New flavours for 2025: Where to eat adventurously

SINGAPORE – The intrepid eater, the one always in search of the next new thing, those big, bold flavours, is going to have a field day.

New restaurants spring up all the time. But three new ones are offering adventurous taste buds something different.

Camp Caribbean offers punchy flavours and the heat of Scotch Bonnet chillies in a chill-out space; Hakka Yu celebrates the earthy, homely and under-the-radar food of the fourth-largest Chinese dialect group in Singapore; and Chickita gives a twist to flame-grilled chicken with a slew of sauces made with ingredients such as chillies, lemongrass, lime leaves and nori.

Caribbean holiday: Camp Caribbean

Where: 66 Kampong Bugis
Open: Noon to 9.30pm (Wednesdays and Thursdays), noon to 10pm (Fridays), 11am to 10pm (Saturdays), 11am to 9pm (Sundays), closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Tel: 8845-3880
Info:

www.campcaribbean.co

The voice of American singer-songwriter Bobby McFerrin wafts from a nondescript industrial building in Kampong Bugis, telling everyone within earshot, Don’t Worry, Be Happy. That is a clue that diners seeking out Singapore’s only Caribbean restaurant, Camp Caribbean, have come to the right address.

It opened at the end of November, in Gourmet Park Kampong Bugis, where food truck and restaurant entrepreneurs Kenming Lee, 46, and his wife Sophia Shen, who is in her 40s, have gathered three of their food businesses in one place: pasta and pizza brand Quattro, plant-based burger brand The Goodburger, and their newest baby, Camp Caribbean.

Diners eat outdoors at the laid-back, pet-friendly 80-seat venue, a stone’s throw from Kallang Riverside Park.

Why take a gamble on a cuisine that is not on the radar of most diners here?

Ms Shen says: “Singaporeans are so spoilt for choice. We thought, if we were to open an Italian or Spanish restaurant, that there are so many of them here. But Caribbean food is so different yet also familiar.”

Mr Lee adds that Caribbean food, like that of South-east Asia, calls for ingredients such as chillies and coconut milk, making it familiar. But it is also different, in its use of herbs such as thyme, and spices such as allspice, also known as Jamaican pepper and pimento.

Behind the grill at Camp Caribbean is chef Ricardo Allen, 34, who used to be at Lime House, a Caribbean restaurant in Jiak Chuan Road that closed in February. He comes from Portland, Jamaica, the birthplace of jerk, that famous dish of grilled meat that has been marinated with spices such as allspice and cinnamon, herbs such as thyme and Scotch Bonnet chillies, among other ingredients.

Caribbean food has potential in Singapore, Mr Lee believes.

“Lime House was more niche,” he says. “It drew a more expatriate, CBD crowd, and the food didn’t reach out to the wider consciousness of diners.”

On the menu are patties, similar to curry puffs, stuffed with beef ($16) or vegetables ($15), Jerk Chicken ($18) and Pork Rib ($34 for half a rack), and in a nod to Singapore, Jerk Stingray ($27).

Other offerings include Curried Goat ($20) and Oxtail with Spinners ($22), which are Caribbean dumplings made with flour and water.

To go alongside, there is the famous Rice And Peas ($5) and Fried Plantain ($8), among others.

At his new restaurant, chef Allen says he is able to do the sort of cooking he grew up with.

“What we are doing here is more authentic. At Lime House, we adopted flavours from the Caribbean. Here, for example, we marinade our chicken longer and with stronger flavours. And we cook it over charcoal, the way it’s supposed to be done.

“I haven’t made many changes to the recipes. Most people here are used to the flavours – it’s like Indian flavours mixed with Caribbean flavours. If anything, I’ve had to tone down the heat. Jamaican kind of heat is hot, hot, hot.”

Unexplored cuisine: Hakka Yu (opens Dec 28)

Where: 03-220/221/222 Jewel Changi Airport, 78 Airport Boulevard
Open: 11.30am to 10pm daily
Info: @hakkayu_sg (Instagram)

Before Mr Fong Chi Chung opened Pu Tien restaurant in Kitchener Road in 2000, people here were not at all familiar with the food of his home town of Putian in Fujian province in China. Soon, they were thronging the restaurant for its Heng Hwa beehoon, lor mee and stir-fried yam.

That restaurant morphed into the Putien chain, with restaurants here and in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, the Philippines and Taiwan.

He might be putting Hakka food on the food map of Singapore next. Later this month, the 56-year-old founder of the Putien Group

opens Hakka Yu, a 109-seat restaurant at Jewel Changi Airport.

