Food & Drink

There are over 30 different cooking styles in Singapore, including local interpretations of Chinese, Indian, Malay, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, French and Italian cuisine. Satay, cubes of skewered, grilled meat served with peanut sauce, is popular, as is gado gado, a fruit and vegetable salad in a peanut sauce. Curries such as beef rendang are another favourite, and are often based on coconut milk.

As Singapore is a small country with high population density, land is scarce and is mainly devoted to industry and housing. Most of the agricultural produce and food ingredients are imported from other countries, although there is a small group of local farmers who produce some leafy vegetables, fruit, poultry and fish. Nonetheless, Singapore's good air and sea connections allow it to import a large variety of food ingredients from around the world including expensive seafood items such as sashimi from Japan.

Chinese-Inspired Dishes

Many of these dishes were adapted by early Chinese immigrants to suit local circumstances, such as available ingredients.

• Bak kut the: pork rib soup made with a variety of Chinese herbs and spices.
• Bak chor mee: egg noodles with minced pork and other ingredients, served dry or with soup. Usually the flat, tape-like mee pok noodle is used.
• Ban mian: hand made flat noodles served with vegetables, meat balls, sliced mushrooms and an egg in an ikan bilis-based soup.
• Chai tow kway: diced and stir fried radish with an egg mixture. Comes in black (with soy sauce and/or chili) or white (without soy sauce, but sometimes with chili) versions.
• Char p'ng: fried rice.
• Char kway teow: thick, flat rice flour (kuay teow) noodles stir-fried in dark soy sauce with prawns, eggs, beansprouts, fish cake, cockles, green leafy vegetables, Chinese sausage and some lard.
• Char siew rice and Char siew noodles: Cantonese dish of rice or noodles served with barbecued pork in a thick sauce.
• Chee cheong fun: a thick, flat sheet of steamed rice flour which is made into rolls, sometimes with a pork, chicken or vegetable filling. It is served with a sweet soy bean sauce.
• Chok: Cantonese rice porridge in various flavours including chicken and pork, often served with ikan bilis and either sliced century egg or fresh egg.
• Chwee kway or zhui kueh: steamed rice cake topped with preserved radish; usually eaten for breakfast.
• Claypot chicken rice: rice cooked with soy sauce in a claypot, then topped with braised chicken and Chinese sausage.
• Curry chicken noodles: yellow egg noodles in chicken curry.
• Duck rice: braised duck with rice cooked with yam and shrimps. Side dishes of braised hard-boiled eggs, preserved salted vegetables, or hard beancurd (tau kua) may be added.
• Fishball noodles: any of several kinds of egg and rice noodles may be served either in a light fish-flavoured broth or 'dry' with the soup on the side, with fishmeat balls, fishcake, beansprouts and lettuce.
• Hainanese chicken rice: steamed chicken served with rice cooked in chicken stock. Always eaten with chilli, thick dark soy and ginger sauces.
• Hae mee:, yellow egg noodles in a rich broth made from prawn and pork rib stock.
• Hokkien mee: rice vermicelli and yellow noodles fried with shrimp, sliced cuttlefish and lard bits.
• Hor fun: flat rice noodles in gravy often served with fish or prawns.
• Hum chim peng: a Chinese bun-like pastry sometimes filled with bean paste.
• Kaya toast: a traditional breakfast dish. Kaya is a sweet coconut and egg jam, and this is spread over toasted bread. Combined with a cup of local coffee and a half-boiled egg, this makes a typical Singaporean breakfast.
• Kway chap: Teochew dish of flat, broad rice sheets in a soup made with dark soy sauce, served with pig offal, braised duck meat, various kinds of beancurd, preserved salted vegetables, and braised hard-boiled eggs.
• Lor mee: a Hokkien noodle dish served in a viscous, dark soy sauce-based broth with meat roll slices, fishcake and beansprouts.
• Mee sua: a type of thin, rice wheat noodle. Usually found in fishball noodles, or served with pork meat or kidney.
• Oyster omelette: oysters fried with a special flour-and-egg mixture.
• Pig's organ soup (literally 'pig spare parts' soup): a soup-based variant of kway chap.
• Popiah: Hokkien-style spring roll or rolled crepe, stuffed with stewed turnip, Chinese sausage, shrimps and lettuce.
• Chinese Rojak: a fruit salad with a topping of thick dark prawn paste. It is different from Indian rojak.
• Soon kway: a white vegetable dumpling with savoury sauce.
• Vegetarian bee hoon: thin braised rice vermicelli to which a choice of various gluten, vegetable, or tofu-based delicacies may be added.
• Wan ton mee: noodles with pork or prawn dumplings.
• Yong tao foo: a variety of vegetables stuffed with fish and meat paste cooked in a light ikan bilis-based soup. May also be eaten 'dry' with sweet bean and chili sauces.
• Yusheng: a raw fish salad traditionally eaten during Chinese New Year

