History of Hainanese in Singapore Cuisine & Hawker Culture. Their Biggest Influence is Non Hainanese 🤔

The Hainanese make up only 6% of Singapore's Chinese population, yet their influence on Singapore hawker culture is far bigger than their numbers suggest. Indeed, Hainanese influence on Singapore food is actually bigger than most people realise as there is more than what meets the eye 🤔

To understand why, we need to delve a bit into Hainanese immigration history in Singapore. Don't worry, it is not that far back in time.

Hainan island is China's smallest and southernmost province. Like every Chinese province, the Hainanese have their own language, customs, culture and cuisine. (Map of Hainan courtesy of Wikipedia.)

In the 1800s, millions of Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Hakka Chinese were getting on boats heading for British Malaya and the burgeoning British seaport of Singapore which Raffles founded in 1819. (Image of Boat Quay in 1905, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.)

At that time, China was in utter chaos as the corrupt and incompetent Qing dynasty was collapsing under widespread rebellions, wars and famine. Many southern Chinese took to the seas for British Malaya, Singapore (and also across the Pacific to California).

The British colonial authorities were methodical planners. They settled the new arrivals in their respective enclaves. The Cantonese in Kreta Ayer, Hokkien in Telok Ayer, Teochew at Boat Quay, and so on.

By the time the Hainanese start arriving in numbers in the 1880s, all land west of the Singapore River where the Chinese settled was already fully occupied by Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka.

So, latecomers Hainanese had to settle in the "no man's land" across the Singapore River between European Town and Arab Campong (village) in the Raffles Town Plan. The area around Seah Street, Purvis Street and Middle Road became the Hainanese enclave. These were known to the Hainanese then as Hainan 3rd Street, Hainan 2nd Street and Haikou Street respectively. Haikou is the capital of Hainan island.

Not only were the Hainanese shut out of the Chinese enclaves, doors of many professions were also closed to them. Many Hainanese therefore ended up as cooks in the homes of colonial officers and wealthy Peranakan traders, British military bases, hotels and in ship galleys.

The work of Hainanese cooks exposed them to Western and Peranakan cuisine and availed them of opportunities that greatly impacted on Singapore hawker culture.

My first taste of Gunner cocktail, French toast and Hainanese Western food was from Hainanese Ah Ko (Hainanese for brother) staffing the Republic of Singapore Air Force Tengah Air Base Officer's Mess in the 1980s.

But, the most famous "Hainanese" cocktail must be the Singapore Sling created by Hainanese Ngiam Tong Boon 嚴崇文 when he was a bartender at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel around 1910.

The most famous Hainanese contribution to Singapore hawker culture has to be the ubiquitous Hainanese chicken rice. Chicken rice was a dish the Hainanese eat at home. After the Second World War in Singapore (1942 - 1945), economic recovery was slow and jobs were scarce. So, some Hainanese started to sell chicken rice around Middle Road, Seah Street and Purvis Street to make a living. They sold chicken rice from two baskets balanced on a bamboo pole slung across their shoulders.

These chicken rice hawkers later moved into coffee shops, and then grew into independent chicken rice restaurants. The most famous was Swee Kee chicken rice at Middle Road. Sadly, Swee Kee closed in the 1990s. Yet Con, the last of the 1940s vintage Hainanese chicken rice restaurants closed in 2020 in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic.

In the 1980s, chicken rice made the leap from street food to Five Star hotel at Mandarin Orchard Hotel. Mandarin Hotel's chicken rice cost a huge premium but was a big hit and put the humble dish on the world stage. Fifty years on, chicken rice is still on the menu at the Chatterbox cafe in Mandarin Orchard Hotel.

Today, chicken rice is ubiquitous in Singapore. Almost every Singapore hawker centre or coffee shop has at least one chicken rice stall. Often there are two or three, and at Maxwell Food Centre there are eight! Yes, eight chicken rice stalls in one hawker centre 😮

The Hainanese are also known for their beef noodles but no one in Singapore sells the version in Hainan which uses handmade thick rice vermicelli. However, a handful of stalls in Singapore serve Hainanese beef noodles distinguished by their thick gooey starch thicken beef bone stock garnished with toasted peanut and shredded kiam chye (preserved mustard greens).

Even rarer than Hainanese beef noodle in Singapore is Hainanese mutton soup. The mutton (traditionally goat is used) is stewed with Chinese five spice and various herbs. One of the things that set the Hainanese version apart is the addition of fermented bean curd into the concoction.

Then, there's Hainanese porridge, where the rice texture straddles the middle ground between Cantonese congee which is like wet thick rice paste and Teochew "muay" where the soft rice grains are visibly whole. Other than the rice texture, Hainanese porridge is similar to Cantonese congee in other aspects like ingredients (pork slices, liver, egg, etc), garnishing (fried shallot, spring onion, julienned ginger, etc) and condiments (white pepper, light soy sauce).

