Fish Soup & Beef Noodles Not Uniquely Singaporean Enough
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Fish Soup and Beef Noodles Not Uniquely Singaporean Enough
There won't be Sri Lankan crabs or a certain kind of sweet sauce for the char kway teow that'll be served up for Singapore Day in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday (4/10).
But for the 8,000 Singaporeans expected at the food and fiesta, it won't make a difference.
The best chefs from local food court Food Republic have been flown there to fix, fry and dish up a piece of home.
And what a piece of home it'll be they tell Geraldine Soh.
Australian food restrictions mean that unlike in New York last year, the chefs for this year's Singapore Day in Melbourne can't ship their cooking utensils and other key food ingredients there ahead of the event.
But what is char kway teow without cockles or chilli crab without the huge Sri Lankan types?
Plenty, says Mr Ben Tan, a partner of the famous Thye Hong Hokkien mee or fried prawn noodles.
"Prawn noodle we use dried fish - chee poyh they have it here but I don't know what kind they using but even though they have different type we should be able to fine-tune it. In New York, we don't have all the ingredients but we managed to adjust it and make it as close as possible."
(And the feedback from visitors?)
"They find it very familir the taste."In New York, organisers expected 1,000 to turn up but 6,000 did instead, some flying in from as far as London.
8,000 are expected at this year's Singapore Day, although an estimated 40,000 Singaporeans live in Australia.
Learning from his New York experience, Mr Tan will be serving up half the usual portion of Hokkien mee and char kway teow or a total of 800 to 1,000 portions of each dish.
He reckons it's enough given the 13 to 15,000 portions of other local delicacies offered by 11 other Food Republic tenants, including bak kut teh, nasi briyani and mee soto.
Preparations for this started more than five months ago says Mr Willie Tay who oversees Food Republic's operations.
While the greatest challenge was in sourcing for raw ingredients, it wasn't easy either deciding what foods best represent Singapore.
Mr Tay thinks chicken rice might emerge tops in the popularity contest, followed by chilli crab then hokkien mee.
Foods that failed to make the cut in the final list:
"Fish soup and beef noodles - we replaced it with satay and chilli crab."
The peranakan-themed food fiesta will take place at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday (04/10).
Tune in to 938 LIVE for live updates from our reporter Claire Huang.
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For a real taste of home, Lee Hsien Loong should be there cooking up his trademark mee siam mai hum.
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OMG..Didn't see that coming!!!
ROTFL!!
