What to eat Singapore? culinary specialties and gastronomy

One of the pillars of Singapore's cosmopolitan gastronomy is called peranakan or nyonya cuisine. The term " baba-nyonya " originally referred to the union between Chinese merchants and Malay or Indonesian women. The Chinese in this community have partly adopted Malay customs in order to integrate better with the local population, a situation common to other Chinese-dominated regions in western Malaysia, such as Malacca and Penang Island. Coconut milk, galanga, pandan leaves, belacan (shrimp paste), tamarind pulp, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves(combawa) as well as chillies and shallots, traditionally used in Malaysia, are combined with soy sauce, wheat or rice noodles, oyster sauce, five-spice, ginger and other leafy vegetables from China.

The dry spices used in India and the Middle East - cumin, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom or coriander seeds - are also widely employed. Depending on the dish, Singaporean cuisine can be as mild as it is spicy, and sambal, a fiery chili puree - which comes in dozens of varieties - is often served as a garnish, often topped with garlic, shallots, shrimp paste or soy sauce. The country encompasses numerous communities with certain dietary restrictions: Muslim Malays do not eat pork, which the Chinese love, while Indians do not eat beef. Chicken, duck, lamb, mutton and a wide variety of fish and seafood are eaten.

With China's population at 75%, it goes without saying that Chinese New Year is the most important celebration of the year. Lanterns, fireworks, streamers and assorted fruits are on every street corner, supposed to bring luck and prosperity. There are plenty of festive dishes to choose from, although loh hei or yusheng is the region's main Chinese New Year speciality. This salad is made with raw fish, signifying the renewal of life. Lemon juice, finely chopped vegetables (lettuce, white radish, carrot, cucumber, yam), Chinese pomelo pulp, fresh ginger, sesame seeds, crushed peanuts and golden crackers, symbolizing wealth, are added. The salad is dressed with a sweet plum sauce, honey, oil, pepper, cinnamon and five-spice.

The ingredients, arranged separately, are added one by one to a large dish, before the guests stand up and toss the salad together with their chopsticks. The aim is to raise the various components as high as possible to ensure prosperity. Each ingredient has a special meaning. Eid el-Kebir for Muslims and Diwali for Hindus are two other major celebrations in the Singaporean calendar.

As well as regional specialities, the country has almost everything you could wish for in terms of world cuisine. Singapore also boasts 55 Michelin-starred restaurants in 2023. And yet, among its wealthy clientele, two establishments stand out. The country is known for its many hawker centers. These are food courts where you can choose from a huge selection of dishes from numerous stalls, often for under €5-10, before devouring them in a joyously noisy atmosphere. So inseparable are they from the city's culture, that in 2016, Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle and Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle were each awarded a Michelin star. These establishments may be the world's cheapest Michelin-starred restaurants, but they are a testament to the excellence of Singapore's street food.

Among Singapore's most emblematic dishes is the fierce chili crab, bathed in a sauce with tomato, garlic, rice vinegar and lots of chili. Or try black pepper crab, topped with a thick sauce of garlic, ginger and ground black pepper, which has a mild anesthetic effect. Another very spicy dish, fish-head curry, is an Indian-inspired dish made from a large fish head, usually ared snapper, simmered in a rich, sweet-and-sour broth flavored with tamarind and garnished with vegetables (eggplant, okra, etc.).

You'll also find Chinese dishes such as the classic Peking duck or char siu pork, barbecued and deliciously melting. Satay are small, finely spiced skewers of meat (chicken, beef, pork or lamb), very popular and served with a creamy peanut sauce. Most Singaporeans of Chinese origin come from southeast China: Guangdong, Fujian or the island of Hainan. A must-try is Hainan chicken rice, made with chicken poached in an aromatic broth and accompanied by rice cooked in the same broth. Served with sweet soy sauce(kecap manis), sambal and a ginger and rice vinegar sauce.

Chicken kapitan is a coconut milk curry with tamarind juice and shrimp paste. It owes its creaminess to a powder of Moluccan nuts, called " candlenuts " in Singapore.Ayam buah kelual is a sauce dish, also based on chicken, flavored with fermented pangi nuts, with a subtle aroma of cocoa and black olive. Chili pepper, shrimp paste and lemongrass are also added. There is also a pork variant(babi buah keluak). Another typical dish,ayam pongteh , consists of chicken and potatoes simmered with taucheo (fermented soybean paste), garlic, shallots and palm sugar. Finally, itek sio is roast duck marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, tamarind and shallot.

