How do you hold your chopsticks poll results

Thanks to all 1,420 people who polled!

It looks like the majority of people 64.7% hold their chopsticks properly while 35.2% still hold it crossed. However there are 14.4% of readers who will be training themselves to hold it correctly, so there should be more people holding chopsticks nicely the next time we poll.

If you are training yourself to hold chopsticks properly, keep at it and don't give up. Soon you will be catching flies with your chopsticks!

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The Perfect Chopsticks Holding Technique

My last post on the correct chopsticks holding technique drew some criticism that even the second picture did not show the perfect chopstick holding pose. So I finally managed to hunt down someone who was trained to hold chopsticks since he was just a toddler to demonstrate the penultimate chopstick holding technique. It cannot get any better than this. However, do not be disheartened. A beautifully manicured androgenous looking hand is not a requirement for the perfect chopstick pose, but it does make the photo look more pleasing, no?

If you have not yet done so, let us know what is happening in your chopstick life by taking part in the poll.

Click here for the previous post
Click here to poll

And remember, holding your chopsticks crossed will lead to chronic arthritis when you get older, due to the increased strain on joints which were not designed to take the additional mechanical stress of the increased leverage pivoting upon the fulcrum where the chopsticks cross........ Just kidding lah.

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How do you hold your chopsticks? Let us know in the polls!

Nobody taught me to hold my chopsticks when I was a kid

You know we all take chopsticks for granted. It is such a part of our Chinese culture that we don't even bother to teach our kids how to hold their chopsticks. How many of you actually remember your father sitting you down one day and saying to you, "Son, now that you have come of age, daddy is going to show you how to hold a pair of chopsticks"? No, more often than not, we all just pick up a pair of chopsticks one day and started using them. Unfortunately, it is for that reason that a lot of people, myself included, ended up holding chopsticks crossed like the photo above!


I had to learn it myself when I grew up!

I came to the realization that I was indeed holding my chopsticks wrongly twenty years ago and re-learned to hold it properly. I guess there would be many of us who are like that. There will be others who have never thought about it until now and then there are others who would give all sorts of excuses to justify why holding chopsticks crossed is alright.

Pragmatist: As long as I can still eat, I don't care.
Universalist: There is no one right way to hold chopsticks.
Anti-establishment: I purposely cross just because you said not to.
Boh Chapist: Can't be bothered to learn. Anyway who cares?
Environmentalist: Don't use chopsticks! Save the forest.
Aware-an: We must be all inclusive! How dare you say we have to hold our chopsticks straight?

Ironically, because the Ang Mohs all learnt to hold chopsticks formally, I have never seen any of my Ang Moh friends holding the chopsticks crossed! So it really is just a matter of Chinese pride that we should try to hold our chopsticks correctly. Don't you all agree?

So how do you hold your chopsticks? Let us know by taking part in our polls!

For those who want to learn how to hold their chopsticks properly, here is a good video:



Many thanks to GSKgirl1 and GSKgirl2 for modeling their chopstick poses!

Click here to cast your vote.

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Most Singaporeans shun Newton Food Centre

Well, the polls are in and it seems that only 8.3% of our readers actually love Newton Food centre.

So it looks like it is a real tourist trap. Quite a shame really as it used to be a great place to go for a variety of hawker food.

Hopefully after this incident, the food centre can clean up its act. The first thing that needs to happen, I think, is for some of the BBQ seafood places to be replaced by other types of hawker food. But somehow I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Thanks to all 1553 readers who polled!

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The Newton Food Centre Incident: Your Say

Sunday Times Mar 22 Page 11

Well, I had my say but out of my 20 min interview they only took one minute out of it. There were a few more points which I thought were interesting to discuss.

Concerning the incident where the Americans had to fork out $239 for 8 tiger prawns, I can only say that as a Singaporean foodie, I felt really embarassed that this sort of thing should happen to our visitors. But if you are a traveller, you would realise that this happens in other countries as well. If you visit Thailand, the food you pay at the tourist hotspots are easily many times more what the locals pay. Furthermore, there is a local price and a tourist price for entry to places of interest. Is it fair? Sometimes it is understandable when you realise that the average local monthly wage is 3000 baht vs the average Singaporean wage of $3000. Then again we too practise this sort of pricing strategy at our very own Night Safari. The last time I went there, POSB card holders get a discount of 30%. I wonder how many foreign visitors hold POSB cards?

