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habis /hah-bis, ÈhAùbIs/ int. [Mal., done with, all used up, finished off (Wilkinson); ended (of work, money, tale, year, study), done, finished, settled (Winstedt)]  An exclamation expr. that some thing or situation cannot be rectified or undone.  Compare Gone Case, Mati.
1991 Valerie Tan The Straits Times (Section 3), 9 August, 19 habis.. – finished, die.

haebee var. of hay bee.

hae mee var. of Hay Mee.

hah /hah, hAù/ int. [origin unkn.] interrog. Conveying emphasis or expr. a request for the clarification of something just said.  Compare Ah.
2000 Kelvin Tong The Straits Times (Life! This Weekend), 23 November, 9 How come Singapore movie got funny English, .. hah? 2000 Cheong Suk-wai The Straits Times (Life!), 25 November, L12 Any grandchildren, hah?  2001 Jeffrey Low The Straits Times, 9 April, S4 Hah? What? Blackout?  2006 Colin Goh The Sunday Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 26 February. Eh, how come you never reply my last e-mail, ha?  2006 Jocelyn Khoo Today (from Todayonline.com), 4 October. [S]houldn’t the staff.. ask, “Pardon, could you say that again?” rather than “Huh? Huh? What?”

Hainanese /hı-nah-neez (-nə-), ÈhÃInAÇniùz (-n«-)/ n. & a. [Hn. (?) 海 hai sea + 南 nan south; Mand. Hǎinán + Eng. –ese]  A n. 1 An inhabitant of Hainan, a province on the southern tip of China, or a descendant thereof living in another part of the world.  2 The Chinese dialect of Hainan, a variant of Mǐn Nán [Mand. 闽南 Southern Min: Mǐn another name of Fujian Province + nán south], which is spoken in Singapore.  B a. Of or pertaining to Hainan, its culture, and its inhabitants or persons who trace their ancestry thereto.
A 1 1999 Lynn Pan (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas 203 Status distinctions apart, Chinese groups divided along speech lines. In his 1848 article, Seah [Eu Chin], a Teochiu speaker himself, named five other speech groups: Hokkien, Cantonese (also called ‘Macao Chinese’), Hakka and Hainanese.  204 In the 1848 estimates, most of the 700 Hainanese were mainly general agriculturalists. When their numbers grew, Hainanese also provided catering and personal services in European establishments during the colonia era; later they became predominant in Singapore’s catering and baking business. They also ran coffee-shops, as did those from Fuzhou, who arrived in significant numbers only from the early 20th century on.  2 2005 Colin Chee The Electric New Paper, 12 July. In our three-storey SIT (Singapore Improvement Trust) flat, we had a Punjabi family above us, a Malay family two doors away, Indian and Eurasian families in the next block of flats, and Chinese families speaking in Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew and Hainanese.  B 2005 Peh Shing Huei The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 13 October. [F]amiliar local fare like Hainanese chicken rice .. will be available.

Comb.:

Hainanese chicken rice n. [see Chicken Rice]  Chicken Rice.
2005 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 31 July. Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice .. This is the stall that had American TV chef Anthony Bourdain and Australian celebrity chef Tetsuya Wakuda raving. Madam Foo Kui Lian, 56, learnt to cook from her late brother, a hawker who had perfected the recipe over many years. She is fussy about the type of grain she uses, insisting on the same grade and batch of Thai fragrant rice every time. As a result, her rice is plump, velvety and not too oily. She only uses chickens heavier than 2kg, to ensure the texture is smooth and tender.  2005 Peh Shing Huei The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 13 October. [F]amiliar local fare like Hainanese chicken rice .. will be available.  2006 Sarah Ng The Sunday Times, 1 January, 5 The chef [Steven Low] who helped create the famous Chatterbox Hainanese chicken rice has been retrenched from the Meritus Mandarin Hotel, and will open his own stall serving the famous dish. .. It will come with silky poached chicken pieces on the bone, clear soup, vegetables, garlic chilli, ginger and soya sauce.

Hainanese steamboat n. [see Steamboat]  See quot. 2003.
2003 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times, 5 October, L39 What exactly is Hainanese steamboat? Invented by immigrants to Singapore in the 1950s, it uses clear chicken stock as soup. It also offers a heavy selection of seafood (fish maw, sea cucumber, cuttlefish, cockles) and beef meat and tripe to dip with. But.. the highlight of Hainanese steamboat is its chilli sauce. Made from chilli, ginger, garlic, soup plum and just the right dollop of fermented beancurd, the steamboat is not worth having without it.

Hakka yong tau fu /hahk-kah yong tow foo, ÈhAkkA j�N taU fuù/ n. [Hak. 客家 Hakka the Hakka people, prob. so called by the Cantonese who arrived earlier in South China, and style themselves Puntis (hak a guest, visitor, stranger; Hakka + ka the family, home; people (MacIver); Mand. kè visitor; guest + jiā family; household (Chi.–Eng. Dict.); see Khek + Yong Tau Fu]  Yong Tau Fu that is stuffed with minced pork instead of fish in the traditional Hakka style.

