Most hidden gems on the street in the city are simple places with plastic cutlery, crockery, chopsticks, tables and chairs. None are air conditioned, some are in alley ways and some owners won’t speak much English. Prices range between 2-6 dollars for a plate (except the seafood places). I guarantee you memorable experiences, often intriguing conversations and some great food….and since this is Singapore, all of them are clean but may not have loos.
Char Kway Teow
These are broad white flat rice noodles, along with thin yellow noodles, baby clams, Chinese sausage, and bean sprouts all stir fried in pork lard and flavoured with fish sauce, sometimes some chilli, and often a sweet black sauce. Like ‘dal chawal’ to the Indian, this is what Singaporeans miss the most when they are out of the country. And despite some stalls trying to add greens and reduce the fat to seem a bit healthier, this will remain starchy comfort food at its best.
Dong Ji Fried Kway Teow; Old airport road food centre, Singapore 390051. Open 7 days a week 8am-2pm
Maude St Kway Teow; 27 Maude Rd, Singapore 208342. Open 7 days a week 11am-4pm. (There is no name on the tiny hole in the wall on the corner of Maude Rd, in Serangoon. The owner’s name is Tan Siow Eng and you’ll know you’re at the right place when you see a grumpy old man in shorts making just this one dish. His version comes without the sweet black sauce and is available for $2.50-3 depending on the size).
Hainanese Curry rice
What I love about Singapore is that I discover new dishes every time I visit. Hainanese curry rice is one of them. It has nothing to do with Hainanese chicken rice. Curry rice consists of (apart from chicken curry and rice) big meat balls, braised pork belly and stewed cabbage. You will not find this in Hainan. It was developed by the Hainanese cooks who were employed by the British and wealthy Peranakan families as chefs in their homes. You will also sometimes find pork chops with a strange tomato sauce and peas and potatoes which is something they conjured up for British palates. Similar the curries have Malay spices for their Peranakan bosses.
Loo’s Hainanese Curry Rice, Tiong Bahru (a good area to explore anyway, especially the Tiong Bahru wet market
opposite Loo’s). 57 Eng Hoon Street. Closed on alternate Tuesdays. Timings- 7:45-2:30
Beach Road Scissor Cut Curry Rice. Lao Di Fang, 229 Jalan Besar. Open every day. !1- 3pm. Not actually in Beach road anymore, this modest eatery cuts everything up with scissors and piles it all on a plate so that its easy to eat
Hokkien Mee
(Prawn noodle): bowl of noodles with crispy pork, pork belly in a prawn stock.
Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee, Old airport road food centre. 11am-8pm
Ah Hock fried Hokkien Noodles, Chomp Chomp food centre, 20 Kensington Park Road, Serangoon Gardens. 5:30pm- 12am, Closed every fortnight
Pepper Crab
This used to be available in a place called Punggol which alas no longer exists as a crab destination. Singapore chilli crab is made in a tomato, chilli sauce and egg and is not everyone’s cup of tea. I personally prefer the black pepper version. There are several good seafood restaurants in the city but two local jaunts worth their salt are in an area known as Geylang which coincidentally also happens to be the city’s red light area.
Sin Huat seafood restaurant is at the junction of Geylang Larong 35 and the main Geylang road. The crab and the crab bee hoon (rice noodles mixed with crab meat) are simply finger licking, but unfortunately since the restaurant was featured by Anthony Bourdain is his TV show, the service has dropped, the owners attitude to locals has changed (he apparently likes to push all the most expensive items) and prices have soared.
JB Ahmeng on Larong 23 in Geylang is a modest eatery with tables and chairs in a side lane. Order the crab in white pepper (the size is smaller than the jumbo crab you may find elsewhere), fried prawn in salted egg yolk, seafood bee hoon, crispy fish skin and the most amazing dish of deep fried brinjal chunks. The chili blachan sauce (pounded chillis with dried shrimp) is homemade and one of the best I’ve tasted. 100 sing dollars for 4 gluttons.
Indian Curry
Much has been written about the famous fish head curry of Singapore served in restaurants in Serangoon, run by Indians of Tamil origin. Serendipity strikes in Geylang where by chance and because of the impending showers, an old Indian Singaporean gentleman shares our table and recommends his favourite little eatery in Singapore, Gandhi. I don’t waste any time and visit the next day. Gandhi serves home style South Indian food on banana leaf. Try the shark puttu, fried chicken and crab curry. Also try their lunch time setmeals (veg and non veg).
Gandhi, 29/31Chander Road, Singapore 219537/8. Tel 62995343
What is wonderful about Singapore is that you can eat “local” in the most modest coffee shop or in a flashy food court. Prices vary enormously and the quality is not always consistent but you are assured of fantastic food and authentic flavours almost everywhere.
For the lazy and luxury prone foodie, a place to find very good quality local dishes in very nice air conditioned surroundings is Rasapura at Marina Bay shopping mall (Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, rasapura.com.sg). Unlike other food courts in shopping malls, Rasapura is a pleasant large space, very airy and looks like a five star coffee shop. Some of the other food courts I have come across this week tend to get quite claustrophobic and hot and the clearance of tables is often slow. Some of the food stalls at Rasapura stay open 24 hours a day. Very handy since many independent coffee shops and hawker stalls in Singapore are often not open in the evening or simply close once they’ve run out of food! At Rasapura dishes to try (most of the food stalls are award winning) are the barbeque seafood, especially the sting ray cooked in a banana leaf and served with sambal and Bak Kut The. This is one of my favourite Singaporean dishes- a large peppery herbal soup with bits of pork, high on flavor and healthy to boot. There is a chicken rice stall in the city known as Sin Kee at the Mei Lang street food centre and another one at Buket Merah. The Sin Kee chicken rice here is the same family recipe…deliciously tender poached chicken served with fresh ginger, chilli garlic sauce, sweet soy and chicken broth. They also have street food from Malaysia (the beef rending on the nasi Padang stall is simply the best), Italy, India, Vietnam and Japan.
Bak kut the