Welcome to Singapore! It is a country full of people and food from around the world, along with a few locals. Singapore is an island country at the southern tip of Malaysia. Since Singapore is basically a city on an island, they must either catch or import much of its food needs. They simply don’t have enough space on the island to grow all their own food! The 3 pillars of cuisine in Singapore (aka the 3 most common ingredients) are noodles, rice, and seafood.
If you get the chance to visit Singapore, you’ll find that the most popular way to taste many different dishes at once is to eat from a hawker stall, where people serve one type of food from their food stand in a market or street corner setting.
Max Falkowitz from the page Serious Eats says that,
“Food from Singapore hails from everywhere, but also, in a sense, from nowhere: the local cuisine is defined by what it’s borrowed, and how those puzzle pieces are assembled into something totally unique.”
Some of the food they like to eat now in Singapore comes from when it was a British colony. The country of England had colonies around the globe at that time, and many British subjects that were traveling and governing these colonies had hired help from their colony in India. Indian cooks are most familiar with Indian food, which explains why Indian Curry is the most popular food in London, and also why many Indian style dishes are popular throughout Singapore too. People cook the foods they know, and when those people travel, they often take their recipes from home with them.
Many other residents in Singapore are Chinese, and they brought traditional Chinese recipes with them, and made them into their own Singaporean foods over time as they were prepared in the city.
Many foods from street stalls can be made at home and chicken satay is one of them. This dish is great for spring and summer because you can prep them ahead and cook them outside on the grill, over a fire, or inside in the oven with the broiler if rain ruins your outdoor dinner.
Using chicken legs for this dish is the key to juicy satay, because breast meat will dry out and leave your satay sticks chewy, instead of spiced and delicious. You can serve these as the entree, or as part of a bunch of appetizers, whichever suits your needs.
Try out this tasty recipe from Captain Create, and serve it with your favorite rice or noodles and sauteed or roasted veggies!
