Wines & Food in Singapore

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Wines & Food in Singapore

Wine is readily available and can be found through wholesalers and retailers, clubs and wine cellars.

Importing Wines and Spirits

Duty free wines and spirits can be brought into Singapore.

A traveller over 18 years of age arriving from countries other than Malaysia is entitled to duty-free concessions of 1 litre of spirits, 1 litre of wine and 1 litre of beer. There is no duty-free concession on cigarettes. Cigarettes (and liquors exceeding the duty-free concessions) should be declared to the Customs officers at the Red Channel for payment of duty and Goods & Services Tax (GST).

Importing wine for personal consumption

A relevant customs permit available from Singapore customs must cover the import of intoxicating liquor, including still wine, exceeding 10 litres.

• Singapore Customs
  Tel: 6355 2000
  e-mail
  Website

The customs charges are as follows:

• Cost of excise duty/ tax is a cost per litre of wine plus
• Prevailing GST on cost of goods and duty/tax
• The duty and GST is collected by the courier on delivery of the wine
• The import of still wine is subject to a per litre and GST

If applicable, a local forwarding agent can be appointed if they are registered as a TradeNet user with Customs, to declare the relevant permit to cover the import, duty and GST payment for the dutiable items. A list of these companies can be obtained from one of the following websites:

• Singapore Logistics Association
• Singapore Air-cargo Association 
• Singapore Shipping Association 
• Information on clearance procedures for postal parcel is available from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA): Click here

For further assistance contact the ICA directly.

• Victor Chia, Senior Manager
  At: Customs Call Centre for Director-General of Customs
  Singapore Customs

Food

Singapore is considered (certainly by Singaporeans) the food capital of Asia. Chinese, Indian, Malay, Indonesian and Western foods are all available. To Singaporeans it is the quality and affordability of the food that counts. A large proportion of the population are Muslim, so halal food is always available as are many vegetarian dishes.

The stalls or hawker stalls can be found anywhere and everywhere in Singapore. There are open air stalls, many found in the air-conditioned basements of all shopping centres, on the ground floor of many Housing Development Board buildings, at wet markets and on the coastal areas. Hotels serve local food and western dishes in air-conditioned restaurants.

Singaporean popular local hawker fare dishes include chicken rice, laksa, bak kut teh or rojak. Nonya cooking is a local variation on Chinese and Malay food, mixing Chinese ingredients with local spices such as lemon grass and coconut cream.

When the Chinese settled in Malacca marrying into the Malay race a new mixed race was formed known as Peranakan. From these mix of cultures, a new cuisine resulted from both Chinese and Malay cooking known in Malaysia as Nyonya food. One well known favourite among many is Noodles in Spiced Coconut Soup, Laksa Lemak.

• Makan Time (Makan is Malay for food) website gives an in depth look at the food available in Singapore and has recipes
• Nonya Food website gives more detailed history about the Peranakan's and their cuisine plus plenty of recipes.

Indian Muslim food such as spicy noodles and naan type breads such as roti prata, mee goring, nasi padang are firm favourites with everyone.

Possibly one of the most famous Singapore Indian dish is the Fish Head Curry, which is a regional dish reflecting Indian cooking. Visit Race course Road in the Indian district, for several restaurants serving this.

Seafood is very popular and when eaten in the local style is wonderfully messy and noisy, much enjoyment had at sucking out the crab flesh. See the East Coast Seafood Centre for chili crabs, black pepper crabs, drunken prawns and deep fried baby squids, some of the well known favourites.

Singapore Food Festival is held annually in July to celebrate the wealth of food available in Singapore. Popular drinks include the many fresh fruit drinks, commonly found in all hawker centres and beers (Singapore has its own beer brand, Tiger beer). Wines, though rapidly growing in popularity and spirits are expensive.

Singapore has a number ofr tropical fruits, the more unusual ones include rambutan, mangosteen, durian, jackfruit, pomelo, starfruit, zirzat, buah duku, chiku and jeruk. The fruit considered to be the King of fruits is the Durian. It smells terrible and is banned on public transport but is said to taste heavenly.