http://www.wnd.sg046
Having said that, Prima Taste is doing exactly that
with its premixes of Singapore dishes. These too have
become prized items among travellers embarking
from Singapore to bring abroad as souvenirs or gifts,
and indeed for homesick Singaporeans living abroad
who crave food from home. Premixes allow people
to recreate their favourite dishes from the little red
dot, and Prima Taste has built a reputation as market
leader in capturing the flavours most authentically. It
offers six product lines and over 40 different products,
ranging from ready-to-cook sauce kits, ambient ready
meal packs to fuss-free gourmet premium noodles.
“It is whatever your typical Singaporean would
associate with true Singapore hawker fare,” says the
brand’s general manager Eric Sim. Their Hainanese
chicken rice, laksa, curry and Singapore chilli crab are
favourites, he says. As a snapshot of its success, their
laksa and curry lamian have consistently been on The
Ramen Rater’s annual Top 10 Instant Noodles of All
Time since 2013, and their laksa wholegrain lamian had
been ranked first for the last four years. Other hawker
flavours in their arsenal include mee rebus, mee siam
and bak kut teh sauce kits, and beef rendang, Indian
curry ready-meals. Not only are they easy meals to
recreate abroad, they are also reminders of Singapore’s
multi-ethnic social fabric. Flying the flag for Singapore,
Prima Taste also makes all its products in Singapore.
The journey in developing each product is impressively
stringent and detailed, and can take years. The laksa
wholegrain lamian, for instance, took two.
“We first start off at the ideation stage,” Sim
explains. “Apart from scouring Singapore for the most
authentic taste to centre our idea on, we also assess
market opportunity in Singapore and around the
world. We then commence R&D.” This is done by a
dedicated team of chefs and food technologists who not
only source for quality ingredients but also innovate
when they cannot be found in the market. “Then, we
conduct stringent quality checks on all our ingredients
to ensure that variables such as weather or seasonal“IT MAY NOT BE EASY
TO TAKE AWAY YOUR
FAVOURITE FOOD MEMORY
IN SINGAPORE OR ON YOUR
TRAVELS, BUT YOU CAN
WITH SNACKS.”
changes do not affect our final products, and even
build pilot plants to simulate large scale production
to ensure that the taste remains authentic when
produced for the mass market,” he adds.
Then comes producing prototypes and
conducting blind taste tests. This is equally
unforgiving. “In order for a creation to hit the
market, it needs to pass two blind taste panels—one
made up of the management team and another
with 50 to 100 consumers. The new product is
pitted against its counterpart from a famed hawker
stall. Ninety per cent of participants would have to
choose the Prima Taste rendition over its hawker
counterpart. If the product fails the taste panels, we
will recalibrate recipes and manufacturing process
until it does.”
This has paid off. Not only is it a leader in the
market, you can also find it in 40 markets around the
world—including in local Australian supermarkets—
and even in restaurants, hotels and catering
establishments abroad.
Similarly, Kang Kang noodles offer compact
express meal kits in curry mee, laksa and prawn mee
varieties. The first to use pasteurising technology
on fresh noodles, the kit’s noodles and sauce packs
do not contain any preservatives and are all-natural,
while remaining fresh in ambient conditions. All it
requires is a quick zap in the microwave to recreate
an authentic hawker dish, with little cooking skills or
equipment needed.
The beauty of these items is that they
encapsulate, in the words of Sim, “the authenticity
of real Singaporean comfort food”. Brought overseas
for whichever audience, these brands and products
are gastronomic ambassadors of Singapore’s heritage
and flavour in every sense of the word—reflecting
our multi-ethnic cuisine and colourful social make-
up. With August round the corner, it’s time we
recognise these flag bearers and celebrate the impact
they make in bringing Singapore to the world.