Singapore is home to a variety of communities; one particular one is the Japanese community. Singapore has several large Japanese department stores and along with come large food courts with several japanese options for food. One particular Japanese street food is the Takoyaki or Octopus Balls. These balls are stuffed with octopus and fried. They’re served on a platter with a generous dousing of mayonnaise, and special tangy soy sauce and bonito flakes! Simply scrumptious!
Singapore is located 1 degree north of the equator and is hot and steamy most of the year. There are several local desserts to help cool you off, but this one is my favorite! The malay dessert called Ais Kacang (pronounced “Ice Kachang”. Ais meaning Ice, and Kacang meaning nut).
This dessert starts off with a plate of agar-agar jelly, atap seeds, red beans (similar to azuki beans), corn (on occasion) topped with shaved ice. Then a mix of various syrups (typically Pandan syrup, Rose syrup and condensed milk) are liberally poured over the ice. This is the result! The perfect recipe to cool you down!
I just came across this wonderful graphic on the science of Roti Prata called “Pratology”. This illustration shows you the variations from the plain roti prata, all the way to the dessert variety. I could use a tissue prata right now!
We’ve decided to do a short series on Singapore Eats. Singapore is a food capital of Asia. We’re a food-obsessed bunch and food is the center of everything. Because of our ethnic diversity, Singapore is lucky to have local foods influenced by the Chinese, Malay, Indians and Eurasian communities in Singapore.
After the success of the recent scallion pancakes, I thought I’d try to make a variation on the scallion pancakes called Murtabak. Murtabak, which is spiced mutton (or lamb) filled dough is something i grew up with in Singapore. Back at home in Singapore, people eat this for breakfast or lunch. Each dough is filled with an egg, raw onions and ground spiced mutton. This is usually served with a fish or chicken curry. Simply divine!
Here in Singapore, this is how Murtabak is served. I could eat platefuls of these!
