The Empire eats back with Simply Singapura’s culinary saga in Chennai

Singapore has always been a port city of flavours. Declared a free port in the 19th century, it drew migrants from China, India, the Malay Archipelago, and Europe. Their kitchens collided, borrowing tools, spices and techniques, creating dishes that are now cultural landmarks. Simply Singapura at Soy Soi curates this story as a menu, a reminder that food is history made edible.

A culinary passport to Singapore’s diverse flavours

We began, of course, with appetisers. The Soon kueh arrived first, a Teochew speciality that first travelled with Chinese immigrants from Guangdong. Traditionally eaten during Qing Ming festival (or Tomb-Sweeping Day ), the dumpling is a symbol of remembrance. At Soy Soi, it arrived in delicate rice flour skins that’s almost translucent, filled with julienned carrots and black fungus. We felt the familiar urge to dunk them in chilli oil, but we paused, and that pause rewarded us. The crunch of carrots and black fungus, still juicy, still alive in flavour, needed no rush. Only after did we drag one through the hoisin-chilli sauce, layering spice over subtlety, and suddenly it felt like two dishes in one.

Next was the Kueh pie tee. A Peranakan invention often called the “top hat” for its shape. Peranakan cuisine itself was born of Chinese settlers marrying into Malay families, their kitchens fusing soy and spice. The crisp shells cracked in our mouths, spilling out carrots, zucchini, tofu, and sprouts tossed in garlic and chilli. They rested on crushed peanuts, probably a nod to Malay cooking, and in that single bite, we tasted the essence of a cordial assimilation.

The Hainanese chicken rice balls surprised us most.  Originally, Hainanese cooks working for colonial households introduced poached chicken with rice which eventually became Singapore’s national dish. Here, it is reinvented, golden panko-crusted spheres with a side of sambal, one bite in, and steam rose from the centre,  chicken, rice, and history wrapped into a new story.

Satay lilit followed, skewers of minced seafood wrapped around lemongrass stalks, grilled till smoky. The texture was firm, not too soft, and the aroma of lemongrass clung to our fingers.

Among the mains, the Nonya Penang rendang made with mock meat showed how plant-based dining can still be rich, deep, and aromatic. Rendang, originally from the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, travelled through Malaysia before settling in Peranakan kitchens. Here, the mock meat carried the full weight of spice, cloves, galangal, cinnamon. We tore pieces of roti jala (lacy golden crepes) and scooped up the thick, spiced gravy. Only to be left behind with the yearning for more after the gravy ran out.

Then came the Devil’s chicken curry, true to its name, fiery and relentless, a Eurasian inheritance from the Portuguese. We ate it slow, letting the heat build, potatoes softening the blow, sausages adding their own bite.

We couldn’t pass without mentioning the fish head curry, first introduced to Singapore by Chef Marian Jacob Gomez, an Indian immigrant in the 1950s. It was his way of marrying South Indian spice with Chinese taste for fish head. “Today, it remains a Singaporean icon,” says Chef Te Yuan Peter Tseng. We didn’t try it this time, but its story was enough to make us hungry though.

Dessert was a gentler chapter in cross-cultural gourmet exploration. Ondeh-ondeh, soft green glutinous rice balls that burst with molten gula Melaka, made us smile in glee like children. Pulut hitam, the black glutinous rice porridge, once a peasant dish, was comforting in its earthiness. Finally, Kueh salat, that perfect balance of pandan rice and coconut custard, arrived to conclude our meal. Its pandan custard and glutinous rice reminded us of layered histories, Malay, Chinese, colonial, all pressed into one neat little square of mellow sweetness.

Meal for two: Rs 1,900. On till August 31. From 12 pm to 11 pm. At Soy Soi, Kotturpuram.

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