Twelve staples, a whole hawker centre

Fermented, compressed shrimp pressed into a dense block — the deep savoury floor under sambal, rojak, and most rempah. Pungent raw, transformed by toasting.

Buying note · A firm, dry-ish block (Malaysian belacan is the benchmark), not the wet Thai kapi. Colour ranges pink-grey to brown; avoid anything oily or sour-smelling.

Keep · Wrapped airtight in a jar, in the cupboard — it keeps for a year. Double-bag it or your whole kitchen joins in.

Sap of the coconut palm boiled down to dark, smoky-caramel discs. The soul of ondeh ondeh, chendol, and half the kueh counter — sugar with a sense of place.

Buying note · Dark, dense cylinders that smell of caramel and woodsmoke; the darker and softer, the better. Avoid the pale, brick-hard generic "palm sugar" pucks.

Keep · Airtight at room temperature. If it hardens, a few seconds of steam or microwave brings it back.

Small dried anchovies — fried crisp for nasi lemak, or simmered into the sweet-savoury stock under Malay soups and porridge.

Buying note · Pale, whole, and dry, not grey and broken. "Gula" grade (headless, gutted) saves you the tedious cleaning; larger ones make better stock.

Keep · Airtight in the freezer — they go rancid at room temperature faster than you would think.

Sun-dried small shrimp, pounded or fried into sambal, rojak, and the fragrant "hae bee hiam" that lifts a plain bowl of rice.

Buying note · Bright orange-pink, plump, and springy — dull grey or brittle means old. Pick a size for the job: small for pounding, large for frying.

Keep · Airtight in the fridge or freezer; a splash of light soy or rice wine before storing keeps them supple.

Pressed coconut — the richness in laksa, rendang, nasi lemak, and kaya. The whole reason so much of this food tastes the way it does.

Buying note · Canned with the highest coconut-extract percentage and no gums if you can find it; UHT boxes are a good weeknight second. Fresh-pressed santan beats both if a wet market is near.

Keep · Cans in the cupboard; once open, use within two days or freeze in portions.

Molasses-thick, sweet-salty soy — the lacquer on char kway teow, Hokkien mee, and mee goreng. Not interchangeable with light soy.

Buying note · Look for "kecap manis" (Indonesian, palm-sugar sweet) for Malay dishes and "thick/dark caramel soy" for the Chinese wok plates. Syrupy, not runny.

Keep · Cupboard, indefinitely — it is basically preserved by its own sugar and salt.

The two workhorses: flat rice noodles (kway teow) for the wok, and thin rice vermicelli (bee hoon) for soups and fried plates.

Buying note · Fresh flat kway teow from the chiller if you can get it (char kway teow deserves it); otherwise good dried. For bee hoon, a firm thin vermicelli that holds a bite.

Keep · Dried in the cupboard; fresh kway teow is a same-day ingredient — never refrigerate it hard or it cracks.

Singapore's own blend — warmer and more fragrant than generic "curry powder". The base of curry chicken, fish head curry, and mee siam.

Buying note · A Singapore/Malaysian brand labelled for meat or for fish (they differ). Bought fresh and used within months — old curry powder is just brown dust.

Keep · Airtight, dark cupboard; buy small and often.

Sour pulp of the tamarind pod — the pucker in assam laksa, sambal, and sour fish curries. The counterweight to all that coconut and sugar.

Buying note · A seedless pulp block for everyday use, or whole-pod for the fullest flavour. Skip the runny "concentrate" — it tastes flat and oddly metallic.

Keep · Block keeps for a year in the cupboard; soak and strain what you need.

The "vanilla of Southeast Asia" — long green blades that perfume kaya, rice, and kueh with a grassy, almost coconut sweetness. Nothing artificial comes close.

Buying note · Fresh frozen blades (most Asian groceries carry them) far outperform bottled essence, which reads as fake. Buy a bunch and freeze it.

Keep · Frozen, wrapped tight — they keep for months and blend or bruise straight from frozen.

Waxy, oily nuts pounded into rempah for body and a subtle richness — the quiet thickener behind a good curry paste.

Buying note · Whole, pale, and not shrivelled. Sold in small bags at Asian groceries. (Macadamias substitute honestly if you're stuck.)

Keep · Airtight in the freezer — their high oil content turns them rancid quickly at room temperature.

The everyday long-grain — the plate under chicken rice, nasi lemak, and every zi char dinner. Singapore judges a kitchen by its rice first.

Buying note · A fragrant Thai jasmine (Hom Mali) as the all-rounder; for chicken rice specifically, an older-crop rice cooks up drier and separate.

Keep · Airtight, cool, dark — buy a bag size you'll finish in a few months.