Singapore's TidbiTs

Literally "boiled noodles", a delicious dish that can be found in many hawker centres , mee rebus is a popular and tasty Malay culinary creation. It is a simple yet satisfyingly filling dish of the common yellow Hokkien noodles and sweet-spicy flavourful gravy garnished with boiled egg, beansprouts, Chinese celery, green chilli, and fried shallot. A squeeze of fresh calamansi adds tang and brightens up the dish. Mee rebus Mee is a Hokkien word for 'noodles' and rebus is a Malay word for 'boiled', thus we can see how different cultures complement and influence each other.The most crucial element in mee rebus is the gravy, which the soul of this deceptively simple dish. Traditionally, it is made from a stock base of dried shrimp, tau cheo (fermented soy bean), fresh herbs and spices, which is thickened with mashed sweet potato, thus giving rise to umami flavour. However, different vendors have put their own unique spin on the traditional recipe. Some hawker c...

Barbequed marinated or seasoned meat on stick that some may likened like kebab. Meat is usually mutton, beef or chicken. Less common ones are babat (beef tripe) or prawn. Satay dipped in peanut sauce. Eaten with ketupat or rice cubes and slices of cucumbers and onions. The ketupat rice cubes (shaped like squarish cubes as can be seen in the below photo) are not glutinous rice but rice cakes packed traditionally in diamond-shaped woven palm leaf pouch then cut into rice cubes. The ketupat taste is similar to rice cakes in gado-gado, soto ayam or lontong . Thought to be originally from Indonesia, satay is commonly found in South-East countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and of course Singapore. You can find satay in most hawker or food centres and they are usually sold by the Malays. (L-R) Beef, chicken, mutton and babat (tripe) satay My favourite satay meat is mutton. Some may not like the smell of mutton, but I love mutton satay! When you put the meat, rice cube, cucumber an...

Popiah or spring roll. It can be the whitish wet version or the brownish fried ones. These spring rolls are popular local delicacies. The ingredients can include but not limited to eggs, prawns, turnip, carrots, peanuts, lettuce, parsley, garlic, bean sprout, sweet sauce, chilli paste (the quantity of chilli paste depends on the spiciness that you want it to be) that are wrapped in popiah skin which is paper thin wheat flour to hold all or some of these ingredients! Many people think it is the skin that makes or break a popiah. And the filling need to be well-drained before being tightly rolled or wrapped. The popiah still need to be moist but not soggy. Some vendors will add a dash of crushed peanut bits to make it crispy. Kway Guan Huat Popiah at Joo Chiat You can get popiah at most hawker or food centres . The popiah can be the deep fried version or the wet types. You can get a wet type spring roll as shown below for about $2 at Qi Ji. The ones containing prawns will be slightly mo...