Kee chew (hands up), if you like $10 or $1.50 chai tow kway...

Several years back, PM Lee famously spoke about "mee siam mai hum" (Malay-style rice vermicelli in a spicy gravy and minus the cockles, a non-existent dish since mee siam does not come garnished with cockles!). To put it kindly, many people were amused.

Now along comes a young, first-time, acting minister who, in making a point, used another favourite hawker food analogy -- chai tow kway (carrot cake. Note: this is not the western carrot cake. This is a fried savoury dish that uses radish as the main ingredient).

I'll let insing.com tell the story:

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/the-politics-of-chai-tow-kway/id-69283f00

'A food analogy used by Singapore's Acting Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Chan Chun Sing hasn't gone down well for some online commentators.

During a dialogue session at Jurong Spring Community Club on Sunday, Mr Chan said money was not the primary factor why the ruling party members had joined politics and added that a right balance was needed when it comes to political salaries.

According to Channel NewsAsia, he said: "Money should not be the one (factor) to attract them in. On the other hand, money should also not be the bugbear to deter them. (For example,) you go to Peach Garden [restaurant], you eat the S$10 XO sauce chai tow kway (fried carrot cake), you can be quite happy, right?

"Because you are satisfied with the service and so on. On the other hand, you can go to a hawker centre, even if they charge you S$1.50, you might not want to eat it if the quality is not good."

The analogy has left a bit of a bad aftertaste for some netizens who decided to start a Facebook page titled, "We Love $1.50 Chye Tow Kuay." Some have started posting addresses of their favourite hawker stalls selling the local dish while others wondered where it was still possible to get the dish at $1.50.

On The Online Citizen's Facebook page, Aaron Koh wrote, "$1.50 fried carrot cake? Maybe in the army camps where rental is low. This shows how out of touch our ministers are."

Another netizen, James Huang, said, "While food analogies like mee siam mai hum to char kway teow hot and nice to $10 XO sauce chai tow kway are meant to connect with the people, they almost always end up as jokes. They don't learn their lesson, do they?"

Others have posted supportive comments, adding that the Minister's comments have been taken out of context. OC Yeo wrote on the Minister's Facebook page, "If what he said was reported in full, I am sure his message would have been quite clear."

Lu-Ann Ong wrote, "Mr Chan, I can appreciate the contents of what you say but the way you say it really needs to be improved." '

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Since today's subject has to do with food, here's some more pic-worthy foodie moments...

The noodles (mee) in Singapore can get quite "wantonly" amorous, slithering about your mouth and maybe deep-throating before going down. Here's one stall, said to be among the best:

Next, the headline writer here can't seem to decide if the copy is about bak kut teh (pork ribs soup) that's no good or a search for good bak kut teh came to nought! 

Sometimes words get lost in translation. Here's the label, in English, of one instant soup:

And this here below is the Malay label:

Liar? Haha, not so. The Malay word for "wild" is "liar", and it is pronounced "lee-are".

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Ok, it's back to my series on eye-catching food signboards. Here's two more...

This pic isn't very good, because of all that glass. But the name of this ice-cream parlour is "The Daily Scoop". Very creative name, and one that tickles the journalist in me. It's at Sunset Way, beside Cold Storage.

Of course Singaporean foodies who'll pay the earth for their durian fix will want to savour this "king of fruits" long after it has gone down our throat. So, "Durian lingers" seems so apt. But, hmmm, was there also a "cunning" double entendre play on words? After all, people sniggered when an Irish airline appeared -- with the name "Air Lingus"!

This shop is along Bukit Timah Road, near Sixth Avenue.