NEW DELHI: Singapore, the biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India for the second consecutive financial year at around $15 billion, is popular amongst Indians for something else too – its palatable food.
The huge number of Indian travelers including entrepreneurs and executives to Singapore makes it a point to try Singaporean food, especially the famous street food there.
Though the most liked Singaporean delicacies are Hainanese chicken rice and Satay, the others include Nasi Lemak, Laksa, Chilli Crab, Ayam Goreng, Salted Egg Prawns, Popiah, Hokkien Mee, Rendang curry, a wide variety of dim sums and baos, and many more.
The strong bond between India and Singapore is evident from the number of flights from India to Singapore in the pre-Corona period.
“Many foreign communities in Delhi and NCR want south East Asian food like Singaporean food as they have been traveling to Singapore a lot. Before the lockdown, we had 237 flights from India to Singapore per week but we are down to 12 only because of Corona pandemic,” Simon Wong Wie Kuen, High Commissioner of Singapore to India told Asian Community News (ACN) Network during the launch of Mai Bao, a modern Singaporean street food restaurant in Delhi. Mai Bao is northern India’s first authentic Singaporean food restaurant.
“We have Singaporean restaurants in southern India because of our southern connection with Tamil Nadu, we have Singaporean restaurants in Chennai and Bengaluru as well but not didn’t have even a single in Delhi. This is the first one,” said Ambassador Simon Wong.
Because of people-to-people ties and also because many people from India visit Singapore for work and other purposes, they know about Singapore and also the authentic food there, he added.
While talking about the proximity of the two sides, the Singaporean High Commissioner said, Singapore is close to India. “Someone living in Chennai takes two hours to reach Singapore, and it takes longer to travel from Chennai to Delhi.”
But it’s not so easy to have authentic Singaporean food outside of Singapore like ingredients and skills are difficult, Ambassador Simon Wong added.
When asked about the number of Singaporean nationals present in India, he said, “Before the outbreak of Corona pandemic, we were about 2000 in India but most of them were based in South. In Delhi and NCR including Gurgaon, we have about 400 Singaporean nationals. But 95% of them went back just before India announced lockdown last year.”
The Singaporean High Commissioner said that they will start coming back to India during the third quarter of this year as Singapore and India were still to establish an air bubble. “We only chartered flights.
When asked about the idea of opening a Singaporean food restaurant in Delhi, Avantika Sinha, Founder of Mai Bao said, “I always like to explore new things and work on concepts which have not been done before. I feel there is a lot of potential in the Delhi market to experiment with newer cuisines. At Kampai we succeeded at it, and we wanted to continue it. I realized there is huge potential for Singaporean food here as Singapore is very popular amongst Indians. Not only they travel to Singapore quite often, but the food is also very palatable.”
It’s not only the Indian who like Singaporean food but also the foreigners especially from East Asian countries like Japan and Korea enjoy it as they already were quite aware of Singapore and its culture.
There is a huge number of expats staying in Delhi and NCR towns who are likely to be the regular visitors at Mai Bao, Avantika added.
Related article: With MAI BAO, Singaporean Street Food makes inroads into Delhi
