Mala madness, Insta-friendly eats: 10 Singapore food trends that shaped the 2010s
Advertisement
CNA Lifestyle
Mala madness, Insta-friendly eats: 10 Singapore food trends that shaped the 2010s
From food commitment services and plant-based diets to eating with our handphones and super spicy hotpot, we ate and documented our gastro-adventures well in the terminal decade.
Impossible meats, Instagram-worthy food and lots of spicy Mala were some of the trends of the decade. (Photos: Marina Bay Sands, Unsplash)
21 Dec 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 11 Jul 2022 01:53AM)
The food earth is a fickle earth, especially in a food-saturated island like Singapore. One infinitesimal we tin't get enough of Japanese cheese tarts and grapheme cafes, and the next affair we know, those same super-pop establishments bade us a woeful goodbye.
But in the thou scheme of things, we did actually well when it came to food in the 2010s. It was the decade in which game-irresolute industries were congenital and designed and then that we eat meliorate. Well, unicorn food and freaky milkshakes, notwithstanding.
No doubt, Instagram dominated much of the cultural world, which in the realm of food, translated to a decade of avocado toast. In many ways, the paradigm of avocado slices artfully fanned out on a piece of rustic breadstuff became the emblem of today's Instagram generation of foodies, which in turn meant…
THE Death OF TRADITIONAL Food MEDIA
Social media became the platform people turned to when deciding where to eat. Why read a 500-word restaurant review in a newspaper or website when a beautiful motion-picture show could spin the proverbial thousand words on the likes of blogs and, yes, Instagram? Well, one might reason that practiced grammar and real knowledge about food would be a draw, just the likes don't lie, which leads us to…
THE Rising OF PICTURE-PERFECT Food
As if there wasn't enough force per unit area on chefs to brand their food to stand out in Singapore's saturated dining scene, it is now imperative that their food photographs well too. While this upped the ante at fine restaurants across the island, it also spawned weird and wonderful creations like unicorn bagels at the Geylang Serai Hari Raya Bazaar, acai bowls (which are actually fruit smoothies in a basin topped with fruit), and "flight noodles" suspended on a pair of levitating chopsticks. Suffice it to say, not everything tastes as good as it looks, so we say bring back the expert quondam ugly schlop like scissors back-scratch rice, please!
But WE ATE HEALTHIER Every bit A Result
The upside of Insta-friendly food is the realisation that salubrious food can be immensely photogenic. Exhibit A: The ubiquitous grain bowl. Gorgeous, layered and colourful, grain bowls emerged as the modern-24-hour interval answer to the one-bowl lunch (sorry, mee pok tah). This coincided with the growing popularity of more conscious, healthy eating where we eschewed pork lard for grilled chicken breast and chilli-lashed noodles for trendy low-carb grains like quinoa, barley and cauliflower rice (yes, we know cauliflower is not a grain).
WE EMBRACED PLANT-BASED MEALS
The healthier we ate, the more we were won over by the idea of a plant-based diet. More of u.s. are convinced of its benefits to our wellness and planet. It helps that today's vegan offerings are a far cry from the suspiciously pink slices of phoney bacon and gummy gluten char siew. Sometime during the decade, someone baked kale chips, which made the leafy green peachy again, while others gave usa oat milk, plantain yoghurt and beets dusted in dukkah. We've never loved eating our veggies more.
We ATE Incommunicable 'MEATS'
Institute-based eating spawned plant-based meats similar the Impossible Burger and Omnipork that taste so much like the real thing. Equally hard-cadre carnivores, we adore the thought that we can go to a burger restaurant or fancy Chinese establishment and order a hearty plant-based burger or Omnipork dumpling without missing the meat. Meatless Mondays accept never been easier.
WE Developed URBAN-FARM-TO-TABLE FOOD
At the start of the decade, urban farming became a buzzword thanks to intrepid folks like Edible Garden Urban center, Comcrop and Onhand Agrarian, who began making farms out of rooftops, balconies and fish ponds across the island. In doing and so, they opened the doors for Singapore'due south urban farming culture, showing the land that we tin grow and sustain our own food sources. Today, urban farming is an important part of our food scene, giving united states of america affordable, fantabulous-quality fresh produce both at home and at restaurants, and a means to lower our carbon footprints through our food choices.
We NETFLIX-AND-CHILLED Cheers TO Food Delivery SERVICES
Retrieve the early days of food delivery services, when there was a 50-50 chance of your social club getting delivered? Thanks to the likes of Grab and Deliveroo, nutrient delivery pioneers similar Food Panda upped their game and we tin now sit back and concentrate on watching Black Mirror while their trusty riders bring our favourite mala fry-up straight to our doors.
Male child, Practise We LOVE MALA
Seven years ago, our beloved for steamboat gave way to our even greater love for mala hot pot. We stand in line for hours at our favourite restaurants for no other reason than to torture our taste buds with the tongue-numbing spice and deal with our tender tummies the morning afterwards. We love mala so much that mala xiang guo stalls began mushrooming all over Singapore, from nutrient courts to hawker centres and in the basements of malls. Today there are mala-flavoured potato chips, craven wings, instant noodles and even mala Spam. The salted egg yolk craze had nothing on it.
WE PAY TO Consume AT OTHER PEOPLE'S HOMES
It's non enough that we have restaurants, cafes and a hawker stalls around every street corner, at present we're paying to swallow at people'south homes. The by three years have seen a rapid burgeoning of private dining venues where seasoned cooks open up their homes and kitchens to strangers. The cooks – who include young professional chefs, a retired chartered accountant, a cultural medallion winner, and this food shameless food author – serve the likes of complex Peranakan fare, sometime-school Cantonese favourites, and artisanal hand-crafted pizzas and pastas. Reservations are notoriously difficult to snag, with waiting lists that can stretch for up to a year. Evidently, nosotros're as hungry for good nutrient as we are for novel exclusivity.
We'RE DRINKING More MOCKTAILS (WE DIDN'T Come across ONE THAT COMING)
Time was when the only pairing yous could order with your degustation meal was wine. These days, a non-alcoholic drinkable pairing is par for the class at near fine restaurants. And at cocktail bars, you could abdomen up to the mixologist and inquire for a drink fabricated with naught-proof spirits like Seedlip (botanical distillations), Whissin (booze-free whiskey) and Herbie Virgin (non-alcoholic gin). Teetotallers have never felt this cool – and if that'due south not an achievement for the decades, we don't know what is.
Recent Searches
Trending Topics
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/dining/singapore-food-trends-2010s-mala-instagram-259776
0 Response to "Mala madness, Insta-friendly eats: 10 Singapore food trends that shaped the 2010s"
Post a Comment