I give everyone on their way to Singapore the same guidance - go to Boat Quay, get the black pepper crab at Jumbo Seafood.  They usually call me from Singapore, sometimes while sitting at a crowded table at Jumbo Seafood, to tell me "I am never leaving this place."  Singapore is a fantastic place to seek out street food, and of course it’s the home of the impeccably clean "hawker centre".  But the Hawker Centres seem to be for great noodles.  The waterfront seems to be the domain of the black pepper and chili crab.

As much as I love crab, shrimp are much more plentiful and easy to come by in my local markets, so I adapted the recipe for shrimp.  These make a pretty big mess, so you have to decide if you want to peel and devein the shrimp or put out a huge quantity of napkins.  This recipe can also be quite spicy, turn back the heat by cutting down on the red pepper.

Black Pepper Shrimp

1 1/2 Tbsp hoisin sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 1b large (10-15) shrimp

2 tablespoons butter

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/4 tsp red chili

2 tsp black pepper

3/4 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp ground coriander

Garnish:

green onions, finely chopped

chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Put hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and 2 Tbsp  water in a small bowl, stir, set aside..


2. Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet  over medium-high heat; add the butter, ginger, garlic, chilli, black and white peppers and coriander; stir fry 30 seconds.


3. Add the sauce mixture and stir; bring to the boil, then simmer 2 minutes.


4. Add the shrimp and mix by shaking the pan.


5. Simmer 4-5 minutes to cooking the shrimp.


6. Garnish with fresh cilantro and green onions.  Serve with rice.

An interesting street food morsel - Trinidad street food has more in common with Mumbai than some of its Caribbean neighbors.  Granted, there's the Shark and Bake, but the curries and pickles have a remarkably Indian taste.  This roti is really meant to be carried about as you head toward the beach.  Roti stands are fairly common, and very simple.

This is a fairly simple curry recipe that can be cooked a couple different ways.  I like to use canned tomatoes so that I can use roasted without burning anything.  There are a couple different ways to do the curry too, and you can choose whether to use whole seeds or ground.  Depends what you have handy - we tend to have plentiful ground cumin, so that's what I use.

Shrimp Curry

Your choice - for the curry, use:

1 Tbsp curry paste or powder

- or -

3/4 tsp cumin

3/4 tsp coriander

3/4 mustard

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp red pepper

You can either grind this from seeds or use ground spices

2 Tbsp oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2-3 in. grated ginger

 1 can of diced tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 1b medium shrimp, shelled, deveined and cleaned

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Roti

Directions

1. Cook the onion, garlic and ginger over medium heat until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes


2. Add the spices or paste and cook 2 minutes more


3. Add the tomatoes, water and salt and stir.  Bring to a boil, then simmer until most of the water is boiled off.


4. Add the shrimp and stir well.  Cover and let the shrimp cook for 5 minutes.


5. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice.

A visit to India always includes fantastic food, and every meal seems to include bread.  I learned early in my travels that if you don't understand the menu, you can simply order "some meats, some gravies and some bread" and things won't turn out entirely wrong.

  photo by diametrik

Making the bread, however, has proved elusive for me.  I have never come even close to recreating the bread served at Lazee's in Bangalore, even though I am pretty sure it is a Kerala Porota.  Below is a simple recipe that I rarely do wrong.  It is my general purpose Roti.

Roti

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.


2. Put out a board and dust with a good amount of flour.


3. Add the milk and mix into a sticky dough


4. Knead the dough on the board, adding more flour until it is worked into a stiff dough


5. Divide the dough into 4 balls.  Roll each ball out flat, cover them in oil, reform into a ball and let sit for 30 minutes.


6. Roll each ball out to a very thin pancake.  Fry each side with just a little bit of oil.

photo by karmalaundry

The point of doing this…

I certainly never set out to fall in love with street food.  It very much found me.  There was a time where I was travelling to Bangalore on a very regular basis.  More and more I found myself avoiding the hotels and large restaurants, heading out to Commercial Street to eat at Lazee's.  In Singapore I would make my way to the hawker centres, almost as soon as the plane landed.  Slowly I started paying attention to more than what was good - how was it made, what is different about a specific dish, what is that guy doing behind the counter?

The inevitable question was "can I make this at home"?  The answer, in the case of my favorite roll at Lazee's, was "no".  But along the way I've been able to make some interesting (and some inedible) versions of what I've found on the road.  Some things are just not meant to be recreated (cheese curds), but I've been able to take an honest attempt at most of the street food I've come across.  At some point, it made sense to throw some of these recipes out into the interwebs to see if anyone has tried the same thing.  Not all of these are perfect but none of them are bad.  Some I cook on a regular basis.  I make way too many empanadas; they no longer resemble their Argentinean cousins. 

Eventually I will post a list of all the recipes I am working on.  At any given time I might have 5-10 different recipes I am working on.  Very interested in anyone thoughts or experiences with street food.