World Street Food Congress 2015 in Singapore

Last week was definitely a gastronomic one here in sunny Singapore. Thanks to the 24 food stalls who opened shop for 5 glorious days as part of the World Street Food Congress 2015 in the Bugis district. After 2 years of attempting to check this event out, Paul and I finally made it!

Of course, we will never miss this year's jamboree for anything as we're ready to show our all-out support to our dear friend and favorite Lechon Diva, Dedet of Pepita's Kitchen along with fellow Pinoys, Chef Claude Tayag of Bale Dutung and Top Chef winner Paul Qui of East Side King. 

The event opened last Tuesday at 5PM and believe it or not, Pepita's Kitchen's Truffled Lechon Diva was all sold out an hour and a half after! My heart sank the moment I got to the event grounds and Dedet apologetically told me they're all sold out. Awww mannn!

Lechon with Truffled Rice.

We walked around the venue to search for our next must-eat item on our list -- Bale Dutung's Sisig in Wanton Cups. It wasn't hard to spot this as we just followed the growing line at the back of the tent. We immediately joined the queue which actually was a good thing we did because they had to cut the line right behind me as the sisig are also about to run out. *phew* We got the last plate of sisig for that day! Hooray! 

The sisig was really good but I hope the wanton cups were less oily. It wasn't really fun to have tiny droplets of oil run down your fingers as you pick a piece up. Definitely not for me who's not really into getting my fingers oily. :P  

Heading over to the Singaporean tent, we spotted Alhambra Padang Satay who's known for their Satay Beehoon. We tried a plate and immediately liked it! I particularly liked the inclusion of those succulent prawns and the yummy satay sticks. The gravy was a bit too spicy for me but Paul was quite happy with it. Well, it still managed to please us both! 

On to Day 2 

As promised, Paul and I headed back to the World Street Food Congress a couple of days after. This time, we managed to go earlier to make sure that we get to have the much-talked-about Truffled Lechon Diva. I tell you, the queue for this particular dish would snake around the venue and the waiting time could go as long as 2 hours! Still, people would stay in line as they patiently wait for their very own plates of lechon. 

The Lechon Diva and her local fans

The turnout was really amazing and we're mighty proud of our friend Dedet and her team who worked so hard all 5 days amidst the intense heat from the open pit just to make everyone happy with their plates of lechon. 

Check out this short video below on how the queue would go at 6 in the evening. This would get longer as meal time comes:

We happily had our Truffled Lechon Diva for dinner! Look at that sparkling crunchy lechon skin and the tender pork meat. Of course, what makes this such a winning treat is how the lechon goes so well with the truffled mushroom rice too. No matter how many times I've had Pepita's Truffled Lechon, I still manage to fall in love with it every single time. ♥

We chanced upon Bon Chovie from the US and admitedly, what attracted us to check this stall out was the cool name they got (Bon Chovie...Bon Jovi...gets?). It specializes in Deep-Fried Shisamo which is Japanese for anchovies. Now, this just got to be the biggest anchovies I've ever seen as I'm more used to the anchovies found on top of my pizza which are teeny-tiny! As we bit into the fish, we noticed that it's filled with fish roe inside. Oh WOW! I was totally blown away. What I thought would just be deep-fried fish and nothing special was actually an interesting delicacy. AMAZING. I loved this and I'm so glad we decided to try it.

There were many other stalls that we weren't able to try anymore. This is just one of those moments when I wish I have four stomachs enough to hold all the food in! Nonetheless, I was really happy with the ones that we got to try for both days and I can't wait for the World Street Food Congress next year as I heard it will be held in... wait for it.... Manila, Philippines!!!

Let the countdown begin!