The best Padang food in Singapore, and it is not close

Point at what you want, pile it on, and prepare to come back within the week.

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Nasi Padang in Singapore usually means a mixed-rice counter with a Padang name and gravies that have been sitting since morning. Putra Minang on Bencoolen Street is the real thing: a Minang kitchen cooking the way it is done in West Sumatra, with the rich, slow, coconut-heavy flavours that make this cuisine worth a detour.

How it works

Walk up to the counter, point at what you want, and it lands on your rice. The gravy comes free and generous. Two people can share four or five dishes and still leave with a bill that feels fair for this part of town.

The rendang

Dark, dry-edged and falling apart. The beef has clearly been cooked for hours until the coconut milk has reduced to a paste that clings to every strand. This is the dish that tells you whether a Padang place is serious, and here it is.

The greens

Two to get. The gulai daun singkong, cassava leaves simmered in a turmeric-yellow coconut curry, is soft, slightly bitter and addictive once the gravy soaks into the rice. The kangkung is stir-fried simply and gives you something fresh against all that richness.

Everything else

The sambal ijo is a green chilli sambal with real heat and a sour edge. The red sambal is sweeter and goes with the fried chicken. The perkedel is a crisp potato patty that is mostly there to be dragged through the gravy. Ask for serundeng, the toasted coconut, on top of the rice.

The catch

It fills up at lunch and the tables are close together. Go before noon or after 2pm for a calmer meal. If you like it mild, say so, because the default setting is not shy.