Food & Beverage Fair 2012 (美食与饮料展) @ Suntec City Halls 403-404

Assumption is the mother of all mistakes - as the saying goes, i assume that the food and beverage fair 2012 is held in Singapore Expo and only realised the mistake when i drove from Bugis all the way to Tanah Merah!

I had to drive back to central Singapore in order not to disappoint my great mother, who was really looking forward to visit this food fair.

Here i am; right outside hall 404. These pull out banners are very much preferred over real humans who tried every way and mean to push their company brochures and leaflets to you (a typical scene in any computer fair).

Spread over two main halls in Suntec City Convention Centre, this food and beverage fair features hundreds of exhibitors aiming to whet the appetite of every visitor.

For a working day on a Thursday afternoon, i am amaze with the larger than expected turnout.

The first exhibitor that caught my mom's eyes was the supplier for Julie biscuits! Offering her favourite peanut butter sandwich biscuit at a promotional price of 3 big packs for just S$10, she could not wait to grab them immediately!

Handy food processors for sale - at least this item is related to food.

But a micro washing machine booth?! Okay, i am not so unreasonable; food and drinks can spill on your clothes and a portable washing machine is therefore convenient to wash your clothes while you stand naked (or half naked) in public premises.

No one can snatch the cake from this company which offers services that are way beyond the food realm. Ear candling and shoulder massages?!?!?! And it was teeming with customers!

At that point, i was already jaded. For a person who loves to eat, finding exhibitors selling non-food, non-beverage products can be absolutely frustrating.

Have to eat my own words eventually as i could not resist buying 4 packs of charcoal deodorant for my wardrobe at a discounted price of merely S$10! Original price was over S$4 a bag which means i save over 35%!

Coming back to the 'makans', you have the normal big brands like Bee Cheng Hiang (美珍香) and Fragrance (香味) bak kwa setting up booths. Discounts are inevitable even though i would not touch bak kwa for the next few months after ingesting massive quantities during Chinese New Year two months back.

Frankly, i was so busy taking pictures on the move (resulting in pretty blur photographs) that i did not check the items on sale and promotions thoroughly. Only when i took a closer look at this picture at home that i realised i should have bought these instant powder beverages!

For the nuts people. It appears that the traditional camel or even tong garden brands are slowly replaced by the kangaroo brand, which enters the nutty segment not too long ago.

Chef Tony's Halal gourmet popcorns! Their parmesan popcorns were most addictive (resulting in a blog entry here) and i took advantage of the promotion (S$3 off total price) to buy one large tub and a small tub of Mochachino.

Old town coffee had a booth there as with this distributor of Vietnamese coffee. For those who are interested in the 'shitty' (literally) yet expensive kopi luwak, there is an exhibitor giving away small sampling cups.

Coral seaweed jelly that is supposed to be rich in collagen! One vacuumed pack contains four large cubes and you are required to cook them (in water) over low fire. I shall come out with a separate post on this!

Ready-to-eat (known also as cooked food) section is always the most popular in any food fair and the organiser this time has cordoned half the area for this purpose. Smart move as i could find easily find an available table! Note, i cannot guarantee that you would be as lucky over the weekends.

Alas, i have not fully recovered from the irritating hacking cough and painful sore throat and was in a big dilemma on what to choose! The BBQ squid was definitely out of the question. :(

Crayon Shin Chan's favourite snack; if i remember correctly, he loves to suck out the bean paste from an area beneath the nail. Super disgusting right?!

This stall was surrounded by quite a big crowd. I have no idea what it sells until i heard on the radio that they are famous for their humongous buns known as Ye Zi Mei (Amy Yip) buns. For the uninitiated, Amy Yip, a category III actress from Hong Kong, was famous in the 80s and 90s for her big boobs.

I love the chicken based char siew sou (蜜汁烧鸡酥) from Tarts and Pastries; the crust was of the right thickness and the moist chicken char siew filling was simply mouth watering! 10% discount with any 4 pastries purchased.

Craving for crabs? Get your fix (chilli crabs, black pepper crabs, butter crabs and i think salted egg crabs) at House of Seafood @ 180. For my review on its restaurant, please click here.

The original fried chicken from Taiwan is finally in Singapore (first outlet is located in City Square Mall)!

With over 40 branches in Taiwan, the size of their fried chicken was really no joke. My younger sister would love to get her hands on this! Just heard from my elder sister on whatsapp that both the sisters cannot wait to return home for local food!

Westlake Pork Bun - a must try!

With the above in mind, i took things easy and bought both the pork bun and glutinous rice from Westlake. There were just too many choices and i didn't want to keep my mom waiting.

Bringing along the strong and hyperactive Jovyn is seriously no easy task; my recovering wrist was dealt a few damaging blows when she chose to twist and turn at every opportunity! *cry*

To comfort myself, i bought 13 pontong ice creams for only S$9 (and came with a free styrofoam box). Only to remember a few moments after paying that i am still nursing a bad cough.

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Location

1 Raffles Boulevard,

Suntec City, Halls 403-404.

Admission Fee

Free admission!

Duration

Until Sunday, 18 March 2012!

Opening Hours

11am till 10pm

(the later you arrive, the higher the possibility that the cooked food might be sold out)