SINGAPORE · KATONG ROUTE

Katong & Joo Chiat Route

Katong, a Peranakan quarter where pastel shophouses remain. The Katong laksa of 328, the colourful nyonya kueh, palm-sugar chendol, and the chili crab of the East Coast. Food born where Chinese and Malay met, walked shop by shop — the sweet-and-spiced east coast, close to the sea.

🚇 Metro TE line, Marine Parade Stn (buses handy)🚶 ~130 min on foot🍽 6 dishes

What Katong is

Katong and Joo Chiat are a tract near the sea in eastern Singapore, where Peranakan culture remains strong. The Peranakans are the descendants of Chinese men who settled here and local Malay women, who built a distinct life blending Chinese and Malay culture. Along Koon Seng Road stand two-storey shophouses painted in pastels, their façades dressed with fine tiles and carving. A remnant of the old villa district, it still has the air of a quiet residential quarter. Away from the din of the centre, it is a corner suited to walking slowly and tracing the food.

What to eat in Peranakan food

This street's food centres on Peranakan (Nyonya) cooking, a taste born where Chinese ingredients met Malay spice and coconut, its emblem the Katong laksa. Cutting the noodles short so it can be eaten with a spoon alone is this quarter's custom. The colourful steamed nyonya kueh and the palm-syrup chendol belong to the Peranakan sweet lineage too. Add the Malay nasi lemak and the Teochew chwee kueh, and the surrounding food cultures overlap. And along the seafront East Coast stand the seafood houses of the chili crab that symbolizes Singapore. A tract where sweetness, spice and the fruit of the sea meet.

How to walk this route

Katong sits a little out from the centre, and Metro TE line's Marine Parade Stn or the buses are the handy way in. Along East Coast Road, first take a bowl of 328's laksa. Choose colourful sweets at a nyonya kueh shop, and in the morning build a base with nasi lemak or chwee kueh. Walk Joo Chiat and Koon Seng Roads and the pastel shophouses run on, stopping your camera hand. Close by moving to the seafront East Coast for chili crab — a sit-down seafood-house dish for a few to share, so booking at night is the safe choice. On a hot afternoon, catch a breath in the cold of chendol. A quiet residential quarter, it is a street made for walking slowly.

Route map

East Coast Rd → Joo Chiat Rd → Koon Seng Rd (the Peranakan east coast)　·　numbers match the dishes below

The dishes on this route (6)

Tap through to each shop and dish

麺1Noodles328 Katong Laksa×Katong LaksaKatong Laksa / 叻沙A rich red soup of coconut milk, dried shrimp and a spice paste, ladled over thick rice vermicelli. The Katong mark is that the noodles are cut short in advance, so you eat both noodle and soup with a spoon alone, no chopsticks. Prawn, fish cake and cockles go on top, with chopped laksa leaf (a fragrant herb) for scent. Stir in sambar (a hot paste) to taste and the heat and prawn richness deepen. The sweet scent of coconut, the savour of dried shrimp and the bite of spice fused into one bowl — the signature of this quarter. A rich noodle dish to sit and slurp.Nearest along East Coast RdPrice S$6–8 甘2SweetsKatong Nyonya Kueh Shop×Nyonya KuehNyonya Kueh / 娘惹糕Colourful steamed sweets made from glutinous rice, rice flour, tapioca and coconut milk. A layer dyed blue with butterfly-pea flower, the green of pandan, the brown of palm sugar, ranged in a clear case. "Kueh lapis," steamed in nine layers, has the pleasure of peeling it apart a layer at a time by hand. "Onde-onde," filled with coconut, bursts with melted palm-sugar syrup as you bite. On the whole the sweetness is refined, the chewy texture and coconut scent its point. Pick them one by one to be boxed, and eat walking, or with tea. Small, coloured sweets that carry the taste of a Peranakan home.Nearest along East Coast RdPrice S$0.8–1.5 each 飯3RiceKatong Nasi Lemak Stall×Nasi LemakNasi Lemak / 椰浆饭Rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan, faintly sweet and fragrant, is the lead. The plate carries a sweet-hot chili paste (sambal), fried little fish (ikan bilis), peanuts, cucumber and an egg, soft or hard. Add fried chicken or fish cake if you like. First work a little sambal into the rice and take it with the crunch of the small fish and the toast of the peanuts. The sweet scent of coconut, the heat of sambal and the salt of the fish move back and forth on one plate. It is most often eaten as breakfast, and comes wrapped in green or banana leaf to carry off. A plate to eat sitting, or walking with the parcel.Nearest along Joo Chiat RdPrice S$3–6 串4SnacksKatong Chwee Kueh Stall×Chwee KuehChwee Kueh / 水粿A soft white rice cake made by pouring rice-flour batter into small cup-shaped moulds and steaming it. The shape dips in the middle, and there they heap chopped preserved radish (chai poh) fried sweet and salty. The cake is tender and springy, with only a faint rice sweetness; against that plainness the sweet-salt of the radish and the toast of the oil make the taste stand by contrast. Add a little sambal (a hot paste) to taste. A breakfast staple, served four or six to a plate. Plain and light, it is also a good palate-clearer after a run of heavily spiced dishes. A small plate to sit with, breaking up one at a time with a spoon.Nearest around East Coast Rd / Joo ChiatPrice S$2–3 for four 魚5SeafoodEast Coast Seafood Restaurant×Chili CrabChili Crab / 辣椒螃蟹A live mud crab chopped through the shell and braised in a sweet-hot, thickened red sauce of tomato, chili and beaten egg. The sauce is sweet and hot, drawing in the crab's savour to a deep richness. You crack the shell by hand and pick out the flesh, eating with dirtied fingers — a boisterous dish. What remains at the end is a great pool of sauce dissolved with crab stock, and mopping it up with fried or steamed buns (mantou) is said to be the dish's greatest pleasure. A few people share one crab, hands stained red. A dish that symbolizes Singapore, to be had round a table at night in a seaside seafood house on the East Coast.Nearest East Coast Rd / seafrontPrice S$40–70 per crab, market price 甘6SweetsKatong Chendol Stall×ChendolChendol / 煎蕊A Southeast Asian shaved ice: a mound of shaved ice poured with coconut milk and the dark syrup of palm sugar (gula melaka). Sunk within are green pandan-dyed rice-flour jellies (the chendol itself) and sweet-cooked red beans. The green jelly slips down the throat, and the palm-sugar syrup has a molasses-like toastiness and deep sweetness. The richness of coconut milk with the cold of the ice lets you catch a breath in the muggy climate. Spoon up from the bottom and ice, jelly, beans and syrup mix at once. Right for a tired afternoon or a close after spicy food. A cold sweet to eat sitting, or walking with the cup.Nearest along East Coast RdPrice S$2–3

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