> I thought Bak kut teh was a Malaysian dish.

Singaporean here. I think Singapore and Malaysia tend to share ownership of many dishes.

What wasn't mentioned in the article is that the peppery Teochew style is far more common in Singapore. The herbal Hokkien variant is often known as "Klang bak kut teh" here in Singapore, after Port Klang in Malaysia. Malaysians also seem to like that version better.

Having being born and raised in Malaysia, and nowadays frequently visiting Singapore (for business, but ostensibly to eat the food of my childhood again), I am still getting used to the subtle differences of names of same or similar dishes.

For instance, I really miss Roti Canai, but it has a different name in Singapore (Roti Pratha IIRC), so even trying to search for a good stall on Google Maps doesn't find the places that make it.

> For instance, I really miss Roti Canai, but it has a different name in Singapore (Roti Pratha IIRC), so even trying to search for a good stall on Google Maps doesn't find the places that make it.

Roti prata.

I think you'll be hard-pressed to find bad roti prata in Singapore. I've heard Mr and Mrs Mohgan's is one of the best: https://goo.gl/maps/bv3b3sFwK1A2

Prata, pratha, and paratha all seem to be accepted transliterations of the word.

One's search engine of choice might not know that.

The grandparent comment wanted to look for good stalls. I just tried doing a search for pratha on Google Maps, and it yielded results that were less relevant as compared to if one used the more common spelling of prata.

However you spell it, it is certainly tasty. :)

I live in Singapore, by the way, and I'm getting pretty hungry reading this. Any suggestions for good Indian food?

[Edit: Tried to make a clever regex to match all the spellings, but HN's editor thwarted me.]

> Any suggestions for good Indian food?

Well, south Indian food is everywhere. One can't really go wrong with any place that makes their prata fresh.

(For really good prata, there's the usual suspects like Mr and Mrs Mohgan's, Casuarina Curry, Springleaf Prata Place, Sin Ming Roti Prata… I personally have a soft spot for the ABC King group of restaurants — their food is above average — since one opened next to the Singapore Hackerspace.)

If you're looking for north Indian cuisine, I'm thinking that the area immediately around Mustafa Centre would be a good bet.

Have you been to Saravana Bhavan downtown?

Not yet. I'll check it out this weekend. Thanks!

Thanks for the tip (and the spelling correction). Filed for future visit.

I love the peppery teochew version.

Infact I'm going to have it for lunch tomorrow!!!

The name Bak Kut Teh is Hokkien Chinese. Of course the same dish appears in Malaysia too. Culinary history of Singapore and Malaysia is shared and intertwined, nevermind that the perennial favourite flamewar between Malaysians and Singaporeans is about what dish is whose :)

Chicken Rice and Chilli Crab are regarded as the usual trademark dishes of Singapore. The article interestingly departs from usual practice.

Chicken Rice and Chili Crab are the most Singaporean dishes I can think of, really disappointed that they aren't on here.

Chicken rice isn't unique to Singapore though. It's pretty much the same in Malaysia and the Thai version is quite close as well.

Katong laksa on the other hand (which is in the article) is probably the famous hawker dish that is most uniquely Singapore.

Incidentally, the Katong laksa at Cassia in Santa Monica is probably as close to the real deal as you can get outside of Asia. But be prepared for sticker shock.

> Chicken rice isn't unique to Singapore though. It's pretty much the same in Malaysia and the Thai version is quite close as well.

Funny enough, many of the chicken rice vendors in Singapore sell a Cantonese-influenced version (though many places continue to label their chicken rice as "Hainanese chicken rice").

From what I understand, the Cantonese-style steamed chicken gets dunked in ice to keep the gelatin in the skin. The rice also tends to be slightly wetter and more flavourful.

The chicken rice I've had in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in some other "Malaysian" restaurants around the world, tend to be dryer and yellower.

My experience in the US is that Thai restaurants are the best bet for Hainanese chicken rice. It’s not on the usual Thai restaurant menu so any place offering it is probably doing so because they have a passion for the dish and/or their Thai clientele demand it. Greatly missed chicken rice until I figured this out.

Hainanese chicken rice in a thai place may be serviceable, but I've yet to have a good one. I live in NYC, and even here, with thousands of asian fusion restaurants, there are only 3 or 4 that serve chicken rice that compares well to Singapore.

Hainan was part of Guangdong province until the late 1980s – so I think the dish is Cantonese to begin with. My understanding is that it spread to other places from there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainanese_chicken_rice

Agreed on Cassia's rendition of the katong laksa

Right!? How is chicken rice not on here? It’s the single most common dish in the city so far as I saw. Kaya toast makes sense, never seen that anywhere else even Malaysia, clearly the toast is directly British.

I had a great tasting chicken rice, but it lost a couple points for having a head and spine laid across the side of the plate. Fine, just wasn’t expecting that!

Chicken rice isn't uniquely Singaporean, though, or Singaporean in origin. You can find it in pretty much any place with a significant Chinese diaspora.

I was expecting char kueh teow... that's the dish I miss the most. I at least was able to get some half-decent chicken curry over the weekend.

Next to Roti Canai or chicken rice, Kuay Teow is my next 'go to' dish when I visit Singapore or Malaysia. Finished off with an icy chendol