15 May 2016
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In this week's round-up: hawker favourites make it into the English lexicon, speedy growth for Singapore's food delivery scene, and the use of styrofoam gets stymied, somewhat.
Would you care for a cup of... teh tarik?
Singaporean cuisine is already making a name for itself the world over, but it is now officially recognised in the lexicon of English language too. In an unexpected move, the venerable Oxford English Dictionary has decided to include 19 words from the Singlish vocabulary in its latest quarterly update.
Connoisseurs of Singaporean cuisine will be delighted to hear that nationally loved dishes such as chilli crab, char siu, teh tarik and sotong, as well as the terms for two indispensable local culinary locations - hawker centre and wet market - have warranted inclusion.
Several Singlish words such as "lah", sinseh and kiasu were included in previous updates, with the latter selected as the OED's word of the day in February last year.
Food delivery scene set for fireworks
The local food delivery scene just got a whole lot hotter, with prominent incumbents fiercely stepping up their presence in the market, and talk of new entrants elbowing in.
Aiming to replicate their London "RooBox" concept here, current market leader Deliveroo announced this week that it will be investing in physical central kitchen spaces in the coming months, with the aim of helping partner restaurants cater to postcodes far beyond their own. The move is likely to increase their popularity among the food brands and eateries here, priming them against the looming competition within the industry. For hungry customers, this hopefully will translate into a wider array of restaurants to choose from, quicker delivery times and fresher food being delivered to your doorsteps at the click of the button.
Meanwhile, UberEats, a spin-off from global transportation powerhouse Uber, is expected to make its entrance in the domestic scene in the coming weeks, tapping on the unrivalled database of local drivers it has already amassed. Singapore will be only the third city outside of North America (after Paris and Melbourne) to launch UberEats, which will run as a standalone app. The move comes after a brief experimentation with delivering food to Singapore homeviewers during the launch of Masterchef Asia last year.
A third food delivery player, FoodPanda, is also rolling out a slew of discounts and promotions with partners restaurants to keep pace, while local start-up hawker.today was launched six months ago to cater to the other end of the spectrum: it has a roster of 50 riders dedicated to fetching hawker food from over 300 hawker stalls islandwide.
No to styrofoam no-no
As part of the Singapore government's continuing efforts to tackle environmental concerns, the usage of styrofoam boxes was tabled for debate in Parliament earlier this week.
While several cities such as New York, Seattle in the US and neighbouring Penang have already made moves to ban the use of the non-biodegradable and environmentally unfriendly material altogether, the Singapore Parliament ultimately decided not to enforce a styrofoam ban, but instead, to discourage the use of the material among hawkers, citing the higher costs of alternative materais as well as the inconveniences it would present to the hawker community,
However, the decision to steer clear of the ban has led to some controversy, with some pointing out the negligible impact Singapore's small population would have on global pollution levels, while others questioned the country's commitment to pursuing a more environmentally sustainable direction.
