Breakfast in Singapore, wrapped to go.
But only as far as the nearest free table in the food court. The steamed rice cakes called shui kueh (more commonly, chwee kueh) are dressed with a topping of preserved radish that's been fried with garlic and other seasonings; chilli sauce is the standard accompaniment. They're quiveringly light, not glutinous; the thin skewers that served as utensils easily sliced these shui kueh in two. And they're on the oily side, like your favorite home fries, as you can gather from the emptied wrapper.
Five years earlier, when I called on Jian Bo at the Tiong Bahru Temporary Market and Food Centre, a quartet of shui kueh cost S$1, or about 60 cents at the time. I noted with pleasant surprise that following the stall's return to a renovated Tiong Bahru, the price was still a single Singapore dollar. Owing to a poorer exchange rate, however, the true cost of breakfast was an extra 15 U.S. cents.
Jian Bo Shui Kueh
Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre, stall 02-05, Singapore
(From a summer 2010 visit)
