Hawker food on Singapore Airlines First and Business Class: I’m a fan

After Godwin’s law, one of the most immutable rules of the internet is that every time Singapore Airlines posts about a new hawker collaboration, there’s going to be complaints in the comments.

The derision is rather predictable by now: You’re serving that in First and Business Class? Cost-cutting! Cheap! Disgrace! Insult! You can get the same thing for S$3/4/5!

But you know what? I really like the hawker options. In fact, I find some of them to be better choices than Book the Cook (BTC) favourites like beef steak, which is invariably dry and flavourless, or lobster thermidor, which even after reformulation still sits a little too heavy in the stomach.

SIA has just wrapped up a two-year collaboration with some of Singapore’s best-known hawker stalls, and having sampled many of the items, I wanted to share my thoughts on how well they held up in the cabin.

But it’s hawker food!

Before we get into that, however, let’s first address those complaints about hawker food daring to make an appearance in the rarefied air of First and Business Class.

“Why would you serve hawker fare to someone who pays you thousands of dollars to fly your premium cabin?”, reads one actual Facebook comment. 

This really rubs me the wrong way, because it’s basically the culinary equivalent of AMDK (Pinkerton Syndrome, for the more erudite). Ravioli? Haute cuisine, atas! Wonton? Hoi polloi, low class! KF Seetoh once remarked that Singaporeans inherently undervalue our local cuisine because we complain about S$5 chicken rice but won’t hesitate to splash out S$20 for a mediocre pasta dish, and this is really just another manifestation of that mentality.

Moreover, First and Business Class is all about having choices. It’d be one thing if SIA scrapped the beef tenderloin and duck confit and forced everyone to eat bak chor mee. But that’s not what’s happening here. In addition to the usual 3-4 mains from the inflight menu, you can pick dozens of BTC items that aren’t hawker food, so if you don’t want to eat hawker food in First and Business Class, no one’s forcing you to. Therefore there’s no reason to get upset about this, unless perhaps you’re triggered that ban mian is given equal billing alongside braised beef cheeks. 

Then there’s those who say it’s silly to order hawker food on SIA because the versions in the hawker centres are much superior. And that’s certainly true, but I could equally say the same about the western options too. I’d wager you could find a better steak or rack of lamb at many restaurants on the ground; that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) stop people from ordering it onboard nonetheless.

Is hawker food “low effort”? Hardly. Unlike what the experts on Facebook might say, serving hawker food on a plane is not as simple as dabao-ing it from your friendly neighbourhood uncle. There’s a lot of R&D that goes into this, as dishes need to be re-engineered for a cabin environment where dry air, low pressure and loud engine noise dull the senses. It needs to take into account seasonal availability. It needs to withstand blast chilling and reheating in a convection oven. It needs to be simple enough to plate so the galley doesn’t get bottlenecked. Even the height restrictions imposed by service carts need to be taken into account- you can’t serve a tissue prata onboard if you can’t fit it!

Finally, let’s not forget that SIA caters to more than just Singaporeans. There may be foreigners who didn’t have time to visit a hawker centre during their trip, or who found the idea too intimidating for whatever reason. If they want to try hawker food in a more comfortable environment, what’s it to you?

So what annoys me the most about such complaints is that they’re saying, in so many words: hawker food should know its place, and that place is not in the premium cabin. But if we as Singaporeans don’t think our food is worthy of the First and Business Class cabin, who will?

My take on Singapore Airlines hawker food

Now that I’ve got off my soapbox, let’s run through the various hawker items I’ve tried.

Back in August 2021, Singapore Airlines launched the Singapore Showcase, an initiative aimed at bringing Singaporean brands to the airline’s cabins. Hawker cuisine was a big part of this, and to celebrate the addition of Singapore hawker culture to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, SIA’s caterer SATS partnered with homegrown brands like Song Fa and Kok Kee to produce inflight versions of their signature dishes. 

These items were offered under a “Special Feature” section of the BTC menu, and while the line-up periodically rotated, the following items were available at different times.

🍲 Book the Cook: Special Feature

As part of SIA’s Singapore Showcase programme and to celebrate the addition of Singapore’s hawker culture to UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, SIA is proud to bring you the Hawker Culture promotion. The promotion will feature a series of popular local dishes from renowned hawkers prepared by our catering partner SATS.

