General Information » Culture & Lifestyle » Food & Drink

If there’s one thing that can stop a Singaporean from going to live somewhere else, it’s the local food! The easy access to such a stunning variety of food, day and night, and at reasonable prices is irresistible. A lot of people simply eat all their meals out because it’s so convenient and affordable. Unless you live in a remote part of the island, you’re likely to find something to eat within a 20 minute radius 24 hours a day.

Food is an obsession with Singaporeans, and people think nothing of travelling across the island for their favourite bowl of noodles. The most popular mealtime conversation is food; people will enthusiastically exchange discoveries of a new food outlet or a superior version of the dish they are eating. And much of the culture revolves around food; it’s central to bonding, entertaining, recreation, the prelude to business and the conclusion to a deal.

Singaporean cuisine essentially refers to food from the country’s predominant ethnic groups, primarily Chinese, Malay and Indian. There’s also Peranakan (or nonya) food, a unique cuisine that is the result of the marriage of Chinese and Malay culture. Chinese food can be sub-divided by dialect group; Szechuan, Cantonese and Hakka cuisine each have distinctive flair. The variety extends from fine dining (with dishes such as double-boiled shark’s fin) to hawker fare at $3 a meal. Singaporeans’ can’t-live-without dishes tend to be the hawker food.



Eating Out

There are three main types of places to eat out at: Singapore’s famous hawker centres or food courts, coffee shops or restaurants. Hawker centres consist of anything from 20 to 100 individual stalls that collectively serve a wide variety of local favourites that cost about $3 per dish, each a meal on its own. Typically, the choice will range from Chinese, Malay and Indian to western grilled food. Food courts are the modern version of these centres, and can be found inside all the main shopping malls. Serving up economical meals in air-conditioned comfort, the food courts are popular with office workers at lunch time.

Kopi tiams, the vernacular for coffee shops, are small shophouses with a few individual stalls serving up similar dishes to what you find in the food courts. Restaurants come in all shapes and sizes and are totally cosmopolitan. Quality runs from mediocre to world class and you get everything from global franchises like McDonald’s and Burger King to three star Michelin chefs whipping up magic.

Chinese restaurants are varied and many specialise along ethnic lines; Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and so on. The more popular internati...