It's Singapore's big birthday today! So grab a flag in one hand and food in the other and you’re all set for National Day. Pick from the island’s famous food offerings, from old-time flavours like kopi, to new best-sellers like salted egg yolk fish skin and unusual gula melaka granola. Most areeither finished in a few bites, or come in resealable bags. All are available at major supermarkets and convenience stores in Singapore.
More snacks in Part 1 of the series here.
It may be an age-old Southeast Asian ingredient, but in recent years, salted egg yolk, or SEY, has re-emerged to be a recipe for commercial success. Among popular SEY food is Singapore-grown Shi Le Po’s twice-cooked salted egg yolk fish skin. The resealable bag holds meltingly thin fish skin coated in thick, creamy salted egg yolk sauce, with just a bit of heat stirred in through curry leaves and chilli padi. The addictive fish skin snack has outlasted other SEY food trends, like croissants and even ice cream. Not a fan of fish skin? They also have potato chips. Both available at major supermarkets.
The salted egg is a dark yellow preserved duck egg, usually boiled and eaten with Teochew porridge, and used as the signature ingredient in mooncakes in Asia.
Here’s five basic ways and recipe suggestions with salted egg yolk.
Milo on cake? Well, here moist milo bits are layered onto on a slice of spongey chocolate cake. And it works unsurprisingly well, as milo is also made with chocolate. It’s convenient too, peel away the plastic cover and you’ll find a tiny spoon inside.
Available at 7-Eleven stores.
In Singapore and some parts of Southeast Asia, milo dinosaur is a cold malt chocolate drink topped with a heap of milo powder, most commonly ordered at late-night roti prata stalls.
Deeply caramelised gula melaka holds this crunchy granola mix together. It’s a dry tumble of rolled oats, sweet coconut, creamy cashews and chewy cranberries in a resealable foil-packet. But it’s not just a sweet indulgence, a pinch of saltiness gives it nice balance. Available at all major supermarkets.
You’ll find gula melaka, or palm sugar syrup, on dessert menus in Singapore and some parts of Southeast Asia. The most popular dessert is called sago gula melaka, which is small and slightly sweet tapioca peals in a creamy coconut and gula melaka sauce. Make this here.
A moist gula melaka cake flavoured with pandan, and layered with coconut shreds. It’s stays closer than you might expect to the traditional ondeh-ondeh flavours that’s dominated by gula melaka and coconut. It’s convenient too, peel away the plastic cover and you’ll find a tiny spoon inside.
Available at 7-Eleven stores.
Traditionally, ondeh-ondeh is a ball-shaped dessert with a gooey middle of gula melaka and coated in grated coconut. You usually eat it one bite for a burst of liquid palm sugar.
Pocky and Ya Kun’s overdue collaboration results in a bold and beautiful combination of their signature biscuit sticks, dipped in kopi, or strong coffee -the kind found in Singapore hawker centres. And be warned, the coffee here is so powerful you smell it even before you taste it. Exclusively available at STREAT, the annual Singapore Food Festival organised by Singapore Tourism Board, and all Ya Kun outlets island-wide. We’ve heard though, that some places have already sold-out. Follow here for updates.
Kopi, or coffee, is something that’s ordered a lot in the hawker centres of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Kopi fans love the highly aromatic and even vanilla-y taste of their coffee because of the added butter, sugar and oil during its roasting process. Typically, you would drink it at breakfast with kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs in dark soy sauce.
A stick of three takoyaki balls covered in chilli crab sauce. They say the secret of a great chili crab dish lies in the sauce, made with a pounded paste of chili, garlic, shallots and ketchup. And here, its sauce is less fiery than the usual, but still full-flavoured with the sweetness of ketchup and sweet chili. If you're a fan of salted egg yolk, try out the Salted Egg Yolk Tamagoyaki, or Japanese egg roll too. Bothavailable at 7-Eleven stores.
Chili crab has long been considered for the title of Singapore’s national dish, but it’s hard to decide for sure when you’re in a nation of delicious food offerings like chicken rice and laksa. One thing’s certain, you can’t leave the shores with trying chili crab over a plate of mantou, that’s steamed or fried white buns.
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