But I think it is not so much the asking price of the prawns but the fact that they cheat by charging 1.5kg for 1kg of seafood. This is downright dishonest but it is nothing new. Stallholders have cheated on scales for as long as scales existed. The phenomenon is global and it is really up to consumers to be vigilant. When it comes to prices, is there really a difference between a well known restaurant charging $8 per 100g for tiger prawns as opposed to a hawker? The free market economy allows for suppliers to charge whatever amount they want as long as consumers are willing to pay for it. I am certainly angry at the fact that they are charging $8 per 100g for tiger prawns which is why I never eat BBQ seafood there. The only reason that they are still around is because people (tourists mostly) are still paying for it. (Willing or unwillingly)

You know where the real problem lies? It lies in the fact that this sort of thing is so contrary to how Singapore is perceived in the eyes of foreigners. To them, this is the clean and green city where "low crime doesn't mean no crime". They get the idea that the food here is cheap and good and that people are honest which to a large extent is true. But then they run into some dishonest hawker at Newton or electronics dealer in Sim Lim and suddenly there is a story for the newspapers. People get cheated in other countries around us but they don't feel so bad because they sort of expect it. But not here in Singapore.

So what is your say about the Newton Food Centre incident? Do you think it is fair for NEA to suspend the stall? And what is your suggestion on how the situation can be rectified?

The Sunday Times ran a poll among foreigners which showed that 143 out of 150 foodies still loved Newton Food Centre. Then they featured six local foodies who all shun Newton. So let's see how many of our readers here actually love Newton Food Centre.

The Polls are opened!

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What do you say when you eat something really good?

There was an interesting series of comments one of the previous posts where one of the readers, James, made the remark that my use of the word "marvellicious" was exactly the same word that his daughter uses. Of course, marvellicious is not an official word in the Oxford Dictionary. It was merely a combination of "marvellous" and "delicious". Then he went on to tell me about other words that his daughter uses like "Shiok a doo doo" and "Bombastic".

I thought it would be fun to find out what is everyone's favourite word when you come across something really tasty. I suspect that "Shiok" might be a popular one or perhaps you have a better and more imaginative superlative you care to share?

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The Polls show that Hainanese are the biggest Foodies

The results of the polls are out and it seems that of the different dialect groups, the Hainanese have the largest proportion of foodies!

Altogether, 2873 people voted and the breakdown is as follows:

In terms of numbers, the Hokkiens (26.9%) have a narrow lead over the Teochews (24.3%), followed closely by the Cantonese (18.8%) with a smaller population of Hakka (8.9%) and Hainanese (11.4%).

However, this does not really tell us whether being of a certain dialect group would make you more of a foodie. What I think would give us a more accurate picture is to compare the proportion of the voters to the proportion of dialect groups in Singapore in general.

According to this website, the proportion of the dialect groups in Singapore are: Hokkien (45%), Teochew (22.5%), Cantonese (16%), Hakka (7%) and Hainanese (5%). So what we can do is to divide our results with that of the general population to get a ratio which we shall call the foodie dialect index (FDI).

The way to think of the FDI is as follows: We know that 45% of the chinese population are Hokkien, but only 26.9% of the voters here claim themselves to be Hokkien. The FDI is thus 26.5/45 or 0.58. So that means that there are proportionately less Hokkiens who are foodies than the general population. (Either that or they are really bo chap and cannot be bothered to vote but let's just assume they are not). So anything less than 1 means that the dialect group probably value other things more than food and if the FDI is greater than 1, that means that food is an important part of the culture of that particular dialect group.

With the FDI, the Hainanese came out tops by far with an index score of 2.28. This was followed by the Hakka (1.27), Cantonese (1.18) and Teochew (1.08). The Hokkiens are a distant fifth with only 0.58.

