(Veeramalla Anjaiah)

Thousands of Singaporeans as well as international tourists, including hundreds of Indonesians, thronged to the famous Marina Bay Sands (MBS) from Aug. 11-13 in Singapore for the wonderful Epicurean Market 2017.

Known as the most fabulous festival of food and wines, the fifth Epicurean Market, as in the previous four years, tried to please the palate of every gastronome who visited the MBS Expo and Convention Center, the venue of the festival.

“It is a paradise for food and wine lovers. I have been visiting the Epicurean Market since 2013, when the first-ever Epicurean Market was organized. It’s  a wonderful experience,” Narayanan, a Singaporean who loves Italian cuisine and Australian wines,  told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the market on Aug. 11.

This year’s festival had something special. Instead of having a wine toast, there was a teh tarik (Indian milk tea) toast during the opening of the market. This was in line with the festival’s Singapore Street Food theme. All the celebrity chefs arrived on trishaws to the stage.  The event was inaugurated by MBS vice president of food and beverages Christine Kaelbel- Sheares and executive director of food and beverages Sean Newman with the teh tarik toast.

“This year’s Epicurean Market features more than 70 participants and their 200 signature dishes and more than 100 different wines,” Christine said.              

Another star attraction of the Epicurean Market was the more than 30 free masterclasses conducted by world-famous celebrity chefs like Tetsuya Wakuda of Waku Ghin, Osteria Mozza’s Nancy Silverton, Adrift’s David Myers, the new kid on the block The Bird Southern Table & Bar’s John Kunkel, Ralph Scamardella of LAVO, Long Chim’s David Thompson  and Hide Yamamoto of Takumi Yamamoto.

“Almost all the masterclasses were full. Singaporeans have a lot of enthusiasm to learn the techniques and recipes of various dishes.  I attended the master class of Tetsuya Wakuda. He was amazing,” Catherine Alwin, a visitor said.

Why do people come all the way and spend a lot of money on food and drinks?

Eating is indeed a memorable experience, nice food made with classic recipes will always be remembered.

“Friends come and go. But classic recipes made with passion always stand the rest of time,” the Bird’s chef Kunkel said.

The Bird is Kunkel’s first-ever restaurant in Asia, which offers many mouth-watering dishes made using fresh ingredients.

“Our signature dish fried chicken has become talk of the town in Singapore. Please come to our restaurant and try our signature dishes,” Kunkel said during the inauguration of the Epicurean Market.

The Post visited the Bird at MBS and found a fantastic three-course lunch menu, which offers deviled eggs, fried green tomato, chicken n’ watermelon n’ waffles, macaroni cheese, butter lettuce and grilled mango salad, café crème brulee and banana pudding.   

The MBS has several signature restaurants, which were present at the Epicurean Market to showcase their dishes, desserts and drinks. Among them were Adrift, CUT, db Bistro & Oyster Bar, Long Chim, LAVO, Osteria & Pizzeria Mozza, RISE, Spago, The Bird Southern Table and Waku Ghin. 

For Italian cuisine lovers, the Epicurean Market 2017 provided a golden opportunity to taste their favorite dishes like meatball with ricotta, prawn iavfra dalo chifferi pasta, sliced prime New York strip steak and roasted tomato chimichurri on crostini.

Japanese cuisine is also going global. The new entrant at MBS is ramen chain restaurant Ippudo, which recently opened its outlet in Jakarta’s Central Park shopping mall, offering maize soba, crispy corn and chicken karage    

Recently refurbished MBS’ RISE restaurant offered numerous local delicacies like teochew peng kueh (glutinous rice cakes), homemade smoked beef brisket, lobster laksa and Israeli couscous risotto. 

If you are looking for premium wines, the World Class Bar is the perfect place. It offers world-class cocktails and wines.

The wine walk at Epicurean Market took you to  1855 The Bottle Shop, Ale N Cider, Alfa International,  Angra Wine & Spirit Importers, Asia Wine Network, Bodegas Europa, Cellar Master Wines Pte Ltd, Cellar Seller, Certain  Cellars Company, East Asia Company Luigi’s Wines, TTG Wines and numerous other wine companies.

Besides food and wine, there was also a Farmer’s Market, where fresh vegetables, meat, seafood, cheese, cookies, juices and fruit jams were available.

A three-day admission to the Epicurean Market cost S$39 per visitor. And each visitor was given a free signature dish worth S$15, access to masterclasses and late night festivities and cocktails.