But one word which they all understand and love is makan which is the Malay word for 'eat'.

Imagine if you lived on an island that lay at the crossroads of the great East-West trade routes. Then remember that the products traded in those early days were as tantalizing and valuable as ivory, gold, silk, batik, silver thread, ebony, sandalwood, tea, sago, sugar, pepper, nutmeg, cloves and coriander. And that your fellow citizens, right from those days, made up a colourful and diverse melting pot of races and cultures.

Now just imagine, if you put it all together, what a fascinating, exciting cuisine Singapore must surely boast. It is the stuff of romance,and tales of recipes handed down through generations of craftsmen and migrant workers, often from villages in China and India.

Singapore food is a tasty tale about a country's unique cultural tapestry, and the way individual strands have woven into others, and changed hue in the process. Food preparations that came to Singapore from India, China and other countries in the region may still bear the original names - but they are indelibly transformed by being 'Singaporeanised'.

Singapore Makan - Must Try!
From chilli crab to chicken rice, Singapore food celebrates their rich diversity - a melting pot of colours, textures, tastes and aromas

Chilli Crab
Crab is the Singapore's unofficial "national dish". Like the country itself, this dish had humble beginnings.

Hainanese Chicken Rice
Another candidate for "national dish", Hainanese Chicken Rice comes in different versions. It originated in Hainan, China, as a dish of plain rice and steamed chicken with a ginger dip. Once it came to Singapore with migrants more than 60 years ago, its metamorphosis began, and today, there is Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice, and there are Cantonese and Malay versions as well.

Satay
Small bite-sized pieces of chicken, mutton and beef are steeped in a sweet-spicy marinate, strung along wooden skewers and roasted over coals.

These are served with a punchy peanut sauce for dipping, and fresh cucumbers, raw onion and steamed rice cakes on the side.

Fried Carrot Cake or Chy Tow Kueh
No, this has nothing to do with carrots as you know them, nor is it related to the carrot cake that is found in bakeries. Singapore's Fried Carrot Cake is made from rice flour and 'white carrot', or radish, which is quick-fried with soy sauce, eggs, garlic and delightful bits of pickled radish (chai poh). If you like it slightly sweet, there is the 'black' version of Fried Carrot Cake, which uses sweet black soy sauce. If you prefer it more savoury, ask for the 'white' version which omits the sweet sauce. The result is a tasty and satisfying meal which makes a good breakfast or supper.

Rumour has it that local gangsters do not consume Fried Carrot Cake, no matter how much they might crave it. Apparently white radish slows down the body's healing process, and being gangsters, there is plenty of need for quick healing!

Curry Puff
What do you do when people are hungry and are asking for a savoury snack that goes with a cup of tea? Well, more than 50 years ago in Singapore, one answer was make pastry pouches filled with curried potatoes, and deepfry them until they were golden brown.

Tea & Coffee
Singapore's coffee and tea (known as kopi and teh respectively) stalls have come a long way. In the early days, they'd serve the basic combinations of tea with milk and sugar, tea with sugar only (teh-O), tea with milk and no sugar (teh kosong), tea with evaporated milk (teh si) and so on.