After a visit toSingapore, Tran Vi Thoai never returns to Vietnam empty-handed. In fact, the 34-year-old lawyer makes sure he goes back to his family armed specifically with salted-egg fish skins – several packets of them.
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“There was one time I left these snacks on the table [at home], and went away for just 10 minutes. But when I came back, there was nothing left. My mother and sister ate everything,” Tran recalls, with a laugh. “I haven’t found anything quite like it in Vietnam so far. It’s delicious and addictive.”
These fried fish-skin crisps, each coated with a rich layer of salted-egg yolk, are among the latest wave of artisanal snacks to have taken Singapore’s food scene by storm. And they are winning big among tourists.
The potential of the food-souvenir market is huge. Globally, it is projected to grow in value from US$54.4 billion in 2015 to US$70 billion by 2020, according to a Frost & Sullivan report published last year.
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Confectionery and food items are popular among tourists visiting Singapore, accounting for about 11 per cent of their total shopping expenditure of S$6.17 billion (US$4.47 billion) in 2017, according to figures from the Singapore Tourism Board. Against this backdrop – as well as that of Asia’s burgeoning locavore movement, which sees consumers making an effort to eat food grown or farmed locally or regionally – a group of independent entrepreneurs have been putting the limelight on foods with local provenance over the last five years or so.