So if we draw an analogy from the English and French, we can say that the Hainanese are more like the French who really put an emphasis on the enjoyment of food while the Hokkiens are more like the English where food is just smaller part of their life. (Some people tell me the Hokkiens are just more interested in making money). Whatever it is, I am pretty disappointed that us Teochews did not even come close to being second. But at least it sort of explains how a small dialect group like the Hainanese are responsible for so many of our hawker favourites like Chicken Rice, Kopi and Kaya Toast, Hainanese Pork Chops and Curry Rice etc.

So do you all think this is a pretty accurate reflection of the different dialect groups?

View the results here
The previous post is here
Check out Hainanese Cuisine here

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What Dialect Group do our Foodies Belong to Poll

Thanks to all who have written in to nominate their dialect group. The polls are now up for you to vote. To simplify things, I have only allowed one vote. That is because if I gave everyone two votes to denote paternal and maternal dialect groups, then those who have parents from the same dialect group would only get one vote and that would skew the stats. So just pick the dialect group that you feel you most belong to.

Since we the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion...... I have also included the Malays, Indian and Others so that no one is left out. If you are Chinese and your dialect group is not represented then just pick "others" and write a comment to let us know you represent your dialect group.

In case you are thinking that aside from the language, it would be difficult to distinguish between the dialect groups just by looks, then I would like ask if you can guess what dialect group the old man in the picture belongs to?

Have fun and don't forget to cast your vote!

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What Dialect Group do most of our Foodies belong to?

I have known for a long while now that a lot of the kakis you see on this blog are Teochew. Smart, Cactuskit, Fashionfoodie, Wahcow, Damien, Jencooks and Amagada, just to name a few from the top of my head. I myself am true blue 100% Teochew as well. So I am just wondering if it is just a matter of coincidence that our group happen to have a lot of Teochews or is it a representation of the wider audience reading the blog?

It would be fun to find out with a poll next week, but I would need to shortlist the top 5 dialect groups before we can start. So let us know which dialect group you belong to!

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Its official! Singaporeans like Singapore Food!

So the majority of Singaporeans still like our local food!

Of the 1320 people who voted, the majority (68.5%) said they still prefer Singapore food. What was surprising though was how popular Japanese food is (53%), surpassing Chinese/Cantonese Cuisine (32.2) by quite a significant margin. Of the European cuisine, Italian cuisine (13.5%) was the most popular. More people would choose Thai (10%) over French/European (5%) cuisine.

So if you are planning to open a foreign cuisine restaurant, you best bet is to go with the Japanese!

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The Polls: Looking for Singapore's Favourite Cuisine

For our next poll we want to find out which cuisine Singaporeans enjoy most.

From the nomination round, it would seem like the hot favorites would be local Singaporean fare, Japanese and Chinese cuisine. What will be interesting to see is if Singaporeans are going to favour Sashimi and Udon over our local Chilli Crab and Hokkien Mee.

For the sake of clarity, here are the definitions

Singaporean - Hawker food, Chilli Crab, Mee Rebus, Chicken Rice, all the stuff that we call our own cuisine

Japanese - Teppanyaki, Sushi, Sashimi - quite obvious

Thai - Pineapple rice, Papaya Salad, Green curries, Tom Yum etc

Chinese/Cantonese - Steamed Fish, Ee Fu noodles, Peking Duck. Can include Teochew, Hokkien into this category. But Cze Char belongs to Singaporean Local.

Italian - Pizzas and Pasta

European/French - Foie Gras, Steaks, Mediterranean, Cavier etc

The Polling station is found in the right hand column of the blog --------------->

I wonder if we are in for a big surprise?

Click here to read the comments in the nomination round.

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The Polls: What is Singapore's Favourite Cuisine

Just a reminder to nominate your favourite cuisine. Nominations will close by the end of the week.



For our next poll, I thought it would be interesting to see if Singaporean's favourite cuisine is indeed Singapore food or are Sinagaporeans really Cosmopolitan in character going for Japanese, Indian, Shanghainese, Korean, French or Italian cuisine?

From comments in our Forum, it would seem that Japanese and Italian cuisines seem to be quite popular amongst our readers. You can read the comments here

So tell us what your favourite cuisine is! You can nominate up to 3 cuisines. Do remember that you have to nominate Local Singapore Cuisine as well if it is your top 3.

I will start:

1. Local Singaporean Cuisine
2. Chinese
3. Japanese

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Singapore's Favourite Dessert is....... Bean Curd!

