Origins of Singapore Food Culture from the Golden Age of the British Empire to Syonan-to of Japan

Image credit: WikipediaThe period from 1819 to 1942 saw Singapore rise from a fishing village and pirates' nest to the bastion of the British empire and then fall to be a Japanese occupied territory. This 123 year period witnessed the largest immigration waves to Singapore and with it many different cuisines found their way onto our plates and palates.

Image credit: National Archives of Singapore I always felt that the Singaporean palate must be among the most exposed in the world. Ask almost any 5 year old child in Singapore and chances are s/he has already acquired a taste for Malay, Indonesian, Chinese (various clans), Peranakan, Eurasian, Indian, Western, Thai etc flavours, naming just a few to give you an idea. How did this come about? It's a long story. One hundred and twenty three years long. In 1819, not long after first stepping foot on Singapura, Raffles signed an agreement with the Sultan of Johor and Temenggong of Singapura which allowed the British East India Company to operate a small trading post at the mouth of the Singapore River. Raffles operated the small trading post on a strip of land by the Singapore River merely "the length of a cannon shot" as a tax free port. It enticed some Chinese and peranakan traders to relocate their operations from Dutch Malacca to Raffles' trading post.

In 1824, the Dutch and English cut a deal that divided maritime southeast Asia between themselves. The English would have the Malay peninsula, and the Dutch took the Indonesian archipelago. Borneo island would be partitioned and shared. To complete the deal, the Dutch and English would also exchange Dutch Malacca for British Bencoolen (today's Bengkulu). In 1826, the British amalgamated Singapore, Malacca and Penang to form the British Straits Settlements.

Peranakan couple. Image credit: WikipediaThe British then focussed on developing the Port of Singapore. The departure of traders from Malacca to Singapore increased from a trickle to a flood. Many of these traders were wealthy Peranakan families. With this migration, Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine established their foothold in Singapore. Malacca probably had the largest peranakan community which was established since the 1400s during warm relations between the Malacca Sultanate and China's Ming dynasty. Some Chinese settlers married locals and adopted local customs like food, dress, language etc. Their descendants are known as peranakan which means "local born" in Malay. The male peranakan is known as Baba and the ladies Nyonya. The peranakans created a unique cuisine which has Malay and Chinese elements. The well known dishes are ayam buah keluak, babi pongteh, itek tim, Penang asam laksa, Singapore Nyonya laksa, otak otak, etc. More on the history of peranakan food here 👈 click The Portuguese ruled Malacca for 150 years from 1511 to 1641. Intermarriages between the Portuguese and locals created a Eurasian community known as the Kristang. When Malacca became part of the Straits Settlements together with Penang and Singapore, more Kristang migrated to Singapore.

Malacca Portuguese Settlement restaurantCurry Dabal or Devil Curry is probably the best known Kristang dish. It is chicken with chili, galangal, nutmeg, candlenut, lemongrass, vinegar etc. Other Kristang dishes are grilled eggplant, baked spicy fish dishes, grago pikadel (shrimp cutlet), seccu (dry beef curry), etc. A good place to experience Kristang culture and cuisine is at the Portuguese Settlement food stalls in Malacca.

History of curry puff and epok epokThe term curry puff is often used interchangeably with epok epok. Epok epok is sometimes referred to as the "Malay name for curry puff". Otherwise, it is said to be the Malay curry puff. Actually, curry puff and epok epok have different roots and represent different traditions. Epok epok owes its origins more to the Portuguese empanada which simply means "wrapped in bread". Empanada shell is just a single layer of dough and the fillings can be spicy, non spicy, meat or vegetable. Hence, we can have spicy, non spicy, meat and vegetarian epok epok. Curry puff has its roots in the British puff pastry with its flaky shell made with laminated dough which come in layers. Curry puff also has DNA from the Indian samosa, hence the spicy curry fillings which may be chicken or lamb or curried potatoes. As the name curry puff states, the filling must be curried and the shell must be a puff (the flaky one with many layers). So, some famous curry puff are more accurately epok epok 😂 But as KF Seetoh of Makansutra once said, "Got good food to eat, you want to talk so much for what?" unquote 😂 More on the history of curry puff and epok epok 👈 click

Of the European colonisers of Malaysia, the Dutch stayed the longest - for 184 years. Yet, they didn't leave much of an impression on Malaysian food.

Making kueh kapitThe most visible Dutch legacy in our food heritage would be the love letter or Kueh Kapit which means "flatten biscuit" in Malay. It's watery batter of rice flour, coconut milk, eggs, and sugar between two flat iron plates held in a calliper grilled over a trough of charcoal. Kueh kapit or love letter is rolled into a little tube or scroll. It is crackly crispy and tastes sweet with fragrance of eggs and coconut. It is very addictive 😋 and very popular during Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. I love it. Kueh kapit has its roots in the barquillo, which is originally from Spain. It came to Malacca via the Dutch because the Spaniards ruled The Netherlands from 1556 to 1714.

