The koel
wakes you up in the early mornings with its loud call, beckoning you to the breakfast table.
Here, our food stories begin.
Good morning!
KAYA TOAST is a favourite local breakfast of charcoal-toasted bread slathered with kaya (coconut curd) and slabs of cold butter. It is excellent with local coffee and boiled eggs. Kaya toast is served at coffeeshops known as kopitiams.
SINGAPORE is a port city in Southeast Asia with a vibrant food culture that spans mainly Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan and Eurasian ethnicities. Sliced ice cream served between wafers is a good way to beat the heat. Hawker centres are excellent eateries to explore the local food culture.
Features
Indian breakfast
There is an element of ayurvedic goodness in Indian food including dosai
Makan kampung
Malay food at its best
Gourmaze Fun
HOLLY MENNEAR and ANISH MALHAN bring UK's popular food treasure hunt adventure to Singapore's Chinatown
Bun worthy
Singaporeans are crazy about these pillowy bakes with all kinds of fillings
Cats and food
Exploring neighbourhood felines and good eateries
Peranakan favourites
The blend of the indigenous Malay and the immigrants of China creates the Peranakan heritage and its fascinating cuisine
Recipe of the week
With roots in Hainan, China, chicken rice is one of Singapore's top local cuisines. Tender, juicy poached chicken has hints of garlic, pandan and sesami oil, and comes with a flavourful rice that has been cooked in chicken broth, garlic, pandan and lard.
Minced ginger, dark caramelised soy sauce and chilli sauce are accompaniments. The dish is topped with cucumber and coriander.
Recipes
Chwee kueh
Wobbly steamed Teochew rice cakes is topped with chye poh, which has been simmering for hours in lard oil with dried shrimp
Char kway teow
Fried noodles with distinct wok hei or breath of the wok
Goreng pisang
You'll find banana fritters at both Chinese and Malay stalls
Chilli crab
A popular seafood dish in Singapore
Siew yoke
Cantonese-style roast pork
Bandung ice cream
Iced dessert with a hint of rose
The cats
Mama Rusty and Little Boy Rory on our neighbour Suzy's roof
She's making LOTUS SOUP
This Chinese soup is double-boiled for 2 hours and is served in hefty serving bowls that retain the heat. Lotus soup is made with lotus root, pork bones, peanuts, dried squid, dates and goji berries.
Perfect for the chilly monsoon season, lotus soup is enjoyed with rice, caramelised soy sauce and sliced red chilli padi.
Time for a cocktail
Ashey Boy fancies an aperol spritz
A spritz is an Italian bubbly cocktail consisting of prosceco, Aperol bitter aperitif and soda. Aperol is an orange-hued botanical liquor invented by the Barbieri brothers in Padova, Italy in 1919. Its bitter notes come from sweet and bitter oranges, rhubarb and gentian root.
Aperol Spritz
Fill a wine glass with ice
2 parts Aperol
3 parts prosceco
1 part soda
Stir well and garnish with a slice of orange
Drinks at VIOLET OON AT DEMPSEY reflect Singapore places and heritage, and Peranakan elements
Left to right:
Tropics of Kin – A creamy jackfruit Batida
Rindu Roselle – A twist on the classic New York Sour, made with Sarawak roselle and red wine
Temasek Cooler – Mancino Secco vermouth, botanicals lemongrass, sage, and oregano, Mediterranean herbs, and pineapple juice
Midnight Straits – Echoes of kopi gao with candlenut orgeat and Lost Irish whiskey
Singapore Sling
The Singapore Sling is a gin-based cocktail invented in 1910 by Ngiam Tong Boon. He was a Hainanese bartender at the Long Bar of Raffles Hotel Singapore. Home of the Singapore Sling for over a hundred years, the Long Bar continues the tradition of throwing groundnut shells on the floor as you enjoy them with your chilled glass of handshaken Sling.
Recipe
Shake together with ice 1oz gin, dash Angostura bitters, 1/4oz cherry liqueur, 1oz pineapple juice, 1/2oz lime juice, 1/4oz Benedictine. Strain into highball glass with ice, top with soda, garnish with orange slice and cherry skewer.