Beach Road Prawn Noodle Soup Bismillah Biryani Restaurant Chicken Dum Biryani Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice Chew Kee Soy Sauce Chicken Noodle KEK Seafood Moonlight Hor Fun Kok Kee Wonton Noodle Nasi Padang by Rumah Makan Minang Ponggol Nasi Lemak Qiu Lian Ban Mian Song Fa Bak Kut Teh Soon Heng Bak Chor Mee Soup White Restaurant Original White Bee Hoon

The Singapore Showcase concluded in August 2023, though the Special Feature hawker items remained available for selection on flights up till November 2023. From December 2023, the BTC section labelled “Singaporean” has been expanded to include enhanced versions of classic local dishes, though none of them in collaboration with a specific hawker stall.

🍲 Book the Cook: Singaporean

Bak Chor Mee Dry Style with Soup on Side Singapore Laksa Singapore Style Chicken Satay Fish Congee Fish Ball Kway Teow Soup Singapore Style Yu Pian Mi Fen Singapore Chicken Curry Bak Chor Mee Soup Bak Kut Teh Chicken Rice (Breast Meat) Chicken Rice (Leg Meat) Chicken Rice Singapore Style Prawn Noodle Soup Char Siew Wonton Noodle

Because of this, I can’t guarantee the items reviewed below will be the same versions you’ll receive going forward. In fact, based on some recent photos I’ve seen, it does look like changes have been made, so keep that in mind before treating this as a “what to pick for the future” guide.

(1) Kok Kee Wonton Noodle

In the end, it’s simple wonton noodles that won my heart.

Kok Kee’s recipe translates fantastically well to a cabin environment. The egg noodles retained a springiness that I’d be delighted to get on the ground, the wontons were plump with the right ratio of filling to wrapper, and the char siew did a commendable job of retaining its succulence even after a reheating cycle. But what really made this dish pop was the sprinkling of lard bits, which hid among the noodles like a surprise party. 

It’s so good I even ordered it for a First Class flight, where it paired brilliantly with a 2008 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne.

(2) Chew Kee Soy Sauce Chicken Noodle

I’d never visited Chew Kee prior to tasting their soy sauce chicken noodles on a First Class flight from Singapore to London, but this made me wonder where they’d been all my life. 

Where to begin? The chicken was tender and infused with the subtle sweetness of soy sauce. The al dente noodles were coated with an umami-rich sauce, and the accompanying wanton soup had a hint of herbal bitterness that was intriguing without being off-putting. The chilli sauce brightened up taste buds dulled by the cabin air, with a pronounced tinge of garlic.

(3) Beach Road Prawn Noodle Soup

Back in 2018, I ordered a bowl of prawn mee soup in The Private Room. I remember my disdain for what was served: a tepid, watery broth littered with tiny, frozen prawns and a sliver of fatty pork. I felt ashamed that any foreigner should go away wondering why Singaporeans lauded this dish so highly.

Thankfully, the airborne version exorcises these ghosts. It’s served with sweet, meaty prawns that keep the heads for extra flavour. These are garnished with a generous serving of fried shallots and lard, which dissolve into the hearty, briny broth. I don’t even mind the absence of pork ribs, quite frankly. The way I see it, prawn mee soup is about the prawns- pork is just a filler ingredient. Spike the soup with some signature chilli powder for extra excitement. 

(4) Song Heng Bak Chor Mee Soup

At the risk of sparking an all-out war in the comments section, I’ve always believed that ‘dry’ was the only acceptable way of ordering bak chor mee. After all, who doesn’t love an explosive mix of vinegar and chili sauce, lathered over springy noodles? And besides, you get a bowl of soup on the side- the best of both worlds.

But there’s something to be said about crossing over to the dark side, because the soup version is laden with an umami flavour from minced pork and lard that you wouldn’t otherwise get. It’s actually fairly intense, and somewhat surprising given that traditional bak chor mee soup is supposed to be lighter tasting (or so I’m told). And Song Heng’s version somehow achieves the impossible by keeping the noodles lively when doused in broth. 

