| Main Menu
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- Chinese Food
- Peranakan Food
- Malay Food
- Indian Food
- Others inclusive of Italian, Japanese and Thailand Food
- Queer Food
- Places where you can find good food
- Survey
- Introduction of the six chefs
- Acknowledgements
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Malay cuisine in Singapore is an amalgram of traditional dishes from
Peninsular Malaysia, with strong influences from the Indonesian islands of
Sumatra and Java as well as Thailand. Although Malay food is not as
dominating as the Chinese food is in Singapore, nonethelesss, it constitutes
part of the mainstream diet.
In Singapore, the highlight of Malay cuisine is satay, thought to have
been derived from the Arab kebab, but with a distinct character of its own.
Seasoned mutton, beef or chicken are pierced through bamboo skewers, barbecued
over glowing charcoal and eaten with rich grounded peanut sauce,
sliced cucumbers, raw onions and ketupat (chunks of compressed rice steamed
in banana-leaf wrappings).
Muslims-Malays do not eat pork. Eating mutton, beef or chicken is permitted
but it must be halal -- a special way of slaughtering and preparing the
animal. This is why you can never find pork satay sold in a Malay satay stall.
However, due to food evolution, satay can be found in Chinese or Indian
food stalls with a lot more variety, for example, nonya pork satay.
Surprisingly, satay has also embarked on a new expedition -- the revolutionary
Satay Pizza.
Only Singaporeans know what satay pizza is, or at least, tourists who had
visited Singapore before. A native Italian pasta chef will not understand the
term "satay pizza". This draws us closer to the fact that Singapore has a
unique cosmopolitan flavour of its own. Isn't this marvellous?
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