Singapore

Desserts in Singapore and its uniqueness in Southeast Asia

Singapore is a food paradize and desserts are something that should not be missed out on in Singapore. The desserts in Singapore can be either in the form of hot desserts or cold desserts. As Singapore is a multi-racial country, the desserts here are ethnically based. Therefore, the different racial desserts represents the different cultures in Southeast Asia. There is a meaning in every desserts in Singapore. For example, the Chinese eat mooncake and rice dumpling during the mid-autumn festival and dragon boat festival respectively.

Mooncake

Rice Dumpling

However, with the proliferation of common dessert stalls in hawker centres and food courts, it is common to have one stall offering desserts from a wide spectrum. One exception to this are Indian desserts which are almost exclusive to Indian outlets. Little India offers a variety of desserts namely burfi, ladoo, gulab jamun, gelabi, jangiri, kesari and halwa. Chinatown is another popular hideout for traditional desserts in Singapore. This link: http://www.goodfood.sg/dessert would guide you on the famous desserts in Singapore. Nonya desserts are typified by kueh and they are originated from the Malays Archipelago.

Desserts in Chinatown

As Singapore was being colonialised by the British during colonialisation, the West had brought along many cultures inclusive of desserts to Singapore. One notable popular Singaporean oddity is the ice-cream sandwich, dished out by mobile ice-cream vendors and enjoyed by young and old alike. This consists of a thick slab of ice cream folded into a slice of bread, though sometimes it's served between the more traditional wafer slices.

Ice Kacang

Ice kacang or Ais kacang literally means red bean ice, is a dessert served in Malaysia and Singapore. It is also popularly known as air batu campur in Malay or ABC for short. It is sweet-tasting and is primarily ice served with sweet flavoured syrup and jelly. The word Kacang is a Malay word for bean, and the word "ais" is a translation of the english term "ice". Formerly, it was made of only shaved ice and red beans.



Today, ice kachang generally comes in bright colours, and with different fruit cocktails and dressings. To cater to the palates of the modern customer, some stalls have even introduced novelty toppings like durian, chocolate syrup and ice cream.



Many South-East Asian coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts offer this dessert. Ais kacang tends to be patronised by tourists and locals alike.

Enjoy the makings of ICE KACANG!!! SURPS! =)





Sago Gula Melaka




Sago pearls before it is cooked



Sago Gula Melaka



Steamed Sago Cake

For a long time sago sat quietly in kitchen drawers only to be used for desserts. In Singapore, that really seems to be the only way it is eaten. Besides Sago Gula Melaka, it can also be found in the sweet Indian dessert of payasam, the Chinese “xi mi lu” a delicious chilled dessert of honey dew melon, sago and coconut milk, and the Nyonya snack of steamed sago cake. So it is once upon a time, in the Malay Archipelago, sago was eaten regularly as a staple in this land, until it was displaced by rice. However it continued to be eaten many centuries ago in areas where rice was expensive or not available, such as Timor. It came to be seen as food for the poor.

During the heydays of the East India trade, it was a product traded in the region, and was even considered a superior substance when it was first imported to Britain in the 18th century. It was added to soups and made into puddings and desserts, with its plainness relieved by the use of fruits.

However in colonial Singapore in the 19th and 20th century, it valiantly captured the palates of the British in the form of Sago Gula Melaka. Popular at home and at dinner parties, it was also the traditional dessert to be served in grand households and hotels in the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. The British continued to rave about it even during the post-war period.
Sago is a natural food that had been in existence for centuries. Although it is widely used in Singapore for desserts, the Thais invented a savoury twist to this unglamorous substance. It can be found as a bite-sized snack, saku sai moo, which has a cooked filling of pork, coriander, garlic, peanuts, fish sauce and palm sugar inside a sago covering.