How To Cook Singapore Food | Singapore Cuisine Guide

Before you learn how to cook Singapore food, you need to know a thing or two about its origin and background.

The Singapore Cuisine presents the ethnic diversity of the culture of Singapore. Singapore Food in general has been influenced by Chinese, Indian, Malay and Indonesian cooking traditions. These mixes of tastes and traditions are what makes Singapore Cuisine special.

Singapore Hawker Stores are the main outside-eating centers and are way more popular than restaurants. These open-air complexes contain a lot of stalls that sell inexpensive food. It's impossible to miss such a complex - they will probably be the first thing in your sight after leaving bus or train station.

Their literature states that eating is a national obsession. People love to eat good and talk about food. I guess this involvement and influence by the general audience is what makes Singapore cuisine so tasteful and rich.

Cast Iron Wok
If you are serious about learning how to cook Singapore food, get your hands on one of these as soon as possible. This multi-functional bowl can be used to deep fry, stri fry, steam and grill like a hot plate. Thicker woks retain more constant heat and are much better than eletric ones. The ideal wok has a round flat concave bottom and comes with cover and prefferably a rack for deep fried food.

Pestle and Mortar
This will be needed to grind and mix substances like peanuts, sesame seeds, peppers and different dried spices, which in small amounts won't crush in electric grinder. Pound the ingredients at 45 degree angle or use circular motion.

Cleaver
Great chopping tool, which needs sharpening every now and then. Not much to say here, just be careful not to cut your hand off;)

Chopsticks
Long bamboo chopsticks are ideal for deep frying because bamboo can withstand high temperatures and acts as an indicator of when the oil is heated enough for frying by releasing air bubbles. With some practice they are perfect for handling noodles.

I made a list of most common South-east Asian herbs and spices used in Singapore Cuisine, which should be available at your local Chinese food store. You must be aware that some exotic ingredients aren't available outside the region, but there are alternatives (which you may discover with a little experimenting).

Here is the list of most common ingredients:

Fresh Herbs and Spices:
- Lemon Grass
- Blacan
- Shallots
- Green and Red Chillies
- Turmeric

Dried Herbs and Spices:
- Cloves
- Salam Leaf
- Cinnamon Bark
- Cumin Seeds from Cumin, Mustard and Fennel
- Dried Chillies
- White Sesame
- Cardamom
- Coriander
- Pepper

Other popular Singapore food ingredients include Dried Shrimps, Tamarind Pulp, Roasted Peanuts, Soca Sauce and Ginger.

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