Singapore Food Festival 2011 - Official Opening 15 July 2011

Although it was a raining evening, it did not reduce the number of visitors gathering around Clarke Quay Read Bridge to discover the journey of this year Singapore Food Festival 2011(SFF11) "CURRIES AND SPICES" theme during its Official Opening on Friday, 15 July 2011.

Introducing different types of ground spices for making curries and cuisines near the main entrance.

From the name "SPICE IT UP!" you are able to discover Singapore ethnic curries and cuisines using different kinds of whole or ground spices found in their cuisine which they will showcase it on most of the participating stalls. Example: These are the spices and ingredients used for making Chinese Herbal Mutton Soup from one of the stalls.)

As compared to last year(read more HERE) statistic of 30,000 visitors, this year we have over 35,000 visitors crowding at the stalls on the Clarke Quay Read Bridge during yesterday night official opening.

Before the Guest of Honor arrival at the Singapore Food Festival Village, there is a short 5 minutes band performance where the drummers dressed in chef outfits accompany by two dancers to SPICE up the HEAT for the event.

This year Singapore Food Festival logo is given an updated look to reflect to the theme of SFF11 after 17 years. The brand new logo is a colourful amalgamation of Singapore’s Best-loved Spices in a traditional mortar and pestle. Every member of the launch party will be given a piece of a puzzle to fit onto the “Spice Backdrop”. These 5 pieces of puzzle will form the new SFF Logo when pieced together and at the same time officially launching SFF11.

The order of the pieces of puzzle are:-

~ 1st Piece: Cinnamon Stick (by Ms Le Thi Thanh Thao)
~ 2nd Piece: Chilli (by Chef Milind Sovani & Mr Shanmugam)
~ 3rd Piece: Ginger (by Mr Ng Yong Hwee)
~ 4th Piece: Cardamom (by Ms Melissa Ow)
~ 5th Piece: Coriander Leaf and Star Anise (by Minister S.Iswaran)

After Minster S.Iswaran and the rest of the launch party finished touring the "Curry and Spice Street", they headed to the cooking demonstration area to observe SFF Consultant Chef Milind Sovani prepares a Fish Head Curry dish.

Zalina's Specialties has a good range of local Malay Cuisines where you will indulge with the sambal chilli, rendang, chili prawns and etc. Our set meal consists of :- Turmeric Rice, Rendang Chicken, Sambal Prawns and Egg which cost S$6.50. 

Local favourite Ngoh Hiang that you can have it anytime of the day with a accompany spicy dipping sauce with hint of crashed peanuts.

Spice Sutra offers a range of North Indian food such as Butter Chicken, Assorted Skewers, Mutton Curry and etc.

Other than spicy curries you can also try the Chili Crab from Jumbo Seafood, Claypot Fish Head Curry from Chng Kee, and Fried Carrot Cake from Lim Hai Sheng. But if you keen in trying some Indian food, look up for the stalls occupy by the Indian Restaurants Association Singapore(IRAS) where they offers array of Indian cuisines.

For those who love Ice-Cream there is an Gelato stall that sells a few types of "spiced ice-creams" such as Wasabi, Vanilla Saffron and Chocolate Chilly(where you will get to see real red chili in it) for a single scoop at S$4.00 per cup.

If you are someone who love SPICES and SPICY food, do come down to the Singapore Food Festival Village and experience your journey with all the different types of curries and cuisines are you can find there.

SINGAPORE FOOD FESTIVAL VILLAGE

Date: 15 - 24 July 2011
Time: 4.00pm - 11.00pm(weekdays) / 12.00pm - 11.00pm(weekends)
Venue:Clarke Quay Read Bridge And Along Central River Promenade
Admission: FREE (Pricing of the food starts from S$2.00 onwards)
Website and Details HERE.

Official Opening of Singapore Food Festival & Clarke Quay Food Street

Finally the official opening of this year Singapore Food Festival (SFF) was held concurrently together with the Clarke Quay Food Street from 16 July - 24 July 2010. Come let us embark on a mouth-watering journey on this year Singapore Chinese Dialects Heritage Food to stimulate your senses for an unforgettable experience.

But before you enter into the food street to start off your feast, remember to get a SFF Kopitiam stored value dining card from the cashier counter at either side of the entrance at a minimum of S$10.00 value. This stored value card will allows you to enjoy fast and convenient transactions at all the 30 participating stalls at the Clarke Quay Food Street. And remember, "CASH" payment are not allow at the Food Street so do get ready this card before you step in to avoid any inconveniences.

Due to the Opening Ceremony today, there is this long table with a few plates of similar items that symbolised the different Dialect groups and their culture. Eg. The beancurd represent the Hakka yong tau foo, the mee suah represent Hokkien, Fishball for Teochew, Wanton for Cantonese and Beef for Hainanese.

