Map of Food Trail

Question A

Beef Rendang

The popularity of rendang is widely spread across its original domain because of the merantau (migrating) culture of Minangkabau people. The overseas Minangkabau leave their hometown to start a career in other Indonesian cities as well as neighboring countries. They work in offices, trade textiles, start their own businesses, and some might open a Padang restaurant, a Minangkabau eating establishment that is ubiquitous in every Indonesian city. These Padang restaurants are credited for introducing and popularizing rendang and other Padang food dishes across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and even as far as Europe and United States.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

The only chicken rice found in Hainan in China, an island off the southern coast of China, is made with the Wengcheng chicken, a bony fowl with very little flesh served with rice thick with oil and accompanied by ground green chilli dip. Hainanese chefs also use pork and chicken bone stock unlike their Singaporean counterparts who avoid the pork base in their chicken rice. Thus the Hainanese Chicken Rice dish probably evolved through the Hainanese immigrants in the region and gained from local influences such as the Cantonese. The Cantonese added lime to the chilli sauce and ensured their chickens were tender and young. The Hainanese Chicken Rice dish is said to have taken root in areas like Middle Road, Purvis Street and Koek Road more than 60 years ago.

Dum Biryani

This was brought in by immigrants from India who stayed in Singapore about more than 100 years ago.

Popiah

Brought to Singapore about more than 70 years ago by the Chinese fujian immigrants who had become to Singapore in the older days.

Rojak

Like the other foods this was also brought in by Indonesian immigrants however made with a difference in the ingredients.

Answer for B.

B) To discuss issues like racial and religious sensitivities
As there was one Malay and one Indian student in our group, we had to take note of what they could not eat. For example, the Malays couldn't take pork, so we had to make sure that the restaurants we went to were halal, or that their dishes didn't contain pork. The Indians as well, we had to ensure that the dishes we ordered for the filming of the video didn't contain beef. Of course, there were restaurants that we really had to go to to film our video but weren't halal. In this case, we tried to go to these restaurants when the Malay and Indian student couldn't make it. If they could come, we informed them and kindly asked them to eat before they came, so that they would not feel hungry when we film the food. With this, we keep in mind the various food our friends are unable to eat and in future also do the same if a project is given.

More pictures ^^

Pictures for food trail :D

Reflections C and E

C) To discuss social and cultural significance of food preparation and consumption.
We learnt that there are lots of different ways to prepare a certain type of food. For example, using various pots, pans and utensils, the duration of the cooking process, the wide range of ingredients... Every single detail matters, since their customers range from Muslims to Indians, who don't take pork and beef respectively.

E) To reflect on teamwork and group collaboration during the trail.
As the places we were required to meet up at were extremely far and clashed with our schedules for some of us, we could not attend all the meetings. Despite this, we overcame the problem by trying to understand that each of us had our own appointments and forgave us. In return, the members who failed to show up at a certain meeting made it up by to those who went by ensuring their presence at the next meeting or doing other work such as the vodcast presentation or the reflection blog.