I've been asked questions about Singapore - what & where to eat, play, sleep. So, here goes. In this section it's all about food, food, food. Where to eat, what to eat and how to eat. First, a list of some of the most popular, beloved food (hawker food is one of the best food in Singapore), not in order of preference though, just as it comes to mind.
- Hainanese Chicken Rice - White(Poached) or Roasted(Yummy!!!) Chicken Meat Portions with Flavoured 'Oiled' Rice, topped with cucumber slices. Chicken rice chilli sauce is an highly adviced must-dip. You choose the parts you want like breast meat, thigh meat, drumstick, chicken wings etc.
- Laksa - thick beehoon 'rice noodles' in a distinctive spicy laksa curry gravy, topped with cockles, beansprouts, 'taupok' slices-tofu puffs, maybe fishcake slices/boiled egg and most importantly, chopped laksa leaves. You can ask for yellow hokkien oiled noodles which is easier to eat since it's not as slippery as thick beehoon. It all depends on your own preference.
- WanTon Mee (Small Dumpling & Barbeque Meat Noodles) and Shui Jiao Mian(Shrimp Dumpling Noodles) - Both are almost always sold together since the noodles, sauce, gravy and soup are the same. Wanton Mee - small wrapped minced pork dumplings with Char Siew(sliced barbequed pork), green vegetables and 'mee gia'(skinny egg noodles). Shui Jiao Mian(Shrimp Dumpling Noodles) - semicircle shaped minced pork, minced water chestnut, prawn dumpling, green vegetables and 'mee kia'(skinny noodles). 'Mee Gia' can be changed to 'Mee Pok'-a flat egg noodle. These 2 noodles may be sold as soup noodles(noodles in soup) or dry(noodles in sauce-Chiili or Soya sauce or Tomato Ketchup). A small bowl of soup comes with the dry version. Some stalls may have their wantons fried.
- Cai Tao Kueh(Fried Carrot Cake) - Stir-fried steamed carrot/turnip strips in rice pudding cake with Cai Por(Preserved Radish), egg. Can be fried 'White' or 'Black'(in black sweet sauce). Fried with or without Chilli. Some versions come with prawns too.
- Char Kway Tiao - Fried Kway Tiao or Fried Flat Wide Rice Noodles. Comes fried with egg, cockles(we have a love affair with cockles or 'hum' as we locals call them), with or without chilli
- Roast Meat Rice - the roast meat stall offers a selection of roast meat dishes like Char Siew Rice, Siew Yoke Rice(Roasted Belly Meat Rice), Roast Duck (Choose your preferred meat parts), Pai Gu(Barbeque Pork Ribs), Roast Sausage, etc. You can choose to have a mix of all the meats to try. The meats are sliced and place on top of white rice and drizzled with gravy. Comes with specially prepared chiili sauce that you can dip in.
- Char Hae Mee (Fried Prawn Hokkien Mee) - a yellow hokkien noodle mixed with some beehoon, fried then braised in a special broth, comes with pork slices and prawns. Do note that they use oil from deep fried pork lard and some of the older hawkers might add pieces of fried pork lard as traditionally, they come with the dish. Health-conscious people might shudder but, truly, hawker food tastes best the traditional way, and in this dish, I always aks for more 'Zhu You Zha' or more fried pork lard. Hahaha...
- Hae Mee / Xia Mian (Prawn Mee) - yellow hokkien noodles with vegetables and prawns, it comes either in prawn soup or dry with/without chilli sauce. Not to be confused with Char Hae Mee. A small bowl of soup comes with the dry version. Do not miss the soup. - it's absolutely heavenly. It's prepared with the main ingredients of pork bones, prawns. Some versions of prawn mee may offer prawns with pork ribs too.
Well, that's all for now. I'm getting hungry with the all the describing of food. I've got to work on the new purse patterns - all 6 of them are stuck either at the sample/sewing/photo-taking or illustration parts. Next food post will be WHERE to eat them - 'cos there are plenty of hawker stalls but some truly are masters at their craft. So long for now. I'll try to come up with pics of the food.
