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IRVINS salted egg snacks comprising
potato chips and fish skinbak kwa are among them. Singaporeans living abroad
crave them, and they have developed a reputation in
certain countries as sought after gifts from Singapore.
Dedicated shops by Bengawan Solo, Ya Kun, Toastbox
and Bee Cheng Hiang are present in Changi Airport
terminals, and they are all there for a reason. Merlion-
shaped chocolates may have its takers, but they are so
yesterday. The above-mentioned reign as the preferred
food gifts from Singapore.
But arguably the most popular currently is salted
egg fish skin—the very gastronomic gems that the
unfortunate gentleman had tried to bring with him.
According to some producers, apart from Singaporeans,
they are particularly popular among the Chinese,
Indonesians, Filipinos, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese and
Koreans.
Salted egg snacks exploded on the Singapore
scene about five years ago when local restaurants
began experimenting and flavouring their dishes
with this moreish condiment. At that time, salted egg
crab, chicken and squid were beginning to tickle the
tastebuds of restaurant goers. This was soon followed
by more experimental offshoots as it caught the
imagination of creative chefs—like Chef Pang Kok
Keong’s salted egg croissants which inspired morning
queues at his Penhas Road outlet, and salted egg ice
cream by maverick mod-Sin chef Wilin Loh. Then there
was Irvin’s, which became the godfather of salted egg
fish skin snacks, and whose pre-order queues and cult
status could, at one time, almost rival that of the Birkin
bag.
“We started as a restaurant in 2008 called Irvin’s
Live Seafood House with the specialty dish, salted egg
crab, which eventually led to IRVINS Salted Egg snacks
as we know it from 2014 onward. What happened was
in the restaurant sometime around 2014 we started
to experiment a lot more with salted egg dishes, from
salted egg chicken, salted egg mushrooms, fries and
so on. Two items in particular—salted egg potato
chips and salted egg fish skin—were very popular, and
customers kept ordering them for da bao, so we had the
ingenious idea to put them in a packaged food format
to save our chef’s time. That decision made IRVINS
Salted Egg what it is today,” says Irvin H Y Gunawan,
CEO and founder of the eponymous brand.PHOTOS: IRVINS