Gastronomic Ruminations

If you’re a major noodle lover, A Noodle Story‘s a hawker stall worth checking out. Started by a duo of noodle lovers, who trained together at Shatec, the stall is the realisation of their dream to sell a premium noodle dish at an affordable price. Using modern culinary techniques and through re-engineering of classic hawker flavours, the intrepid [...]

Chinese New Year starts tomorrow. It’s the time of the year again to Lo Hei Yu Sheng 捞起魚生, the prosperity salad that is tossed for luck. This year’s CNY atmosphere seems even more subdued than last year as a slow economy and uncertain job environment is prompting many Singaporeans to tighten their belts. Shopkeepers have been complaining [...]

Hainanese Chicken Rice, one of many hawker dishes that has me craving a fix whenever I’m away from Singapore for more than 2 weeks. Although Chicken Rice is often referred to as a national dish of Singapore, it is getting increasingly difficult to find well-prepared chicken rice in hawker centres and foodcourts. Roast Chicken Drumstick [...]

I feel sad that hawker food in Singapore has largely lost its soul in the past decade with attention to preparation and flavour sacrificed to expediency and profitability. Whenever I find any hawkers who retain the richness of flavours and techniques from the past, I feel compelled to tell all my friends about these last bastions [...]

Tau Suan (Split Mung Bean Dessert with a porridge-like consistency) has been one of my favourite local desserts ever since I was a child but in the last 8 years, I hardly ate it, largely because the versions sold at most hawker stalls or foodcourts are but a shadow of this humble dessert’s tasty past. [...]

My cycling accident in February has made it a little more inconvenient to travel.  Unable to travel to Malacca to get a Putu Piring fix, I had to turn to the next best alternative that’s alot closer to home, the famous Haig Road Putu Piring. This stall has been selling my favourite Putu Piring since my [...]

My favourite wanton noodle joint in Singapore has a very interesting name, “Hong Mao Mian Jia 红毛面家” in Mandarin. It’s more commonly known as “Ang Moh Wanton Mee” amongst the regular clients. For the uninitiated, “wanton” are dumplings and “Ang Moh” is a local slang for Caucasians.  On weekends, it’s at least a half hour wait [...]

Singapore owes her multicultural culinary heritage to the immigrants that populated the island from all parts of the world. Ethnic Indians form the third largest racial group in Singapore, thus Indian food has had a strong influence in shaping Singapore’s culinary history with notable local favourites such as Roti Prata, Nasi Briyani and Putu Mayam.  I found it [...]

Singapore Food Festival 2011 may have ended on 24 July 2011 but the celebration goes on with two Singapore-inspired, Indian-modified dishes available for a limited time only (till 22 August 2011) as part of the buffet spread at Grand Park Orchard’s Open House restaurant.  I was invited by Marcus Wong of Word of Mouth Communications to a media tasting [...]

During a recent trip to Malacca, I was determined to check out the famous homemade Putu Piring that I had seen featured in a Malaysian food programme. Putu Piring has been my favourite snack since I was a child and given it’s rarity in Singapore, I was eager to get a fix. I was the first to [...]