TV: EAT LOCAL CHALLENGE.

The Eat Local Challenge is an initiative taken from the United States where customers are encouraged to pick food vendors based on the quality of the food and their commitment to socially responsible practices.

Now, I am a very practical person. Singapore is an island. So we can't grow our own produce or have our own water, or have space to grow free range chickens, or breed grass fed cows or can we have any say in the practice of fair trade because we are, well, surrounded by water. We are in one heck of a disadvantage. And more importantly, I do love MacDonald's and KFC and I do indulge in fairly expensive culinary adventures right in Singapore. But even in our country's short history, our lack of National identity (just my opinion) and culture, I have been thinking about what is something that we can preserve or to keep as our own?

And since this is a food blog. Why not Food !?! The way I see it, before everything turns into a "KopiTiam," "Banquet," and now Food Republic (which I still enjoy but I think is ridiculously expensive) food court; we should preserve what Singapore already has. Great food! Who wants to eat at a chicken rice store at a food court where the chicken rice is over priced, deadly stale, and highly processed and we go there purely out of convenience and nothing else, when there is a smaller chicken rice store that is cheaper and maybe 10 mins away?

I have been thinking about this because I have been wanting to eat Bak Kut Teh recently, and I realized that all the great stores are never at a mall or at a food court. They're in the neighborhood stores, in the nook that I have never been to (Yes, even though Singapore is SO SMALL), at that part of town that I hardly visit. All this wonderful food at great prices and nostalgic local atmosphere.

If we don't support their business, then these stores will slowly disappear, just like our culinary identity.

My version of the Eat Local Challenge Poster!