"Soccer fans, support the Singapore Food Ball Festival at Bugis Junction in July! This food festival with its theme coinciding with the most watched sporting event – World Cup soccer, will see the largest gathering ever, garnering the avid support of ardent soccer fans and food lovers.
Featuring local food relating to the symmetrical shape of the soccer ball, you can sink your teeth into yummy Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls, Tang Yuan, Onde Onde, Takapachi Octopus Balls, Fish Balls, Crab Balls, Spaghetti Meatballs, Ice Balls and more."
When we got there, the amount of space dedicated to this festival was rather small, but then again, it's not the size of the festival but the essence, or in this case, the different types of food, that makes it. Within 15 minutes we were done with the first round to find out what's on the menu and it was rather disappointing. Out of the 8 round dishes mentioned above, I only saw 4, 1 of which we tried. We weren't interested in the other 3 as they were too common, or we didn't want to risk the disappointment that was looming within each ball. The one thing I was really looking forward to having some fun with was the Ice Balls. After having your parents tell you how fun with was in their time to juggle around a colourful ball of syrup as they sucked the life out of it, you'd hope to get that experience at least once in your life. I guess this wasn't my time then.
There were a few things that caught our attention and Shirley ended up finishing her purchases there and then, while I bought them all to take some pictures first. One of the first things that caught our attention were the cute little crab shells filled with some mixture. There was also some scallops done the same way, along with the ONLY ball in the list, the crab ball. In all honesty, it was more like a cube, and I could've done a better job with the ingredients if I had the opportunity. The amount of cream in the scallop mixture was overwhelming and the only other thing you could distinguish in that was onions. The thing about them was the fact that all the things were made in mass and as they sat in display waiting for a potential victim, they started to dry out.
The next thing we bought, or rather Shirley, was a big box of aromatic durian. I don't know which kind of durian it was but the smell permeated though a really tight layer of clingwrap and I could smell it without putting my nose even close to the box. I decided that I wanted to try something else instead of the plain old fruit and opted to get a box of mini crepes so that I could share with a few people, instead of getting two big crepes, at the same price. This durian shop is rather famous already, or at least the owner is, but I honestly won't pay more than $10 for a box of durians when I would be satisfied with a $2 tray. The mini crepes were delicious, creamy with little crunchy bits of durian to give a bit of bite, while the crepe wasn't soggy. The crepe was done thick enough to hold the creamed durian mixture, while it wasn't too thick to kill the flavour of the mixture.
Durian Piglets In A Row
Right next to the hustle and bustle of the durian people stood a small little cart selling roasted chestnuts. Running the stall was a lady who would break open a chestnut with her handy opener and sneak it to you as if it was some illegal substance. Nothing is unusual about roasted chestnuts but it's the packaging and that little chestnut opener that made the difference. The back of the bag the chestnuts came in had some info on how you should break open the chestnutto enjoy it best. It even told you that chestnuts were cholesterol-free! The lady was nice enough to give us the opener as well.
Instructions On Paper
Demo Of Chestnut Opener
I've wanted to get a bottle of their chilli once just for the fun of calling it my own. Yeah I can be cheesy. Shirley decided to try their pork bun with the intention to fill herself up at the same time. She gave me a taste from her little portion and that just made me decide to get it for my family to have a try. I got a box of it and when I got it all out for the photo, the amount ofvegetablee you see in thepicturec was all they gave for 5 buns. Well it didn't matter because the important thing was giving me enough meat and sauce to enjoy with the 5 buns. The sauce has a lot of garlic in it and I guess it's part of what makes this really unique, other than the fact that the meat is soft and didn't have too much fat on each piece.
Next item I got was right next to the stall above. I guess it's one ball that got me interested as it was something I haven't tried before. This was made by the people who sells the Chakey's chicken and I'm guessing they used the same chicken in this rice ball. It was simply bits of chicken, mixed with rice, rolled into balls and "served" with a bit of chicken floss. The ball was rather bland and would have been more enjoyable if they gave a bit more chicken floss with it. Would have been nice if there was some chilli sauce to go with it too! It wasn't as dry I as thought they would be though... so kudos to them for that.
Finally the last thing we got was a little tub of yam paste topped withgingkoo nut that we got from the stall selling a softer version of ice-kachang. If this was the one that's supposedly serving up ice balls then the organiser better check their food history. As for the yam paste, it wasn't too sweet, which was nice, but it was cold and clumpy, which wasn't. I think it would've been better eaten warm but I was too damn lazy to heat it up.
From the festival, I got hold of the SFF magazine as well as a discount card that you could use when you order from certain restaurants. Now the problem with this is the card fits nicely in your wallet but the list of restaurants don't. I don't get why they couldn't get all food outlets to join in in giving a small discount for the month. I like the design though... makes me hungry.
Later that week, my mom and I, along with my uncle and his family, went to the SFF "fair" held at the basement of Ngee Ann City. This was much bigger and busier, and even had a Yuki-doll entertaining kids behind the stall selling green tea ice cream. I don't get why people are so desperate for that particular green tea ice cream but there was a long queue for it and it turned me off straight away. Heading into the square, mom and I found a version of a Thai snack that we tried on the first trip to Thailand. I also saw one of the biggest fishballs that could've made a bigger deal at the Food Ball festival.
* CLICK ME * for the SFF @ Ngee Ann City
All the memories of the first trip to Thailand came flooding back when we found this little snack being made. The ones we had were slightly flatter and more crispy than the ones we got here butbeggarss aren't choosers. This snack was bought from one of the street vendors in Chaing Rai and I don't know the real reason why mom bought it but she was at least sure that it wouldn't give her a tummy ache then as the thing was thoroughly cooked before it was packed up for her. Since that one small packet we had, we never found the same thing until they started making a wafer version of it that I bought during my last trip there. Finally someone decided to bring out this interesting little snack. They do need to work on making it less of a tiny bit of pudding and turning it into a crispy pancake with a soft middle, filled with nuts or whatever filling choices available.
Looks Like Chwee Kueh
Walking to the end of that line, I saw the biggest fishballs ever! I thought that people only made giant fishcakes, but these balls were about double the size of normal ones. The sambal that they were all lazing in also looked yummy and so I got a stick which had two big ones with a good scoop of sambal to go. The sambal was nice and spicy and complimented the springy fishballs really well. If I could go back and get more I would have.
Biggest disappointment at this fair was this vegetable fritter as I have a feeling they gave me the wrong one. I was looking forward to trying their pumpkin fritter but when I got back, I didn't find any trace of pumpkin in any of the 3 fritters. It was supposed to be one prawn fritter, one white bait fritter and a pumpkin fritter. If they shredded the pumpkin into the fritter, then I think they ought to change the way they do it as I don't see or taste the pumpkin at all. Another thing is, they over fried the prawn one and the three fritters were really oily even though they were left out to let the excess oil drip out. I think I'm better off getting this from the stall in my hawker center.
Sizzle.. Sizzle...
And that was the end of my SFF experience this year... not that great but some rather yummy discoveries.
BURP!