halal /hah-lahl, ÈhAùlAùl/ a. [Mal. < Arab. حلال halāl, permitted, lawful, legitimate, of an animal – food that Islam allows its votaries to eat (Wilkinson); lawful (of food), permitted by Islamic law (Winstedt)]  Of food, etc.: permitted by Muslim law for consumption, etc.
2004 Vivi Zainol The Straits Times, 5 March, H14 ‘Halal’ in Arabic means ‘allowed’ or ‘lawful’, and every Muslim must consume halal food and drink, avoiding non-halal pork and alcohol in any form. Food items like ice-cream, chocolate and cakes must also not contain non-halal ingredients such as lard, gelatine and emulsifiers of animal origin. And meat must be slaughtered according to Islamic laws, a method that ensures that blood, a carrier of disease, is drained from it.  2006 Sarah Ng The Sunday Times, 8 January, 8 The dish also has its share of Muslim fans. Said a housewife.. “I hope Mr [Steven] Low will make it halal so that the Muslim people can eat it too. Chicken rice is our national dish.”  2006 Lim Wei Chean & Lee Hui Chieh (quoting Ilan Ben-Dove) The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 11 January. The process of creating the halal meat is very similar, practically the same for kosher meat in the Jewish religion..  2006 Lim Wei Chean The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 17 March. Firm eyes bite of $400b global halal market with pau, dimsum [title].. A Singaporean food manufacturer is tapping into the growing multi-billion-dollar halal food market with chicken pau or buns and chicken dumplings. KG Food.. was set up in 2002 to develop halal dimsum and pau that Muslims can tuck into. .. Exporting mainly to Indonesia now, the company is also eyeing the halal market in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe.  2006 Aminah Muhammad Today (from Todayonline.com), 23 March. Currently, our hospitality sector lacks the understanding of halal certification and the importance attached to it. Just compare the number of Arab tourists in Kuala Lumpur as compared to Singapore. One pulling factor is that halal food is readily available there, even in American coffee chain Starbucks. In Singapore, many hotels do not appreciate the need for separate kitchen areas for halal and non-halal food. Non-Muslims should know the difference between proper halal certification and the “No Pork No Lard sold here” labels commonly used here.

half ball n. [Eng. transl. of Hk. Puah Liap]  Puah Liap.
2006 Neil Humphreys Weekend Today (from Todayonline.com), 16 September. Grown men only cry in coffee shops when they lose their “half balls” after EPL [English Premier League] matches.

half past six a. [Eng., origin uncertain; poss. f. the appearance of a flaccid penis: see quot. 2006]  Careless, shoddy; incompetent, screwed up.
2006 Carolyn Hong (quoting Mahathir Mohamad) The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 12 June. Tun Dr Mahathir described the [Malaysian] government as ‘half-past six’ with no guts after it scrapped a project to build a bridge to replace the Causeway because it could not secure the agreement of Singapore.  2006 Neil Humphreys Final Notes from a Great Island 16–17 “.. When your son makes you proud, it’s the best. When your son is an idiot, it’s the worst. Don't have a ‘half-past six’ son.” I adore that expression. A popular, and unique, Singlish turn of phase, it loosely means “incompetent” or “screwed up”, but “half-past-six” is much more creative. Its origin is supposedly sexual and refers to the angle of the penis. Naturally, half-past-six is droopy, while midnight is impressive.

ham shap /hum shup, hÃm SÃp/ a. [Cant. 咸 hám saltish taste, bitter, brackish + 湿 shap shady and wet; low-lying grounds (Eitel); Mand. xián salty + shī wet (Chi.–Eng. Dict.)]  Lecherous, lewd.

hammer v. [< Eng. hammer to strike forcefully, to beat up colloq.]  Put pressure on; make trouble for.
1978 Leong Choon Cheong Youth in the Army 307 hammer. To be hammered is to be put under pressure by those on top.  1985 Michael Chiang Army Daze 42 Hammer. To pressure someone or make trouble for him.

handphone n. [Eng. hand(held + phone]  A cellular phone, a mobile telephone.
2001 Neil Humphreys Notes from an Even Smaller Island 83 During the movie that he had just watched, the lawyer had asked one of the gang to stop talking on his handphone as it was disturbing and irritating the rest of the audience. The whole of Singapore, including me, applauded the lawyer for his actions. This anti-social handphone behaviour is driving the country crazy.  2004 Janice Wong (quoting Mohamed Salleh) Streats, 1 March, 10 A handphone means less privacy. The phone rings often enough in the office. There is nothing so important that cannot wait for three or four hours.  2004 Mohammad Sarbudeen The Straits Times, 21 April, H1 I only took my cordless phone and my handphone with me.  2004 C.M. Koh, The Straits Times, 30 April, 34 [advertisement] ‘Over the last 16 years, I’ve changed more than 10 handphones. But I’ve always stayed with SingTel.’ Mr Koh was one of the first owners of the handphone when SingTel introduced it in 1988. .. Now matter how many handphones he may have changed, Mr Koh never doubted that SingTel would always be there for him.

hantam var. of Hentam.

haolian a. [Hk. (?)]  Arrogant, cocky, smart-alecky.
2002 Suzanne Sng (quoting Allan Wu) ‘I Come Across as Haolian’ The Sunday Times (Sunday Plus), 14 April, P22 ‘I come across as haolian, cocky, arrogant.  I won’t say I’m not.’  Haolian is a Hokkien phrase used to describe someone who likes to brag. .. ‘It’s a big role, huh?’ he bursts out laughing, looking haolian and utterly pleased.  2003 Suzanne Sng The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 14 December, L8 The Haolian (Hokkien for show-off) afflicts both men and women. The female married Haolian’s greatest joy is boasting to the world about her son’s excellent PSLE results, her husband’s new Mercedes SLK and her own accomplishments – real, exaggerated or imaginary. The male Haolian brags about the hole-in-one he scored last weekend and his firm’s latest million-dollar deals.  2004 Wong Kim Hoh (quoting Adam Khoo), The Sunday Times, 16 May, 41 Q: You have no compunction about declaring yourself a ‘self-made multi-millionaire’ to the press. Have you been accused of being how lian (arrogant in Hokkien)? A: .. I’ve never been accused of being how lian as I’ve constantly emphasised the fact that I say it not to impress people but to impress upon them that if an average joe like me can do it, then anyone can!

har gau /hahr gow, hAr gaU/ n. [Cant. 虾 har prawn, shrimp + 饺 káu sweet rice cakes, meat dumplings (Eitel); Mand. xiājiǎo: xiā prawn, shrimp + jiǎo dumpling (Chi.–Eng. Dict.)]  A dimsum (savoury Cantonese-style snack) consisting of prawn or shrimp in a white, semi-translucent skin; a shrimp dumpling.
2006 Teo Pau Lin & Eunice Quek The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 24 June. Staples like har gao (prawn dumplings, $2.80) and char siew pau ($2.80) are made fresh every day. .. Signature dishes: Har gao, siew mai, char siew puff and egg tarts..  2006 Wong Ah Yoke The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 15 October. Shrimp dumpling (har gau): This dumpling tests the skill of the chef. The skin must be thin and springy, the shrimp sweet and crunchy, and the taste must be subtle yet not bland.

har lok /hahr lok, hAr l�k|/ n. [Cant. há a shrimp, a prawn + lok to roast; to burn (Eitel); Mand. 虾烙 xiālào: xiā prawn, shrimp + lào bake in a pan (Chi.–Eng. Dict.)]  A Chinese dish consisting of prawns or shrimp with a sweet and savoury sauce flavoured with chilli and tomato sauce.