Dry martini
21/2oz gin, 1/2oz dry vermouth, ice, 3 olives, skewered on stick for garnish. Fill a martini glass with ice. Shake or stir ice, gin and vermouth together vigorously for 10 seconds. Discard ice from glass, and strain mixed drink into glass. Garnish with olives on skewer.
Negroni
1oz gin, 1oz campari, 1oz sweet red vermouth. Stir into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with orange peel.
Gin tonic
2oz gin, 4oz tonic, ice. Stir into a glass, and garnish with lime or other citrus slices. Photograph courtesy of Atlas Bar.
Citrus fun
Mojito
Bunch of mint leaves, 1oz lime juice, 2oz white rum, 1oz sugar syrup, 1/2 cup soda water. Ice. Mint leaves and lime slices to garnish. Place mint, lime juice and sugar syrup in glass, and bruise mint leaves with muddler. Add ice, then mix in rum and soda water. Garnish with mint sprigs and lime slices.
Margarita
2oz silver tequila 100% agave, 11/2oz triple sec (orange-flavoured liqueur), 1oz freshly squeezed lime juice, Cane syrup (to taste), sea salt, lime wedges, ice. Run a wedge of lime around a tornado glass or short glass. Turn the glass over and dip it into a saucer of sea salt to coat the rim. Pour the tequila, triple sec, lime juice and a little cane syrup, and stir. Fill glass with ice and garnish with lime wedge.
Brazil 66
11/2oz cahaca, 1/2oz triple sec, 1/2oz fresh orange juice, 1/2oz fresh lime juice, Cane syrup (to taste), Orange and lime slices to garnish, ice. Fill a rocks glass with ice. Combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice, and shake well until chilled. Strain into glass and garnish with lime and orange slices.
Good bars in Singapore
Jigger & Pony (165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088539) – Number 3 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars. Classic cocktails and a good whiskey selection
Cat Bite Club (75 Duxton Road, Singapore 089534) – Great margaritas amidst a brutalist vibe
Nutmeg & Clove (8 Purvis Street, Singapore 188587) – Singapore-inspired cocktails
Native (52A Amoy Street, Singapore 069878)– Produce from Southeast Asia
ATLAS Bar (600 North Bridge Road, Singapore 188778) – Art deco and lots of gin-based drinks
FURA (74A Amoy Street, Singapore 069893) – Founded by two innovative ladies with an eco philosophy
Offtrack (34 North Canal Road, Singapore 059290) – 25 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars. Classic cocktails and pan Asian eats
The Other Room (320 Orchard Road, Singapore 238865)– A sophisticated bar with a good selection of in-house finished cask spirits
Bookshelf
Lala-Land
SINGAPORE'S SEAFOOD HERITAGE. By Anthony D Medrano (editor), Epigram Books, $44.90. This food book is packed with interesting information about how the seafood that we enjoy makes its journey from waters around us to our plates. We discover sustainable resources and how seafood impacts our society. There are popular recipes with beautiful photos that include favourites such as sambal stingray, laksa, char kway teow, dare-to-eat pufferfish sashimi and more.
The Food of the Malays
GASTRONOMIC TRAVELS THROUGH THE ARCHIPELAGO. By Khir Johari. $70.11 on Amazon SG. Writer and Food historian Khir Johari spent 11 years researching, travelling, writing, eating and discovering food of the Malay Archipelago, which spans Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The many photographs, illustrations, essays and observations that enrich the 621-page hardback are a joy to discover. Well-deserved award of "Best of the Best Book in the World" at the 2023 Umea Food Symposium in Sweden, the Oscars of gastronomy literature.
Heritage Food of the Peranakan Indians
IN A CHITTY MELAKA KITCHEN. By Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association published by National Heritage Board , Peranakan Indian (Chitty Melaka) Association $71.56. This book is a collection of nearly 100 recipes lovingly created by the Chitty Melaka community, ranging from everyday dishes to festive fare. The Chitty Melaka or Peranakan Indians are the descendants of the intermarriages between early South Indian settlers and the Malay, Chinese and other local communities in the port cities of Melaka, penang and Singapore from as early as the 15th century. In addition to the usual Indian spices used in cooking, the Chitty Melaka use herbs such as lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf and galangal, and favour coconut milk instead of yoghurt. A rice dish that the Indian Peranakans use for offerings (parachu) is nasi lemak kukus, a steamed nasi lemak dish.
