Eating is the favourite pastime for Singaporeans. Instead of saying 'Hi, how are you?' when greeting people, we say "Have you eaten?" With the diverse range of ethnic groups who have settled in Singapore, they have also brought along their culinary influences, so much so, that Singapore has evolved to become the food capital of Asia.

The majority of Chinese Singaporeans originally come from the Hokkien and Teochew provinces in Southern China. The most famous on the Hokkien menu is the fried hokkien mee, a heavenly dish created with a mix of egg noodles and rice vermicelli fried with garlic, prawns, pork, squid, beansprouts, eggs and Chinese chives; or popiah, rolled crepes filled with turnip, bamboo shoots, beansprouts, prawns, egg and Chinese sausage. If you want something lighter, try the Teochew porridge, or the fiery Szechuan dishes, characterised by the generous use of hot chilli peppers.

Other Chinese cuisine include Cantonese food, with famous dishes such as wonton soup, roasted suckling pig and the most popular being dim sum, which includes steamed or fried buns, dumplings and pastries filled with meat, prawns, sauces and herbs.

If you have established you want Indian food, the next is to decide if you would like North or South Indian cuisine, there are plenty of both varieties in Singapore. The main difference is that North Indian food tends to be cooked with yogurt, while those in the South rely on coconut milk to temper the spicy dishes.

For the more adventurous, try one of the most famous Indian dishes in Singapore, the fish head curry, except you may be surprised to learn it is not actually Indian, but reflects Indian cooking in its complex use of spices. Otherwise, stroll by the food centres and sample roti prata, a flaky griddle fried bread served with curry and enjoy a teh tarik, tea which is hand pulled from mug to mug to create a thick froth, which is fun and exciting to watch.

Malay cuisine is well known for its aromatic blend of spices and herbs, including lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, curry leaves, coconut milk and most importantly, belachan, a dried shrimp paste. The belachan is often combined with pounded chillies to make the popular sambal belachan that serves as a sauce to add flavour to any dish.

Visit any food court and you will find an array of Malay stalls selling a variety of Malay dishes, including nasi pandang - a wide variety of spicy meat, fish, poultry and vegetable dishes served with rice. Of course, there are also the popular satays - grilled skewers of meat served with onions, cucumber and peanut sauce.

An imaginative and creative cuisine infused with delicate flavours, Peranakan or Nonya food combines Chinese, Malay and Indonesian techniques and spices to create tangy, aromatic and spicy dishes. The specific texture and density that is required in the ingredients means that Peranakan recipes involve time-consuming and lengthy preparation, which is handed down from one generation to the next. For traditional Peranakan signature dishes, pop into Blue Ginger on Tanjong Pagar Road or True Blue Cuisine on Armenian Street.