Hari Raya Haji /hah-ree rı-ə hah-jee, ÈhAùrI ÈrÃI« ÈhAùdZI/ n. [Mal. hari raya holiday: hari day + raya great, large + Mal. < Arab. Haji pilgrimage to Mecca (var. of Arab. حَجّ Haj) (Wilkinson); or Arab. حجِيج ḥajīj, حجاج ḥujjāj pl. of حاج ḥājj pilgrim; Mecca pilgrim; honorific title of one who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca < حج ḥajj to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca (Wehr)]  The most holy Muslim festival which falls on the tenth day of Zulhijjah, the 12th and last month of the Muslim calendar, after the period when Muslims traditionally make pilgrimages to Mecca. It is a public holiday in Singapore. The festival commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah; Allah stopped him, revealing it as a trial of Ibrahim’s faith, and provided a ram to be sacrificed instead. Pilgrims on the Haj on this day converge on the village of Mina near Mecca to stone three pillars representing Iblis [Arab. إبليس the Devil] who tried to convince the Prophet Ibrahim not to offer Ishmael as a sacrifice; the pillars are a reminder of the three steps taken by the Prophet Ibrahim to chase the Devil away. Other rituals observed in Singapore include the saying of prayers at mosques, the Korban, and visiting relatives and friends.
¶ The festival is known in Arab. as عيد الأضحى Eid Al-Adha.
1894 N.B. Dennys A Descriptive Dictionary of British Malaya 119 Feast of the Sacrifice (Hâri Râya Hadji).– This Feast is held on the 10th day of the month Zil Hayjah, in honour, it is said, of Abraham’s intending to offer up Ismail, who, according to the Mohammedan creed, was chosen as the offering to the Almighty, and not Isaac. The offering thus made is commemorated annually by the sacrifice of cows, sheep, goats, and other animals. It is the belief of the Mohammedan that animals sacrificed at the Feast will be present to give assistance in the perilous trial which awaits every soul after death, viz., the passage of the bridge Al Sirat which spans (according to the Koran) the abyss of Hell, and is represented to be finer than a hair and sharper than the edge of a sword. The path, though beset with many obstacles, will be crossed over with ease and safety by the faithful, but the wicked will miss the narrow footing and plunge into the fathomless gulf that yawns beneath them.  2004 Arlina Arshad The Straits Times, 18 January, 6 Hari Raya Haji marks the end of the pilgrimage season to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The slaughtering of sheep, or korban, is carried out to remind Muslims of the need to give their wealth to Allah and to reinforce the practice of sharing what one has with the less fortunate.  2006 Lim Wei Chean & Lee Hui Chieh The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 11 January. Hari Raya Haji may be a Muslim festival, but yesterday’s celebrations attracted Singaporeans from across the religious spectrum.  2006 Shaik Kadir Shaik Maideen The Straits Times, 30 December, S10 The special feature of Eid ul-Adha, commonly called Hari Raya Haji in Malay, is the korban.

Hari Raya Puasa /hah-ree rı-ə pooah-sə, ÈhAùrI ÈrÃI« ÈpUAùs«/ n. [Mal. hari raya holiday: hari day + raya great, large + Mal. puasa fast, fasting < Skt. पसह् prasah to bear up against, to be able to withstand, sustain, endure; to overpower, conquer, defeat; to make an effort, to be able; compare पसह prasaha bearing up against, withstanding; पसाह prasāha overpowering, defeating, controlling one’s self (Monier-Williams)] Often ellipt. Hari Raya.  A Muslim festival which falls on the first day of Syawal (the tenth month of the Muslim calendar) that celebrates the end of the fasting month of Ramadan (the ninth month). It is a public holiday in Singapore. Observances include the saying of special prayers at mosques, the payment of zakat [Arab. زكاة a tax or tithe distributed as alms], seeking forgiveness from and reconciliation with other people, visiting relatives and friends, and presenting to children duit raya (gifts of money) [Mal. duit copper coin, money in general (Wilkinson); cent, small change (Winstedt) (for etymology, see Shilling)].
¶ The festival is known in Arab. as عيد الفطر Eid Al-Fitr and also in Mal. as Aidilfitri.
1894 N.B. Dennys A Descriptive Dictionary of British Malaya 119 Feast of Breaking of Fast (Hâri Râya).– This Feast is celebrated on the 1st day of the month Shawal, which is the month following Ramthan. Mussulmans on this day are required to bathe, put on new clothes and give alms, according to their circumstances. During the day they attend prayers at the mosques, after which they give themselves up to pleasure and rejoicing.  2000 Arlina Arshad The Straits Times, 27 December, H8 Muslims all over the world celebrate Aidilfitri on the first day of the Muslim calendar month of Syawal. Here it is more commonly known as Hari Raya Puasa, which comes at the end of Ramadan, the fasting month. .. The essence of Hari Raya Puasa is faith and self-renewal.  2000 Suhaila Sulaiman (quoting Sharon Ismail) The Straits Times (Life!), 27 December, L6 In Singapore, Hari Raya has always been loud, noisy and colourful.  2005 The Sunday Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 2 October. Longer, bigger and brighter Hari Raya light-up [title]. A street procession down Haig Road added extra colour to this year’s Hari Raya light-up in Geylang Serai yesterday. The slight drizzle hardly made a mark on the 13 contingents showcasing various aspects of Malay culture. Among them were silat, a traditional Malay martial art, and kompang, a traditional Malay performance with drums.  2005 Zul Othman (quoting Mohamed Hashim) Today (from Todayonline.com), 15 October. “These are traditional foods and everyone should come down and try them,” he reckoned. “It wouldn’t be Hari Raya without any of these treats!”