His partner in this venture is restaurateur Xu Ke Peng, 44, who in 2013 founded the Hakka Yu chain, now with more than 80 restaurants in China.

Cantonese and Teochew restaurants are everywhere in Singapore, but looking for Hakka food might take a little more time. There are hawker stalls selling Hakka yong tau foo, thunder tea rice, noodles and abacus seeds, and one Hakka restaurant – Plum Village near Ang Mo Kio.

And yet, Hakkas form the fourth-largest Chinese ethnic group in Singapore, after Hokkiens, Teochews and Cantonese. According to the Census of Population 2020, there are 259,153 Hakkas here.

Mr Fong, himself a member of a small Chinese ethnic group – Henghua, numbering 26,702 in Singapore – tells The Straits Times he dined at one of Mr Xu’s Hakka Yu restaurants in Guangzhou about three years ago. He was struck by how authentic the food was and the chain’s focus on ingredients. He was also surprised by the low spending average, about $15 a person.

“I thought, for Singapore, this food at this price point should be suitable,” he says in Mandarin. “There are more than 200,000 Hakkas in Singapore, but not many options for Hakka food.”

It was a meeting of the minds with Mr Xu and they sealed the deal a year ago.

The restaurant in Singapore will serve Hakka Yu signatures such as Hakka Salt-Baked Chicken, using chickens raised for 120 days, longer than most supermarket chickens.

Diners can have a look at chefs making another signature dish – Hakka Stuffed Tofu. The beancurd and the pork filling are both made in-house. Another signature dish, Traditional Hakka Pork Soup, is simmered in spring water.

Prices have not been finalised, but the average spending a person is expected to be $30.

Four chefs from Hakka Yu will come to Singapore for the opening, and two of them will stay on here. Three chefs from Singapore have gone to Hakka Yu to train.

The restaurant does not serve thunder tea rice or abacus seeds because Hakka Yu in China does not have these on the menu, Mr Fong says.

Asked why he was opening in an airport mall, he says the management of Jewel Changi Airport, where he has a Putien restaurant, approached him after finding out he was bringing in the brand.

Its location will showcase the cuisine to a wide range of diners. “Tasty food should not be just for Hakkas,” he says.

Flame-grilled chicken, Asian sauces: Chickita (opens Dec 20)

Where: 04-33 City Square Mall, 180 Kitchener Road
Open: 11am to 10pm daily
Tel: 6531-0567
Info: @chickita.sg (Instagram)

There is Dynamite, a hot sauce that packs a punch; Tropical, with mango; Red Dragon, with chillies, lime and nori; and Original, chilli with lemongrass and lime leaves.

These and other sauces, inspired by Asian flavours, are an important part of Chickita, a chain offering flame-grilled chicken. Its first restaurant in Singapore, a casual 93-seater, opens at City Square Mall on Dec 20.

The brand was born in Vietnam, created by food entrepreneur Asif Mehrudeen, 47. The Australian had worked for the Park Hyatt in Ho Chi Minh City, before turning his hand to opening restaurants.

In 2019, he launched Chickita. It now has four restaurants in Vietnam, one in Australia and one in Malaysia.

Bringing the brand to Singapore is the Lao Huo Tang Group, which runs a chain of restaurants serving Hong Kong-style soup, and other brands such as D’Penyetz and Rong Wantan Noodle.

Chief operating officer Tiffany Hong, 27, says she found Chickita at a franchise fair in Ho Chi Minh City in 2022. She later went to dine at the restaurant multiple times during her four to five days there.

“What attracted me was the look of the shop,” she says. “It has a very strong brand identity, the place looks vibrant.”

A mutual friend linked the two together, and in February 2023, they signed the deal. The partners chose City Square Mall for its high footfall.

The Singapore restaurant will serve the flame-grilled chicken, plus quesadillas, tacos, burritos, burgers and steak. On the table will be six sauces diners can help themselves to.

Half a chicken with two side dishes is priced at $20.90, quarter portions with two sides are priced at $15.90 for a leg portion and $14.90 for a breast portion. Other options include Chickita Low Carb Bowl ($14.90), with boneless chicken, edamame hummus, salsa, charred corn, greens and yogurt ranch dressing; and Chicken & Broccoli Half Moon Quesadilla ($14.90).

Marinated for 24 hours, the chicken, which comes from Malaysia, is cooked through in a combi-oven before being finished on the grill for four to six minutes to get a charred, smoky flavour.

Like the restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City that Ms Hong visited, the Singapore one will, she says, be decked out in vibrant, cheerful colours. Mr Mehrudeen’s playlist and special lighting will create a fun ambience, she adds.

The partners are looking to open five restaurants over the next five years.