Most Singaporeans have a special fondness for hawker food. So do our Istana presidents.
This certainly raises the level of respectability for our food culture. The food and beverage industry of Singapore, led by the hotels, has also done much to accord it a high status. Local food, instead of being edged out by Western fare, stands out even more prominently in hotel menus today.
Singaporeans, despite their exposure to a wider availability of foreign cuisines, still crave for their chicken rice, nasi lemak and roti prata. They are our comfort food. Maybe, there's mouth-watering magic in Asian flavours. Didn't the old colonialists come to this region for its spices and other produce？ They brought them back to their homelands and fused them with their cuisines, making them famous.
Now, we borrow their trick. The annual Singapore Food Festival emphasises Asian flavours, whether in a purely ethnic fare or in fusion cooking. During the festival this year, a bigwig of the Singapore Tourism Board boldly declared its new mission - make Singapore a world culinary capital.
And why not？ Don't we have a rich melting pot of Asian flavours？ Don't we have able cooks who keep on grabbing top prizes in international cooking competitions？ Don't we have a wider, though not yet comprehensive, variety of ethnic restaurants, compared to many other countries？
A culinary capital is a wonderful idea but it certainly requires lots of selling and promotions. Holding short festivals on Singapore food abroad is not enough. They reach out to only small pockets of people. There are travellers who pass through Singapore without having tasted the real Singapore food.
The aromas of our cooking pot need to linger permanently in foreign lands. We would need many more enterprising people, hopefully, Singaporeans, to set up authentic Singapore restaurants abroad. This would allow foreigners to learn about our gourmet offerings before they could appreciate and be nuts about them. We would need to screen programmes of local culture and cuisines on foreign TV to teach and entice foodie travellers.
Take a leaf from the successful Americans who open their eateries across Asia. Look at their aggressive advertising. The average Asian probably knows much about a Big Mac but has no idea what char kuay teow is.
Singapore can only become a food capital when the sole purpose of many tourists is to come to eat our food. Or when they make sure that they would not miss our delicious fare even if it's just a one-day business trip. It is only when the mere mention of the name - Singapore - makes their mouths water, then can we regard our country as a food capital.
It doesn't matter if they flock here to eat mee goreng, chicken rice, a US prime rib or some intriguing East-meets-West fusion dish. After all, we are moving closer to being a global city with a hodge-podge of influences.
When visitors find the food brilliantly prepared and worth the airfare, they will start to see Singapore as a food paradise. This reminds me of friends who jet to Penang, Hongkong, Italy and London-just to be belly-happy.
（The writer is an assistant manager of corporate relations in SPH）
穩(wěn)步邁向美食天堂
大多數新加坡人都對本地熟食情有獨鐘,連總統也不例外,這對本地佳肴而言是一種肯定,也使得本地飲食文化榮登大雅之堂。
以本地酒店為首的新加坡飲食業(yè)也大大提高了本地食品的身價。
本地美食因此并沒有被西式佳肴排擠在外,反而更加顯著地出現在今天的酒店菜單上。
雖然外地佳肴在本地唾手可得,國人還是鐘情于海南雞飯、馬來椰漿飯和印度煎餅。這些都是我們所熟悉的食物。或許亞洲的美味佳肴的確有令人垂涎三尺的魅力吧。
當年的西方殖民主義者不就是為了這個區(qū)域的香料和其他土產慕名而來的嗎？他們把這些調料帶回自己的國家,融入他們本身的烹飪法,使之發(fā)揚光大。