hashima /hah-shi-mə, hASIÈm«/ n. [< Mand. 哈什蟆 hàshimǎ Chinese forest frog (Rana temporaria chensinensis); 哈什蟆油 hàshimǎ yóu (Chi. medicine) the dried oviduct fat of the forest frog: yóu oil; fat; grease (Chi.–Eng. Dict.)] Also hasma.  A Chinese dessert ingredient consisting of the dried fat from the oviducts of the snow frog or Chinese forest frog (Rana temporaria chensinensis). In its dried and uncooked form it appears as small, flat, irregular, yellowish-white pieces; when rehydrated during preparation it expands and becomes opaque and glutinous in texture. It is usually Double-Boiled with rock sugar and a variety of other ingredients to make Tang Shui.  Also known as Snow Frog.
2006 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 24 December, L24 It also serves hashima (snow frog glands) with rock sugar at $3.90 a bowl.

havoc a. [Eng.]  Rowdy, wild, undisciplined.
1978 Leong Choon Cheong Youth in the Army 167 His form master who taught metalwork knew about Larry’s lapses and his group of drug-taking classmates (who were ‘of one kind, a havoc group’).  168 A 24-hour coffee house in the middle of town (‘once a havoc place’).  1985 Michael Chiang Army Daze 42 Havoc. To create upset; describes those who have little regard for authority.  2003 Chua Mui Hoong, The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 16 November, L16 Anyone who wore her pinafore 1cm shorter than the norm was considered ‘havoc’ (wild).

hawker n. & a. [modified use of Eng. hawker a person who goes from place to place selling goods, or who cries them in the street]  A n. A person who sells fresh produce, sundries or, esp., food and beverages; such a person would formerly have been itinerant but now usu. operates from a Hawker Stall in a Wet Market, Pasar Malam or Hawker Centre.  B a. Of or relating to a hawker.
A 2000 Lea Wee The Straits Times (Life!), 10 April, 4 The rainbow-coloured ice kacang.. probably started off as the humble iceball. According to humorist Sylvia Toh Piak Choo, who is in her 50s, the iceball was sold by street hawkers in the 1950s and 1960s as a sideline to their drinks business.  2003 Magdalene Lum The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 11 January, L42 One of the recipes which have [sic] disappeared over the years, is loh kai yik, a pink Cantonese stew of braised chicken wings in fermented bean sauce, which used to be sold by hawkers on tricycles.  2005 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 31 July. Madam Foo Kui Lian, 56, learnt to cook from her late brother, a hawker who had perfected the recipe [for Hainanese chicken rice] over many years.  B 2000 Magdalene Lum (quoting Elaine Cheah) The Straits Times (Life!), 12 September, 14 The hawker food, like laksa, is not too bad.  2001 Tee Hun Ching The Sunday Times (Sunday Plus), 14 January, P9 The usual hawker fare such as laksa, hor fun and yong tau fu.

Comb.:

hawker centre n. [Eng.]  An open-air location or covered structure open to the elements containing a variety of stalls selling food and beverages prepared by hawkers with a shared seating area for customers (in contrast to a food court which is usu. inside a shopping centre, etc., and often air-conditioned).
1994 C.S. Chong NS: An Air-Level Story 88 You get fresh coconut water and flesh – better than hawker centre.  2001 Neil Humphreys Notes from an Even Smaller Island 18–19 [A] hawker centre is essentially a food court that contains a series of food stalls, each specialising in an Asian culinary delight. We simply go in, sit at one of the tables and wait for the person selling drinks to take our drink order. We then go to a stall, tell the hawker seller what we want and then retake our seats.  2001 Tee Hun Ching The Sunday Times (Sunday Plus), 8 April, P8 .. [N]asi lemak is now a staple in every hawker centre and many glitzy hotels.  2005 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 31 July. Norhayati Shukor’s father invented roti john in 1975 when the stall was located in Taman Serasi hawker centre, opposite the Botanic Gardens.  2006 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 13 August, L24 Singapore’s hawker centres were born in the late 1960s and 1970s when the Government decided to gather itinerant pushcart food-sellers at fixed, sheltered locations. One centre was allocated to almost every Housing Board estate, and those in the city, like Maxwell Road which opened in the 1950s and Newton Circus which opened in 1971, took off as boisterous hotspots for all kinds of excellent street food.

hawker stall n. [Eng.]  A stall operated by a hawker for the sale of fresh produce, sundries, or, esp., food or beverages that is usu. located in a Wet Market, Pasar Malam or Hawker Centre.

hay bee /hay bee, heI biù/ n. [Hk. 虾 hay shrimp + 米 bee shelled or husked seed; Mand. xiāmi] Also haebee.  Pounded dried shelled shrimp, used as a condiment.
2004 Dawn Wong The Straits Times (Scholars’ Choice 3), 5 March, R2 A handful of pounded dried shrimp, or haebee, will give you sambal haebee!  2006 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 24 September. [T]his foodstall also offers popiah with chicken floss, fish floss and sambal hae bee (dried shrimp).  2007 Thng Lay Teen The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 29 April. The haebi (spicy dried shrimp), which she services on top of oil-blanched brinjal and fries with long beans, is slowly fried on a non-stick wok without oil for about two hours till it turns a lovely orange-red.

