Many Chinese dishes combine several vegetables with meat or seafood, making for naturally colourful food Pit-roasting is another cooking technique used for delicacies such as roasted suckling pig, and various roasted meats are done in kiln-like ovens or large drums—note however that Chinese "roast" chicken is actually deep-fried.
Although the basic cooking techniques are used by Chinese everywhere, different provinces tend to prefer certain techniques and ingredients. The northern Chinese use mutton, unheard of in the south, which accounts for the unfamiliarity Singaporean Chinese have with mutton. Northern cooks use more garlic and bean paste, while cooks in Sichuan in the West and Hunan in central China rely on chillies as well. Northerners eat mantou, a wheat-flour bread, as a staple, and rice is more common in the south.
Foods from all regions of China are well-represented in Singapore. There is both elegant Shanghainese and Beijing cooking, the stuff of Imperial kitchens, as well as spicy Sichuan and Hunanese food From the south comes Cantonese cuisine, which can range from elegant nouvelle Hong Kong with its small portions and fruity flavours, to hearty, homely sa poh braised food cooked in claypots Cantonese roast meats such as suckling pig, roast pork and red-roasted pork (char siew) are justifiably popular.
Cantonese dim sum or "little hearts" go down well the world over and Singapore is no different Dim sum is especially popular for lunch, whether quick or leisurely in Singapore, the Hokkiens (originally from Fujian Province) are the largest dialect group, followed by the Teochews (from Swatow), then the Cantonese. The relatively small size of the Cantonese community is not obvious given the high profile of Cantonese cuisine in Singapore. Teochew cuisine is also quite popular, and is characterised by light soups, steamed food and fish dishes—many in the community were, and still are, in the seafood business.
Light and very popular not only for breakfast, but lunch, dinner and supper is Teochew savoury porridge, rice gruel eaten with various boiled, stewed, steamed and fried dishes, whether cooked at home or eaten at porridge restaurants.
Elegant Chinese restaurants, such as Li Bai, serve impeccable Cantonese cuisine to discerning gourmets.
By contrast, fewer restaurants serve the more homely Hokkien cuisine, with its characteristically hearty braised dishes, such as tau yew bak (pork braised in black soy sauce) eaten With steamed buns, oyster omelette and Popiah. The Cuisine is strong on pork dishes, especially "white pork" meat With plenty of marbling, trotters complete with the fatty skin, or belly pork garlic and soy sauce are used generously soups are good, especially heavy soups With meatballs and vegetables.
One much-loved Hokkien contribution to Singapore hawker food is Hokkien mee, the yellow noodles found not only in Hokkien Fned Noodles and Hae Mee (mee in prawn-flavoured soup), but also in Malay Mee Rebus, Soto Ayam, and Indian Mee Goreng in fact much of the character of the food cooked by once-mobIle hawkers, now located in food centres, comes from the wide range of ingredients used by different dialect groups, put together in different ways by other communities.
Like yellow Hokkien mee, Teochew fishball is a classic Ingredient accepted by all the races in Singapore and found in many dishes, be it Indian Rojak, Chinese noodle soup, or cooked with Malay sambal. The fishballs made by grinding fish meat with tapioca flour, salt and water to get a bouncy, white fish paste. The same fish paste can also be used to make fishcake, which is another essential garnish in Singapore food.
Although it may appear that the Chinese live only to eat, they also eat with health in mind. Stalls specialising in tonic of herbal soups are now common in Singapore These soups, usually a combination of chicken and ginseng or pork With Sichuan vegetables or watercress double-boiled for tong periods of time, are believed to nourish the body.
Yet long before the link between food and health became fashionable, the Chinese were developing a complex philosophy of dietetics certain foods are believed to be cooling", or yin, while others are "heaty, or yang, and some are neutral The human constitution is classified the same way, With some people being more yin, while others are more yang. The Chinese believe that a balance of yin and yang in the body by eating the correct foods maintains good health, and it is therefore important to eat a wide range of foods in moderation.
Delectable Malay food can be enjoyed throughout Singapore in food stalls and restaurants, and even a few line dining venues.
Malay and Indian Food
On the food trail from Malaysia to Indonesia and the Indian Subcontinent
Both Indian and Malay cuisines are favourites for multi-racial gatherings in Singapore, especially since local Indian and Malay dishes are always halal (conforming to Muslim dietary laws). The Mughal Emperors and their court were Muslim, and it has become traditional in India and Indian restaurants the world over not to serve pork, which is prohibited by the Muslims, as well as beef, because of religious strictures imposed by Hinduism, which venerates the cow.
Malay food
Fragrant roots such as galangal (lengkuas), ginger and fresh turmeric, together with shallots, garlic, fresh and dried chillies, with emphatic overtones from lemongrass (serai) and belachan are what distinguish Malay curries from Indian ones Malay cuisine is the link between Indonesia, to the west and south, and Thailand to the north Although the results are rather different, there is a certain amount of overlap, especially with the food of nearby Sumatra and. In northern Malaysia, with Thailand fresh roots and seasonings typical of Malay food are used with spices like coriander, cumin and fennel, although these combinations are common in Indian curries. Coconut milk, widely used throughout tropical Asia, is added liberally to enrich many Malay dishes. Malay food also tends to be slightly sweet with palm or white sugar being a common ingredient, while tamarind juice gives a subtle tangy taste.
Although Malay food is not as prominent in Singapore as Chinese food, it is nonetheless part of the mainstream diet even for Chinese Singaporeans. Familiar favourites are the Malay classics such as Korma, Beef Rendang. Chicken Curry and the various sambals. An indispensible item in Malay cuisine, Sambal Belachan, has become so undeniably a part of the Singaporean diet, it appears as a standard condiment in most Chinese restaurants, complete with half a lime.
Nasi Lemak, a coconut-rich rice dish served with a variety of accompaniments such as crisp fried ikan bilis (dried baby anchovies), peanuts, prawn, shredded omelette and Chilli Sambal is what many Singaporeans eat for breakfast. Some of the kuih (cakes) associated with the Nonyas were Malay to start with, and, along with Chinese chui kuih (steamed rice cakes topped with Preserved Chinese Cabbage) and Indian roti prata, are consumed for breakfast and at teatime.
The highlight of Singapore's Malay cuisine is satay, thought by some to evolve from the Arab kebab but with a character ail its own. Satay has spawned two Chinese versions: satay chelop, known locally as lok lok—bite-sized pieces of meat, vegetables and various items speared onto satay sticks and cooked in a bubbling pot of peanut-based gravy—Nonya pork satay, and satay bee hoon.
On the other hand, roti john ("John's bread") was said to have been inspired by a homesick tourist named John who, so the story goes, was in search of a sandwich A helpful hawker sliced up a French loaf, clapped in a mixture of minced mutton and onion, dipped it in beaten egg, and fried it until crisp. Historically speaking, however, the dish—now a staple at Muslim food stalls—is more likely an adaptation of the Indian Muslim dish. Murtabak (stuffed fried pancake).
Indian food
The Indians, who form just over 7 percent of Singapore's population, are predominantly from the south of the subcontinent (mostly Tamils from Tamil Nadu, and some Malayalees from Kerala in the southwest). Like the Chinese, the Southerners arrived first and came in larger numbers compared to