如今我們借鑒他們的做法。今年舉辦的新加坡美食節(jié)中就特別強調亞洲風味,有正宗的民族風味,也有結合東西方風味而“熔于一爐”的菜肴。在美食節(jié)進行期間,新加坡旅游局的某位要人還宣布旅游局的新目標——使新加坡成為一個美食都會。
這有何不可？我們不是擁有結合各亞洲風味的大熔爐嗎？我們廚藝精湛的廚師們不是一直在國際烹飪比賽中奪魁嗎？新加坡的民族風味餐館雖然還未做到包羅萬象,但其種類難道不比其他國家來得多嗎？
美食都會是個非常好的概念,但我們必須大力對外推銷和宣傳。
在國外舉辦一些小型新加坡美食節(jié)是不足夠的,因為這只能把信息傳達到國外一小部分的人。有些過境新加坡的旅客,甚至沒有品嘗過地道的新加坡美食。
本地美食應該永久性地在外地留香。因此我們需要更多富有創(chuàng)業(yè)精神的人（是新加坡人）到國外開正宗的新加坡餐館。這么一來,外國人就能夠對我們的美味佳肴有所認識,在食髓知味之際,便會對之如醉如癡。我們也需要在外國的電視上播放一些關于本地文化和美食的節(jié)目,一方面開開他們的眼界,另一方面引誘外國老饕們前來我國品嘗美食。
我們要向那些把美國餐館開遍亞洲各地的美國人學習。且看看他們積極的促銷方法。一般亞洲人想必對麥當勞的巨無霸非常熟悉,但他們恐怕從未聽說過炒¤條這道美味佳肴。
如果旅客們來新加坡的目的是為品嘗我們的食物,就算只來新加坡公干一天,也不會錯過我們這里的美味佳肴的話,那新加坡才稱得上是美食都會。當他們一提到“新加坡”這個名字就食指大動、垂涎三尺的時候,正是新加坡成為美食都會之時。
無論是馬來炒面、海南雞飯、美國烤排骨或者是新鮮有趣、東西方合并的融合菜肴,他們在這里要品嘗什么食物都無所謂,畢竟我們正逐漸成為一個受四方八面影響的大都會。
當旅客認為食物做得好,值得買機票飛來新加坡大快朵頤的時候,他們便會開始把新加坡當成美食天堂,就像我的一些朋友,專程飛往檳城、香港、意大利和倫敦,只為了滿足他們口腹之欲。
（作者是報業(yè)控股公關助理經理）
（黃克群譯）
This certainly raises the level of respectability for our food culture. The food and beverage industry of Singapore, led by the hotels, has also done much to accord it a high status. Local food, instead of being edged out by Western fare, stands out even more prominently in hotel menus today.
Singaporeans, despite their exposure to a wider availability of foreign cuisines, still crave for their chicken rice, nasi lemak and roti prata. They are our comfort food. Maybe, there's mouth-watering magic in Asian flavours. Didn't the old colonialists come to this region for its spices and other produce？ They brought them back to their homelands and fused them with their cuisines, making them famous.
Now, we borrow their trick. The annual Singapore Food Festival emphasises Asian flavours, whether in a purely ethnic fare or in fusion cooking. During the festival this year, a bigwig of the Singapore Tourism Board boldly declared its new mission - make Singapore a world culinary capital.
And why not？ Don't we have a rich melting pot of Asian flavours？ Don't we have able cooks who keep on grabbing top prizes in international cooking competitions？ Don't we have a wider, though not yet comprehensive, variety of ethnic restaurants, compared to many other countries？
A culinary capital is a wonderful idea but it certainly requires lots of selling and promotions. Holding short festivals on Singapore food abroad is not enough. They reach out to only small pockets of people. There are travellers who pass through Singapore without having tasted the real Singapore food.
The aromas of our cooking pot need to linger permanently in foreign lands. We would need many more enterprising people, hopefully, Singaporeans, to set up authentic Singapore restaurants abroad. This would allow foreigners to learn about our gourmet offerings before they could appreciate and be nuts about them. We would need to screen programmes of local culture and cuisines on foreign TV to teach and entice foodie travellers.
Take a leaf from the successful Americans who open their eateries across Asia. Look at their aggressive advertising. The average Asian probably knows much about a Big Mac but has no idea what char kuay teow is.
Singapore can only become a food capital when the sole purpose of many tourists is to come to eat our food. Or when they make sure that they would not miss our delicious fare even if it's just a one-day business trip. It is only when the mere mention of the name - Singapore - makes their mouths water, then can we regard our country as a food capital.
