Singapore is a country obsessed with food. The food culture here is diverse and delicious. Street food is Singapore’s main culture. If you did not try to savour the street food here, it means you have not been to Singapore!
Best Street Food in Singapore 2023
#1 Lor Mee
We will talk about authentic and delicious flavours and we will start in a Hawker Centre which is out west. Our first dish is a noodle dish called lor mee. Lor mee is from a hawker center quite far out west on the island. Singapore’s a very small island nation so it’s really easy to actually cover a lot of ground when you’re here.
It’s quite easy to not go far and stay close to the center of town but we really love jumping on the buses and the trains and getting way out of the centre and finding some really incredible food at these hawker centres. How good does this lor mee look?
It is a hodgepodge of different ingredients. Lor mee is probably best known for the gloopy sticky gluggy gravy. It is so gloopy and thick and then you’ve got all of these different ingredients such as the deep-fried Hokkien Chinese pork roll which is called ngoh hiang, tons of thick noodles coated with gravy, fish cake, the fish lor mee, a braised egg, coriander, a dollop of chilli, black vinegar, pork and braised pork.
Coating those noodles with gravy is epic because you can taste the five spices in there and it just not heavy, it’s actually quite light. Mix everything through to get that chilli and vinegar coating. It’s really fresh and crunchy on the outside. So much flavor, mixing in everything together really did the trick.
You can taste the tanginess from the black vinegar. It tastes a little bit like mackerel. I know that traditionally they use red snapper but it tastes stronger than that and the pork belly was just melt-in-your-mouth. Lor mee is just hearty, really soul-satisfying food.
Where to Get:
Xin Mei Xiang Zheng Zong Lor Mee, 51 Old Airport Road, #01-116 Old Airport Road Food Centre, Singapore 390051
Opening Hours: Friday to Wednesday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Feng Zhen Lor Mee, Taman Jurong Food Centre, #03-146, 3 Yung Seng Road, S 618499, Singapore
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.
#2 – Laksa
The next stop on this food hunt has taken us right up to the north of Singapore. We’ve gone right from the west all the way up to the north and we went there for a laksa. It is a classic curry laksa and the stall that’s selling it has a huge queue and it’s so popular which can only mean good things, and the bowl of laksa is small but perfectly formed.
There’s so many delicious looking ingredients such as rice noodles, bean sprouts, tau pok which are tofu puffs, slices of fish cake, half a boiled egg which is swimming in the coconut-y looking curry broth, added with a dollop of sambal which is chilli paste and then a sprinkling of laksa leaf which is Vietnamese coriander. Mix all of these ingredients and get those flavors moving around.
The noodles are really bouncy and still have a little bit of texture and got a real spicy hit. I think it might be from that sambal but the broth is so creamy and rich. The tofu puffs act like a sort of a sponge soaking up all of the broth.
It’s so good when you bite down onto the tofu puff it because it explodes with all of that broth in your mouth and the flavours are just beautiful, so spicy, creamy, really well-rounded and quite a light bowl of laksa.
It’s not too heavy and rich. This is really common in Singapore and you don’t have to go to all of those mega hawker centres to find good food, because little gems dotted all around the island are just waiting to be discovered.
Where to Get:
Sungei Road Laksa, Blk 27 Jalan Berseh #01-100
Opening Hours: Open daily except Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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#3 – Curry Puffs
Next up, we’re at one of our favorite hawker centers in Singapore. It’s called Old Airport Road. It’s also one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in Singapore. It has over 70 different hawker stalls.
We purchased the first snack, a couple of curry puffs, one of my favorite snacks here in Singapore.
Then from the first shop, we got these curry puffs so we’ve got two sorts and they look buttery and flaky. The one with the single dot will be the sardine version and the other one is called black pepper but I think it’s chunks of pork in a black pepper sauce.
The sardine version of curry puff is so buttery that the pastry can absolutely and utterly cover your mouth. It is so buttery that it will just flaked apart the inner of the sardine mixture, basically a curried sardine mixture with a whole lot of onions. It can have some red chillies.
