Saturday, January 19, 2008
food food food and more food

I'm pretty certain that you are familiar with overseas students or Singaporeans lamenting that they miss Singapore food. I admit that I am one of them.

Singapore is such a food paradise. And every Singaporean if not all, would tell you that food can easily be the centre of our Singapore culture and lives. Good food, means good life. No matter where Singaporeans go, they will always gather to eat or share some food. Therefore, we relate most vividly to our Singaporean roots through Singapore delights. But, perhaps it is also the only thing other than our family and friends that really makes us re-connect with Singapore.

And the funny thing is, no matter where Singaporeans are, they loveeee to write about the food that they have tasted, misses or the dishes they tried making. There are soooo many examples out there. See here, here, here, here's another one, and here. Some people take it as a form of therapy, others as a form of memoir, or just love to eat and love to take pictures of yummy food. Even travelers write about their visits to Singapore, drizzled with experiences of trying our local foods. Somehow, the two have become inseparable. There are slightly more 'professional' blogs, such as chubbyhubby, foodparadise, and ieatishootipost, who reviews food in and around Singapore.

Fortunately, not everyone's a critic. Recipe blogs can make life easier. Especially for people like me, overseas. I think I would tend to favor Strait-Chinese food, even though I am not particular about what I eat. I love all kinds of food, tasty food. But I find Strait-Chinese delicacies savory. A beautiful combination of Chinese and Malay cooking, with a touch of indian spices, and lots of coconut milk. Here are two recipe blogs that I found and simply love them. I have placed the links under the list of blogs in the side window. One is Susan Chua's Nonya Kueh blog. It seems like she have not been active on the blog, nevertheless I am grateful for her willingness to share the recipes, as well as her dedication in writting everything down. This other blog I found is pretty impressive. The recipes posted in this blog called; nicerecipes were orginally handwritten and passed down since 1957! The amount of detail, history and beautiful handwritten notes by the blog owner's grandmother, were carefully scanned and preserved in the blog. Truly awesome.

I do not really know which Singapore local dish would be considered the top 10, most famous. But I reckon that these would definitely make it into the list:
Hainanese Chicken Rice,
Nasi Lemak,
Cha Kway Tiao (with cockles of course!),
Carrot Cake (Singapore stir fried style),
Katong Laksa,
Beef Hor Fun,
Roti Prata (or Roti Chanai in Malaysia),
Black Pepper Chili Crab,
Mee Siam, and
Noodle dishes - wonton noodles, mince meat noodles, ban mian noodles, the list can't just end here!

Other famous local delights definitely includes:
Ice Kachang (or A.B.C in Malaysia - Air Batu Campur, directly translated as Water Rock Mix),
Kueh Lapis,
Pandan Chiffon or Pandan Kaya Cake,
The Singapore Sling, and
Durian puffs...

If you are wondering why Satay and Otak are not in the list, that is because, I believe our neighbour, Malaysia may have it better. Oh, what about BBQ Sambal Stingray? Fish-head Bee Hoon, Satay Bee Hoon, Mutu Curry? Ahhh.. and Chwee Kueh, Mua Chee, Kway Chap as well.. Augh,.. What about Lor Mee, Mee Bandong, Sambal Blacan Fried Rice, Nasi Padang and Currypuffs?? Okie okie... this blog entry is really making me hungry. Augh.. I'm going to the kitchen and make myself some dinner.

Laters!

Contents of images are Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa, and Fried Carrot Cake. Yummm.
|pammy| 5:32 pm|

Comments:

The top 10 dishes as polled by almost 4000 readers are:

http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2007/12/hokkien-mee-is-singapores-favourite.html

http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-is-your-favourite-hawker-food.html

Wonder no more!

# posted by  Dr Leslie : 7:42 pm