Market Breakfast · Steamed Rice Cake

Chwee Kueh

Photo: Ruth Ellison / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

The steamed rice cake itself is deliberately bland — it's really just a bowl-shaped vehicle for the diced preserved radish piled on top, which is the actual flavor of the dish.

A thin batter of rice flour and water is steamed in small cups into a wobbly, bowl-shaped disc, then topped with chye poh — preserved radish fried with garlic and oil — and a dab of chili. Stalls at Tiong Bahru Market are among the most famous sellers of this breakfast staple in all of Singapore.

Why it's made this way: Chwee kueh traces to Teochew immigrants who arrived from China's Chaoshan region in the 19th century, and it became one of the signature dishes sold at Tiong Bahru Market after hawkers were resettled there when the market was built in 1955.