Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society. The majority of the population is made up of Chinese, Malays and Indians. Thus Singapore local food is made up of a large variety of food cooked and eaten by these 3 races.
Singapore Malays are all Muslim and thus, all Malay foods are regarded as Halal. Owing to the diversity of India’s language, religion and culture, some Indians are Muslim while some are Non-Muslim. Thus, Indian foods may or may not be Halal depending on the religion of the Indian stall holders.
Among the Chinese, some of their ancestors have migrated to Singapore and Malaysia as far back as the 15th century and these Chinese are called Peranakan. The female Peranakan are called Nonya. Thus, there is also a category of food known as Peranakan food, also known as Nonya food.
Singapore local dishes are also influenced and passed down from its surrounding places like Indonesia and Malaysia, particularly Penang.
As a metropolitan city, Singapore also has a sizeable number of Westerners. So there is also a number of standard western dishes such as Fish and Chips, Lamp Chops, Steaks, Hot Dogs, and Burgers.
Singapore being a melting pot of diverse race and culture, Singapore dishes have also evolved and influenced one another. The Chinese will have their Chinese version of Malay food and some Malay will also prepare their Halal version of Chinese food. Malay and Indian foods are flavoured intensively with chilli. Some foods are both commonly prepared and sold by both Malays and Indians such as Mee Siam.
Over the years, foreigners from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and especially mainland China have also migrated to Singapore, bringing and adding their local dishes to the already great variety of Singapore local dishes. More traditional Singapore Chinese dishes are known by their Hokkien names whereas those made a little more common in modern Singapore are only known Mandarin, such as La Lian (拉面) and Dao Xiao Mian (刀削面).
Singaporeans’ staple foods are mainly rice and a variety of noodle. Sometimes, Chinese will cook their rice in a soupy manner called porridge. There is also a great variety of noodles made with different ingredients and in different manner. They are classified mainly into yellow and white noodles. The following are just a few varieties.
White Noodles
White noodles are made mainly with either rice flour or wheat flour mixed with salt and water. Rice flour is what accounts for its white colour. Other white noodles made from wheat flour do not have eggs as one of the ingredient resulting in the colour white.
Kway Teow
Kway Teow (Chinese Characters: 粿条 Hanyu Pinyin: Guo Xiao) is a kind of white flat noodle made from rice flour. Some tapioca starch and water is mixed with the rice flour. A thin film of the mixture is then poured into a large container and steamed until the liquid mixture solidifies. The thin white film is then cut into strips of kway teow. Each strip of kway teow has a width of around 1 cm.
Hor Fun
Hor Fun (Chinese Characters: 河粉 Hanyu Pinyin: He Fen) is a thicker and broader version of Kway Teow. The width of each strip of Hor Fun is around 3 cm and hor fun is also thicker than Kway Teow..
Bee Hoon
Bee Hoon (Chinese Characters: 米粉 Hanyu Pinyin: Mi Fen) is a thin stringy rice vermicelli made from rice flour. They are bought from retail stores or suppliers in dried form and then soaked in water during preparation for cooking.
Some boil them and some steam them. After they have absorbed moisture and become soft, many will also fry them with soy sauce resulting in what they called Fried Bee Hoon.
Thick Bee Hoon
Thick Bee Hoon in Hokkien is known as Chor Bee Hoon (Chinese Characters: 粗米粉 in Hanyu Pinyin: Cu Mi Fen). If Bee Hoon is known as rice vermicelli, then Thick Bee Hoon is known as thick rice vermicelli. Like Bee Hoon, Thick Bee Hoon is made from rice flour and water, with their difference being their thickness. Unlike Bee Hoon where it is packed and sold dry, Thick Bee Hoon is sold fresh and moist before cooking.
Mee Sua
Mee Sua is a Hokkien term for 面线 (Hanyu Pinyin: Mian Xian). It is made from wheat flour mixed with water. After being pulled and stretch into very long and thin strings, they are left out in the sun to dry. When dried, they are boxed up into several bundles and sold. Mee Sua is not a commonly sold in public but are consumed more commonly at home particularly among more traditional Hokkiens.
