14-Day Singapore
Itinerary

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Singapore's hawker icon and its most culturally significant dish: poached free-range chicken served at precisely room temperature over rice cooked in chicken fat and stock; three condiments are mandatory: chilli sauce, ginger-spring onion oil and sweet dark soy; the chicken's silky, just-cooked texture is the skill benchmark; Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice at Maxwell Food Centre is the queue everyone joins.

Laksa

Singapore's most complex noodle soup: thick rice noodles in a coconut-cream curry broth of dried shrimp, candlenut, lemongrass, galangal and belachan topped with cockles, tofu puffs, prawns and a quenelle of sambal; Katong laksa uses short noodle pieces eaten with a spoon; 328 Katong Laksa is the most debated address in Singaporean food history.

Char Kway Teow

Singapore's wok-charred obsession: flat rice noodles and yellow egg noodles stir-fried at blistering heat in pork lard with prawns, cockles, lap cheong sausage, bean sprouts and chives; the wok hei (charred breath of the wok) from a coal fire hawker cannot be replicated electrically; the Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle uncle holds a Michelin star.

Satay

Singapore's most evocative street food: marinated chicken, beef or mutton threaded on coconut palm skewers and grilled over fanned charcoal until charred and caramelised; served with a thick peanut sauce sweetened with palm sugar, a compressed rice cake (ketupat) and a dice of cucumber and raw onion; the Lau Pa Sat festival market at dusk is the canonical satay experience.

Chilli Crab

Singapore's national dish and the most dramatic seafood experience in Southeast Asia: whole Sri Lankan mud crab stir-fried in a lava-thick sauce of tomato, chilli, egg and shrimp paste that clings to every crevice of the shell; eaten with bare hands and mantou (fried buns) to mop up the sauce; first created by Cher Yam Tian in 1956 at the original Palm Beach restaurant.

Kaya Toast

Singapore's most essential breakfast ritual, thick-cut white toast or steamed bun halves spread with kaya (a coconut and egg jam perfumed with pandan and caramelised to amber) and a cold slab of butter; eaten with two soft-boiled eggs in a bowl seasoned with white pepper and dark soy; dip the toast in the egg; consumed with kopi (local coffee) at any kopitiam from 6 a.m.