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.