Flat type of kueh kapitNowadays, it is more common to find kueh kapit in a flatten form like a small folded handkerchief. I am not sure of the reason for the change but suspect it is commercially driven - the flatten form makes it stackable and easier to pack more into tins. Personally, I much prefer the rolled up tube or scroll type as it is like the traditional barquillo. Let's help preserve our heritage by supporting businesses that still make the tube or scroll type of kueh kapit. Gambier and pepper plantations fuelled Singapore's early boom and absorbed many immigrants from southern China from the 1830s onwards. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the advent of steamships, trade and travel between east and west expanded exponentially. The Port of Singapore boomed like never before. The Sultan of Johor visited Europe a few times and fell in love with spaghetti. So, when he returned to his Johor palace, he directed his chef to make laksa with spaghetti.From that time on, Laksa Johor is always made with spaghetti instead of the traditional rice and tapioca noodles.However, in Singapore, laksa remained the same, unchanged. It is rice and tapioca noodles smothered with a thick grainy sauce of coconut milk, minced Ikan Parang fish, tamarind juice, aromatic herbs, spices, belacan, and chilis etc. It is topped with bean sprouts, cilantro, Vietnamese coriander, julienned cucumber etc and at the side a dollop of sambal chili and a calamansi.In Singapore, this is known as Laksa Siglap because there was a lady who lived in Kampung Siglap who sold the best laksa in Singapore.More on the history of Laksa Siglap 👈 click Tin mining started in Malaya in the 1820s and rubber plantations started in the 1890s. These two pillars of the Malayan economy led to unprecedented demand for labour and great wealth for owners and traders. It was the Golden Age of the British Empire. British Malaya was hungry for foreign labour for its mines, plantations and ports. Meanwhile, in China, the Qing dynasty was gasping for its last desperate breaths. Internally, the Middle Kingdom was wreak by rampant corruption, widespread rebellion, anarchy, famine and the national coffers empty pillaged. It was pressured on all sides by foreign powers and humiliated in disastrous wars which incurred massive debts for war reparations. The Qing dynasty's final collapse and declaration of the Republic of China in 1912 did not bring peace. Instead, the shattered empire broke in hundreds of warring pieces and everything fall into utter chaos. Local war lords were grabbing power everywhere and back in Peking, pretenders with ambitions for a new dynasty were fighting to assume the Son of Heaven's mantle.

Millions fled the chaos in China, mostly to southeast Asia and a sizeable number across the Pacific to USA and Canada. They came as coolies or indentured labourers, already in debt for the passage from China before stepping foot on their destinations. The British had well laid out plans to develop Singapore and ready to receive the sinkeh (a somewhat derogatory term peranakans used to refer to the "new guests"). The wretched masses from southern China fleeing chaos and poverty back home was exactly what British Malaya needed to feed its ravenous appetite for labour.

The Jackson Plan divided Singapore into sections according to land use and ethnicity. There's Chinese Campong, European Town and Arab Campong etc (campong is the British way of spelling kampung at that time). In the Chinese Campong, the various clans have their own enclaves. The Cantonese in Kreta Ayer, Hokkiens in Amoy street, Teochew around the Singapore River. The Hainanese whom were the last to arrive in Singapore had no place in the Chinese Campong, so they set themselves up in the margin between European Town and Arab Campong i.e. Middle Road, Seah Street and Purvis Street.

Many dishes came with the immigrants during this period - Indonesian satay, Indian roti, vadai, Teochew char kway teow, Teochew bak chor mee, Teochew beef kway teow etc. The dishes during this period were pretty much the same as the hometown versions unless dictated by lack of ingredients. Over the years, the dishes developed Singapore characteristics (and new dishes were created).

History of satay. Image credit: National Archives of SingaporeThe Indonesians brought satay to Singapore. They were small pieces of chicken, lamb or beef skewered with a skinny wooden stick and grilled over a small charcoal stove. Satay is eaten with a peanut and spice sauce which tastes nutty, sweet, savoury with spice flavour and aroma. The Chinese adapted the dish to include pork and offal such as intestines. The Hainanese added a dollop of pineapple puree to the peanut and spice sauce to give it a bit of citrusy zest. More on the history of satay 👈 click Many coolies became rickshaw men as it was the main means of public transport up to the 1930s in Singapore. The rickshaw men would ply the city running bare bodied and bare foot.