Malay-Inspired Dishes

• Agar agar: agar extracted from seaweed that is usually moulded into a jelly-like cake, sometimes with layers and colourings, and in various shapes.
• Ayam goring: fried chicken.
• Curry puff: a flaky pastry usually stuffed with curried chicken, cubed potatoes and a slice of hard-boiled egg. Sometimes sardines are used in place of the chicken.
• Goreng pisang: bananas rolled in flour, fried and eaten as a snack.
• Katong Laksa: rice noodles in a coconut curry gravy with shrimp, egg and chicken.
• Ketupat: a Malay rice cake, usually served with satay.
• Kueh lapis: a multi-coloured layered cake.
• Kuih pisang: banana cakes.
• Lontong: compressed rice cakes in spicy vegetable soup.
• Mee goring: yellow egg noodles usually stir-fried with tomato sauce, some chilli, and various meats or squid.
• Mee rebus: yellow egg noodles served in a thick spicy sauce made from fermented soy beans.
• Mee siam: 'Siamese noodle', or thin rice noodles in a tangy spicy soup; may also be served 'dry'.
• Mee soto: a spicy chicken noodle soup.
• Nasi ayam goring: Malay-style fried rice with fried chicken.
• Nasi lemak: coconut rice with omelette, anchovies, cucumber and chilli paste. Sometimes it is wrapped in banana leaves, to enhance the flavour.
• Nasi padang: an Indonesian dish of steamed rice with a wide choice of meat and vegetable dishes ranging anywhere from fried chicken to curried vegetables.
• Otak-otak: spicy fish cake grilled in a banana leaf wrapping.
• Roti john: bread filled with various ingredients (usually meat and onions) and then fried.
• Sambal: a common chilli-based accompaniment to most foods.
• Satay: grilled meat on skewers served with spicy peanut sauce and usually eaten with ketupat, cucumber and onions.
• Soto ayam: a spicy chicken soup.

Indian-Inspired Dishes

• Appom: a fermented rice pancake.
• Indian rojak: a Muslim-Indian dish of various vegetables and seafood deep fried in batter.
• Mee Kuah: an Indian noodle dish with gravy. The red colour sauce is from a mixture of chilli paste, tomato puree and red food colouring. Ingredients include vegetables (cabbage, potatoes and peas) as well as an egg.
• Murtabak: a variety of roti prata with minced mutton and onion folded within the dough
• Nasi briyani: an Indian-Muslim dish of rice cooked in stock and served with grilled chicken, beef or mutton and various pickles.
• Roti prata: a Muslim-Indian dish of pan fried dough. Extremely popular for breakfast, this dish is enjoyed by all Singaporeans. A plethora of variations are available including cheese, chocolate, durian and even ice cream.
• Soup kambing: Indian mutton soup.
• Thosai: rice and lentil pancake.

Cross-Cultural/Fusion Dishes

A number of dishes, listed below, can be considered as truly hybrid or multi-ethnic food.

