On Friday, Oct 1, the Singapore Student Association (SSA) held their annual food festival. Carnegie Mellon students were drawn to the UniversityCenter by the smell of delicious food and the sound of disco music.  With fun music playing in the background and friendly SSA members helping out, the festival created a warm and fun atmosphere.

The annual Singapore food festival is the SSA's main fundraising event. "We begin preparing before the school year begins. All the food is prepared by students. Most of the Singaporean students are already active members in SSA, which is good, so we use this event to introduce our culture to the rest of the Carnegie Mellon community," said Marcus Gho, a junior in CIT and president of SSA

"Singapore is a melting pot of cultures and all of these cultures are represented in our food. Our food is a mixture of Singaporean, Chinese, Malaysian and Indian food. I think that is what sets apart Singaporean food from other Asian foods," said Gho.

The festival conveyed the fusion of the many cultures of Singapore in steaming plates of tasty food. Students at several tables served a wide variety of Singaporean deserts, snacks, and main courses. Fried rice, Chinese sausages, fried tofu, Roti Prata and Wanton Noodles were just a few of the dishes offered. Each stand was labeled with a helpful sign that included the name of the food as well as some background information on the dish. 

Judging from the long lines, the crowd favored the fried dumplings with pork, but another highlight was Roti Prata, a thick crèpe topped with a curry sauce and chicken.

"If you can't handle spicy foods, the curry sauce can be substituted for sugar," SSA treasurer Derek Leong warned.

The Roti Prata was indeed extremely spicy, but exceptionally tasty — the spice only added to the mouth-watering flavoring of the curry sauce over the thick dough. 

Also featured was Ice Kachang, Singapore's favorite dessert. Comprised of jelly, red beans and colorful ice, and topped off with sweet corn, this seemingly odd mix of ingredients created an extremely tasty dessert. The sweet flavor only increased as each of these disparate ingredients blended together to make a creamy mix.

"[Ice Kachang] cools people down in the summer. It is a tropical climate in Singapore, so such cool treats are a relief for all ages. It's a lot cheaper than ice cream also, so it is much more popular," explained Leong.

Another delicious dessert was the Agar Agar, gelatin cubes that come in a variety of colors. The addition of coconut milk, however, distinguished this dessert from average gelatin. The faintly sweet taste of coconut made the firm, cold gelatin cubes a perfect mix of a sweet dessert and a cooling agent.

Tarik tea, the sole beverage served at the festival, is the most popular Singaporean tea. Tarik tea literally means "pull tea;" the tea is "pulled" by pouring it from one cup to another, causing the ingredients to condense and creating a very delicious tea.

All of the foods were delicious, however many of them were very greasy. Perhaps the only downfall to this delicious food is that it is not the healthiest.

"We enjoy deep-frying a lot of things; however, recently people have started using vegetable oil rather than lard. But we still love to spoil ourselves sometimes. Eating is one of our favorite pastimes in Singapore," explained Leong.

Many of the students that attended agreed that the Festival was a much needed change from campus food.

"I really hate campus food, so this is a good break from the 'O'," said one sophomore over a plate full of fried rice.

Many of those who attended also appreciated the authenticity of the food

"Most of the time in America they have fake Asian food, so it is good to get the real thing. This food is very good," said an international student from China who sampled the fried dumplings.

"The closest Carnegie Mellon gets to Singaporean food is fake Singapore noodles in the UC. That is not authentic. It was very important to us to serve authentic Singapore food," said Gho.  

The SSA members were very pleased with the food festival. Their goal was to make their culture accessible to the Carnegie Mellon community, and they succeeded.

Klarissa Chang, a PhD student in the TepperSchool said: "We all spent a lot of time organizing this event. It was a lot of hard work, but we are happy that everyone enjoyed it."

If one does not mind sacrificing healthiness for taste, then the Singapore Food Festival is a perfect place to find good food. The Carnegie Mellon community can look forward to more Roti Prata and fried dumplings at the next year's SSA Food Festival.