Homesick Southeast Asians Flock to Singapore Food Festival in Shanghai
A smorgasbord of eats, this Singaporean food festival was recently rolled out at Raffles City The Bund, Shanghai.
The 10-day-long event (Sept 30-Oct 9) was scheduled during China’s National Day holiday, one of the country’s two Golden Weeks.
Scores of Southeast Asians stopped by the event to feast. Grace Leow, a participating chef, succinctly put down its success to the fact that “many of us [SE Asians] haven’t been home in three years [due to Covid-19].”
Dishes in Singapore and Malaysia see a lot of overlap and are influenced by Chinese emigration and other factors, like proximity to Thailand, Indonesia, etc.
A mini-celebrity among Singaporeans and Malaysians based in Shanghai, Leow is known for her proficiency in the kitchen. She sold over 600 bowls of curry laksa during the festival.
One of the chef’s original creations is chicken rice sushi, which sees Singaporean chicken rice (an adaptation of Wenchang chicken from Hainan) in bite-sized morsels — 3,000 pieces were sold at the festival!
Read more stories about food and its propensity to bring people together by clicking the icon below.