8 Common Hawker Dishes That Are Hard to Ungluten

One of the major challenges of unglutening in Singapore, is not the lack of gluten-free choices, but the lack of awareness on what gluten is by the people preparing your food.

This is especially so with hawkers, food court workers and most restaurant staff. It gets better if you dine in a hotel or five-star restaurants, but even then, the level of awareness is markedly lower as compared to F&B workers in Japan, Australia and the United States.

So one of the best ways to ungluten is to pick up self-assessment skills by knowing what ingredients contain gluten.

In the meantime, here is a list of 10 common hawker dishes that are loaded with gluten, and extremely difficult to request for an unglutened version of it. Read on to find out why for each item.

(1) Kway Chap

While the noodles are made from rice flour and are hence gluten-free, the broth is made from a high concentration of dark soy sauce. The accompanying pork belly, pork innards, hard boiled eggs and bean curds are all braised in dark soy sauce, so there is no point eating Kway Chap without the broth and sauces.

(2) Hokkien Mee

This dish is made using yellow mee and thick bee hoon. The yellow mee has gluten and the prawn stock used to cook the dish may contain soy sauce at some hawker stalls. Even if they don't have soy sauce, I've not found a single hawker who agreed to cook the noodles using the thick bee hoon (rice-based) only.

(3) Lor Mee

Just like Kway Chap, the broth for Lor Mee is made from a high concentration of soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce. All three sauces are loaded with gluten, and high in sodium. But because the broth is one of the highlights of the dish, there is no way the hawker can give you an unglutened version.

(4) Wanton Mee (Dry)

This classic Hong Kong dish has gluten in its noodles (egg noodles), wanton skin and the char siew. Yes - char siew sauce has gluten as it includes hoisin sauce and soy sauce. Also, the sauce base for a dry wanton mee will always need light soy sauce so if you want to eat dry noodles, going for an unglutened version of Ba Chor Mee may be more possible.

(5) Ban Mian

Ban Mian (hand pulled noodles) and pretty much all the related noodles such as You Mian and Mee Hoon Kway, are off limits as they are made from wheat flour. You Mian used to be my go-to comfort food but I would become super bloated and have stomach discomfort as I was unaware of my gluten sensitivity.

(6) Mee Rebus

Most Malay foods are naturally gluten-free but Mee Rebus is one dish that is full of gluten. The yellow mee has gluten, and so does the gravy as the recipe sometimes calls for the use of fermented soy beans (tau chiou). Like soy sauce, fermented soy beans use wheat for the fermentation process.

(7) Duck Rice

A classic Duck Rice set consists of braised duck meat and yam rice, and is made using a combination of dark soy sauce and soy sauce. As the meat and rice are already cooked using the sauces, it's not possible to ask for an unglutened version of them.

(8) Economic Bee Hoon

Although bee hoon is made from rice and is gluten-free, most economic bee hoon stalls cook them in soy sauce for taste and flavour. Many of the side dishes that are offered may contain gluten such as the fried chicken wings (flour in the batter), and fried fish cutlets (breaded flour).