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If you have ever been to Singapore, you would likely agree that it is no overstatement to call it one of the food kingdoms in the region. At every turn of the street, you are likely to find many dining establishments, each serving their own varieties of foods and drinks. What does skip our mind at times as we become too engrossed in enjoying these delights is this – how did these cuisines come into existence, and why exactly?
Using predominantly Chinese cuisines in Singapore as a case study, we will dive into the topic and hope to help you achieve a better understanding of the significance behind Singapore’s food varieties and culture.
The Chinese delicacies that we consume here in Singapore share a mix of interesting origins. Interestingly, apart from sharing a common heritage of being Chinese, categorically speaking, most of these foods and drinks have unique historical backgrounds and were invented for varying reasons. Some are considered as treats for special occasions and festivals. Others were created out of necessity in tougher times of the past. All of these could also have been invented in Singapore at some stage of its history, or brought to the shores of our sunny island by our forefathers from their homelands.
The iconic dish of Hainanese chicken rice that Singapore has grown to be renowned for even today makes for a great example. When our forefathers first came to Singapore from China, the chicken was still the most commonly reared animal. Amid tough times, the Hainanese saw that it was possible to maximise the whole of chickens to create a delicious and fulfilling meal. Practical, but it led to the start of a simple but great dish, which the first-generation Hainanese in Singapore began to sell as what we now known as Hainanese chicken ride, thus popularising the dish.
Of course, we are going to discuss more than just Hainanese chicken rice – be patient, foodies. Sit tight and get ready for a ride, because this is going to get tastier as we go through some of the other cuisines the best represent Singapore’s heritage!
We have talked briefly about one of the most commonly known dishes in Singapore, the Hainanese chicken rice. Time for a drink – perhaps a cup of tea?
Tea drinking has always been inseparable from theChinese way of life for a long, long time. In Singapore, the practice was brought to Singapore in the late 19th to early 20th century, coinciding with the influx of migrants from China. But their fervent taste for tea brought some challenges of their own – the importation of tea leaves was quite a tedious process.
First, the supply of tea leaves was irregular in the early days because voyages then relied heavily on the direction of the wind. This meant that on days where the wind flows against the sails, shipments that usually took weeks, might end up taking months to arrive. The contrary was equally true, where shipments would arrive way ahead of time due to overly strong winds. Tea leaves hence arrived often with unpredictable quantities and varieties.
Second, the quality of the leaves were frequently inconsistent. Transported only by junks, the lengthy journey across the waters often led to the dampening of the leaves. Frying and roasting the dampened leaves would go some way in re-drying them, but the optimal and original taste would be almost impossible to restore through that process.
To address these inconsistencies, tea merchants – such as Pek Sin Choon – thought of a unique game-changing approach that redefined tea trading in Singapore’s earlier days. By blending tea leaves of varying qualities and age together, Pek realised that he could acquire a consistent blend of tea throughout the year. This distinctive fragrance created out of a perilous condition went on to be known as the unique Nanyang tea which you would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
For the coffee drinkers, you are also in for a treat as coffee drinking has also been an integral part of Singapore’s heritage and culture. This was the case ever since plantations filled with Robusta coffee beans started lining up along Orchard Road. The enterprising Hainanese at that time found an opportunity to take advantage of these developments by setting up what we now know as Kopitiams, which brought the unique Singaporean blend of coffee to market.
One of the reasons why coffee from Singapore’s coffeeshops has quite a distinctive taste, lies in the preservation of the beans. As Singapore had a rather humid climate, the plantation owners had to develop a way of lengthening their shelf life, and one method which they used quite prevalently was to glaze the beans with butter and sugar. This gives Singapore coffee its unique, buttery taste, and it has proven to suit the modernSingaporean palate as well. In fact, drinking Singapore coffee is almost an art form of its own, with a huge variety of renditions that you can choose from.
