20,000 Feast at Food Fair
By Andrew Ee
ABOUT 20,000 food lovers indulged in culinary delights at the Food Paradise @ Expo 2009 which opened last Thursday at the Singapore Expo, touted as one of the year’s biggest food events.
The food event was a melting pot of cultures, showcasing foods such as Korean street snacks like barbequed squid and Vietnamese treats like Banh Dua Ca Ra Men – coconut flan with caramel.
Household food names like Mr. Bean and Bee Cheng Hiang were seen selling food to a public mainly comprised of families and the elderly.
In spite of the crowd, some felt that the food was not as cheap as they expected but the variety available urged them to come.
“Not very cheap, just a couple of cents off only,” said Chow Sok Han, 57, homemaker.
However, food was not the only highlight at the fair. Stalls were seen peddling a variety of goods ranging from pots to insurance policies – not quite the things one would expect to see at a food fair. Representatives from local hair treatment consultant Beijing 101 and water filter distributor Water Clinic also spared no expense in distributing flyers and pitching sales to any one who passed by their stalls.
“Every exhibition sees a lot of people attending. It’s a good place to promote our corporate image,” said Water Clinic’s business manager, Alice Tang, 37.
Given the economic downturn, some stall owners agreed that any exhibition was an opportunity to attract more business although they felt that business at the food fair was not so ideal.
“We have to jump at every chance to get customers. Maybe due to the seventh month and Comex, business seems to be not as good this time round,” said gelato maker Frutta La Viva’s sales representative, Anthony Seow, 60.
“This food fair seems scaled down compared to previous food fairs. There’s more of other stuff than food,” said Kevin Khoo, 27, IT administrator.
Nevertheless, some members of the public were seen shoving their way through hordes of people to grab the latest bargains, such as sports apparel – while savoring finger foods.
“One thing good about these fairs is the variety of snacks. Good for eating on the go,” said Rebecca Soh, 52, non-exhibiting business owner.
With more than one-third of stalls selling non-food items, the Food Paradise @ Expo 2009 seemed more like a bazaar than a food fair. But Soh had this to add: “Food fairs like this are the best!”
More than 150 top local and overseas food manufacturers, F & B restaurants, and importers took part in the annual event which lasted for four days.
Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest Brings the Groove to Local Music
By Rosmayati Tay Shieh Ting
THRONGS of Ben & Jerry’s fans turned up at the Marina Barrage to support the American ice-cream brand and the seven local bands chosen to perform at Chunk Fest held last Saturday.
Braving the sweltering heat in the day, more than 15 000 ice cream lovers – almost twice the number last year – were at the whole-day festival to savour exclusive ice cream flavours as they enjoyed live performances of covers and original songs from the hippie era.
”We hope to introduce a local flavour to this year’s Chunk Fest by bringing in local music talents to draw the hip crowd,” Moe Moe Ei Htwe, Public Relations Account Manager of Bates141 in-charge of Chunk Fest said.
The seven bands were handpicked by Ben & Jerry’s and local music producers Jack and Rai after two rounds of auditions based on their original compositions about “Love, Peace & Ice Cream”.
The bands include “This Cycle” (Wei Wen), “The Bakerloo Line” and “Sixology”. Together with Jack and Rai and “Elusive featuring Melissa”, these local bands will cut an album called “Chunk Tunes” to be sold at S$13.00 from Oct. 19 at all Ben & Jerry’s outlets across Singapore.
All proceeds from the record sales will go to the musicians.
“Performing at the Chunk Fest has been an amazing experience. It is a happy event with lots of children and exposes our band to a different kind of audience,” lead singer of “Sixology” Sarah Yap said.
Into its second year in Singapore, Chunk Fest also brought back the “Vermonster Challenge”, an ice-cream eating contest where participants attempt to wolf down 20 scoops of ice-cream in the shortest possible time.
Team Yellow Submarine timed at 59 seconds to emerge as the champion, winning access to free unlimited Vermonsters all year around at Ben & Jerry’s VivoCity outlet.
The festival, which started at 2 p.m. and ended at 10 p.m., specially brought in twelve exclusive ice-cream flavours from USA for fans to savour, with whimsically named flavours such as Triple Caramel Chunk and Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road, produced to support Sir Elton John’s AIDS Foundation.
Visitors were also able to take part in games such as Giant Twister and Spot the Difference.
Accountant Jimmy Lim, who brought his family along for a day out in the park, was pleased with his experience at Chunk Fest.
“It was very thoughtful of the organisers to provide umbrellas and picnic mats for us. Of course, the kids got to enjoy lots of ice-cream too!” he said.
Moosic, kites and ice cream… at the barrage!
By Tan Xiu Fang
COLOURFUL kites competing to be the highest-flying and blasting rock music brought life to the quiet Marina Bay, as the Singapore franchise of American ice cream maker, Ben & Jerry’s, held its second ice cream carnival, Chunk Fest, at the Marina Barrage last Saturday afternoon.
This year’s Chunk Fest was bigger than last year’s with the addition of the “Highest Kite-flying” competition.
Ng Bing Rong, 27, engineer, and his fiancée Sheryl Teo, 24, auditor, won the competition without any preparation beforehand. “We came here just for Chunk Fest…we didn’t know there is a kite-flying competition,” said Teo.
“To be frank, this is only our third time flying a kite,” Ng said. “Our strategy is to use a lot of strings!” The couple recently got engaged.
Another highlight of the festival was Chunk Tunes – a platform for local rock bands to showcase their music talents.
Seven local bands, chosen by Ben & Jerry’s and local music producers Jack & Rai, performed their original creations and music from the hippie era based on this year’s theme “Peace, Love & Ice Cream” at the Chunk Fest.
“This year’s theme on ‘Peace, Love & Ice Cream’ translates into our support for fair trade, and also for giving back to society,” said Ben & Jerry’s Public Relations Account Executive, Geok Shan Sing.
The bands recorded their music live at the event which will be compiled into “Chunk Tunes” CDs. Each CD will be sold at $13 and is available for purchase at all Ben & Jerry’s outlets from Oct. 19. Proceeds from the CDs will go back to the musicians.
At the carnival, ice cream lovers savoured the “Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road”, an ice cream flavour created to support Sir Elton John’s AIDS Foundation. It was one of the three most popular ice cream flavours among the 12 available. The other two popular flavours were “Triple Caramel Chunk” and “Peanut Butter Cookie Dough”. Each scoop of ice cream was sold at $4.50.
Despite the less convenient location, this year’s festival received a greater attendance of 15,000 people, as compared to last year’s 8,500 people at Fort Canning Green.
Avina Sheh, 15, student, felt that although Marina Barrage “is very hot”, the place “is peaceful and very unique”.
Marina Barrage was chosen because of the “open-air” and vast grassy fields at the top level which matched the hippie theme, said Ben & Jerry’s Singapore Brand Champion, Benjamin Tng.
“You see, the floor is (made of) concrete, you think everything is (made of) concrete but you can’t imagine that the top (level) has an open field, grass, breezes and sunlight… it’s brilliant!” Tng said.