La Mian (Hand Pulled Noodle)
La Mian is literally the Hanyu Pinyin for Hand Pulled Noodle. The Chinse characters for La Mian are 拉面. La Mian is made of wheat flour, salt and water. The flour used is of higher protein content such as bread flour that constitutes to its elasticity. After the flour and water are kneaded into dough, they are pulled until they become thin strands of noodles. La Mian used to be available in Singapore only in some Chinese restaurants. It is not a common dish in Singapore until there are more Chinese immigrants in modern Singapore. These mainland Chinese who have migrated to Singapore in recent years began selling La Mian as a trade in modern food courts, but it is still not a common dish in heartland hawker centres (food centres).
Dao Xiao Mian
Dao Xiao Mian is literally the Hanyu Pinyin for knife-sliced noodles or knife-shaved noodles. The Chinese characters for Dao Xiao Mian are 刀削面. Dao Xiao Lian, similar to La Mian, is made of wheat flour, salt and water. The main difference between Dao Xiao Mian and La Mian, is that Dao Xian Mian is not pulled but made by slicing part of the dough into strips with a piece of metal and thrown into boiling water to be cooked. The piece of metal used to slice the dough depends on the chef himself/herself. Some chefs may have their own preferred specially made tool. Dao Xiao Mian is also a newer dish made available to Singapore from mainland Chinese who have migrated to modern Singapore.
Yellow Noodles
Yellow noodles are made mainly from wheat flour, eggs, salt and water. Some noodles also included lye (alkaline water) as one of the ingredients. It is largely the presence of eggs and lye that result in the colour yellow.
Mee Gia (Mee Kia)
Mee Gia, commonly spelt as Mee Kia is a very common dry yellow noodles made from wheat-flour, eggs and some water. The wheat-flour is mixed eggs and water and then kneaded into a dough. The dough is then flattened and then cut either using a knife by hand or by machines. Mee Gia is Hokkien for Child Noodles owing to its thinness in diameter. In Mandarin, they are referred to as 幼面 (Hanyu Pinyin: You Mian).
Mee Pok
Mee Pok is made in a similar manner as Mee Gia except that it is flat and thin like Kway Teow. Mee Pok is yellow and made from wheat flour and eggs. Mee Pok in Hokkien means flat noodle. In Mandarin, it is literally, 面薄 (Hanyu Pinyin: Mian Bo).
Food vendors usually sell both Mee Pok and Mee Gia (Mee Kia) together catering to the preference of the customers. Some like the noodle flat while some like it rounded and thin.
Yellow Hokkien Noodle
This type of noodle is preferably referred to as Yellow Hokkien noodle in order not to be confused with all the other types of yellow noodles in general. They are also made from wheat flour, eggs, salt and lye (alkaline water). They are thicker compared to the thin Mee Gia. It is like the yellow version of the white Thick Bee Hoon. Yellow Hokkien Noodle are obtained fresh and moist for preparation of the dishes.
The above noodles mentioned above are the more commonly consumed noodle that are sold in public, but not exhaustive. There are some other noodles that are not commonly sold nor are they consumed in private. Some such noodles are macroni and silver needle (also known as rat noodle) or more commonly known in Chinese as Bee Tai Bak.
Noodles In Dry And Soup Version
Most local dishes for noodles come in two versions: dry and soup.
Customers will say,”Da” which means dry in Hokkien, or “Gan” (乾) in Mandarin if they want the noodle served dry mixed with saurce. Traditionally, dry version of Chinese noodles are served with lard (oil fried with pig’s fat). Nowadays, some stalls serve their noodles with lard while some don’t because of the belief that lard is unhealthy. However, Singaporeans who have grown up eating noodles in the early days, very much prefer to have lard in their noodles.
If they want the soup version where the noodle and ingredients come in a bowl immersed in the soup, they will say, “Tng” which means soup in Hokkien, or “Tang” (汤) in Mandarin.
There are also some noodles which are served either dry or soup only. Noodles that are served dry only if they are meant to be fried, such as Fried Kway Teow. Some noodles are served only in soup, such as Sliced Fish Bee Hoon.