If you are ever in town, the Singaporean style of coffee should be a must-try for the coffee lovers. For the more ambitious, there is quite a unique pairing which you might be interested in – the Nanyang breakfast. Because the Hainanese worked as cooks for the British during the colonial period, the idea of toast came about after they witnessed how the British enjoyed having crispy toast with fruit jam for their breakfasts. The Nanyang breakfast therefore is a combination of coffee with toasted bread, which was usually layered with either Kaya jam made of pandan leaves, coconut, and eggs. The ambitious will usually wind up ending some soft-boiled eggs to make it a complete, Nanyang set breakfast. Why, we do not know for sure, but it certainly tastes good.
So, I believe we can safely agree from our earlier examples that part of Singapore’s cuisines originated out of practicality. The Hainanese, for instance, created the iconic chicken rice dish to make full use of the ingredients they had on hand. The Nanyang migrants also got innovative and developed a creative approach that helped retain the quality of tea leaves, allowing them to continue practising their tea-drinking culture here. But not all of Singapore’s cuisines were borne out of necessity. Some had deeper connotations meant for festivities, and we will cover that in more detail over the final two chapters of this course.
If we are to think about festivals, what strikes the mind of most Singaporean Chinese would be the Chinese New Year, which is commemorated annually at the dawn of a new lunar new year. For the most part, theChinese in Singapore will perform a symbolic gesture on the 7th day of every lunar new year – lo-hei. This means the act of tossing a unique dish called yu-sheng with chopsticks, simultaneously shouting some auspicious phrases. Yu-sheng literally means raw dish, and the term was coined to represent its humble origins, when lo-hei used to be done only with strips of raw fish served with porridge.
Today, however, yu-sheng has been transformed into a vibrant dish that is difficult to keep one’s eyes off of, and we mean vibrant quite literally. Consisting of nine different base ingredients (hence nine wonders), these were given symbolic meanings because their names have homophonic associations with auspicious phrases. Unlike the Hainanese chicken rice, or theNanyang coffee and tea, what might be worth noting is that yu-sheng is a uniquelySingaporean creation. Jointly created by four chefs in 1964, yu-sheng started gaining popularity particularly from the 1970s onwards as firecrackers became banned in Singapore. Perhaps, through shouting auspicious phrases out loud, earlier generations of Chinese hoped to achieve the same effect of unleashing firecrackers!
And for the curious-minded, here are the main ingredients of yu-sheng:
• Carrots, to welcome good luck
• Crackers, to discover new riches
• Fish slices, symbolising abundance for the year
• Five-spices powder, to call upon five blessings for our home
• Green radish, to symbolise eternal youth
• Honey, to be as sweet as it is
• Lime juice, to achieve good luck and prosperity
• Sesame seeds, to achieve thriving and prosperous business
• White radish, to achieve steady promotion
While we are on the subject of cuisines meant for festivities, may I interest you in a dessert?
Tang-yuan is a dessert that comprises just glutinous rice balls in a syrupy soup, and is said to originate from South China when a poor father-daughter pair had to be separated because of work. Prior to their separation, the father gave half of his tang-yuan to his daughter and made a pact that they will consume a full tang-yuan when they meet again at the next winter solstice. Their successful reunion at the next solstice, as planned, led to the popularisation of the tradition of eating tang-yuan every new winter solstice as a way of attaining good luck and reunion. The Chinese translation of the word reunion is also tuan-yuan, which shares a very similar pronunciation to tang-yuan. Today, it remains a popular favourite in Singapore and is enjoyed by many every winter solstice (although Singapore doesn’t have winter, sadly).
Tang-yuans were as huge as duck eggs in the past, resulting in them being called ah-ball-leng, which means duck eggs in Teochew. Did we mention that this actually inspired someone to create a tang-yuan brand called Ah Balling? And it’s already lasted for 70 years. What gives?
One of the oldest tea merchants in Singapore, established by the first generation of migrants from China.
A brick-and-mortar storefront serving local cakes and pastries made the traditional way.