so there’s a lot of local dishes to be offered 😀 If you’re from a South-East Asian country, the food should be of no problem to you – you might even be familiar with them and have them or a version of them in your own country!

However I’ve had some overseas friends tell me the food is slightly too oily for their liking, so be careful there. ^^

For our Muslim friends:
If you cannot eat pork for religious reasons, please remember to look out for the Halal sign before you patronise a stall or restaurant! The sign looks like this:

Also, some of the dishes below may contain pork, please take note ^^

 

 

What you must try!

Here are some recommendations!

 

Ba Kut Teh – Soup made of pork ribs, cooked in spices. Eaten with rice or youtiao (fried dough). Might be slightly spicy due to the pepper added!

Hainanese Chicken rice – Famous dish! As some people have said, you haven’t been to Singapore until you’ve tried this dish. Also, try the chilli that goes with it as that’s one of the main attractions of the dish 😀

Rojak – A dish of fried dough, turnips, bean sprouts, pineapples and crushed peanuts and prawn paste mixed together.

Chilli crabs – One of Singapore’s signature dishes, crabs fried and cooked in chilli gravy! Sometimes mantou (fried buns) are eaten together with the dish.

Char Kway Teow – Noodles stir-fried in sweet dark sauce, with eggs, Chinese sausages, fish cakes, bean sprouts.

Kaya toast – Toast spread with Kaya (jam made of coconut, pandan and a few other ingredients). Served with coffee, it’s a popular breakfast dish~!

Roti Prata – A dish with Indian origins, it’s pancake-like and made of flour. At some places you can choose fillings of egg, cheese, meat, etc or you can choose to eat it plain on it’s own. Some people also eat it with sugar or curry.

Satay – Dish of grilled skewered meat on a stick! There are choices of chicken, mutton, pork and beef. It comes with a peanut sauce, cucumbers, onions and ketupat (rice wrapped in coconut palm leaves).

Laksa – A Peranakan dish, it’s made up of thick white noodles, beansprouts, prawns, fish cakes and etc ingredients with a thick coconut gravy. Spicy!

Nasi Lemak – Rice cooked in coconut milk and served normally with fried chicken wings/drumsticks, eggs, and mixed peanuts and fried ikan bilis (fried anchovies). However in some cases you can choose what you want to add from a variety of dishes!

Hokkien mee – Cooked yellow and white noodles with bean sprouts, prawns, squids, eggs and spring onions. Eaten with sambal chilli, and accompanied with a lime squeezed on the dish.

Fried carrot cake – No carrots in there, LOL. It’s a dish of rice flour cakes with white radish, eggs, and topped with spring onions. You can choose to have the “dark” version with sweet dark sauce, or “white” version with no sauce added.

 

Where to eat?

Some famous food centres are Newton Circus Food Centre, Chomp Chomp Food Centre, and Lau Pa Sat Food Centre. These places are well-known as places where tourists frequent for local dishes. Therefore also bear in mind that prices at these places might be slightly higher than usual, and there will be crowds and lots of waiting for seats especially around meal-times.

If you want cheaper alternative you can always go for coffee-shops and food courts. These are common in Singapore and there will be one near any place, just ask around. The thing with these are that you may not find what you want, since not all of them offer all the dishes above.

In any case, both the famous food centres and coffee-shops and food courts have something in common – they are all noisy and some might be slightly dirty, although foodcourts are generally cleaner and brighter. However it’s all part of the Singapore experience, so just go and enjoy the food yeah? 😀

 

More information!

If you want more information on the food, visit YourSingapore. Simple click on the pictures and they will give you more information about it. There are also other dishes there that are not mentioned here ^^

 

 

 

 

Written by admin of SS3@SG, compiled from various sources like YourSingapore and source 1 and 2.
Pictures taken from Google, credits to their respective owners. If you would like your picture removed just tell us~