Talking of hawking - A guide to Singapore’s hawker dishes

Missing Singapore? Yeah, us too. For all its spit and polish, its Gardens by the Bay, its posh high teas and those eye-popping luxury chattels on Orchard Road, it’s to the humble hawker centres we high-tail when we’re there. So do the locals, despite all those shiny, Crazy Rich Asians vibes. 

Singapore may be affluent now, but did you know that in the post-war 1950s and 1960s, unemployment and poverty were rife? Many residents took their pots, woks and blocks of belacan, hit the streets and started freelance cooking to raise some much-needed dosh. It was an accessible option as hawking didn’t take much to set up and good income could be had. 

Most of the cooks specialised in one dish, or just a couple – by the late 1960s the number of food hawkers had ballooned to around 24,000. As hygiene was an issue, the government began relocating vendors to purpose-built centres that had proper amenities, making them centralised, regulated and sanitary. The last true street hawker left the streets in 1985. New centres were built into burgeoning public housing estates, providing dining options for swathes of locals; they remain an intrinsic part of the fabric of Singapore society.

While more hawker centres continue to be planned, with the median age of hawker cooks now hovering in the 60s and younger generations tending to prefer white collar jobs, questions remain as to how hawking will continue into the future. Some dishes are incredibly labour-intensive and there’s a risk of these dying out. Muah chee (nuggets of glutinous rice flour dough tossed in sugar and peanuts), for example, is now rare as the super-thick dough requires constant stirring over low heat for 1½ hours to achieve the correct consistency. Dishes like kway chap calls for intestines to be painstakingly cleaned by hand! Standing over a wok to stir-fry portion after portion of char way teow is back breaking. Singaporeans though are a pretty resourceful bunch and we reckon they’ll find a way to keep hawker centres thriving. Singapore without them just wouldn’t make sense. 

The number of hawker dishes available is nothing short of mind-blowing. We’ve catalogued a few; here are some of our faves.

Orh kueh

Savoury steamed taro cake, sometimes also called ‘yam’ cake. Common throughout Southeast Asia and Southern China, it’s dense and comforting. Taro is steamed into a dense cake with rice flour and dried prawn, then served topped with crisp fried shallot, spring onion, chilli and more dried prawn, with chilli sauce and maybe some sweet soy to the side. Sometimes the topping is simpler, such as the sesame and five spice combo pictured.

Char kway teow

Fresh, broad rice noodles stir fried with egg, prawns, cockles, sprouts and, sometimes, lap cheong (Chinese sausage). A good CKT balances sweet, salty, crunchy and chewy with the unmistakable background taste of wok hei (that elusive smoky-wokky flavour achieved with furious heat, at the hands of a master stir-frier).

Mung bean pudding

Called tau sau in Chinese. It’s sweetened with sugar, spiked with pandan and thickened with water chestnut flour. Served warm or hot and topped with slices of youtiao (fried dough sticks), it make a perfect breakfast.

Fish hor fun

Hor fun is the Cantonese name for fresh, broad rice noodles. They’re stir fried, then served with a thick, gravied fish mixture ladled generously over the top., then scattered with crisp, fried shallot There are lots of variants of this concept, notably using beef.

Appam

The batter for this Indian pancake is made from fermented rice and coconut. There are various types – vella appam, from Kerala, are cooked on a griddle and are spongy and flat. Palappam, pictured here, are cooked in tiny wok-like pans called appachetty and are bowl-shaped, with a crisp edge and a thicker, fluffy middle. Served with sugar and coconut milk, they make an ace breakfast.

Sambal stingray

Also called ikan bakar (Malay for ‘grilled fish’). Stingray has a particularly meaty texture and in this classic dish it’s grilled in a thick, gutsy spice paste, then served on banana leaf. It might be served with chinchalok, a pink sauce based on fermented shrimp, or chilli sambal. #beerfood

Popiah

A fresh spring roll made using a very fine wheat-flour wrapper. In Singapore there are two general types – Hokkien (made using bamboo shoots and pork) and Nonya, which includes prawn or crab meat. Other filling ingredients include seasoned tofu, shredded vegetables like yam bean and carrot, plus egg and lettuce.