Comb.: hay bee hiam n. [Hk. hiam (?)] Hay bee fried till dry, used as a condiment.
2004 Dawn Wong The Straits Times (Scholars’ Choice 3), 5 March, R2 Two large handfuls (300g) of pounded haebee fried till fairly dry transforms into crispy fried shrimps or haebee hiam.. . Sprinkle on rice or noodles, use as a sandwich filling or as toppings on baguette or cucumber rounds. Buy ready-made puff pastry and make little cocktail rolls with haebee hiam filling.  2006 Teo Pau Lin (quoting Frederick Lee) The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 8 January, L35 Little snacks like mango pomelo salad and hae bee hiam (spicy dried shrimps) in cucumber cups served with mayonnaise, which is to die for.  2006 Teo Pau Lin The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 24 December, L25 Kaya toast, that venerable local staple, has – like mooncakes – been given a twist with bewildering new flavours. Over the past year, at least four bakery chains and cafes have rolled out new spreads for plain ol’ toast. There is kaya flavoured with pandan, durian, even yam and vanilla. Other home-style toasts, with peanut butter, condensed milk, hae bee hiam (spicy minced dried shrimp) and otah otah, have also popped up.

hay cho /hay choh, heI tS«U/ n. [Hk. 虾 hay shrimp + 枣 cho jujube, ball (?); Mand. xiāzǎo]  See quot. 2003.
2003 Tan Yang Today 25–26 October, 24 Hay cho with deep-fried bean curd.. is the restaurant’s pièce de résistance. ..  True to tradition, the stuffing of prawns, Batang fish and eel is wrapped in pig’s membrane (not bean curd skin). Each roll is about 30 cm long and yields about 10 pieces when cut. Each piece is then individually fried to golden perfection. Skewer a piece on a chopstick, dab on a generous helping of home-made sweet plum sauce, take a bite and let the fragrance overcome your taste-buds.

hay mee /hay mee, heI miù/ n. [Hk. 虾 hay prawn; Mand. xiā + Mee] Also hae mee.  A Chinese dish consisting of noodles in a dark, savoury soup containing prawns, fishcake, bean sprouts, etc.
1978 Leong Choon Cheong (quoting Tay Poh Hock) Youth in the Army 49–50 While loafing around, a friend in whose home he occasionally slept introduced him to a woman hawker selling prawn mee (hay mee) in a back lane. .. “.. After 1 p.m. I took my lunch that was provided by my woman boss. If you saw what it was, you would get frightened. It’s a huge bowl of mee – of hay mee: and I ate that day in and day out. Very early I stopped enjoying it.”  2006 Chris Tan The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 10 December, L28 A truly good hae (prawn) mee broth has a depth and resonance of flavour that comes only from hours of slowly boiling top-notch stock ingredients. To make it, first gently fry pork ribs and soup bones (and pig tails, if you like) in lard or oil in a large stockpot, turning frequently until browned but not burnt. Scoop out of the pot and set aside. Pound garlic and shallots – Penang recipes add a few dried chillies too – to a coarse paste, and fry that in the fat left in the pot until lightly browned and aromatic. Return pork bones to the pot and add plenty of water, some white or black peppercorns and a couple of star anise petals. Simmer very slowly for two to three hours to make a rich stock. Next, heat some fresh oil and stir-fry prawn heads, shells and tails over medium or medium-low heat until very fragrant and dark orange-red in colour. Halfway through the frying, throw in some crushed rock sugar, which will caramelise and give the broth a rich brown colour. Add the prawn shells to the stock and simmer everything together for at least one more hour. Season the finished broth with salt and soy sauce. This broth tastes best within a day of being made – freeze it if you intend to keep it any longer.

haywiring v. [< Eng. haywire a.]  Going out of control; behaving erratically or as one pleases.

heartlander n. & a. [Eng. heartland the central or most important part of an area + –er]  A n. A person, typically regarded as less sophisticated, conservative and down-to-earth, who lives in a public housing estate built by the Housing and Development Board considered as part of the heartland of Singapore; an ordinary Singaporean.  B a. Of or relating to a heartlander.
A [1994 Loh Meng See Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 13 January, vol. 62, col. 56 I welcome the effort taken by the Government to spread the nation’s wealth and to share the benefit with as many Singaporeans as possible. The HDB ‘heartland’ where already 90% of HDB dwellers own their flats is the right target group for the Government to concentrate on.]  1999 Goh Chok Tong Prime Minister’s National Day Rally Speech 1999, 22 August, paras. 163–167 We also need to maintain cohesion between cosmopolitans and heartlanders. As Singapore becomes more international, two broad categories of people will emerge. One group I call the “cosmopolitans”, because their outlook is international. They speak English but are bilingual. They have skills that command good incomes – banking, IT, engineering, science and technology. They produce goods and services for the global market. Many cosmopolitans use Singapore as a base to operate in the region. They can work and be comfortable anywhere in the world. The other group, the heartlanders, make their living within the country. Their orientation and interests are local rather than international. Their skills are not marketable beyond Singapore. They speak Singlish. They include taxi-drivers, stallholders, provision shop owners, production workers and contractors. Phua Chu Kang is a typical heartlander. Another one is Tan Ah Teck. If they emigrate to America, they will probably settle in a Chinatown, open a Chinese restaurant and call it an “eating house”. Both heartlanders and cosmopolitans are important to Singapore’s well being. Heartlanders play a major role in maintaining our core values and our social stability. They are the core of our society. Without them, there will be no safe and stable Singapore, no Singapore system, no Singapore brand name. Cosmopolitans, on the other hand, are indispensable in generating wealth for Singapore. They extend our economic reach. The world is their market. Without them, Singapore cannot run as an efficient, high performance society. The challenge for us is to get the heartlanders to understand what the cosmopolitans contribute to Singapore’s and their own well being, and to get the cosmopolitans to feel an obligation and sense of duty to the heartlanders. If cosmopolitans and heartlanders cease to identify with each other, our society will fall apart.  1999 Abdullah Tarmugi (Minister for Community Development) Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 6 September, vol. 70, col. 2284 [W]hen the Prime Minister used the terms “cosmopolitans” and “heartlanders” of our population, he was referring to the outlook of two broad categories of people and reiterated that both were important to Singapore’s well being. Each has its own distinct contribution to our society. For example, the heartlanders play a major role in maintaining the core values and our social stability and give us our Singapore brand name. Cosmopolitans, on the other hand, extend our economic reach and help Singapore to run as an efficient, high performance society. We should not look at cosmopolitans and heartlanders in terms of socio-economic status as this is not an issue.  1999 Low Thia Khiang Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 6 September, vol. 70, col. 2284 Is the Minister aware that by the way the heartlanders and cosmopolitans are being portrayed and reported in the mass media, it has given rise to the perception or impression that cosmopolitans and heartlanders are two different classes of Singapore citizens in our society?  2005 Jeanine Tan Today, 10 May, 31 [A]n overenthusiastic heartlander exclaimed loudly that the gangly actress [Patricia Mok] was much prettier in the flesh when compared to her “ugly” screen image.. [S]he’s become used to the eccentricities of the “heartlander”.  2006 Nur Amira Abdul Karim (quoting Ong Chee Keong) The Sunday Times, 30 July, 35 We people are heartlanders mah... we not going to be English teacher or MP or what, so what for? Singlish can already.  B 2006 Li Xueying (quoting Tan Boon Huat) The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 21 February. ‘The sense is the PA [People’s Association] is low-class and heartlander. We want to change that,’ said Mr Tan. ‘We don’t want people to think the only reason Singaporeans come to us is because our activities are cheap.’  2006 Ben Nadarajan & Teh Joo Lin The Sunday Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 11 June. The two victims were from typical heartlander families. Both lived in three-room HDB flats, both their fathers are in the construction industry and both their mothers are part-time hawkers. Both Mr Tan and Mr Tay studied in neighbourhood schools and got to university via the polytechnic route.  2006 Terence Chong The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 17 June. [H]eartlander uncles and aunties..