Bean Curd has emerged to be the most popular dessert choice of our readers with 53.4% followed by Cheng Tng 44.5% and Orh Nee 36.9%.

The hot favourite of the previous generation, Ice Kachang only managed to come in at 4th place with 31% followed closely in fifth place by Tau Suan 26.5%

Full analysis of the results can be found here.

Thanks to all 2041 readers who polled!

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Last chance to vote for your favourite dessert!

OK, final call for votes for Singapore's favourite dessert. The polls will be closed on Friday at 12 noon. So if your favourite dessert doesn't win, it is your own fault if you failed to vote!

The voting booth is found on the right hand column!

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Singapore's Favourite Dessert is no longer Ice Kachang

Well, we are one week into the polls and it looks like Bean Curd is quite firmly in first place followed by Cheng Tng. After a few days of close competition, Yam Paste has now extended its lead over Ah Balling.

Smart commented that this is quite amazing. Years ago when he was a young man, Ice Kachang would have won hands down!

Anyway the polls are still opened if you have not voted yet! Who knows, Cheng Tng might still overtake Bean Curd as Singapore's favourite dessert.

The polling widget is found on the right column ----------------------------->

Click here for results of the nomination round

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The Polls: What is Singapore's Favourite Dessert

The results for Singapore's favourite dessert are in! Thanks to the 110 people who wrote in with their nominations. Here then are the top 8 in no particular order:

1. Cheng Tng
2. Bean Curd
3. Yam Paste
4. Sesame Paste
5. Ah Balling
6. Ice Kachang
7. Chendol
8. Tau Suan

Everyone gets to choose 3 of their favourite desserts.

Last year, a lot of people were surprised that Hokkien Mee edged out Chicken Rice as Singapore's favourite Hawker Food. Will there be any surprises in the Dessert category?

The Polls are now opened. You can pick your top 3 desserts from the polling widget in the right column.

So, what are your predictions for Singapore's favourite dessert?

Thanks to holydrummer for consolidating the numbers for me.

You can have a look at all the nominations here

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What is Singapore's Favourite Dessert?

Our polls last year showed that Hokkien Mee, Chicken Rice and Mee Poh were the top 3 hawker dishes.

This time round we are looking for Singapore's favourite dessert. Please nominate up to 3 of your favourite desserts.

Mine would be:

1. Bean Curd
2. Orh Nee (Yam Paste)
3. Cendol

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Best Food Find of 2007

I am sure that you all have found something good to eat in 2007 through reading this blog. So perhaps you would like to nominate your favourite food stall/restaurant that you discovered through this blog? If there are enough nominees we can even do a poll.

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Hokkien Mee is Singapore's Favourite Hawker Dish!

Hokkien Mee has emerged as Singapore's Favourite Hawker dish! Of the 3898 readers who voted, 38.8% voted Hokkien Mee as their favourite dish followed closely by Chicken Rice with 35.5% of votes. Chicken Rice was initially the top favourite during the nomination round, but Hokkien Mee emerged early in the polls as the clear favourite. Bak Chor Mee was a distant third at 31.4%.

Singapore's Top Ten Hawker Dishes

1. Hokkien Mee
2. Chicken Rice
3. Bak Chor Mee
4. Char Kway Teow
5. Orh Luak
6. Carrot Cake
7. Roti Prata
8. Wanton Mee
9. Satay
10. Fish Soup

Thanks to all 3898 readers who participated in the polls!

Now it is up to you to recommend your favourite stalls selling your favourite hawker dish!

Link to previous blog where 153 people wrote in to nominate their favourite dish. The top 10 hawker dishes were then distilled from those nominees.

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Who decides what to eat in your family?

Just came across this study conducted by Electrolux on the eating patterns of Asians. It stated that:

" Meal decisions in Indonesia and Singapore are also largely determined by the mother of the household -- 24% of Indonesian respondents -- more than any other group in the region -- said that the mother is the main meal decision-maker, while 20% of Singaporeans -- the second largest group in Asia other than Indonesians -- agree."

If you are the reader of this blog, it is most likely that you will be the one who decides for the family where to eat next. So, who makes the decision where to eat in your family?

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