Chai tow kway

Or ‘black carrot cake’: cubes of radish cake fried in a wok with beaten egg, garlic and green onion and maybe prawn. There are two versions – ‘white’ carrot cake is fried atop the egg which forms a wonderful crust, while the ‘black’ one combines the egg with lashings of sweet soy sauce. The name comes from there never being a word for ‘radish’ in Teochew, a Chinese dialect commonly spoken in Southeast Asia. It was loosely translated as ‘carrot’ and that’s stuck. 

Bak chang

A type of large dumpling made by stuffing glutinous rice with various fillings (pork, salted egg, chestnut, sweet bean paste etc). Artfully wrapped in bamboo leaves, these are cooked by steaming, the leaves adding a fragrant edge.In China, they’re called zhong zi.

Curry chicken bee hoon

A coconut milk-based soup noodle dish, chunky with tender, Hainan-style poached chicken, potatoes and slices of tofu puff, with a rich sambal to the side. The spongy tofu and bee hoon soak up the thick gravy, which is aromatic, a little sweet and only mildly spicy.

Braised duck noodles

Teochew-style duck in a dark, unthickened soy-based sauce, served over egg noodles. The duck is served boned – the bones are used to make the stock served as soup on the side or poured over the noodles.

Cucur udang

Or prawn fritters: flour-based crisp snacks – some include corn or green onion as well as prawn. Commonly sold by Malay vendors, they’re served on their own with a sweet-spicy chilli sauce, or in chunks in dishes like mee goreng and Malay rojak.

Fish ball noodle

Light, springy fish balls(and fish cakes) are served with various noodles (bee hoon / rice vermicelli or mee pok / flat egg noodles), in soup or with soup on the side. They may look simple but don’t be fooled; good fish balls are tricky to make. Yellowtail is the fish most commonly used and the bouncy texture only comes by hand-beating smooth fish paste.

Otah otah

A thin fish cake made by mixing ground fish (and sometimes squid and prawn) with spice paste and rice flour. Wrapped in banana leaf, then grilled, it’s eaten alone as a snack or as a side with nasi lemak or laksa.

Cuttlefish kang kong

Blanched cuttlefish and water convolvulus (kang kong), with vermicelli and various garnishes (sesame, pineapple, carrot). It’s slicked with a heavy, thick, sweet sauce and chopped peanuts and is a wholly Singapore invention.

Kway chap

Offalistas – contain yourselves; here are all The Pig Parts (intestines, skin, belly) in a dark soy-based mixture with egg, tofu and maybe fish cake, served with rice or noodles and plenty of cooking sauce. Like many hawker dishes, the precise composition varies from vendor to vendor.

Rojak

Meaning ‘mixture’, rojak is a chunky salad of crisp vegetables (cucumber, yam bean) and slightly unripe fruits (pineapple, guava, mango), smothered in a thick, sweet-spicy dressing based on pungent prawn paste. Variations abound; it can contain sotong (squid), tofu puffs and/or slices of fried dough stick

Fried bee hoon

Also called ‘economy noodles’, these are a favoured breakfast filler-upper-er. Topped with various liao (ingredients) such as fried egg, luncheon meat or cabbage, the noodles can vary. You choose flat rice (kway teow), egg or bee hoon (rice vermicelli) noodles, or a mixture of two or three. Filling! And cheap, hence the moniker.

Yong tau foo

Vegetables, mushrooms and tofu chunks, stuffed with fish paste, then cooked and served either dry with sauce, or in soup. Filling variants include pork mince; the vegetables used are of the eggplant, bitter gourd, okra and capsicum ilk.

Mee siam

One of many, many noodle dishes, this one’s inspired by Thai flavours. The gravy is light, spicy, sweet and sour, spiked with tamarind and salted soy paste. Typically topped with shredded omelette or egg, sprouts, tofu and green onion.

Lor mee

Toothsome yellow wheat noodles topped with a range of meaty / fishy / eggy items (depending on the stall) drowned in a hefty, starch-thickened gravy with chilli sauce.The sauce is usually prepped using pork belly and fragranced with aromatics like five spice powder, star anise and cinnamon. The dark colour is from dark soy and oyster sauces.

Chwee kueh

A soft rice-flour cake steamed in special, shallow cup-like containers; these have a special, pudding-like texture. Served topped with chopped preserved radish, chilli sauce and often sweet soy too, these are popular for breakfast.

