Singapore Cuisine

Singapore is famous for being a truely multi-racial melting pot of cultures and most importantly, cusine! Thus we enjoy a wide array of influences from all corners of the globe. Mexician, Japanese, Mongolian, Malay, Indonesian, Western...anything you want to satisfy your taste-buds, we've got it.

Of course, we have some dishes which are unique to our country. Here are some of them with pictures. And MAYBE I'll post the recipes for these dishes sometime later. *wink*

Hainanese Chicken Rice
Chicken rice is normally served at hawker centers with the chicken pieces on top of the rice with a small bowl of clear soup (chopped spring onions sometimes sprinkled into the soup). The rice usually used is Thai rice boiled with herbs and chicken stock (preferably with the chicken too, but it gets messy that way), giving it a unique fragrant aroma which is hard to resist.
The chicken is boiled or baised (leading to the white or brown skin of the chicken), and is later hung to cool before being de-boned & cut into bite size slices.
the real test of great chicken rice lies in the accompanying chilli sauce - the dish isn't complete without this, and the best-made versions make the meal heavenly. Local tastebuds which have grown to love chilli mean that the sauce is hot and tangy. Ground ginger paste and dark soy sauce are other accompaniments. Eat with chilli sauce ONLY if you can handle the HOT spice. Otherwise, pour a little (a few drops will do) dark soy sauce and mix with your rice. Yummy!

Steamboat
Steamboat is a Chinese dish and you DO NOT steam a boat! A steamboat is actually a deep metal ring above a fire, where you boil stock/water to cook your food in. This is excellent for large gatherings and you can dump almost anything into the steamboat. Preferably seafood though, although noodles, eggs, seaweed and vegetables may be dumped in too. Once the food has been removed, you can add more and at the end of the meal, you may either use the soup (it will be REALLY tasty!!!) to drown your rice in or just drink it like soup.
Some great places to try this type of dish is at Marina Bay. There is a whole row of steamboats restaurants, which are open-air and cool at night. The usual price is SG$10 per head for all you can eat.
Word of advice when eating steamboat: If you want the soup to taste REALLY good, cook plenty of prawns in the stock and let the soup cool a little before drinking.

Satay
Satay is a Malay dish, which is like kabab minus the vegetables on the same skewer. Satay consists of just thin strips of meat (normally beef, chicken or mutton) marinated in some sweet sauce and herbs skewered onto a thin 7" stick, then later barbecued over a smouldering charcoal fire. Served with a peanut and chilli sauce or a pineapple sauce (kids love this, but the pineapple sauce is only found in the Hougang area). Kutupat, which is boiled rice cakes wrapped in a package made out of coconut leaves are cut into cubes and served alongside with slices of cucumber and onion.
One of the better places to try satay is East Coast Park (next to East Coast Beach & wonderfully cool at night) or The Satay Club at Clarke Quay.

Rojak
This word means 'mild mix' in Malay and is often used to refer to Singapore's diverse racial mix. Rojak is a punchy and piquant local salad of fresh fruit and vegetables such as sweet turnips, pineapples, cucumber, bean sprouts and unripe mango. These bite-sized portions are tossed in a bowl with dried soya bean cakes (called taupok by the locals) and fried dough fritters (known as youtiao). With deft hand movements, all of this is mixed into a unique dressing of fermented prawn paste, fresh ground chilli, sugar, lime juice and roasted peanuts.

	Hainanese Chicken Rice Chicken rice is normally served at hawker centers with the chicken pieces on top of the rice with a small bowl of clear soup (chopped spring onions sometimes sprinkled into the soup). The rice usually used is Thai rice boiled with herbs and chicken stock (preferably with the chicken too, but it gets messy that way), giving it a unique fragrant aroma which is hard to resist. The chicken is boiled or baised (leading to the white or brown skin of the chicken), and is later hung to cool before being de-boned & cut into bite size slices. the real test of great chicken rice lies in the accompanying chilli sauce - the dish isn't complete without this, and the best-made versions make the meal heavenly. Local tastebuds which have grown to love chilli mean that the sauce is hot and tangy. Ground ginger paste and dark soy sauce are other accompaniments. Eat with chilli sauce ONLY if you can handle the HOT spice. Otherwise, pour a little (a few drops will do) dark soy sauce and mix with your rice. Yummy!
	Steamboat Steamboat is a Chinese dish and you DO NOT steam a boat! A steamboat is actually a deep metal ring above a fire, where you boil stock/water to cook your food in. This is excellent for large gatherings and you can dump almost anything into the steamboat. Preferably seafood though, although noodles, eggs, seaweed and vegetables may be dumped in too. Once the food has been removed, you can add more and at the end of the meal, you may either use the soup (it will be REALLY tasty!!!) to drown your rice in or just drink it like soup. Some great places to try this type of dish is at Marina Bay. There is a whole row of steamboats restaurants, which are open-air and cool at night. The usual price is SG$10 per head for all you can eat. Word of advice when eating steamboat: If you want the soup to taste REALLY good, cook plenty of prawns in the stock and let the soup cool a little before drinking.
	Satay Satay is a Malay dish, which is like kabab minus the vegetables on the same skewer. Satay consists of just thin strips of meat (normally beef, chicken or mutton) marinated in some sweet sauce and herbs skewered onto a thin 7" stick, then later barbecued over a smouldering charcoal fire. Served with a peanut and chilli sauce or a pineapple sauce (kids love this, but the pineapple sauce is only found in the Hougang area). Kutupat, which is boiled rice cakes wrapped in a package made out of coconut leaves are cut into cubes and served alongside with slices of cucumber and onion. One of the better places to try satay is East Coast Park (next to East Coast Beach & wonderfully cool at night) or The Satay Club at Clarke Quay.
	Rojak This word means 'mild mix' in Malay and is often used to refer to Singapore's diverse racial mix. Rojak is a punchy and piquant local salad of fresh fruit and vegetables such as sweet turnips, pineapples, cucumber, bean sprouts and unripe mango. These bite-sized portions are tossed in a bowl with dried soya bean cakes (called taupok by the locals) and fried dough fritters (known as youtiao). With deft hand movements, all of this is mixed into a unique dressing of fermented prawn paste, fresh ground chilli, sugar, lime juice and roasted peanuts.