Jun 18, 2015
A taste of Singapore, in Paris
Something caught my eye when I clicked through this week’s Paris event listing. Did it say there’s a small Singaporean street food market at the Berges de Seine for a few days? I immediately forwarded the article to Wee Ling and managed to persuade F that we should check it out. He agreed. *Happy dance*
I arrived just ahead of my meeting time with F, so I scoped around to see what’s there. A tent from which you get your food vouchers from – purchase strictly by cash so find an ATM beforehand! – followed by a few tents where food were served from, and a large tent as “main kitchen” I guess. And I spotted signs reading “satay”, “chicken rice”, “bak kut teh”, “Indian mee goreng” and “bandung/chendol”. Starting to get hungry!
F and I made the beeline for the voucher just after 7pm and it took some time to get going. I think the ticketing staff try to hold off swarms of people at the food stands… or maybe trying to space things out because there were some VIPs arriving. Aha, it was Sam Tan, the Minister of Culture, together with York Chor Tan, the Singapore Ambassador to France, and their entourage. The Minister walked around and chatted with a few people, and even tried his hand at cooking mee goreng.
Finally, we got the vouchers we needed, along with some freebies – badges and bag – so time to grab some food as I was famished. But not so fast… the satay was still being patiently grilled and the chicken rice was temporarily off the menu because there weren’t any rice left. New strategy was needed – I continued to wait for the satay while F queued for the mee goreng.
Success at last, we made do with a seating area nearby to enjoy our dinner. I also dashed over quickly to grab a bandung and a cendol – these were served in a jiffy since non-Asians seemed put off by the bright pink and brown-white-green-noodle layered concoctions. Or at least not curious enough to ask for them yet. Chicken rice-less, we consoled ourselves that my homemade-with-love version is probably better anyway :p (We noticed some ingredient substitutions, but I’m sure they were unavoidable, e.g. it’s so darn difficult to find the specific fresh noodle used for mee goreng)
It was a pleasure to take comfort in some familiar food, although like most street food endeavours in Paris, there’s nothing endearing about endless queuing and waiting. It always baffles me how differently street food are served in Asia and in Europe. What happened to quick, cheap and cheerful service? The Saveurs de Singapour does have a major bonus point going for them though – the prices are actually very reasonable (thanks to subsidies of the festival?), and for every hot meal bought, they actually also give you a bottle of water.
The Singapore street food fest runs for four days, from today to Sunday 21 June. Service time varies: Thurs 6pm-9pm, Fri 6pm-10pm, Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 11am-3pm. It will be a challenge for the chefs to feed more people as the weekend rolls in, and all food hunters should be armed with cash and plenty of patience. On the plus side, the weather is forecasted to be nice and warm in the coming days, so the Berges de Seine will make a perfect spot to while a couple of hours away. ;)
thanks for the preview ! I guess I might be happy having some cendol just to avoid the queues then.
p/s those yellow noodles aren’t too hard to find. easily found at the asian supermarkets ! may or may not have bought them to make ??? curry mee at some point in time…
I guess if you time it well, you could get away with not queuing. Fingers crossed.
As for the noodles, I’ve bought some before too when I made mee rebus but it was not quite the same though. Maybe I’m too picky? :p
haha, probably ! I find that they are less “Q” here but I reckon shorter cooking time and a dip in ice-cold water after might help.
I’ll try that trick next time. ;)
hooohoo…and the mee goreng? what noodles were used??
Spaghetti…
oooo yummy! now you make me want indian mee goreng and other goodies too! time to head to Straits of Malacca? (i went for lunch the last day before Ramadan started) LOL
All this food talk makes me think I need to go to Langkawi-Paris soon… /drool