I’d go so far as to say this is superior to the dry version that Singapore Airlines also offers. 

(5) Song Fa Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh feels like the kind of dish that was made for an airplane cabin. After all, how better to open clogged sinuses than a bowl of hot spicy soup?

In that respect it certainly excels, though it’s hard not to feel the signature white pepper bite has been toned down for foreign palates. I have no complaints about the pork ribs themselves, however- two large, juicy ribs provided the kind of melty consistency you’d expect from this dish. 

What it lacked was you tiao (fried dough fritters). I’m sure it must have been thought about at the conceptualisation stage and rejected for good reason, but its absence is certainly felt. Also, I know preserved vegetables are a traditional accompaniment, but some blanched greens would have helped round out the dish better.

(6) Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice

Chicken rice is probably my favourite hawker dish of all, so you can bet I’ll have high standards judging any rendition, even at 30,000 feet.

Boon Tong Kee’s recipe holds up well enough. The rice grains were plump and fragrant, the chicken (breast unfortunately, not thigh- though the BTC menu now lets you order specific chicken parts) was slightly chewy, and the accompanying chili sauce, ginger sauce and black sauce all passed muster. Less impressive were the limp vegetables. 

But chicken rice can also go very wrong sometimes. You might remember the period where Malaysia halted live chicken exports, forcing restaurants and caterers in Singapore to switch to frozen chicken. SATS was not spared either, and perhaps they should have just stopped serving the dish temporarily because frozen chicken has no place in chicken rice. 

What you see above is one of the worst dishes I’ve had on a plane. The chicken tasted like it’d been nuked in a microwave, the vegetables were even paler than usual, and the rice had dried out. I’m shocked Boon Tong Kee would be willing to put their name on this.

(7) Qiu Lan Ban Mian

Since ban mian is comprised of such simple ingredients —  noodles, vegetables, anchovies and minced meat — the soup is left to do most of the heavy lifting.

The best ban mian soups manage to wring out every bit of flavour from their pork base,  but Qiu Lan’s didn’t quite manage to hit the highs I was expecting. The minced meat portion was meagre, and the anchovy overload made the overall flavour rather one-note.

It wasn’t bad by any means, just rather unmemorable. 

(8) Moonlight Hor Fun by Keng Eng Kee KEK Seafood

I’ll admit that I don’t eat moonlight hor fun very often, so I might not be the best judge of this dish. 

That said, I did appreciate the attempts to adapt this dish to the unique constraints of an airplane cabin. Since you can’t serve anything raw onboard (even the chirashi bowl served on flights from Japan features all cooked or smoked items), the raw egg is replaced with a sous vide version which, when broken, provides the requisite moonlight effect.

But the rest of the dish didn’t taste like anything other than black sauce. There was only the slightest hint of wok hei around the edges, the squid was rubbery, and the shrimps bland. 

(9) White Restaurant Original White Bee Hoon

White beehoon is one of those dishes that looks boring, but like chicken rice, has the capacity to surprise.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to the version served on SIA. I found this to be the most forgettable of the hawker dishes, a bland mix of limp bee hoon, rubbery seafood and token cameos of scrambled egg. The broth was watery, and there wasn’t any wok hei to speak of.

More hawker options?

In addition to the BTC menu, it’s good to see that hawker food is finally making an appearance on the snack menu in First and Business Class. 

Passengers on long-haul flights from Singapore can choose items such as Singapore Carrot Cake with Prawns and Fried Hokkien Mee, both of which are excellent pick-me-up options. 

I could think of many other hawker items that’d make great snacks, so hopefully we’ll see some rotation in the months to come.

Conclusion

Singapore Airlines’ hawker food is clearly no substitute for the real thing, but given the unique constraints imposed by the cabin, I have to give credit to SATS for pulling off a mostly faithful representation. Not every item is great— that chicken rice with frozen chicken continues to turn my stomach— though on the whole I’ve had more hits than misses. 

Unfortunately, there’ll always be naysayers who turn up their noses at hawker food, seeing it as an inferior option unfit for the premium cabins. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from ordering it if you want. After all, the best dish is the one that makes your stomach happy!

How do you find the hawker dishes on Singapore Airlines?