heartware n. [Eng. heart + –ware, after hardware, software, poss. a Jap. coinage: see quots. 1991, 1997]  Feelings of affection and emotional attachment for something; spec. such feelings for one’s country.
1991 B.G. George Yong-Boon Yeo (Acting Minister for Information and the Arts) Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 21 March, vol. 57, cols. 955–956 I remember having a conversation once with the CEO of Fuji Sankei, the largest Japanese TV company, Mr Shikanai. He said that the way he operated is like the way MITA operates. They combine information and culture together. Because he felt that for industry of the future, for competition in the future, the more the two gets entwined together, the more competitive you become. So he says it is not hardware, it is not software, in the end it is heartware. You are appealing not just to function, you are appealing also to people’s sensitivities. And I think this is the overall approach we should take towards the arts in Singapore, combining it into our economy, into our social life, so that it strengthens us in the long term, so that expenditure on the arts is no longer seen as consumption but as investment.  1997 Goh Chok Tong (Prime Minister) Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 5 June, vol. 67, col. 405 The Government can provide the conditions for security and economic growth. But in the end, it is people who give feeling, a human touch, a sense of pride and achievement, the warmth. So beyond developing physical infrastructure and hardware, we need to develop our social infrastructure and software. In Sony Corporation, they call this “heartware”. We need to go beyond economic and material needs, and reorient society to meet the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, cultural and social needs of our people.  1998 Peh Chin Hwa Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 9 March, vol. 68, col. 616 The Government is also committed to studying how to improve the “heart-ware” simultaneously with the improvement to the hardware, so that the imported talents can integrate into the Singapore society, thereby remaining permanently in Singapore and make a contribution towards the development of Singapore.  1998 Ong Chit Chung Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 11 March, vol. 68, col. 912 Total defence is part and parcel of our national education. While we train our National Servicemen on how to use and maximise the hardware that we have, we must not forget the heartware. Each and every National Serviceman must know what he is fighting for, why the sacrifices, why we hold dear our sovereignty, integrity and independence and our hopes and visions for the future.  1998 Simon Tay Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 31 July, vol. 68, col. 693 We need to move towards consultation which we have seen, and from there, to a greater sense of participation. We need to build up Singapore’s heartware, we need to build up Singapore’s civil society. This is the utility of freeing people from the “black book” syndrome and encouraging their speech and participation, to give people a sense of ownership, that Singapore is their home. If it is our home, we must be comfortable here. We must be able to speak freely.  2002 Gan Kim Yong Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 1 October, vol. 75, col. 1114 [O]ver the last 30 years, we have built ourselves a world-class infrastructure. We have one of the world’s best airport and sea port. We have one of the most efficient transport and telecommunication system. We have the best hardware. We have also built ourselves a world-class workforce. Our productivity has been the main attraction to foreign investors. We have the best software. Now, we must also build ourselves a world-class citizen, what I call the HEARTware.  2004 Teo Chee Hean (Minister for Defence) Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, 16 January, vol. 80, col. 2004 While we continuously seek to upgrade the SAF’s [Singapore Armed Forces’] hardware and software, we know that it is very important not to lose sight of the heart-ware. MINDEF [the Ministry of Defence] and the SAF have therefore been working at eliciting higher levels of commitment and ownership in our nation’s defence.  2006 Ng Boon Yian Today (from Todayonline.com), 3 October. Bolstering Singapore’s “heartware” is a natural government response to these challenges. But that, of course, would be much harder to do so against the backdrop of globalisation.

heaty a. [Eng. heat + –y, poss. < a transl. of Mand. 热 rè hot]  Of a person’s constitution, or types of food or traditional Chinese medicine: of a hot or yang nature, promoting heat in the body, not Cooling.
2003 Teo Cheng Wee The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 18 January, L13 [F]oods can be heaty (yang) or cooling (yin). Deep-fried food is heaty while quickly-boiled food is usually cooling. Eating too much of one kind will create an imbalance of yin and yang in the person, and cause him to fall sick. .. Foods is usually deemed ‘heaty’ after it has been fried, baked or barbequed because of the element of ‘fire’ in their preparation. They include .. barbequed sweetmeat or bak kwa, pineapple tarts and spicy prawn-paste rolls, as well as melon seeds and love letters.  2003 Teo Cheng Wee (quoting Yu Zhe Kai) The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 18 January, L13 ‘People who are too heaty will suffer from coughs, sore throats, ulcers, pimple outbreaks, sore eyes or dry stools’ .. A quick easily-felt pulse indicates a tendency towards ‘heatiness’, as do red tongues, warm hands and dry mouths. ‘Some people are already prone to sore throats and coughs than those with a cooling body constitution, and hence should eat less heaty food’. .. Younger people are usually more heaty and tend to fall sick more easily during hot weather.  2005 Gerard Yeo The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 18 December, L10 In TCM [traditional Chinese medicine] terminology, when someone is “heaty”, it means that the person has too much body heat and is prone to fever. Symptoms displayed by someone who is “heaty” are warmer hands and feet. .. A “heaty” person tends to be averse to heat..

