Bak kwa – Chinese meat jerky

For some reason, if you asked any Singaporean expat what he or she wants back from Singapore, there’s a pretty good chance they would ask for bak kwa. In Singapore, for all your convenient snacking needs, they even sell it individually vacuum-sealed in tiny bite-sized packs, looking, as the astute observational skills of an English colleague of mine noted, uncannily like packets of meat condoms (I chastised him and his gutter mind, but he does have a point).

You can eat it on its own, grilled, heated up in the microwave, between slices of toast, with scoops of rice, whatever. Incredibly moreish and probably not the best thing to have within reaching distance if you are on a diet.