RESTAURANTS : Spicy Singapore Snacks Are Served Up Amid the Usual Hamburgers and Breakfast Foods

LAGUNA BEACH —  Singapore Corner seems to be going through an identity crisis. It’s your basic neighborhood daytime place, except that it can’t decide whether to serve bacon and eggs and burgers to surf-hungry teens or nasi goreng to travel-savvy cosmopolitans.

Singapore is arguably the food capital of Asia. It’s a place where several cultures--Malay, Chinese, English, Dutch, Indonesian and Indian--coexist. Eating is such an obsession there that even the street hawkers run ads in the local newspapers. About the only people who have trouble finding a good meal in Singapore are long-haired men, due to a spate of restaurant owners who maintain an official policy against serving them. No such discrimination could exist here in Laguna--the surfer lobby is too strong.

I actually bumped into the restaurant by accident one Saturday morning as I walked down South Coast Highway in search of an interesting breakfast. At first glance, Singapore Corner appeared to be an ordinary beach town coffee shop. I noted the tropical fish tank and moribund-looking Lite Beer sign over the bar. Then I spotted him. A man wearing a Speedo bathing suit and Ray-Bans eating rice out of a banana leaf.

The menu starts out rather quietly. It’s in a clear plastic folder--the kind we used to put our term papers in. Inside, the pages give no hint of anything much beside eggs, pancakes, sandwiches and burgers . . . until you turn to the back page. There, you’ll find Singapore snacks and drinks.

There’s satay, the grilled skewers of meats that are sold on many street corners in Singapore. Here, they come in two varieties: chicken and pork. The chicken satay, prepared Indonesian-style, is by far the less sophisticated of the two; it’s coated in a sweet glaze, and when eaten with the deep-brown peanut dipping sauce, tastes almost like candy. Pork satay, Malaysian-style, is the more interesting; it’s coated in a fiery marinade and served with sambal , the fire engine-red chili sauce of the region.

Sambal is usually a key ingredient in this cuisine. But the owners are tentative about its inclusion: I found some of the dishes slightly bland.

Nasi rames , a mixed rice plate, is a good introduction to this food. It’s white rice ( nasi ) surrounded by a quintet of dishes subject to the whimsy of the kitchen. I had bumbubali , a spicy, diced meat in gravy; rendang , diced, dry-spiced beef; boontjes , curried potatoes; sambal goreng , fried chilis, and a piece of barbecued chicken. I used the chili sauce liberally.

Mee goreng , or fried noodles, is night market fare originated by the Hokkien Chinese who migrated to Singapore in giant waves, and there are hundreds of ways to prepare the dish. At Singapore Corner, long, skinny egg noodles are fried together with pork, dried slivers of tofu, and abundantly chopped leek. It’s a substantial dish.

Nasi goreng , Indonesian fried rice, is cooked with barbecued pork and plenty of egg, making it ideal for breakfast--and a perfect foil for that chili sauce. I cannot recommend the lumpia , a rather tired egg roll with an oily skin and a lackluster cabbage stuffing. What’s worse, the lumpia are served with a candy-red dipping sauce that is practically pure sugar.

There are usually good daily specials, however. Nasi kuning is yellow rice with chicken. Longtong is rice eaten out of a banana leaf. Kway teow are rice noodles fried with a variety of toppings or eaten in soup with duck meat or won ton. And if you call a day or so ahead, the kitchen can make just about any type of West Java dish you could want.

Singapore Corner is inexpensive. Breakfasts are $3.15 to $6.75. Sandwiches and burgers are $3.75 to $4.95. Singapore snacks are $1.50 to $3.50. Singapore dishes are $3.15 to $4.50.

SINGAPORE CORNER

1401 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach

(714) 494-0787

Open Tuesday through Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Cash only.