Singapore Food: Best Local Dishes You Must Try

The cuisine of Singapore is diverse like the people and culture of the land, and they mostly blend Indian, Malay, Indonesian, Chinese, and western influences to their dishes. If you’re someone who’s visiting Singapore for the first time, the advice any Singaporean would give you might be to visit the country's hawker centres and famous food courts to satisfy your taste buds. Most of these foods are also available at places from food carts to rooftop restaurants. Read more to get know about the best of Singapore food available across the city-state.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

This is one of the all-time favourite dishes of many Singaporeans as well as foreigners who visit the country from time to time. Most restaurants in Singapore serve Hainanese rice cooked in chicken stock, and it is a quick filling lunch for everyone. The rice is cooked with good-quality chicken stock as it is crucial to its taste; one can tell if it is cooked in quality stock by checking the steaming rice oozing with flavour and fragrant smell. It is served with dipping sauce to pour it over the chicken.

Laksa

Laksa is a cross dish between Malay and Chinese cuisine, and it is prepared with rice noodles in spicy coconut curry soup with shrimp. This popular dish of Singapore has many variants too, but the one popular in Singapore is Katong laksa, and it is served with cup-up noodles. Some restaurants also serve it along with tofu puffs and cockles.

Chilli Crab

Chilli crab is one of the most-liked dishes of Singapore. In this dish, hard-shell crabs are cooked in semi-thick gravy with a tomato chilli base. Steamed crabs are partially cracked first, and they are then stir-fried lightly in a paste made of chilli paste, eggs, and a little ketchup. Chilli crab is normally served with bread to soak up the gravy. Also, the dish is not very spicy unlike what the name says, and you must not stop yourself from trying it because of that!

Char Kway Teow

It is a type of broad white noodles prepared by frying with fish cakes, soya sauce, clams, bean sprouts, and Chinese sausage. This is one of the popular dishes you would be able to try from restaurants as well as hawker centres. Some chefs would also probably add a smoky taste to the noodles by cooking it at a high temperature.

Satay

Satay is a popular dish in Singapore that is served with rice cake, cucumber-chilli relish, and peanut sauce. It makes a great starter and party platter, and many Singaporeans as well as cooking services prepare and serve it. The highlight of this dish is it has a turmeric flavour and scent - it is the key ingredient of it. Also, the choice of meat can be mutton, pork, chicken, or beef.

Barbecued Stingray

Barbecued Stingray is a popular dish which originated in the streets of Singapore. It also has a classic variant that features stingray meat slated in thick sambal sauce, which is a spicy condiment prepared using shrimp paste, diced tomatoes, and chillies as the base ingredients. It is then wrapped in banana leaf and is then cooked slowly on a grill. This dish is served at most hawker stalls of the place.

Fish Head Curry

This dish is prepared using a huge fish head and vegetables, and it is mostly served with rice and bread. It usually goes along with a glass of local lime juice or ‘calamansi’. This dish originated from South India, but Singaporeans prepare it with some Chinese and Malay influences. In some versions of the dish, Singaporeans also add tamarind juice to add a sweet-sour taste to the curry.

Hire Home Chefs in Singapore

If you would like to try these iconic dishes of Singapore at home, we recommend you to book a home chef. Book cooking services on the Sendhelper app for healthy home-cooked Singapore food. Guess what? It’s not as expensive as you would imagine.