Everything About the S’pore Food Festival That’ll Be Held in the Last 2 Weekends of August

You’ve heard about the GSS and how slated to continue despite Covid-19, except it’ll be held online.

But you’re not really surprised because deals and online shopping has been a thing for a few years now.

But what about food?

Foodie45: What about it?

Can it go online?

Foodie45: Of course not lah. It’s not like you can eat from the monitor-

Singapore Food Festival: SFF2020 will continue online!

Foodie45: …what?

That’s right, even a worldwide pandemic isn’t enough to stop Singapore’s love for good food.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach; we say the way to a Singaporean’s heart is through his or her stomach.

Everything About the S’pore Food Festival That’ll Be Held in the Last 2 Weekends of August

First thing first, the Singapore Food Festival is going to continue this year.

But before you start howling about how Singapore never learns from GE2020, it’s going to be held online.

But that doesn’t mean you’re going to just salivate in front of your computer screens.

According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), foodies can still enjoy selected dishes, all in the comfort of their own homes.

Food Tasting, Masterclasses & Virtual Food Tours

The Singapore Food Festival 2020 will take place on the last two weekends of Aug 2020 and they include a whole host of activities foodies can take part in:

Food Tasting

Foodies can order food from selected merchants on Shopee from 14 Aug to 13 Sep 2020 from over 25 participating merchants.

Depending on the merchant’s daily operating capacity, the amount of food available will differ.

Peranakan food lovers will be able to order from Michelin-star Candle Nut (trust me, their food is great), sustainable dining Kausmo and more.

However, there’s a fun factor for some of the merchants.

For those who are interested in selected dishes, like Damn Easy Hokkien Mee from Slake restaurant, you won’t be able to get the food delivered to your home.

Instead, you’ll get pre-packaged ingredients which you can easily put together and cook in your own home for the dish.

Masterclasses

Always wanted to learn how to make your own food at home and make it taste good?

There will be 17 masterclasses available at SFF 2020 where you can learn how to cook from top chefs.

There are two types of masterclasses available:

The in-person masterclass where you can go to a restaurant to learn from a master; or the virtual masterclasses where you have to pre-order the ingredients, then cook them alongside the chef when you tune in online.

Some of the masterclasses include making National Day eclairs, making unique Singaporean cocktails, comparing durian and blue cheese, and more.

You can find more information about SFF 2020 masterclasses here.

Virtual Food Tour

Love Chua Enlai from The Noose?

He will be taking participants on virtual food tours through the history of Tanjong Pagar, Chinatown, Katong and Joo Chiat areas and discover the stories behind popular food places there.

As a bonus, he’ll also reveal some of the lesser-known-but-equally-good food gems in the areas.

There are also in-person food tours available at SFF2020 during the last two weekends of August.

Other Interesting SFF 2020 Tidbits

Sorry, my tidbit-loving friends, I don’t mean tidbits as in those of the makan variety; I mean snippets of facts.

For one, if you’re a user of Snapchat (and by that, it means you’re nearly an uncle or auntie), you can have fun with foodie-themed filters on the platform from 21 Aug 2020.

There will also be exclusive merchandise up for grabs.

These include:

• Uniqlo T-shirts with 8 limited-edition designs of popular local hawker dishes like laksa, kueh tutu and nasi lemak
• Chicken Rice Pretz (chicken rice-flavoured biscuit sticks)
• Prawn otah cookies
• Sambal Bajak and Goreng Chilli by Violet Oon

There’s even a beer specially developed for the festival:

Yup, it sounds like it’ll be a rave, doesn’t it?

The New Norm

If you’re hoping to see more traditional and old-school hawkers at this festival, be prepared to be disappointed.

The fact that it’s going to be held in virtual form means many are left out in this year’s edition, given how there might not be enough lead time for the more traditional hawkers to jump on board.

They will have to digitalise and tweak their food to make it “delivery-friendly”, after all.

The STB is hoping that if this year’s edition proved to be a huge success, more hawkers might be able to join in next year’s Singapore Food Festival.

Ms Ranita Sundra, STB’s director of retail and dining, said that when the SFF was held in physical form, it was “much easier” to get hawkers on board.

But no matter what it is, it’s a time to come together and celebrate Singapore’s food; you can always have your favourite hawker meal in the afternoon and order SFF’s specially crafted set meals for dinner, right?

You can find out more about SFF 2020 here.

As for those who are curious about how the GSS went online, you can read this article here.