Inksng

Thanks for this tip. I'm gonna try this place soon.

Hi. I just moved to Singapore in January (2013) and was recently diagnosed with gluten-intolerance. So far, I've found it tricky to eat out here at the local stalls (hawker centers). Everything has soy sauce in it and it's not gluten free. Other dishes such as Indian foods typically have deep fried dishes mixed in with the other stuff. I've had better success eating out in very high end places, but be prepared to spend a serious amount of money on your meal. Most of the time, I just cook at home. There are plenty of gluten-free products available from local supermarkets and organic stores. If you need some recommendations, let me know.

Hello everyone -

I'm new to the forum, new to Singapore, and new to gluten-free. Blood tests indicate I don't have celiac (no further tests done), but my life changed dramatically for the better when I stopped eating gluten a few weeks ago. My doctor here agrees that I am likely gluten-intolerant.

I'm fairly familiar with celiac and gluten-free diets from family/friends, so cooking and kitchen management is not so much of a problem. I've also been able to find gluten-free products in my local supermarket and a wonderful organic store. I make my own bread once a week, but mostly have just adjusted by eating differently.

However, I'm REALLY struggling with eating out in Singapore. Celiac disease is uncommon in Singapore and most people have never heard of it. The expensive high-end restaurants seem ok; at the very least the wait staff will check with the chef, even if I need to explain the list of things I can't eat. More problematic are the very prevalent and popular hawker centers. I don't speak Mandarin, Malay or Tamil, and may of the hawker store owners have very limited English. Most of the time, I cannot explain to them successfully what the issue is. Almost everything has soy sauce in it. And even the things that don't are clearly cross-contaminated (using same implements to cook or pick up fried food, e.g.).

Are there others on this forum who live in Singapore with celiac or gluten-intolerance? I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to communicate with the hawkers. Or maybe you just avoid them altogether which is what I'm doing right now.

Thanks!

Hi there. Recently diagnosed but lived ten years in Korea when I was young. I still buy plenty of Korean products. Some advice in additiion to the helpful post above: learn to read the Korean alphabet - it is not hard to do, and it will allow to read the ingredients on stuff you buy in supermarkets. Google translate is also helpful for that. Also, be careful with some things that seem safe. Rice based products such as topokki sometimes contain wheat - i found out the hard way. Other things like 'mul' are traditionally a corn tea, but sometimes barley tea is used instead. Also, Koreans do use vinegar in cooking rice. At the moment I have not yet been able to verify whether this type of vinegar is based on malt at all. I suspect not, but am not sure...

Other than that, Korean food is delicious. I have adapted many of the recipes and made them gluten free. E.g. I use tamari soy sauce which has no wheat.

Good luck!

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum. Recently went gluten -free. Also recently moved to South-east Asia, and I am really struggling when eating out. Although I do a lot of home cooking, lunch is difficult in particular because colleagues ask me to join them. I am able to avoid the obvious stuff like pizza and sandwiches, and the high end restaurants do seem to have some awareness, but I am struggling in the local hawker stalls partly due to language barriers and partly due to a general lack of understanding about celiac and gluten sensitivity. Much of the food here contains soy sauce so most things are off limits in the stalls. Other stalls obviouosly cross contaminate, using the same kitchen tools to pick up breaded chicken versus unbreaded. Many of the veggie options and Japanese foods are deep fried. Mane of the Chinese sauces are a mystery to me and when I ask the stall chefs, they themselves are unsure of its contents. You porbably begin to see my problem. I am mostly stuck eating a bowl of rice and even that I am uncertain about since vinegar is often used to cook the rice and I am not at all sure what kind of vinegar is used.

Does anyone have experience traveling through this region or living here? What can I consider safe to eat? I am just going through a suspected glutening and it is not pleasant and would like to avoid it in the future.

Thanks so much.