Sometimes with a curry puff, they can be really dry inside but what we got is a super wet and incredibly good curry puff.
It’s a great food center and the two brilliant snacks those stalls have are highly recommended.
Where to Get:
Wang Wang Crispy Curry Puff, 51 Old Airport Road, #01-126, Singapore, 390051
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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#4 – Chee Cheong Fun
This is basically a giant noodle. They got a rice flour batter and puts it out on a cloth which is over a steamer and it’s incredibly thin so they lay that out over the steamer, put the filling on top, either a char siu or a pork one, or a barbecue pork.
We got a prawn version so they lay the meat or the protein or there was an egg one as well so whatever goes inside on there steams it away and then pulls it off that steamer, wraps it up. The noodles is so delicate and so thin and silky and it’s really hard to deal with so you have to be very careful.
Then just chop it up with a plastic spatula, cover it in a sweetened soy sauce, fresh spring onion, fried onions on top and go a little bit off the paste from traditional.
Put a bit of chili with it as well so normally you wouldn’t get chili with this but it felt right to just have a little kick on top of it and something I think you’d do more so here in Singapore then you would in Hong Kong where this dish is actually from.
Where to Get:
Pin Wei Hong Kong Style Chee Cheong Fun, 41A Cambridge Rd, #01-25, Singapore 211041
Opening Hours: Daily, except Wednesdays from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Chee Cheong Fun Club, 01-38 Maxwell Food Centre, Singapore
Opening Hours: Saturdays and Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Tuesdays to Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
#5 – Chicken Rice
One of the MUST TRY dishes. Hainanese Chicken Rice is Singapore’s National Dish, so anyone should never miss out on this food when visiting Singapore. This dish is created by blanching the chicken into boiling water then transferring it into an ice water bath before being sliced.
The coagulated fat and tender meat of the chicken is what makes this dish super flavorful and mouthwatering. The rice is cooked with chicken fat together with some ginger, chicken stock and chicken fat to make it aromatic, fluffy and delicious.
Where to Get:
Wee Nam Kee, 101 Thomson Road #01-08, United Square
Opening Hours: Open daily, 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Uncle Chicken Rice, 348 Simpang Bedok #02-24, Bedok Marketplace
Opening Hours: Open daily except Mondays, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Getting the Best Street Foods in Singapore
Singapore street food is a unique blend of multicultural influences, coming from the many different races represented in the city. Singapore is known for its delicious and flavorful street foods.
Some of the more popular dishes include Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa, Roti Prata, Satay, and Chili Crab. These traditional dishes are often served on the street, with vendors selling unique versions of the same dish.
Street food in Singapore is a great way to experience local cuisine while enjoying the sights and sounds of the city. Visitors can find their way around Singapore’s street food scene by exploring the many hawker centers, food court complexes, coffeeshops and local eateries throughout the city.
The oldest hawker center in Singapore is the People’s Park Food Centre. Located at Chinatown next to the MRT Station, People’s Park Food Centre has been opened since 1923 and offers a variety of Singaporean cuisine at very affordable prices.
The hawker center is made up of numerous stalls serving up local delicacies, such as chicken rice, roasted meat, laksa, char kway teow, satay, and other Singaporean favourites.
The atmosphere at the hawker center is vibrant, with colorful stalls and last renovated in 2005, a true reflection of Singapore’s diverse cuisine.
People’s Park Food Centre is definitely a great place to visit to get a taste of Singaporean street food, and to learn about the culture and culinary heritage of Singapore.
Street Food Singapore
It is not surprising that Singapore is one of the famous countries with the best and affordable street foods in the world. Thanks to its hawker centres, people from all over the world are able to indulge in the delicious dishes that Singapore has to offer.
The multi-ethnic hawker centres can offer you not just authentic Singaporean dishes, but also a mix of Chinese, Malay, and Indian cultures. So the next time you visit Singapore, make sure to check out all the hawker centres that you could ever see and try these amazing dishes above!
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