Food News – Singapore Food Festival

Kicking off this week, the Shangri-La Sydney is running a Singapore Food Festival in honour of Singapore’s 50th National Day Celebration on August 9.  They’re upping the authenticity by flying in Chef Chia Jue Xian from their Singapore property for the festivities, which run from August 7-16. Café Mix will be turning out hot and cold buffets featuring Singaporean favourites, from gado gado with peanut sauce, to chilli crab, char kway teow, Hainanese chicken rice, and otah otah. My personal favourite is beef rendang, so in the lead-up to this event, I grilled Hotel Head Chef Bo Sorensen about his East-meets-West Rendang. Chef told me: “I have adopted what the Minangkabau farmers have started, but found techniques that involve pounding, grinding and let’s say patience is needed to gain that complex and unique taste of a good rendang.” He also let slip that to lift his rendang to the next level, he employs beef cheeks and adds some “roasted macadamias to the braise, to add a sort of creaminess and nuttiness to the sauce” alongside “the usual suspects of lemon grass, galangal, ginger, garlic etc.” The $75/head price includes the chance to draw your own conclusions about his rendang, alongside a host of other Singaporean delights, beer and wine, and the opportunity to build an icy dessert masterpiece in their famous ice kacang station.
www.shangri-la.com/sydney/shangrila/