Food Hotel Asia (FHA 2016) Singapore: What to expect – Hall 1 – 6

Woke up at 3am, arrrived at KLIA 2 at 4am. Boarded a 6:10am flight and landed in Changi at 7:15am.
Freshen up in Changi washrooms, grabbed my luggage and took the MRT to Expo.
Thankfully it was a short ride, just one MRT stop away.

I reached Singapore Expo at 8am, sat down to send out some urgent emails, gave instructions to my PA and the next thing I know it’s 9am and it is time to register for the exhibition.

The registration process was smooth as I got the necessary printed confirmation email with me.
Visitors are only allowed to enter the exhibition at 10am sharp so even if you are early, you would have to wait til 10am.

I started with Hall 1 since it was next to the registration area.

I found out soon enough that Hall 1 and Hall 2 were mostly machineries, but Hall 3 and 4 is best for caffeine freaks since black gold and tea flowed freely throughout the day.
Both Hall 3 and 4 offers a lot of gelato sampling opportunities too, while a couple of booths generously shakes and stirs out refreshing cocktails.

Hall 5 is scary. There are breads and pastries everywhere.
Every baking item you will ever need is here; utensil and all sort of baking ingredients and ready mix possibly invented.
At one booth they were selling baking moulds and trust me, it was really challenging to drag myself away without picking up one of every item displayed!!

Next is Hall 6.
We are coming to the more “interesting” halls now.
If you are here for leisure and not carrying out any F & B business research, head straight for Hall 6 onwards.
I was told that this is where the samples galore are, as well as cooking demos.

Hall 6 is mainly made up of:
1. French Pavillion where dairy products such as milk and cheese take precedence with the occasional appearance of foie gras. A friend told me there were truffles but I must have missed it today.
2. Singapore Tasty Food – plenty of local brands and locally produced condiments, breads, food products here.
3. New Zealand – fruits, dairy products, more gelato, meats and organic snacks.

Well, folks that’s it for today.
I’ll be exploring Hall 6 (yes again), Hall 7, Hall 8 and Hall 9 tomorrow!

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HALL 1 and 2: Machineries

As you can see, there’s a lot of business discussions going on and you are surrounded by machines that could possibly execute any food preparation task.

And of course, to demonstrate the capabilities of the machines, chefs were assiduously at work churning out delicious dishes and baked goods.

Perfectly shaped sushi and rolls – by machine of course.

I bet you didn’t know that the sous vide method can be used to gently heat up food in cans?

Try to sit in for some of the cooking demos and you can look forward to freshly cooked food immediately after.

Printing machines – to print on ice cream, macarons, etc.

The gelato machine area is where you’ll like to be at; unless of course, you do not enjoy gelato.
Most of them allow a spoonful as a sample and you can request to have multiple samplings, but there are some which scoops out a whole cup as samples!

I found some rather innovative flavours too!

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HALL 3 and 4: Coffee/Tea/Utensils.

How much coffee can you drink?
This area is amazing. Most booths are pouring full cups of black gold brewed cup by cup. And they were pouring them with a full smile and even had time to chat with you while they are at it!

Nitro coffee anyone?

I recommend Kian for a good cuppa because while you’re there you can chat with their friendly reps about their wares too.
Kian is a total furniture solutions provider catering to the commercial and residential sectors since 1983. They service businesses in various disciplines of the industry – from contract, export & manufacturing to wholesale.

Coffee machines in all sizes for all purposes.

Catch my friend Caryn at the 1872 Clippery Tea Co. The name sounds mild, but the cocktails aren’t!

Check out Fabbri to for awesome cocktails. And yes, in full tall glasses.

There are more gelato to sample here of course. Mec 3 seems to be well known for some reason.

But there were so many gelato and ice cream brands and I think most (if not all) taste good.

Hall 4 is also where the pretty chinaware and posh silverware are it.

A lot of them are beautiful; ranging from cutleries, plates, wine and spirits glasses and so forth.
But depending on your needs (and budget), some very restaurant, hotel-ish stuff, some colorful. Some sport super expensive but really fine workmanship while over at a Japanese section, it was all about bentos and Japanese knives.

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HALL 5: Breads

This is where there are enough loaves and cakes and croissants to feed an army for a month.

What I particularly favour about this hall is the baking equipment displayed!
These come in all sizes and shapes and made up of superb, durable quality because they are made for commercial use.

Some of these are for sale, otherwise you can always request for a namecard and try to contact them later.

In bread we trust, indeed.

Baking demonstrations are always welcomed. For me at least.

Plenty of samples to go around.

All the chocolates you can eat too!

Overheard: This pan will make sure your cake turns out PERFECT!

At some booths, freshly baked samples are offered in full size portions!

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HALL 6:

New Zealand Pavilion:

Put on these VR devices for a virtual reality tour of New Zealand.

Refreshing beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

The amazing Coconut Butter I was telling you about.

And organic produce from New Zealand are of superb quality.

Dunninghams sausages. So good!

Sweet, crunchy New Zealand apples.

I have always favoured New Zealand’s dairy and produce. The food always taste so natural.

Taste of Singapore: It is all about local brands and local innovations.
I was impressed with the modernization done by some decades old preserve their brands and recipes.
Some have their sauces bottled, some items vacuum packed, some dehydrated.

BELOW: No need to head to the market for popiah skin! There are ready made pai tee cups sealed and packaged nicely too.

Cat and Fiddles cheesecakes by Chef Daniel Tay, another successful local brand.

Do you know that his cakes are available in KL now?
Well, there is only 4 varieties for now and none of his alcoholic ones, but if you are really curious, hop over to Hopp Cafe (pun fully intended) to try them.

FRENCH Pavilion:
Expect foie gras, breads, cheeses.

Well, there is just so much more and I’ll be updating this space as I get more pictures over the next few days.
Trust me, it is NOT possible to finish your rounds of FHA in one day.
So I’ll advise you to move really fast, or take 2-3 days off to visit this amazing and touted to be the biggest food exhibition in South East Asia!

FHA 2016 is from 12 – 15 April 2016.
The next FHA 2018 is going to be on 24 – 27 April 2018.
To get to Singapore Expo, just alight from Expo MRT (Green line) which is one stop from Changi MRT.