Yet, many of the Hainanese influences in Singapore's hawker culture did not come from Hainanese traditional cuisine. Take Hainanese curry rice.

Hainanese were first exposed to Malayan and Indonesian spices while working in Peranakan homes as kitchen help. They learned about curries from their Nyonya employers. The Hainanese fused Peranakan curry dishes with traditional Hainanese braised dishes, thus creating Hainanese curry rice.

It may come as a surprise to some that we have to credit the Hainanese for making Nyonya laksa widely available in Singapore. You see, the Peranakans are a proud people who closely guard their families heirloom recipes. For non Peranakans, we only have a chance to taste Nyonya cuisine, if we are fortunate enough to be invited to a Peranakan home for a meal. The Peranakans would loathe to think of hawking their treasured recipes in the streets.

The first people who hawked Nyonya laksa in the streets were Hainanese in the hard times following the Second World War. They presumably learned the rather complex Nyonya laksa recipe while working in the kitchens of Peranakan homes. Nyonya laksa is available now at almost all hawker centre and coffee shops thanks to the Hainanese.

The most famous Nyonya laksa brands in Singapore, Janggut Laksa, Sungai Road Laksa, 328 Katong Laksa and Katong Laksa all trace their roots to Hainanese who sold laksa from two baskets slung across a bamboo pole in the 1940s.

Working in the homes of colonial officers, the Hainanese learned how to make quintessentially British dishes like pork chop, chicken chop, oxtail stew, chicken pie, etc. But, the Hainanese made these with a Hainanese twist. The batter of the pork chops are made with crushed cream crackers. The brown sauce is perked up with a bit of curry spices.

These Western dishes with a Hainanese twist are served in restaurants like Hans, Jack's Place, Prince Coffee House, The Ship, Chin Chin, British Hainan, etc.  There's even an old school Hainanese Russian restaurant known as Shashlik.

Actually, more than that - the Hainanese were instrumental in creating Singapore's kopitiam culture too.

When the shockwaves of the Great Depression shook Singapore in the 1930s, many fortunes were lost and numerous shophouses fell vacant as their owners fell into hard times. Some Hainanese also lost their jobs at the homes of wealthy merchants hit by the economic crisis. 

Some Hainanese betted their life savings on these abandoned shophouses, using them to sell coffee, toasts and soft boiled eggs - a breakfast habit they picked up from their British employers. And, thus the Singapore kopitiam culture was born of Hainanese turning crisis into opportunity.

In a kopitiam, the coffee shop owner runs the drinks stall which includes serving the trinity of coffee, toasts and soft boiled eggs. There are also 6 to 10 other food stalls which rent a space inside the coffee shop to operate their business. They could sell various noodle or rice dishes like bak chor mee, char kway teow, laksa, chicken rice, roti prata, nasi padang, etc. This basic set up still governs kopitiam operations in Singapore today and is a big part of our hawker culture (i.e. not all hawkers are in hawker centres).

It's not easy to characterise the influence of Hainanese on Singapore cuisine. If we look at traditional Hainanese dishes, the prominent ones that made it into Singapore hawker culture are Hainanese chicken rice followed by Hainanese beef noodle, Hainanese mutton soup and Hainanese porridge (with much lower profiles).

For chicken rice, the dish has evolved much since the Hainanese introduced it to locals in the 1940s. Today's chicken rice in Singapore is a long way from its precursor in Hainan island or even in the old Singapore Hainan enclave. As for Hainanese beef noodle and mutton soup, these dishes are today rarely seen in Singapore hawker centres and coffee shops.

It is in the Hainanese kopitiam trinity (Nanyang coffee, toast and soft boiled eggs), pork chop, oxtail stew (Hainanese Western), Hainanese curry rice, and Nyonya laksa that the Hainanese imprint is wide and more visible. Yet, these are not traditional Hainanese dishes but adaptations of either Western or Nyonya dishes.

To me, the story of the Hainanese's huge influence in Singapore hawker culture is a prime example of the resilience and adaptiveness of our pioneers in carving a niche for themselves and contributing to the larger community despite the huge odds stacked against them as latecomers.

If you are interested in the role of Teochews in Singapore food culture 👈 click

       

                     

             

             

               

               

             

           

           

           

                         

           

             

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            A post shared by Tony Boey Johor Kaki (@johorkaki)          

       

     

           

Written by Tony Boey on 23 July 2021

References: 

Image of Hill Street Tai Wah pork noodle stall courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of coffee shop courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Swee Kee courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Singapore sling cocktail courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of gunner cocktail courtesy of flickr.