27 Apr 2009 – Marine Terrace 

In Singapore, carrot cake, chai tow kway (菜頭粿) is white radish grated and then mixed with rice flour. Together with water, the mixture is stirred while cooking. Then the thick mixture is poured in a round pan and steamed to form the carrot cake. This is cut into pieces and stir fried with eggs, diced garlic and spring onion. Fortunately some of my favourite carrot cake, soya bean milk and Chinese porridge stalls are next to the Marine Terrace wet market, 5mins walk from the flat.

Due to the recent food poisoning I encountered in Kuching and the Geylang Serai incident where two people died, I took special observations to the hygiene ratings of the three stalls at Marine Terrace, which are As & Bs. The rating given to the Geylang stall was a C or D. If is it true that Singaporeans don’t really care about the hygiene rating system of hawker stalls – therefore it matters little if the stalls get a C or D rating as Singaporeans will still continue to patronize it unless someone dies like in the Geylang case.

When people who eat natural foods die of food poisoning, do they die of natural causes?