PUBLISHED ONAugust 09, 2024 5:00 AMByAmierul RashidSingapore is known for its diverse food heritage, comprising cuisines from different cultures and communities.
Among the variety of local dishes here, which do you claim to be the national dish?
A survey by Milieu Insight polled 1,000 local respondents to learn more about the country's sentiments and what makes us "uniquely Singaporean".
When it came to picking a national dish, chilli crab came out on top in the survey, though Hainanese chicken rice was a fairly close contender in second spot.
More than one in three Singaporeans (34 per cent) felt chilli crab was best suited to be the national dish, while more than one in five Singaporeans (22 per cent) believed it should be Hainanese chicken rice.
Chilli crab and Hainanese chicken rice took the top two spots across all age groups as well.
But with gender as a metric, there's a clear distinction that females (40 per cent) favoured chilli crab more than their male counterparts (27 per cent).
In 2019, UK-based market research company YouGov ran a similar survey on "classic Singaporean dishes".
Hainanese chicken rice emerged top in the savoury category, while chilli crab was ranked one rung down in "high tier" ranking.
In the YouGov survey, other dishes in the same ranking as Hainanese chicken rice were satay, char kway teow and popiah.
Sticking to food, Milieu Insight's survey found that Singaporeans responded differently when it came to their most missed local dish after being abroad.
Only five per cent chose chilli crab while more than one in five (21 per cent) admitted to craving Hainanese chicken rice after an extended period overseas.
The Singapore laksa (11 per cent) was the second-most missed local dish among respondents overall.
Interestingly, the 16-24 age group (essentially our Gen Zs) had a particular hankering for roti prata, with 12 per cent wanting to have it as soon as they are back in Singapore.
In comparison, only three per cent of respondents aged 55 and above craved roti prata after leaving the country for an extended time.
The survey also looked into Singapore's favourite National Day Parade (NDP) song.
No prizes for guessing the winner here.
Overall, one in two respondents picked the iconic song Home as their favourite, followed by another classic Where I Belong (22 per cent).
An open-ended question in the survey on what makes Singapore unique brought up some interesting responses.
"Safe", "multicultural" and "hawker centre" were some of the more expected answers.
There were also a few cheeky responses like "hot", "fines" and expensive".
ALSO READ: YouTuber and Hainanese chicken rice fan looks for the origins of Singapore's national dish in China
amierul@asiaone.com
