Singapore Noodles, its Strange Origins and my Very Good Recipe
after a week of research, I got curry satisfaction
Hello everyone!
I’m on my way to Bangkok today for a Cooking Thai location photo shoot. Chef Pim, photographer Ed Anderson and I will be busy. I’ll have to skip next Thursday’s Gems, but I’ll write to you next Sunday while I’m on the road!
Today’s dispatch touches on Southeast Asia in fascinating ways. Let’s explore Singapore noodles — a surf-and-turf stir-fried rice noodle seasoned by curry powder. En route to my developing a recipe worthy of your and my table, I dove into its somewhat tangly, complex origin story.
Just by name, Singapore noodles seems like it comes from Singapore, the island country and city state located on the southern tip of the Malay peninsula. I’ve traveled to Singapore several times to research and vacation and I own a handful of cookbooks about Singaporean cooking. However, in my travels and reading, I’ve never come across a dish called Singapore noodles.
The only time I’ve ordered the dish was at Chinese restaurants. That said, I wanted authenticity and authority about the curry-ish noodles. It made sense to delve into books that cover the Chinese influences on the region.
The Chinese Singaporeans (aka Singaporean Chinese) comprise a majority of the city state’s population. Women who married Chinese men are called '“Nonya”. And Peranakan (Peranakan Chinese) refers to descendants of the early wave of southern Chinese traders who settled in the area.1
Given that, surely Nonya and Peranakan cookbooks would have a recipe for Singapore noodles, yes? NO. None of them did. Neither did any generic Singapore cookbook in my collection.
For clarification, I asked Sharon Wee, author of a well researched and much acclaimed book, Growing Up in a Nonya Kitchen: A Peranakan Family’s Food Memories of Singapore. Sharon didn’t care for the dish. She wrote that the stir-fried noodles are of Hong Kong origin and that they’re not served in Singapore.
Why would Hong Kong cooks name a dish Singapore noodles if it didn’t have a strong Singapore connection?
Sharon suggested that Singapore noodles was a 20th midcentury creation possibly related to the coronation chicken, a 1953 dish crafted by writer and floral designer Constance Spry and chef Rosemary Hume to mark Queen Elizabeth’s ascendancy to the throne. It was comprised of shredded cooked chicken in mayonnaise, curry powder, apricot puree or mango chutney, lemon juice and cream. It was a very gently spiced dish, given the British toned down version of Indian curry powder and curried dishes.
Interesting. In 1935, there was a jubilee chicken for George V that also contained mayonnaise and curry powder. Remember the info about the British spreading their love of Anglicized curry powder around the globe? That was in the curry fried rice article.
During the 1950s, Malayasia, Singapore, and Hong Kong were all under British rule. When I did find Singapore noodles recipes, they were all in Chinese cookbooks. Strangely, there were none in the Hong Kong cookbooks I own.
It has always bugged me that Singapore noodles from Chinese restaurants tasted mild. Where was the curry punch? They seemed anemic.
In Singapore, food is earthy and lusty with layered flavors — spicy, sweet, salty, pungent, and tart — sometimes all at once. Perhaps Singapore noodles’ mild curry flavor reflects the British notion of curry, which is gentle. Moreover, Cantonese and Hong Kong Chinese cuisine are delicate and nuanced, especially compared to Sichuan or Hunan food.
Natasha Pack of the South China Morning Post (a Hong Kong newspaper) reported that Cantonese chefs in Hong Kong created Singapore noodles in the 1950s and 60s.2 (Other sources say shortly after World War II so let’s say midcentury!) In a different story on Hong Kong curry history3, Pack reported that in general, Hong Kongers do not favor the boldly flavored Indian spice blends.
Corroborating Pack’s reporting, Sharon pointed out that many Hong Kongers had family members who had fled to Singapore when the Communists took over Mainland China in 1949. And, since Singapore possesses a spicy food reputation, Hong Kong chefs added spice to a humble rice noodle stir-fry and described as being Singaporean-style, birthing Singapore Noodles.
And because Cantonese cuisine impacts many Chinese restaurant menus abroad, Singapore Noodles became ubiquitous. A-ha! That’s why you see Singapore Noodles at Chinese restaurants. They are Singapore-inspired noodles originally from Hong Kong! (Coincidentally, I first tried Singapore noodles in Hong Kong in the early 1990s when I was studying there.)
Singapore-style Singapore Noodles
However, there is a stir-fried rice vermicelli noodle dish in Singapore. I spotted recipes for Fried Bee Hoon (bee hoon refers to round rice noodles) in Singapore and Nonya cookbooks. The noodles were simply made, sometimes with dried shrimp and vegetables. There was no curry powder involved.
Surveying the half dozen Singapore noodle recipes in my cookbook collection, you can make the stir-fried noodles with different vegetables and proteins. You do need curry powder to make it properly Chinese Singaporean-inspired. (I used my Viet curry powder.)
Taking all of the culinary and cultural cross-overs and misappropriations into account, I went into my kitchen and spent about three (3!) days making Singapore noodles.
The first try was an okay, bland bust. I kept refining it and on the last try, my Singapore noodles had lots of gingery, garlicky, curry punch and enough umami for Rory to say, “Now, this tastes like it could have come from a street hawker’s wok!”
The following content will more than fully equip you to craft Singapore Noodles to your liking with ingredients within reach:
Full text recipe and downloadable PDF for Singapore Noodles.
Ingredient pointers on how to choose the right noodles and prep them well to avoid a soggy mess!
Bonus info on using spices, veggies, and proteins to make Singapore noodles to your taste (go vegan or vegetarian, if you want!).
Two (2) video pro tips to build cooking skills.
Advance prep and substitutions to help you meal plan and riff.
Let’s get noodlin’!