heck care /hek, hEk|/ int. [Eng. heck euphemistic alteration of hell (OED)]  A euphemism for Fuck Care.
2006 Leong Su-lin (quoting Rani Vyarakannoo) The Straits Times (Life!) (from Straits Times Interactive), 3 April. I’d rather he had an office job, but if he doesn’t care what other people say, heck care, he can do what he wants.  2007 Neil Humphreys Weekend Today (from Todayonline.com), 20 January. “Thaksin been in Singapore to see his kakis and tekan the Thai gahmen.” “Heck care, lah.”  2007 Fanny Chan Weekend Today (from Todayonline.com), 28 April. There’s no place for a ‘heck-care’ attitude in a first-class country [title] .. Inside the hall, when the lady found seats for herself and two kids, one of her kids brought to her attention, a sign pasted on the seat which read, “Reserved”. To my shock, she replied, “Heck care!” and plonked herself down with great satisfaction. I was very disturbed by the behaviour of the lady – someone who seemed educated and who is a role model for her young charges.

hee peow /hee piow, hiù pIaU/ n. [Hk. 鱼 hee + 鳔 peow; Mand. yúbiào air bladder (of fish): yú fish + biào swim bladder, air bladder (Chi.–Eng. Dict.)]  The swim-bladder or air-bladder of a fish such as the daggertooth pike conger or pike eel (Muraenesox cinereus) which is used as an ingredient in Chinese cooking, esp. in soup; fish-maw, sound. When cooked whole it is usu. pale yellow, spongy and in the shape of an open cylinder.
2006 Eveline Gan Weekend Today, 22–23 July, 24 Thinking that we would be too full, my mother and I ordered a bowl of hee peow (fish maw) soup ($6 per bowl) to share. Big mistake! And we regretted the decision. We should have ordered one bowl each. The soup is packed with cabbage, meatballs, prawn balls, fish balls and fish maw. It was so delicious we ended up fighting over the last spoonful. Mrs Lee told us she takes two to three hours to brew the chicken stock and makes the meatballs and prawn balls, which go well with the homemade sambal belacan.

helicopter see Chinese Helicopter.

hell money n. [Eng. transl. of (?)]  Replica paper money that is burnt during funerals, rituals for ancestor worship and Chinese festivals such as the Qing Ming Festival as an offering to ancestors, and during the Hungry Ghost Festival to appease wandering spirits; it is believed that the spirits of the deceased will thus be able to use the money in their realm.
2006 Hong Xinyi The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 6 August, L6 [T]he getai folk burn hell money in a giant bin, praying for a safe and profitable seventh month.  2006 Teo Cheng Wee The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 6 August, L7 Later in the day, “kim zua” (Hokkien for gold paper), used here as hell money, is folded into ingots (which supposedly increases the value of the money). These will be burnt as offerings after the prayers are over the next day.  2007 Khushwant Singh The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 26 January. Hell money is paper burned as part of funeral rites. .. Some Chinese Singaporeans view hell money, incense patches and mourning patches as inauspicious.

heng /heng, hEN/ a. & int. [Hk. 幸 hēng to hope, to expect; gracious, favourable, fortunate, happy (Medhurst); Mand. xìng good fortune; rejoice; fortunately, luckily (Chi.–Eng. Dict.)]  A a. Fortunate, lucky.  B int. In heng ah: an exclamation expr. that oneself is fortunate that something has happened or (more usu.) not happened: phew! thank goodness!
A 2002 Suzanne Sng (quoting Poh Soon Sua) The Straits Times, 27 February L5 Everyone thinks it’s very heng (lucky in Hokkien).  B 2001 Ooi Boon Ewe The Straits Times, 4 November, 5 An excited Mr Ooi Boon Ewe was at Temasek Primary principal counting centre for Joo Chiat.. The independent candidate went there alone even before polls closed.. He got his $13,000 deposit back as he polled 16.5 per cent of the vote. ‘Get back money – heng ah!’ he exclaimed..

Henghwa var. of Hinghwa.

hentam /hən-tahm, hahn-tahm, Èh«ntAùm, ÈhAùntAùm/ v. [Mal., slamming, slapping, bumping against (Wilkinson); (Johor & Penang Mal.) menghentamkan hit hard, bang on (a door, head), punch (a face) (Winstedt)] Also hantam. 1 Beat, box, hit with force, strike, esp. beat up a person; fig. censure, criticize, find fault with.  2 Do something in a perfunctory manner or by guesswork.  See also Whack.
1 2000 Kelvin Tong The Straits Times (Life! This Weekend), 28 December, 8 I told you I will ham tam you. Now, I will ham tam you until you cannot see the sky or feel the earth!  2005 Colin Goh The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 30 January, L12 [T]he shovel was in the boot, which had frozen shut. This meant I first had to sweep the snow off the car with only my thin-gloved hands, then hantam the boot till it finally sprang open.  2005 Colin Goh The Sunday Times (LifeStyle) (from Straits Times Interactive), 9 October. I myself have kena hantam in online forums when I started writing this column.  2 2001 Natalie Soh & Leong Chan Teik (quoting Thomas Fernandez) The Sunday Times, 2 September, 21 ‘I never learnt how to read the labels to mix the chemicals properly, you just hantam.’ (Hantam is Malay for ‘hit’).  2002 Sonny Yap (quoting Lim Hng Kiang) The Straits Times, 4 May, H10 My all-time favourite came from then-National Development Minister Lim Hng Kiang on the eve of the 1997 General Election. Taking opposition candidate Chee Soon Juan to task for the way he calculated Housing Board flat prices, he said: ‘I can’t describe this in English, though. Chee Soon Juan’s approach is better put.. in Singlish, the “anyhow hantam” method.’ .. [H]antam means ‘to beat’ in Malay.  2002 Jack Neo The Straits Times (National Day Special 2002), 9 August, 3 When I was in the army in the late 1980s, Wits [work improvement teams] was basically brainstorming, which meant everybody just hantam or throw down an idea, never mind if it was illogical or unreasonable.

