Street Food Frenzy and All That Jazz at Singapore’s World Street Food Congress 2015
Singapore — Not that I’m the biggest fan of sisig and lechon, but serving these all-time favorite Pinoy dishes in an international “street food-gourmet” setting is thrilling. How often do you see non-Filipinos eating these greasy pork concoctions?
At the recently-concluded World Street Food Congress 2015 (which ran from 08-12 April 2015), over 10 countries participated offering their various street food dishes — from Vietnam’s crispy seafood pancake to Indonesia’s Soto Ayam Ambengan. The five-day event was held at an open field at the intersection of Rochor Road and North Bridge Road which was big enough to hold over 200-300 foodies at a time.
Excitedly, we paid the food congress a visit on a sunny-yet-breezy Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately, it was a big let down.
We circumnavigated the venue twice, no, thrice… and still couldn’t decide what to get. Not because we had too many options (which was supposed to be good), but because nothing really enticed our appetites.
Mind you, I skipped lunch that day, and so I’m supposed to be all-out hungry. But I wasn’t.
Maybe it was the quintessential “dump-in-a-paper-styro” food presentation or the unavoidable long queues or the lackluster food placards hanging on top of everyone’s booth.
Or maybe, the variety wasn’t just enticing at all. Plus everything here is pricey!
Imagine, I paid a hefty SG$9 (PHP290.00) for a three-piece sisig taco from one of the Filipino booths. I could have just ordered a big sisig platter at Gerry’s Grill at SG$11.00 and still get my money’s worth from all those calories.
Just look at this, my plate looks like it was prepared by a little grade school boy. Geez.
I wanted to try something exotic.
Since India is one of the countries that fascinates me for the longest time now, I just had to try one of their local dishes too. Maybe something I don’t usually get in Little India or in the ever-proliferating hawker centres — and so I thought!
This is my SG$10 Litti Chicken meal:
I get a thigh and 2 hopias starchy breads. It looks sad I know. The bread was delicious though; it felt like I was eating hopia (bakpia/meat pastry), which was something I didn’t really expect.
My friend couldn’t decide what to eat either and so he got a…. chicken burger (from one of the Singapore stalls). How exciting.
Look at Pepita’s Kitchen (Philippine stall) selling Truffle Lechon Diva. They had one of the longest queues in the venue (THUMBS UP!). Well, partially because the waiting time is an hour as they were still in the process of roasting the poor pig at the back (THUMBS DOWN!).
And what you’re seeing is correct, a plate of lechon is sold at SG$13.80 (PHP450.00). Ano yan, may gold?
The cook/owner is sooo cute though. When she saw me taking photos, she immediately waved a Philippine flag so I can take a good snap of her stall.
The street food congress concept was an excellent idea. But it just didn’t work for us.
Maybe the greatest issue for us were the food prices. Or maybe, there just weren’t as many food options as we expected it to be.