Let's walk through some of the stalls in this year Singapore Chinese Dialects Feast at Clarke Quay Food Street.

Near to the right side of the main entrance are some delicious traditional Hainanese dishes and snack such as Chicken Rice, Chicken Curry, Pork Chop and etc. All these items look so heart warming as it reminds me some of my mother's family traditional Hainanese cuisines.

Talk about Cantonese delight, Dim Sum is always one of the good choice to start off with. I am sure these traditional Cantonese delight such as Cha Siew Bao, Har Gao and Siew Mai can be also found in some western countries too.

If you want something more different from the above dim sum, perhaps you can try out some of these Hokkien and Cantonese delight by Gim Tim. Above is their signature Traditional Hokkien Fried Topical Roll - 招牌大茨粉 which I have review in another SFF post (click HERE). Whereas on the second photo is their Cantonese snack known as Steam Glutinous Rice Roll - 糯米卷. This is a special dim sum dish whereby the seasoned glutinous rice is wrapped with a white skin that is similar to "Bao" skin which is soft and fluffy.

Ngoh Hiang Prawn Cracker is some kind of assorted deep-fried snacks that you can pick from the choice of items such as fishball, cuttlefish, sausage, prawn or fish roll, prawn fitter and etc. These deep-fried items are often served with some sweet/spicy dipping sauce with crushed peanuts.

Lim Hai Sheng Carrot Cake is one of the stalls that is always surrounded by people queuing to get their famous fried carrot cake. Although this dish might look simple with just steam carrot cake fried together with beaten eggs and salted turnip but you must really give it a try which will makes you crave for more. You can read more about this stall at another SFF review post. (click HERE)

I saw a lot of people eating this snack along the way while I venture the stalls. When I asked around, some of the folks told me that this is a Must Try item as they actually prepared the freshly made Popiah skin on the spot at the Food Street.

Without hesitate, I went over to the stall and ordered these Popiah and Kueh Pie Tee. I must admit that those recommendations are good because the ingredients are very fresh and the taste of the filling is very fragrant and with the right amount of seasonings.

Tian Jin Hai, Teochew stall caught my attention with their traditional Fried Black Olive Rice instead of the Cold Crab. This is not the usual fried rice that we used to order from local Cze Cha stall. The fried rice sold here is fried with black olive which makes the rice infused with a special fragrance and taste.

Kew Gardens offered some of their traditional Hakka dishes such as Chicken with Wine Lees - 红糟鸡, Abacus Seeds - 算盘子, Soon Kueh - 笋粿 which is made of yam instead of the normal white soon kueh skin. Other than the above-mentioned, I also discovered the Hakka Black Bean Kueh - 黑豆糕 which I had never seen my in-laws whom are Hakka prepared in any occasions before.

Other than local Chinese Dialect food, you can also find some Malay or Indian food stalls around selling their traditional satay, otah, biryani, curry, and etc.

If you prefer something sweet, perhaps you can try the Four Seasons Durian stall where you can get some durian products such as durian cream puffs, durian tarts, durian kueh and etc.

These are some of the yummy food that are available at the Food Street market. But we are quite disappointed that there actually isn't any dessert stall around except some ice-cream from Four Season Durian and cheng teng from Gim Tim.

The beautiful night view of the Food Street together with the crowds that are busying with the choice of food to buy and also tried to sample as many as possible on those delicious food.

You can also sit along some open air cafe to enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or drinks and look at the beautiful view of the Clarke Quay river after the feast at the Food Market.

If not you can take a walk along the Street Market to pick up some clothing or stuffs which you might be fancy of. Teochew Hand Puppets show is also available the Central's River Promenade from 8:00 - 8:30pm and 9:00 - 9:30pm from 16 - 25 July 2010.

Lastly for all the Media and invited guests, each of us get to take home a very traditional and unique 8 Treasures Box - 八宝盒 from Mandarin Oriental Hotel as a gift. It consists of some traditional sweet candy treat such as malt sugar, candied lotus, candied melon and etc.

So if you love to eat all these dialect dishes, do drop by the Food Street from today till 25th July with some friends or family to sample some or all of these delicious cuisine. And if you are interested on the Chinese Dialect Heritage Feast on 25 July 2010 where there are more than 100 over dishes served. You can drop by this website (HERE) to book your tickets online.

Clarke Quay Food Street
Date: 16 July to 24 July
Time: 4pm to 11pm
Venue: Clarke Quay Read Bridge
Pricing: Payment via Singapore Food Festival Souvenir Card
Official Website: http://singaporefoodfestival.com.sg




p/s: For more photos on the SFF Food Street, you can click on this link (HERE) at Cuisine Paradise Facebook Fan Page.