Rickshaw noodles at Maxwell Food CentreRickshaws which were muscle powered, ran on rickshaw noodles. Rickshaw noodle stations were fairly common in the 1930s as there were some 30,000 rickshaw men plying Singapore's streets. It is a very humble dish. Just a simple soup of chye sim (a leafy vegetable), some dried shrimps and fried shallot garnish for flavour. In the soup, a clutch of fat yellow noodles snipped into short stubby strands which the rickshaw men can slurp up without spoon or chopstick. Total fuel up pit stop time - one minute. There are still a couple of places in Singapore to get rickshaw noodles, if you like to try it 👈 click

History of char kway teowChar kway teow from Chaoshan in Guangzhou cannot be a humbler noodle dish. It was just kway teow (rice ribbon noodles), bean sprouts, chives, small pieces of pork with skin and fish sauce stir fried with lard. The flavour and aroma of char kway teow relied heavily on the skill of the cook with the wok and fire to infuse flavours into the noodle strands with wok hei. Over time, char kway teow in Singapore took on elements from other Chinese clans - dark savoury and sweet sauce from Hokkien, lup cheong or wax sausage from Cantonese. Blood cockles or see hum which were abundant in Malaya also became essential in Singapore char kway teow. The dish is often referred to as see hum kway teow. More on the history of char kway teow 👈 click

History of bak chor meeEvery province, county and city in China have their own version of 拌面 or blanched noodles served tossed in sauce. Singapore's 拌面 came from Chaoshan and is known here as bak chor mee or minced pork noodles. It is usually flat yellow noodles (mee pok) tossed and folded in a blended sauce of dark soy sauce, sambal chili, black vinegar, shallot oil, lard, etc., till every strand of noodle is well coated with flavour and aroma. Less heralded than Hainanese chicken rice but it is probably the most common hawker dish in Singapore. One of them High Sreet Tai Hwa Pork Noodles even clinched a Michelin Star. More on history of bak chor mee 👈 click History of Hock Lam beef noodlesTan Chee Kok brought Teochew beef noodles to Singapore when he arrived here from Swatow in the 1920s. Tan Chee Kok was a beef noodle seller in Swatow, so he simply carried on his trade in Singapore. Initially, Tan Chee Kok sold beef noodles around Fort Canning, carrying his food on two baskets on a bamboo pole slung across his shoulders. He later settled down at a stall in Hock Lam Street and his stall became known as Hock Lam Street Beef Noodles. Hock Lam Street Beef Noodles is in the fourth generation now and still going strong 👈 click

History of Singapore bak kut tehCoolies suffered from many pains and ailments from back and soul breaking work in the humid tropical heat of British Malaya. They needed a health fortifying and energising dish to power them through the day and to keep them healthy. Either a Chinese physician or travelling medicine man came up with a cure-all concoction of cheap Chinese herbs, dark soy sauce and discarded pork bones (not pork ribs). The pork bones in a dark herbal soup was known as bak kut teh. It was not clear when bak kut teh was created - it could be in the late 1800s as by the 1920s, bak kut teh was already a common dish at the docks and quayside. More on history of Singapore bak kut teh 👈 click

The Hainanese were not only shut out of the choice locations in Chinese Campong, doors were also closed to them in the professions. So, the Hainanese took on the left over jobs - domestic help in colonial officers' residences, homes of wealthy traders (often peranakan) / cooks in military bases, hotels / bartenders, waiters / cooks and seamen on ships. When the Great Depression of 1929 struck hard on Singapore shores, many fortunes were lost. Many shop houses in the city fell vacant as their owners fell on hard times. The enterprising Hainanese saw the opportunity - threw in their life savings and quit their jobs to open kopitiam (coffee shops) in these vacant shops.

Image credit: National Archives of SingaporeAnd, thus the Hainanese kopitiam institution was born in Singapore (and also Malaysia). The Hainanese towkay (boss) sold the kopitiam trinity of kopi (coffee), kaya toasts and poached eggs. Space in the kopitiam was rented to other independent business owners who pay rent to operate their food stalls inside. Most kopitiam have 5 to 8 food stalls selling various hawker dishes like char kway teow, bak chor mee, etc. It was also common for Malay and Indian food stalls to operate inside a Hainanese kopitiam. So, the kopitiam is a multicultural institution. More on the history of the Singapore kopitiam 👈 click By 1939, the British Empire was at war in Europe and Singapore fell to Japan in 1942. For three years, Singapore was Japan's "Light of the South" Syonan-to. When my grandparent's generation i.e. the Japanese occupation generation were still around, we often hear wartime stories. Tapioca seemed to symbolise food shortages and hardship as "eating tapioca" was mentioned repeatedly. Rice was scarce during the war and any available were allocated to the Japanese. Locals had to resort to eating tapioca, a root tuber (ubi kayu).Yes, it was about eating the root tuber, and it wasn't the popular kueh ubi kayu dessert of today. It was just the root tuber, cut into stubby chunks, bark removed, then cooked by steaming or boiling. It was eaten by itself or with grated coconut flesh and a pinch of salt. This type of tapioca dish is very rare in Singapore now. If you like to get a taste of wartime tapioca, you can get it at Heng Heng Ondeh Ondeh stall at Maxwell Food Centre. Kang Kong is the other wartime food the WWII survivors talked about often. The green weed is hardy, grows fast and is abundant. It is very versatile and can be used in many dishes - stir fry, steam, boil / cook with sambal chili, cook with fermented bean crud, cook with soy sauce and oil / it is good as a dish in itself, as soup, as an ingredient in another dish or as a garnish.

Today, we can get kang kong dishes at most restaurants and many of us still cook it at home. I like the crunch and juiciness of its hollow stem and my favourite way is to stir fry them with savoury fermented bean curd.