Pasembur

Or Indian rojak: features bits of prawn fritter, tofu, fish cake, boiled egg, potato and cucumber pieces, sprouts, onion, beef lung etc. You pick what you want, then it’s thrown into hot oil to crisp before being served with a sweet and spicy red sauce.

Kong tau yew bak

Hokkien Chinese comfort food, this hawker dish is made by simmering pork hock (or trotters) in a rich, dark, spice-infused master stock. Served with rice, it’s as much about the texture of the soft, sexy pork skin as it is about the sweet nuggets of meat.

Siew yoke

Classic Cantonese-style roasted pork, with succulent, juicy flesh, melty fat and super-crisp skin.You’ll also see the full complement of roast meats; BBQ pork (char siu), roast duck etc.

Epok-epok

Curry puffs, with their sturdy, flaky pastry and thick curry filling (of chicken and potato, generally) are thought to have origins in English cooking, notably the Cornish pasty (Singapore was a British colony for 140 years). Look for outlets of Old Chang Kee, a brand from 1956 that’s now a franchise, selling their puffs and other snacks.

Satay

Cooking meat on sticks likely came via Arab traders. Preferred meats are beef, chicken, mutton and lamb, with pork a non-Halal option.There are two styles; Chinese satay, where the meat is infused with five spice powder before threading on sticks with alternate pieces of fat and Malay satay, which is marinated in fragrant spices such as coriander, fennel, cumin, turmeric and ginger. Both are cooked over coals and served with a spicy peanut dipping sauce, sometimes with pineapple added.

Bak chor mee

Literally ‘minced meat noodles’, which doesn’t really cover it! This has the mince, plus pork slices, liver, mushroom, meatballs, wontons and deep-fried lard bits besides. You choose either a dry or soup version; Michelin-awarded Hill Street Tai Hwa (#01-12, 466 Crawford Lane) serves Singapore’s finest.

Prawn mee

Either served as soup noodles, or dry with the broth to the side, prawn mee feature a rich prawn-based broth, egg noodles (or a mix of egg and bee hoon), sprouts, veggies like kang kong and spicy sambal, often house-made. Wild-caught prawns are preferred and are more expensive; sometimes you have the option to supersize up to jumbo prawns.

Wonton mee

A Cantonese dish, that’s a hawker staple. Served dry, it features thin egg noodles, slices of char stew (barbecue pork), boiled greens and a fried wonton, with a small side of wonton soup. Variations in the saucing have become de rigueur, with even a truffle version (!) – generally sauces range from a dark soy-based ‘black’ sauce (as pictured), to the standard spoonful of chilli sauce to the side.

Congee

Rice porridge by any other name. Types include fish, fish belly, meatball, organ meat, chicken, century egg, pork or combinations of these; premium congee involves Alaskan crab, Hakkaido scallop, braised abalone etc. Generally Cantonese in style, the thick, creamy, unctuous texture is the result of hours and hours of careful boiling and stirring.

Nasi lemak

Meaning ‘rich rice’, this is rice cooked with coconut milk with pandan, served with a variety of sides. Fried peanuts, ikan bilis (crisp, fried anchovies), egg, cucumber and sambal are fairly standard, with heftier additions (fried fish or chicken, rendang, curry , tamarind prawns etc) possible, depending on the outlet.

Roti prata

A fried flat bread with light, flaky layers, formed by an intricate process of stretching and twirling the dough when shaping. A quintessential Singapore breakfast, roti were introduced by Indian immigrants and get served with a light curry gravy. In Malaysia they're are called roti canai.

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Hainan chicken rice

Chicken is prepared by very skilled, gentle poaching, then shocked in iced water to lock in all the juices.Cooking and serving (in slices) on the bone is traditional, but you’ll see plenty of off-the-bone iterations too.It’s served at room temperature, with stock-cooked rice and a few slices of cucumber the norm.

Mee rebus

A filling Malay dish of egg noodles swimming in a rich, sweet-spicy gravy thickened with sweet potatoes. Garnishes vary but boiled egg, sliced chilli, bean sprouts and hard boiled egg are common. FYI rebus means ‘blanched’ in Malay.

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