10 Food Fads in S’pore That Die As Fast As It Came

Remember bubble tea? Or coffee buns? If so, you’ll know that food trends aren’t created by food bloggers who take Instagram-worthy images of beautiful food and post them online—its history date back to days when virality was by word of mouth, and the people who jumped on the bandwagon were just as crazy as the people now.

Now, if you belong to the 90s, you’ll have remembered these food trends. Here’s a trip down memory lane as we chew on our salted egg everything and drink our 純萃。喝.

Bubble Tea

You can’t leave out bubble tea when you talk about food fad—as the pioneer of food fad, it came to Singapore in 2000 and had so many outlets, one neighbourhood might have over 8 outlets all within walking distance. And the fad was so crazy that all these 8 outlets had a queue, with prices going down all the way to mere $1 per cup. Ironically, it was this oversupply that led to its demise—in 2003, most of those outlets were out of business.

Thick Honey Toast

This Instagram-worthy and extremely sinful food made its debut in around 2013, made popular by hipster cafes then. Now, while the trend is dying, some hipster cafes are still selling them.

Tau Huay

A traditional food that is popular among the elderly, this food got into the hipsters’ list due to new flavours that became an instant hit—including even a durian-flavoured tau huay. While it’s relatively dead now, the traditional flavour is still popular—among the elderly.

Donuts

Before 2010, donuts were fried doughs coated with sugar. Then someone decided to coat it with sweet frosting and donuts were no longer just donuts: they were a statement of hipsters. But its demise is also attributed to oversupply—you can still find frosted donuts around, but they’re now usually never out of stock, unlike its heydays when getting a donut you want is like catching a Snorlax.

Coffee buns

Another pioneer of the food trend, it attracts customers by leaving a strong trail of aroma at its entrance. But just like its pioneer counterpart bubble tea, oversupply, including those from bakeries, killed the trend as fast as it came.

Frozen yogurt

Also known as frogurt, the food promises a healthier alternative to ice-cream, although many people know that isn’t exactly true. The queues for frogurt outlets were not just crazy—they were outrageous, with some up to one hour just for one cup of these goodie. Now, the staff can wait for one hour without a single cup sold.

Mookata

This was made popular in 2014, with tens of mookata outlets opening islandwide. Thai restaurants that focused on a la carte food also joined in the fun, with even coffeeshops adding into the supply. The oversupply, and the death of its novelty, killed many mookata restaurants, but a few good ones still survive until today.

Korean Fried Chicken

Here’s the difference between a Korean fried chicken and the typical fried chicken we have in KFC: they’re fried twice and dripped in special Korea sauces. This food fad was made popular in 2009 by Chicken Up and 4 Fingers in 2009, and while they’re still being sold now with numerous fans, the queues are no longer there.

Churros

Known as a food that is “better than boyfriend”, this sweet and small youtiao lasted in the market as a food trend for less than a year. Now, I guess girls are all patching up with their boyfriends: the traditional youtiao.

Truffle everything

It doesn’t matter what you know about truffle: as long as the world “truffle” is there, it’s a trendy food. The trend started in 2015 and by mid-2016, no one cares about truffle everything. Quite sad, really.

Featured Image: stockcreations / Shutterstock.com

This article was first published on Goodyfeed.com