Great Singapore food you shouldn’t miss either
We’re back now with another list of foods that are as well-known, as interesting, and as delicious!
Our last article covered the top dishes in the island country.The following are popular dishes that have originated from two big Chinese ethnic groups in Singapore — the Hokkien “福建” (fu jian) and the Teochew “潮州” (chao zhou). Most of these people have ancestral roots in south-eastern China, in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong respectively.
Bak Kut Teh
The characters for bak kut teh is “肉骨茶” for “meat bone tea” in Hokkien, a dialect of Chinese. It is read as “rou gu cha” in Mandarin. Despite the somewhat ominous sounding name, the dish is no tea, but in fact broth of pork rib, herbs and spices. There are varieties in the flavour and consistency of soup in the region, as the different ethnic groups — the Hokkien, the Cantonese and the Teochew — all have their own versions of the dish. Bak kut teh is popular in neighbouring country Malaysia as well, so there’s no clear answer as to which country the dish originated from. In Singapore, the most prevalent variety is the Teochew style: it has a relatively lighter colour and a stronger peppery flavour, thanks to the addition of pepper root on top of boiling the pork in garlic and pepper.
Char Kway Teow
Char kway teow is the kind of delicious but fattening food that gives you an instant fix. Despite being a Teochew dish, its name is in Hokkien. Its three Chinese characters “炒粿条” are read as “chao guo tiao” in Mandarin, meaning “fried flat noodles”. The dish itself makes use of two types of noodles, the aforementioned guo tiao; and common yellow noodles. Together they are fried in a sizzling wok with staples such as egg, Chinese sausage, bean sprouts, spring onion, and most notably, cockles. The dish gets its strong flavours from crispy pork lard and dark soy sauce, the latter of which gives it its distinctive dark colour.
Bak Chor Mee
Bak chor mee is Teochew for “minced pork noodles”, with the Chinese characters of “肉脞面”. Let’s start from the noodles. The first kind is mee kia (幼面), referring to a commonly seen, yellow, cylindrical Chinese noodles. The other kind is mee pok (薄面), which are also yellow in color, but flat and curly in shape. Here’s the interesting thing — both those terms mean “thin noodles”, so how does the hawker lady discern the one that you actually want? Usually with another question to clarify if by “thin” you mean the generic variety (mee kia), or if you mean thin like a sheet of paper — flat, that is (mee pok).
Apart from the noodle type, the dish itself is served two ways — in a soup broth, or dry tossed with vinegar, soy sauce, and chili — or ketchup for those who can’t take the spice! The essential ingredient to bak chor mee is pork — pork liver, pork balls, pork dumplings, pork slices, and of course, minced pork.
This article might have provided you with English translations and explanations, but in a Singapore hawker centre, your best bet is still to order these food items by using their Chinese dialect names!