| TRY IT NOW Singaporean street food

NO TRAVEL PLANS? YOU CAN STILL ENJOY A TASTE OF A UNESCO-LISTED TRADITION MUCH CLOSER TO HOME

Every day, Singaporeans from all walks of life gather at the island’s 114 open-air hawker centres. For the equivalent of less than a fiver, they can sit down to piping hot bowls of coconut-laced laksa or char kway teow (fried flat rice noodles), smoky from the wok, and have change left over for a cup of freshly pressed sugarcane juice. Street food is a way of life here — so much so that the country’s ‘hawker culture’ was recently added to UNESCO’S List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The past year has, of course, been tough for Singapore’s hawkers, but in normal times the markets are a cacophony of sounds, flavours and cultures all under one roof. Chinese hawkers, for instance, can be found touting the typically Malay dish of barbecued satay, but with pork belly instead of chicken, and with grated pineapple in the peanut sauce. Peranakan food, meanwhile, is a distinct cuisine born out of the marriage of early immigrant traders with local Malays.

With the pandemic still affecting travel, most of us won’t be visiting Singapore any time soon — but you can taste some of the vibrant flavours closer to home. In London, pick up a takeaway roti prata (flatbread with crispy, flaky layers, perfect for dunking in curry) from Roti King, or order Hainanese chicken rice from Singapore Garden. You can also find kopitiams (coffee shops) serving Singaporean bites: Mei Mei, also in London, delivers its own take on kaya toast (bread and butter pudding layered with pandan custard and coconut), while Julie’s Kopitiam in Glasgow offers a breakfast nasi goreng (fried rice with sweet soy sauce and sambal). Meanwhile, the British outpost of Singaporean street snack chain Old Chang Kee offers nationwide delivery of curry puffs — pasty-like pastries stuffed with spiced curry chicken and potato.

Alternatively, have a go at whipping up Singaporean dishes yourself, with the help of cookbooks such as Chicken and Rice by Shu Han Lee (£16, Fig Tree) and The Modern Nonya Table by Sylvia Tan (£16.99, Marshall Cavendish International).