With MAI BAO, Singaporean Street Food makes inroads into Delhi

NEW DELHI: It’s good news for gourmets with taste buds for authentic Singaporean street food.

Mai Bao, a modern Singapore street food restaurant, which is northern India’s first Singaporean restaurant is all geared to serve the wide and diverse culinary delicacies at Commons, DLF Avenue Mall, Saket.

Simon Wong Wie Kuen, High Commissioner of Singapore to India, and Avantika Sinha, Founder of Mai Bao inaugurated the restaurant on January 20 in the presence of notable delegates from Singaporean High Commission, Ambassadors of various embassies and Pushpa Bector, Executive Director DLF Retail, Head luxury and Shopping Malls.

“In India, we have Singaporean restaurants in Chennai and Bangaluru only where we have a majority of Singaporean nationals living. Mai Bao is the first Singaporean restaurant in this part of India,” Simon Wong told Asian Community News (ACN) Network during the soft launch of Mai Bao on Wednesday. 

Promoting a casual premium-dining concept, the restaurant is a fifty-cover delight, serving delectable food straight from the streets of Singapore.

Singapore’s hawker culture was recently inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, reflecting the country’s living heritage and multiculturalism.

Known for being a melting pot of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian cultures, Singapore offers a wide-ranging food scene that is one of the most vibrant in Southeast Asia. At Mai Bao, this is what we have tried to represent with our menu. Almost 2 years of research has gone into creating this concept and curating a menu, which could perfectly represent the street food of Singapore in a completely new and fresh manner.

The carefully crafted menu of the restaurant has been curated by Jeremy Nguee, a celebrity chef from Singapore, has further trained the team of professionals over more than a year to provide an authentic Singaporean taste to Delhiites. Jeremy is a firm believer in preserving the rich culture and cuisine of Singapore and he does so by working with heritage chefs and master hawkers in Singapore and with restaurants around the world.

The creatively crafted menu perfectly sums up the diverse food scene in Singapore. Some of the signature dishes are Hainanese chicken rice, Nasi Lemak, Laksa, Chilli Crab, Ayam Goreng, Salted Egg Prawns, Popiah, Satay, Hokkien mee, Rendang curry, a wide variety of dim sums and baos and so on.  

Playing with vibrancy in the interiors, the restaurant offers a colorful, quirky, lively ambiance with various subtle elements from Singapore.

Mai Bao has a unique beverage program, offering some delectable coolers encapsulating regional flavors. The menu consists of coolers, bubble teas, signature cocktails such as Mai Sling (a signature variation of Singapore Sling) and the first alcoholic bubble teas the city has seen.

Avantika Sinha Bahl, the founder of Mai Bao and a graduate from NIFT with a Masters in Luxury Brand Management from the University of The Arts, London is known to express her creativity and spurring fascinating flavors as she offers paradise on a plate.

The founder of Kampai, EBK Luxury Catering and Mai Bao, Avantika caters to the capital with her expertise in the industry, serving authentic dishes in a distinctive manner. On her multiple research trips to Singapore, Avantika and Jeremy together curated the menu over months of discussions and deliberations.

“It is imperative for me to ensure that Mai Bao does justice to the beautiful and diverse culture of Singapore through our menu,” said Avantika.

During the soft launch of Mai Bao, Simon Wong, High Commissioner of Singapore said, “Since coming here in August, I have always wanted to have a Singaporean restaurant in Delhi and with Mai Bao’s launch, it is going to be a start point of many good things to come. Mai Bao is going to be a true leader in the food segment and I am very happy and grateful to Avantika to make us a part of this ceremony.”

“There is a couplet in our language – Mai Bao and Da Bao. Mai Bao means Buy dumpling which you savour at the restaurant and Da Bao is that you like it so much that you take it away. So after you come here to Mai Bao, you have to Da Bao,” Simon Wong added.

Mai Bao at Commons is all set to introduce this world-famous cuisine to patrons through its diverse and well thought out menu. A tapas-style menu will ensure that guests can try a large variety of dishes while sipping on their favorite beverages.  Commons, the unrivaled food and beverage destination in the capital proffers a curated dining experience spread over three floors featuring a mix of cuisines from the world over, presented in unique dining formats.

To represent the diverse culinary experiences of Singapore, Mai Bao has also associated with Singapore Tourism Board as a travel tourism organization to showcase their support for the launch of the outlet.

G B Srithar, Regional Director (India, Middle East, South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board, said “Singaporean and Indian consumers share a common passion for food and culinary experiences. The STB has promoted Singapore cuisine in India over the past few years through various initiatives, as part of our efforts to reach to the Foodie passion tribe audience.”

“At a time when Singapore Hawker culture has been added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and Indian travelers are unable to enjoy the variety of dining experiences in our city, the opening of Mai Bao will allow Delhiites to savour Singapore’s food delights like Nasi Lemak, Singapore Chilli Crab, Laksa, and Satay. When the time is right, we look forward to welcoming Indian visitors to Singapore to experience the diverse culinary offerings,” he added.