Noodles and vermicelli are also very popular. The most common recipe is hokkien mee, thick egg noodles sautéed with seafood, hard-boiled egg and pork. Another popular dish is char kuey teow, flat rice noodles sautéed in pork fat, with soy sauce, chili, bean sprouts and shrimp. Xing chow bee hoon is almost identical, but with rice vermicelli. Laksa is a creamy soup made with coconut milk and various herbs, topped with noodles, shrimp, fish cake, squid, bean sprouts and fried tofu.

There's no doubt that rice is very popular in Singapore and is served at every meal, but it can also be more elaborate. Nasi lemak is cooked in coconut milk. Dried fish, eggs, sambal, cucumbers and anchovies are then added as garnish. The very popular nasi goreng, literally "fried rice", is a rice dish sautéed in oil, seasoned with kecap manis, shallot, garlic, tamarind, sometimes with hard-boiled egg, chicken and shrimp.

You can't miss the lumpia, the local equivalent of the egg roll, which is stuffed with vegetables and/or meat, before being fried or not. It is sometimes called " popiah ". Closely related, loh bak is a fried roll made from tofu skin filled with marinated braised pork.Otak-otak is a papillote made from fish paste marinated in chilli and spices, rolled in a banana leaf and then charcoal-fired. Despite its name, carrot cake(chai tow kway) is actually a dense cake made from grated white radish. Steamed, the cake is then cut into cubes and often fried with soy sauce, eggs, spring onions and pickled vegetables.

A popular morning dish, roti john is inspired by the scrambled eggs served with bread eaten by the British for breakfast. Singaporeans came up with the idea of making a sandwich of bread soaked in beaten egg and pan-fried like French toast. The whole thing is then topped with crudités, meat or fish and a variety of sauces. The term " roti " refers to various types of flatbread or pancake eaten in South Asia. The roti prata is a thin, elastic, slightly oily pancake, eaten plain, sometimes filled with egg or meat, or accompanied by a small bowl of curry sauce.

There are a multitude of little tarts or cakes, generically called " kueh ", made from coconut, cane sugar and glutinous rice. They are often multicolored, as beautiful as they are delicious. Moon cakes(yuèbing) filled with lotus paste, red beans or salted cane egg yolk are eaten for the Moon Festival in autumn. We'll also try the pandan chiffon cake, an ultra-light and moist cake, flavored with pandan leaves, giving a light taste of vanilla and coconut. Apom berkuah are small rice flour pancakes dyed blue with butterfly pea flowers, served with banana sauce. Also of note are tangyuan - rice dough balls filled with dried fruit - served in a light sweet broth, of Chinese origin, and gulab jamun, small cardamom fritters soaked in rosewater syrup, from India.

The simple mango pudding - a melt-in-the-mouth dessert with mango and condensed milk - is very common, as is cendol, a kind of coconut milk milkshake topped with pandan rice noodles and azuki bean purée. The astonishing grass jelly is a black jelly made from mesona leaves, a cousin of mint. For breakfast, you can't resist kaya toast, toasts topped with a jam made from coconut milk, egg and sugar(kaya). It's a typical snack in kopi tiam, local cafés where you can nibble on a sweet with a hot drink.

In Singapore, while there is a coffee culture known as " kopi ", espressos and other frothy cappuccinos are not traditionally consumed, although the trend is changing among young Singaporeans. Instead, we prefer a very long coffee. You can ask for it plain(kopi o kosong), with sugar(kopi-o), with milk(kopi-c) or with milk but without sugar(kopi c-kosong). For a tighter coffee, you'll want a kopi-o-kosong-gau. Of course, tea(teh) is very widespread in the country, and we prefer it black and fairly full-bodied, but we also have green tea "à la chinoise", which is very light. We love teh tarik, black tea with lots of sweetened condensed milk, but also bubble tea, iced with soya milk and tapioca beads.

Although Singaporeans are more relaxed about alcohol than their Malaysian and Indonesian neighbors, legislation is still quite strict, and alcohol is not allowed in public places between 10.30pm and 7am. What's more, to curb the problem of alcoholism, the government applies high taxes that drive up the price of alcoholic beverages in bars. As a result, it's often more expensive to drink a beer on a terrace than to eat a snack in a hawker center. Given its role as a port hub, it goes without saying that you'll find all kinds of alcoholic beverages on site, although beer is the most popular, especially the local brand, Tiger beer, created in 1932, as well as Anchor beer. Wines, generally Australian but also European, are also readily available. For a touch of refinement, head for the Long Bar at the famous Raffles Hotel, founded in 1887. Here you can sip a Singapore Sling, made with pineapple juice, gin, lime juice, grenadine, Grand Marnier, Bénédictine (a herbal liqueur) and a few drops of Angostura Bitter. Created in 1915, it has become the signature cocktail of this, Singapore's most emblematic hotel.