Comb.:

hentam bola /boh-lah, Èb«UlAù/ n. [Mal. < Port. bola ball]  A children’s game in which the object is to throw a ball so as to hit someone who is running.
2004 Tay Yek Keak The Straits Times (Life!), 15 September, L5 [T]he hit-by-missile ball game of hentam bola, which every red-blooded Singaporean schoolboy must have endured in the playground. Boy, that was fun.  2004 Clement Mesenas Weekend Today, 30–31 October, 4 Solicitor General Chan Seng Onn.. recalled the fun he had playing tops, marbles and hantam bola – despite the lack of a field.

hentam kaki /kah-kee, ÈkAùki/ [Mal., drill command for marching on the spot: kaki foot, leg] mil. slang  Have one’s promotion stopped or delayed.
2005 Hong Xinyi The Sunday Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 19 June. Hentak [sic] kaki. Army use: A Malay drill command (literally ‘stomp feet’), meaning to march on the spot. Civilian use: Used commonly to refer to someone whose career has stagnated either by choice or ineptitude. Example: Ever since he screwed up that important presentation, he’s been hentak [sic] kaki.  2005 Richard Lim The Straits Times (Life!) (from Straits Times Interactive), 20 August. In the army, he [Djinn Ong] was made a physical training instructor and a sergeant. Despite the fact that he could speak little Chinese, he won the trust of the regular non-commissioned officers who spoke mainly in Hokkien among themselves. They allowed him to join them in their beer sessions. By day, they might seem like cocks on the walk at the parade square, but in those drunken evening gatherings, Djinn saw that they were vulnerable and bitter. Rightly or wrongly, they felt they had been marginalised by the influx of scholar soldiers whom the Government introduced by the mid-1970s. Without a piece of paper, they could not rise up the ranks. They saw themselves as failures, condemned to a life of hentak-kaki (Malay for marching on the spot, going nowhere).

heow var. of hiau.

hex n. [Eng., origin unkn.]  1 The symbol #, meaning ‘number’, used to denote an apartment or flat number in an address; hash, pound sign.  2 The key with a # sign on push-button telephone keypads, computer keyboards, etc.; the hash key.

hiao var. of Hiau.

hiau /hiow, hiaU/ a. [poss. Hk. [奻 above + 男 below: the Chi. character cannot be displayed due to software limitations] hëáou indecent, abandoned, whorish (Medhurst, not found in Comp. Chi.–Eng. Dict.)] Also heow, hiao.  1 Sexually attractive, sexy.  2 Vain.
1 1991 Valerie Tan The Straits Times (Section 3), 9 August, 19 hiau – Hokkien for sexy (eg. Wah, she damn hiau.)  2000 Yeow Kai Chai The Straits Times (Life!), 5 September, 7 Looked like the very hiao Tia Carrera.  2001 Cat Ong (quoting Ase Wang) The Sunday Times (Sunday Plus), 11 February, P8 I’ve been getting one [diamond] for the last three years since I turned 18 and with each new one, I just feel more heow (flirty) lah.  2 2001 Cat Ong (quoting Karen Tan) The Sunday Times (Sunday Plus), 7 January, P8 My fashion sense has become even more acute ever since I became a mother. And the one who is honing it is my very ‘hiao’ daughter, Rachel.   2003 Peh Shing Huei (quoting Gwyn Tan) The Sunday Times, 12 October, 32 Their leader now is that hiao (vain in Hokkien) David Beckham.  2006 Maia Lee The Electric New Paper, 17 June. Have you become more hiao (Hokkien for vain) since slimming down?

hilang /hee-lahng, yee-lahng, ÈhiùlAN, ÈjiùlAN/ a. [Mal., lost, disappeared, dead (Winstedt)]  Lost, missing.

Hinghwa /hing-huah, ÈhINhUA/ n. & a. [Hinghwa, hing + hwa; Mand. Xinghuá] Also Henghwa.  A n. 1 An inhabitant of Hinghwa, now known as Putian [Mand. 莆田 Pútián: Pú the place-name Putian (Giles) + tián field, farmland, cropland (Chi.–Eng. Dict.)], a prefecture-level city in Fujian (Fukien) province on the south-east coast of China, or a descendant thereof living in another part of the world.  2 The Chinese dialect of Hinghwa, a form of Mǐn [Mand. 闽 another name of Fujian Province] (a general term for a group of Chinese dialects spoken in Fujian province), which is spoken by a minority of Chinese in Singapore.  B a. Of or pertaining to the city of Hinghwa, its culture, and its inhabitants or persons who trace their ancestry thereto.
A 1 1999 Lynn Pan (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas 203 Status distinctions apart, Chinese groups divided along speech lines. In his 1848 article, Seah [Eu Chin], a Teochiu speaker himself, named five other speech groups: Hokkien, Cantonese (also called ‘Macao Chinese’), Hakka and Hainanese. To these five may be added those who came to Singapore – in lesser numbers – from the speech areas of Henghua (Xinghua), Hokchia (Fuqing), Fuzhou and Sanjiang (that is, ‘the three jiang’: Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the natives of whom were often commonly if inaccurately identified as ‘Shanghainese’ in Singapore).  204 The Henghuas and Hokchias, arriving in the last two decades of the 19th century, around the time the rickshaw was introduced to Singapore, became rickshaw pullers.  2006 The Sunday Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 3 September. Heng Hwas hail from Putian, a coastal city in Fujian province, which has three million people and is known for its seafood and beehoon products. Heng Hwa cuisine is characterised by simple dishes that showcase the true flavours of ingredients.  B 2006 Theresa Tan The Straits Times (Mind Your Body) (from Straits Times Interactive), 17 May. The 11-year-old restaurant.. serves ‘jia xiang’ or home-cooked Heng Hwa food. .. The chicken is cooked with Hong Zao, or the red paste of rice wine dregs. Hong Zao is often used to cook meat in Fuzhou, Hakka and Heng Hwa cuisine. It gains its rich red colour from the addition of red grains to the rice wine.  2006 The Sunday Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 3 September. Both sell the same signature Heng Hwa dishes that have made Pu Tien famous – lor mee (soup noodles with seafood), Heng Hwa fried beehoon, steamed bamboo clams with wine, and sweet and sour pork with lychee.

ho chia /hoh chiah, həʊ tʒɪ