The Table

Bak kwa is sweet, charcoal-grilled dried pork, sold by weight and a staple Chinese New Year gift. Before CNY 2026, popular brands’ sliced bak…

Mooncakes come baked, with a golden pastry and fillings such as lotus paste and salted egg yolk, or snowskin, chilled and unbaked. Most are…

Singapore’s old-school bakeries sell soft sweet buns, kaya buns, curry puffs, egg tarts and simple cakes, priced by the piece. At most you pick…

Ayam penyet is East Javanese fried chicken, first cooked in a yellow spice paste, then deep-fried and pressed flat with a pestle so it…

Oyster omelette, or orh luak, is small oysters fried with egg and a starch batter, often in lard, then served with a sour chilli…

Chwee kueh are soft steamed rice cakes topped with preserved radish and chilli; png kueh are pink, peach-shaped kueh filled with savoury glutinous rice;…

Popiah is a fresh spring roll: a paper-thin wheat skin spread with sweet sauce, chilli and garlic, filled with braised jicama, egg, bean sprouts…

Nasi briyani is spiced rice, fried in ghee and cooked with aromatic spices, served with chicken, mutton, beef, fish or prawn and a pickled…

Mee goreng is Malay for fried noodles: yellow noodles stir-fried with spices, tomato sauce, egg, potato and tau kua, a dish closely linked to…

Hor fun is broad, flat rice noodle, fried in a hot wok and served either wet, in a thick gravy, or dry-fried with dark…

Singapore prawn noodles are egg noodles or bee hoon in a deep, sweet broth simmered from prawn heads and shells, often with pork bones,…

Lor mee is a Hokkien noodle dish of thick, flat yellow noodles in a dark, starchy, spiced gravy, topped with braised meat, ngoh hiang,…

Hawker Western food is Singapore’s own take on Western dishes, rooted in Hainanese cooks who worked in colonial kitchens: chicken chop, fish and chips,…

Char siew is sweet, glazed barbecued pork, siew yuk is roast pork belly with crackling, and roast duck is the Cantonese whole bird sold…

Bak chor mee is Hokkien for minced meat noodles: springy egg noodles with minced pork, served dry in a vinegar-and-chilli sauce or in a…

Claypot rice takes 15 to 30 minutes because each pot is cooked to order from raw rice, often over charcoal, with chicken, lap cheong…

Chendol is shaved ice with green pandan jelly noodles, coconut milk and gula melaka; ice kachang is a mound of shaved ice with coloured…

Beyond kopi, the drinks stall sells teh (tea, with the same O, C, siew dai and peng codes), Milo and the Milo dinosaur heaped…

Murtabak is prata dough wrapped around spiced minced meat, egg and onion, griddled and sold by size with curry and pickled onions; roti john…

Thosai is a thin, crisp crepe of fermented rice and lentil batter served with sambar and chutneys; appam is a bowl-shaped rice pancake, soft…

Ban mian, mee hoon kueh and you mian are the same wheat-flour dough in different shapes: flat noodles, torn pieces, and thin strands, usually…

Most mala xiang guo stalls weigh your raw ingredients and charge per 100g, about $1.98 to $3.08 per 100g in a June 2026 survey,…

At a yong tau foo stall you pick your own pieces from the display (stuffed tofu, fish balls, vegetables), and you pay per piece,…

Singapore fish soup comes with sliced fish (poached, clean), fried fish (battered, richer) or both, usually with bee hoon or rice, in a clear…

Kueh are Singapore’s small traditional cakes, mostly steamed, built on glutinous rice, coconut, pandan and gula melaka, and made by Malay, Peranakan and Chinese…

Singapore’s carrot cake, chai tow kway, is steamed white radish and rice flour cake fried with egg, garlic and preserved radish; there is no…

Hainanese curry rice is white rice drowned in a mild curry gravy and braising sauce, topped with fried pork chop, braised pork, stewed cabbage…

Wanton mee is thin springy egg noodles with char siew, greens and pork dumplings, served dry (tossed in sauce, with soup on the side)…

Mee rebus is yellow noodles in a thick, sweet potato-based gravy; mee siam is thin rice vermicelli in a sweet-sour tamarind gravy; lontong is…

Fish head curry was created in Singapore in 1949 by M. J. Gomez, a Malayalee cook on Sophia Road; Indian versions are thick and…