Singaporean

Singaporean cuisine

Hawker-centre cooking where Hainanese, Teochew, Hokkien, Malay, Indian and Peranakan dishes sit side by side and borrow from one another.

Singapore's food came with its migrants. Hainanese cooks who had worked in British households opened coffee shops serving chicken rice and kaya toast. Teochew and Hokkien labourers fried noodles and simmered pork bones in pepper. Peranakan families, descended from early Chinese settlers and local Malay women, cooked laksa and rempah-based dishes. Indian Muslims sold roti prata and biryani. From the 1970s the government moved street hawkers into covered centres, which fixed the repertoire and made hawker food the national cuisine.

Single-dish meals cooked by specialists: one stall, one dish, decades of practice. Flavours run from the clean poached chicken and ginger of Hainanese cooking to the shrimp paste and coconut of Peranakan gravies and the white pepper and garlic of Teochew soups. Dark soy, chilli sauce and lime are the table condiments. Most dishes are shared with Malaysia, and the differences are argued over with passion.

Countries and regions

Singapore island · Katong · Chinatown · Geylang

Dishes 6

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