Food festival will be on a roll this year

Food festival will be on a roll this year

This year, the Singapore Food Festival is coming to you, and it is bringing new and old favourites.

The Nonya Mobile, a food truck, will visit various parts of the island, including Ang Mo Kio Hub, Century Square and Vivo- City, to offer food tastings.

The truck will carry popular dishes featured in previous editions of the festival, including Peranakan ones like buah keluak ice cream, satay, and chicken pong teh, a chicken stew with mushrooms and potatoes.

This is part of this year's theme - A Walk Down Memory Lane - which relives the best memories of the festival, which is being held for the 21st year, said the Singapore Tourism Board in a statement.

Another crowd favourite, BBQ by the Beach, which features a Hawaiian pit where food is roasted over a fire on the ground, will be brought back too.

For the first time, Chinatown Food Street, which was relaunched in February this year after a $4 million revamp, will start off the 10-day festival on July 11.

The 100m stretch in Smith Street will sell dishes not commonly found in one place, such as chicken rice balls, yam paste with gingko nuts and rice bowl cakes.

Mr Jack Tan, executive director of Select Group which runs the food street, said the look and feel of Singapore's early days will help foodies relive "the taste from Singapore's bygone era".

Heritage food trails will be conducted at Chinatown Food Street for food lovers to learn about Chinese dishes. At the festival opening, performers will also dress up as samsui women and coolies to liven up the place.

Additions to the festival include South East Sliders, a pop-up store at Ion Orchard selling burgers filled with beef rendang or curried chicken, and Suvai, a carnival organised by the Indian Chefs and Culinary Association (ICCA). Suvai will be set up opposite Serangoon Plaza in Little India to offer grilled roulade prata, mutton briyani and an assortment of rice dishes.

It will be a good showcase of the diversity of Indian food and the transformation it has undergone, said chef Balasundram Pillai, 39, president of ICCA.

An international chef competition will be held as part of Suvai. There will also be cooking classes, fruit and vegetable carving demonstrations, and live band performances.

Nonya Mobile will also exhibit items like traditional Peranakan costumes, spices and wedding customs.

Assistant marketing manager Adiel Ng, 25, plans to go to the festival. She said: "This year's theme seems like a good chance to know more about our cultural legacy through good food."

awcw@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on June 19, 2014.
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