When dining-in was halted during the circuit breaker from April to June, restaurateurs racked their brains for ways to make up for the loss in business.
One of the best ideas was the DIY cooking kit.
Takeaway and delivery food, while convenient, is often past its prime by the time it gets to the diner, so why not let the customer himself make a piping hot meal with an easy guide?
Although a couple of restaurants like Summer Hill already had DIY cooking kits, the pandemic turned it into a trend.
The mostly raw food is delivered chilled or frozen with an instruction card on how to cook the dish. Some also have a QR code that links to a cooking video by the chef.
Italian restaurant Amo was among the first to latch onto the idea in May with its pizza and pasta kits, along with other Western and Asian restaurants like Level 33, Buona Terra and Quentin's.
Chinese restaurant chains Crystal Jade and Paradise Group soon followed with stir-fries and dumplings. And Ippudo offered ramen and gyoza kits.
One of the latest on the market is the dry laksa kit from online seller 2 Mamas & A Wok. It comes with a spice mix, rice noodles, fishcake, taupok, beansprouts and coconut milk, and you fry everything together.
During the Singapore Food Festival in August, kits were also sold for those who wished to cook along with live streams of master cooking classes by chefs such as Violet Oon and Ming Tan.
Pastas are the most idiot-proof as they often come with ready housemade sauces. Those from Buona Terra are of restaurant quality.
The stir-fried black pepper beef with capsicum from Crystal Jade turns out very well too.
Others, like Amo's pizza and Paradise's xiao long bao, are fun to put together and you can make it a family activity by roping in the kids.
Now that restaurants are once again packing them in, chilled DIY cooking kits - which cannot be kept for more than a few days - may not be as hot anymore. But the frozen ones like Ippudo's gyoza are still great to have on hand for days when you do not feel like dining out.
