By Expedia Team, on February 24, 2015

Makan Starter Kit: What to Eat in Singapore

Expedia: Asia’s Food Havens – Starter Kit

In this series, Expedia highlights the best food to try in each city, as recommended by locals. Start here to find out the most popular local dishes and the best places you should go to try them.

food2

Best of Singapore Food 

“New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Singapore’s the city that never stops eating.” – Anthony Bourdain

 

Must-Eat Singapore Food: Hainanese Chicken Rice

You can hardly hit the subject of Singapore food without hearing about this famous, simple but delicious dish – Chicken Rice.

Fragrant rice cooked with secret recipe chicken stock, served with steamed or roasted chicken and cucumber slices. Soup on the side. The best chicken rice is often determined by the flavor of the rice and the accompanying chicken rice chilli sauce. Typically the chilli has ginger paste and soy sauce in it.

singapore-hainanese-chicken-rice

A simple everyday food enjoyed by locals, costing less than $3-4. Can be found in every hawker centre. Easily Singapore’s most famous dish.

Best Chicken Rice in Singapore:

Forget about chicken rice in high end restaurants. The hawkers do it best. You can find it practically everywhere and even humble stalls can serve up really really good chicken rice.

If we absolutely had to pick, we’d point you to Wee Nam Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice and Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice.

 

Must-Eat Singapore Food : Chilli Crab and Black Pepper Crab

Large crab served in a sweet, savoury sauce that is an amazing mix between chilli and tomato among other ingredients. Plus little strands of beaten eggs and crab meat soak into the sauce creating this delicious gravy base. Besides enjoying the crab meat itself, a big part of the meal is dipping deep-fried mantou buns into the sauce. Mmm-mmm.

SIngapore Chilli Crab

Black pepper crab is the popular alternative.

This is a specialty dish served in seafood restaurants, so you should order crab as the main dish and a selection of other sides, all to share. Sambal kangkong (vegetables in spicy paste), sweet and sour pork/fish, mantou fried buns, breaded butter prawns and fried rice are some of the good side dishes.

Best Chilli Crab in Singapore:

Make a reservation at the branches of No Signboard Seafood Restaurant (chain), Red House Seafood Restaurant (chain) or Jumbo Seafood Restaurant (chain) for delicious Singapore chilli crab.

Famous Street Food Market in Singapore:

There are lots of food streets and ‘hawker centres’ in Singapore, where you can get a great variety of Singaporean food at very affordable prices. Most have an array of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western food stalls. Halal and vegetarian food are often available as well.

Lau Pa Sat  CC2.0 / Allie_Caulfield

Lau Pa SatMaxwell Food Court and Newton Food Circus are popular ones around Central Singapore. If you’re up for venturing a little further out into the more residential heartlands, head to Chomp Chomp in Serangoon Gardens. The air is a little different here as it’s less touristy, but the food is equally yummy.

Order a big thirst-quenching glass of sugarcane juice, longan drink, or fresh fruit juice to go with your meal.

We don’t recommend having Chilli Crab at the seafood stalls within the hawker centres. But you can and should try sambal stingray!

 

What to eat in Singapore Hawker Centres: 

Here are the well-loved Singapore favourites.

Chinese Food – Hainanese Chicken Rice, Hokkien Prawn Mee, Char Kway Teow, Carrot Cake, Char Kway Teow

Indian Food – Roti Prata, Soup Kambing (Mutton soup), Nasi Briyani, Murtabak, Roti John

Malay Food – Nasi Lemak, Mee Rebus, Mee Siam, Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice), Satay

food2

 

Find Out More About Asia’s Food Havens

Jump to Cities: Bangkok | Hanoi | Hong Kong | Osaka | Penang | Seoul | Singapore | Taipei


 Travel Asia from Plate to Plate

Made just for foodies, Expedia’s travel deals now helps you travel to Asia’s Greatest Food Cities for less. Save on flights and hotels when you travel to any of these 8 cities before May 2015. Check out the latest deals to carve your own food trail through Asia. Happy belly, happy traveller.

asia-food-cities

 

[button style=’blue’ url=’https://www.expedia.com.my/g/u/asiafoodcitiescampaign’ icon=’entypo-flight’ fullwidth=’true’] Travel Deals for Asia’s Food Havens[/button]