HONG KONG: Food in Singapore is arguably one of the biggest draws of the island.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is hoping to use that to target the stomachs of more than 7 million Hongkongers, who are well known for their love of food, by launching its first ever Singapore Food Guide.
Edward Chew, regional director for Greater China at STB, said: “They know about Singapore food, they know bak kut teh, prawn noodles, laksa, but they don’t necessarily know where to find many of these expressions of these local food. So we decided to target them.
“Actually, the Hong Kong traveller spends about 17 per cent of their total budget on food compared to 10 to 12 per cent for normal travellers. (This amount is) significantly higher, and we’re excited about that.”
Famous Hong Kong food blogger KC Koo, whose blog has nearly 6 million page-views and counting, was roped in to write the guide for Hongkongers, with a local palate in mind.
He readily confirms it is true that Singaporeans do like their food spicy.
Mr Koo said: “This is true. Plainly speaking, Singaporeans can eat a lot (more) spicy (food) than us. The way you use chilli in your dishes is so varied, that’s certainly my observation.”
In putting together the guide, Mr Koo came up with 15 categories like fried kway teow or stir fried flat noodles, prawn noodle soup, and nasi lemak.
Coming up with the short-list was not easy.
Mr Koo said: “It is quite difficult; I can say that there are so many good choices in Singapore. So I need to go to them (the food outlets), one-by-one, in order to rank the first three, the first five. And sometimes, I can’t make a very accurate choice, maybe I think it should be more than three, so I make it five, and it’s never easy.”
The tourism board is also teaming up with online travel company Priceline to launch a culinary adventure package to Singapore.
STB launches Singapore Food Guide for Hong Kongers
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