• Fish head curry: the head of an ikan merah (literally 'Red fish') - which is red snapper, is stewed in curry with vegetables. Usually served with either rice or bread.
• Satay bee hoon: thin rice vermicelli served with spicy peanut satay sauce.
• Spicy kangkung: a dish of leafy green vegetables (water convolvulus) fried in sambal.
• Tauhu goring: fried tofu with sweet sauce.

Fruits

A wide variety of tropical fruits are available all year round, though these are mostly imports from neighbouring countries. By far the most well-known is the durian, known as the 'King of Fruits', which produces a characteristic odour from the creamy yellow custard-like flesh within its spiky green or brown shell. However, in spite of their popularity, durians are not allowed within public transport, many hotels and public buildings because of their strong odour.

Other popular tropical fruits include the mangosteen, jackfruit, longan, lychee, rambutan and pineapple. Some of these fruits are also used as ingredients for other dishes: iced desserts, sweet-and-sour pork, and certain kinds of salad such as rojak.

Desserts

• Bubur cha cha (also Bobochacha, momochacha): yam and sweet potato cubes served in coconut milk and sago, served hot or cold.
• Chendol: a coconut milk drink mixed with brown sugar, green starch strips and red beans.
• Cheng tng: a refreshing soup with longans, barley, agar agar strips, lotus seeds and a sweet syrup, served either hot or cold.
• Honeydew sago: honeydew melon cubes or balls, served in chilled coconut milk and sago.
• Ice kacang: a mound of grated ice on a base consisting of jelly, red beans, corn and attap seeds, and topped with various kinds of coloured sugar syrup.
• O-Ni: a Teochew dish consisting of yam paste, coconut paste and ginko nuts. A popular dish in Chinese restaurants.
• Red rubies: a Thai-inspired dessert made by boiling pieces of water-chestnut covered in glutinous rice flour and red food colouring, and serving them over shaved ice, rose syrup and evaporated milk. Also known as 'mock pomegranate' since the chestnut pieces bear a resemblance to the seeds of that fruit.
• Soya bean curd: hot soya bean curd sweetened with syrup.
• Tangyuan: also known in Singapore as Ah Balling, glutinous rice balls served in soup.

Drinks

• Bandung: rose syrup with condensed milk.
• Coffee
  • Kopi: coffee
  • Kopi-gau: coffee (strong brew)
  • Kopi-C: coffee with evaporated milk
  • Kopi-kosong: coffee with milk and no sugar
  • Kopi-O: coffee with sugar only
  • Kopi-O-kosong: coffee without sugar or milk
  • Kopi-O-kosong-gau: a strong brew of coffee without sugar or milk
  • Kopi-peng or Kopi-ice: coffee with milk, sugar and ice
  • Kopi-XiuDai: coffee with less sugar
  • Soya bean milk
  • Sugar cane juice
• Tea
  These names are indicative of the multi-racial society in Singapore as they are formed by words from different languages, and have become part of the lexicon of Singlish. For example, teh is the Malay word for tea, peng is the Hokkien word for ice, kosong is the Malay word for zero to indicate no sugar, and C refers to Carnation, a brand of evaporated milk.
  • Teh: tea with milk and sugar
  • Teh-C: tea with evaporated milk
  • Teh-halia: tea with ginger water
  • Teh halia tarik: ginger tea with milk pulled (tarik)
  • Teh-kosong: tea with milk and no sugar
  • Teh-O: tea with sugar only
  • Teh-O-kosong: plain tea without milk or sugar
  • Teh-peng: tea with ice, also known as Teh-ice
  • Teh tarik: tea mixed with Carnation brand condensed milk. This tea is unique in that during preparation, the tea is tossed repeatedly from one mug to another to create a thick froth (hence the name teh tarik, meaning pulled tea).
  • Teh-XiuDai: tea with less sugar
• Tiger Beer