It doesn't matter if they flock here to eat mee goreng, chicken rice, a US prime rib or some intriguing East-meets-West fusion dish. After all, we are moving closer to being a global city with a hodge-podge of influences.
When visitors find the food brilliantly prepared and worth the airfare, they will start to see Singapore as a food paradise. This reminds me of friends who jet to Penang, Hongkong, Italy and London-just to be belly-happy.
（The writer is an assistant manager of corporate relations in SPH）
穩(wěn)步邁向美食天堂
大多數新加坡人都對本地熟食情有獨鐘,連總統也不例外,這對本地佳肴而言是一種肯定,也使得本地飲食文化榮登大雅之堂。
以本地酒店為首的新加坡飲食業(yè)也大大提高了本地食品的身價。
本地美食因此并沒有被西式佳肴排擠在外,反而更加顯著地出現在今天的酒店菜單上。
雖然外地佳肴在本地唾手可得,國人還是鐘情于海南雞飯、馬來椰漿飯和印度煎餅。這些都是我們所熟悉的食物。或許亞洲的美味佳肴的確有令人垂涎三尺的魅力吧。
當年的西方殖民主義者不就是為了這個區(qū)域的香料和其他土產慕名而來的嗎？他們把這些調料帶回自己的國家,融入他們本身的烹飪法,使之發(fā)揚光大。
如今我們借鑒他們的做法。今年舉辦的新加坡美食節(jié)中就特別強調亞洲風味,有正宗的民族風味,也有結合東西方風味而“熔于一爐”的菜肴。在美食節(jié)進行期間,新加坡旅游局的某位要人還宣布旅游局的新目標——使新加坡成為一個美食都會。
這有何不可？我們不是擁有結合各亞洲風味的大熔爐嗎？我們廚藝精湛的廚師們不是一直在國際烹飪比賽中奪魁嗎？新加坡的民族風味餐館雖然還未做到包羅萬象,但其種類難道不比其他國家來得多嗎？
美食都會是個非常好的概念,但我們必須大力對外推銷和宣傳。
在國外舉辦一些小型新加坡美食節(jié)是不足夠的,因為這只能把信息傳達到國外一小部分的人。有些過境新加坡的旅客,甚至沒有品嘗過地道的新加坡美食。
本地美食應該永久性地在外地留香。因此我們需要更多富有創(chuàng)業(yè)精神的人（是新加坡人）到國外開正宗的新加坡餐館。這么一來,外國人就能夠對我們的美味佳肴有所認識,在食髓知味之際,便會對之如醉如癡。我們也需要在外國的電視上播放一些關于本地文化和美食的節(jié)目,一方面開開他們的眼界,另一方面引誘外國老饕們前來我國品嘗美食。
我們要向那些把美國餐館開遍亞洲各地的美國人學習。且看看他們積極的促銷方法。一般亞洲人想必對麥當勞的巨無霸非常熟悉,但他們恐怕從未聽說過炒¤條這道美味佳肴。
如果旅客們來新加坡的目的是為品嘗我們的食物,就算只來新加坡公干一天,也不會錯過我們這里的美味佳肴的話,那新加坡才稱得上是美食都會。當他們一提到“新加坡”這個名字就食指大動、垂涎三尺的時候,正是新加坡成為美食都會之時。
無論是馬來炒面、海南雞飯、美國烤排骨或者是新鮮有趣、東西方合并的融合菜肴,他們在這里要品嘗什么食物都無所謂,畢竟我們正逐漸成為一個受四方八面影響的大都會。
當旅客認為食物做得好,值得買機票飛來新加坡大快朵頤的時候,他們便會開始把新加坡當成美食天堂,就像我的一些朋友,專程飛往檳城、香港、意大利和倫敦,只為了滿足他們口腹之欲。
（作者是報業(yè)控股公關助理經理）
（黃克群譯）