Singapore's street cuisine is a melting pot of cultural influences, a spicy cauldron of Chinese, Malay, Indonesian and Indian flavours.
Found in the lantern-lined alleyways and back streets of the bustling city state, hawker fare such as drunken prawns, noodles in hundreds of permutations, laksa and chilli crab has long been a drawcard for travellers. Singapore has established itself as a foodie destination, a place where chefs trawl dimly-lit markets in search of taste inspiration.
The food, sights, sounds and smells of Singapore found their way to a Ponsonby lane on Saturday night with the first in the Tiger Streets of Singapore series. Held at The Street Food Collective (located in the alley that joins MacKelvie St and Richmond Rd), the event saw a small piece of Auckland transformed into a slice of Singaporean heaven.
Vendors crafted Asian-inspired fare with Tiger Beer - but it wasn't just a celebration of street food. The event also provided some of our top DJs with the opportunity to air some of their favourite Asian-inspired beats.
Heading the line-up was TV presenter and writer Tim Lambourne, a Tiger beer brand ambassador whose parents spent time in Singapore before he was born.
"My parents used to cook laksa for dinner when we were kids in Pukekohe," he says. "It was pretty far removed from Singapore and the fish sauce smelt so bad when I was a kid - but I love it now!"
Lambourne's set list included tracks by French-Vietnamese DJ Onra, Flying Lotus and Bonobo.
"You can really hear the Asian inspiration in all the tracks," he says. "There is a lot of untapped potential when it comes to this style of music."
Tiger Beer was raised in the streets of Singapore and their re-creation of those streets also served as a launching pad for three new Tiger beers with a particularly Asian sensibility. It will be the first chance for New Zealanders to sample Tiger White, Tiger Black and Tiger Green throughout the Streets of Singapore series which will be enjoyed for a limited time at different venues throughout Auckland and Wellington this month.
Tiger Green is tangy and refreshing, with wok-roasted green tea flavours. Tiger White is a naturally cloudy wheat beer with hints of clove, coriander and orange peel and Tiger Black has been brewed using black rice from Asian rice paddies.
The street vendors used these beers as inspiration for a range of dishes crafted for the evening.
Popular dishes were Coreano's killer kimchi fries were topped with kimchi, carnitas and cheese as a match for Tiger White; Bearded Clam created a crispy satay fried chicken with coriander slaw, pickled chillies and cucumber, sambal mayo plus fish sauce and fried garlic to be matched with Tiger Black.
Art will also play a starring role in the Streets of Singapore series. A range of artists from New Zealand and Australia were chosen to present their take on Asian style, decorating a number of woks that were sourced from direct from Singaporean street hawkers.
Kiwi stencil artist Flox lent her idiosyncratic style to a wok that was hung above the DJ booth and viewed from the outside courtyard. Erin Forsyth, Louise McRae, Josh Lancaster and Nicholas J Boyd were also chosen for the project and will have their work displayed at the future events.
Missed out on this experience? Tiger Beer are running four more Singapore Streets of Asia nights, head along for great food and music!
• Wednesday 20 to Thursday 21 April: Little Easy, Auckland
• Wednesday 27 April: Dirty Little Secret, Wellington
• Friday 29th April: Portland Public House, Auckland
• Sunday 01 May: White + Wong's, Auckland