A visit to Takashimaya Food Fest 2016 (30 June to 17 July 2016)

Once again, the annual Takashimaya food fair held in the Takashimaya Square event hall in basement 2 is upon us. This year the Takashimaya Food Fest 2016 takes place from 30 June to 17 July 2016.  There must have been a hundred or more stalls squeezed into the exhibition space. It was very crowded and noisy, but in a nice jovial festival way.  Food fairs would not be the same without the jostling crowds and the hustle and bustle. The important thing was that the air-conditioning stayed cool and the people were mostly in a  happy festive mood.

Takashimaya Food Fest 2016 is an international food fair, with stalls selling food from many countries. We did not do a count but from our general observation, it seems that the dominant cuisines represented here were Japanese, local (i.e. Singapore and Malaysia) and Korean. There was a wide range of food from humble nuts to very expensive birds’ nest.  What we observed about this year’s Taka food fair was that there were a lot of seafood options available. From grilled fish to crispy giant squids to chili crab.  Seafood fans will have quite a bit of choice here.

As in previous years, one nice thing about these food fairs is that many stalls make available their products for sampling. If we ate every sample that was offered to us, we could skip lunch.  As there were simply too many things on sale for us to describe and many of the items are new to us anyway, we will not try to describe the food available at the Takashimaya Food Fest 2016. Instead, we will just let the pictures do the talking.

We do not  know what “senbei” means, but the squid senbei was the most delicious food we tried that day. They are very thinly sliced dried cuttlefish.  If we had to buy only one thing at the food fair, this is the one we will buy.

Takashimaya Food Fest 2016
Takashimaya Square Basement 2
391  Orchard Road
Singapore 238873.

10 am to 9.30 pm