By The Table desk · Last verified 27 September 2026

A hawker signboard can mix four languages, and the same dish can go by three names. Here are 50 dishes you’ll meet at Singapore hawker centres, one line each, grouped by what they are. Spellings follow what you’ll most often see on stall signs.

Rice

• Chicken rice: poached or roasted chicken over rice cooked in chicken stock, with chilli, ginger and dark soy.
• Nasi lemak: coconut rice with sambal, fried anchovies, peanuts, egg and cucumber, plus whatever sides you add.
• Economic rice (cai png): rice with your pick of cooked dishes from a counter, priced per scoop.
• Nasi padang: the Malay and Indonesian version, with rendang, curries and sambal dishes to choose from.
• Duck rice: braised duck in a dark soy-and-spice gravy over rice, often with egg and tau kwa.
• Char siew rice: red-edged barbecued pork over rice with a sweet sauce, often alongside crackling roast pork (siew yuk).
• Claypot rice: rice cooked over a flame in a clay pot with chicken, Chinese sausage and salted fish; the crust at the bottom is the point.
• Biryani: spiced basmati rice with chicken or mutton, usually with dalcha and pickles.
• Teochew porridge: plain rice porridge eaten with salty, braised and steamed side dishes.
• Hainanese curry rice: rice drenched in curry gravy, with pork chop, braised cabbage and egg.

Noodles

• Bak chor mee: flat noodles tossed in vinegar, chilli and lard, with minced pork, liver and meatballs.
• Wanton mee: thin egg noodles with char siew and wantons, served dry with chilli or in soup.
• Char kway teow: flat rice noodles and yellow noodles fried with sweet dark soy, cockles, Chinese sausage and egg.
• Hokkien mee: yellow noodles and bee hoon braised in prawn stock with prawns and squid, served with lime and sambal.
• Laksa: rice noodles in a spicy coconut-curry broth with prawns, cockles and fishcake; in Katong style the noodles are cut short so you eat it with a spoon.
• Prawn noodles (hae mee): noodles in a deep prawn-and-pork-rib broth, or dry with chilli.
• Fishball noodles: mee pok or other noodles with springy fishballs, dry with chilli or in soup.
• Lor mee: thick yellow noodles in a starchy braised gravy with pork, fish and egg, finished with vinegar and garlic.
• Mee rebus: yellow noodles in a thick sweet-potato gravy with egg, lime and green chilli.
• Mee siam: thin rice noodles in a tangy tamarind-and-sambal gravy.
• Mee goreng: yellow noodles fried with tomato, chilli and egg, the Indian-Muslim way.
• Ban mian: handmade flour noodles in anchovy broth with minced pork, egg and greens.
• Sliced fish bee hoon: rice vermicelli in fish soup, with or without a splash of evaporated milk.
• Beef hor fun: wide rice noodles, wok-fried, then smothered in a black-bean beef gravy.

Snacks and small plates

• Carrot cake (chai tow kway): radish-and-rice-flour cake fried with egg and preserved radish; white is plain, black adds sweet dark soy.
• Oyster omelette (orh luak): oysters in a starchy, crisp-edged egg omelette with chilli vinegar.
• Satay: skewers of marinated chicken, mutton or beef grilled over charcoal, with peanut sauce and ketupat.
• Roti prata: flaky griddled flatbread, plain (kosong) or with egg, served with curry.
• Murtabak: prata folded around spiced minced mutton or chicken, egg and onion.
• Thosai: a thin fermented rice-and-lentil crêpe with chutneys and sambar.
• Popiah: a soft wheat skin rolled around braised turnip, egg, lettuce and sweet sauce.
• Rojak: fruit and vegetables with dough fritters, tossed in a sticky prawn-paste sauce with crushed peanuts.
• Chwee kueh: steamed rice cakes topped with salty preserved radish and chilli.
• Yong tau foo: tofu, vegetables and fish-paste pieces you pick yourself, served in soup or with sauce.
• Ngoh hiang: five-spice pork-and-prawn rolls wrapped in beancurd skin, fried and sliced.
• Curry puff: a fried or baked pastry filled with curried potato, chicken and egg.

Soups and braises

• Bak kut teh: pork ribs simmered in a peppery (Teochew) or herbal (Hokkien) broth, with dough fritters.
• Kway chap: flat rice sheets in a dark herbal soup, with braised pork, intestines and egg.
• Fish soup: clear soup with sliced or fried fish and vegetables, eaten with rice.
• Pig organ soup: pork broth with liver, intestines, meatballs and salted vegetables.
• Mee hoon kueh: hand-torn flour dough in anchovy soup with minced pork and greens.
• Frog leg porridge: frog legs in a spring-onion and dark-soy claypot sauce, with plain porridge.

Sweets

• Chendol: shaved ice with green pandan jelly, red beans, coconut milk and gula melaka.
• Ice kachang: a shaved-ice mountain over beans, jellies and sweetcorn, with syrups and evaporated milk.
• Tau huay: soft soybean curd in sugar syrup, warm or cold.
• Tau suan: split mung beans in a thick sweet soup with slices of dough fritter.
• Orh nee: Teochew yam paste with gingko nuts; rich and very sweet.
• Goreng pisang: banana fritters in crisp batter.
• Putu piring: steamed rice-flour cakes filled with gula melaka, served with grated coconut.
• Kaya toast: toasted bread with coconut-egg jam and slabs of cold butter, eaten with soft-boiled eggs.

The WahLiao Verdict

Order the dish the stall is named after. Most hawkers do one thing best, and the sign above the stall tells you what it is.

Questions people ask

Why do dishes have several names?

Singapore’s hawker food came from Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese, Malay and Indian cooks, and each signboard uses the name its hawker grew up with.

What’s the difference between mee, bee hoon and kway teow?

Mee is yellow wheat noodles, bee hoon is thin rice vermicelli, and kway teow is flat rice noodles. Mee pok is flat egg noodles, and mee kia is the thin kind.

Is carrot cake made with carrots?

No. It’s made with white radish; the English name is a mistranslation that stuck.

How do I know if a stall is halal?

Look for the MUIS halal certificate displayed at the stall.

Sources: Compiled by The Table desk. The descriptions give the most common hawker versions; individual stalls vary.

Read next: How a Hawker Centre Works · How Economic Rice Is Priced in Singapore · Back to The Table · The history of where you’re eating is on The Memory.

For what’s worth it this week, with the bill shown, read The WahLiao Week.