Vendfest 2017 is Singapore’s first vending machine festival
As if The 50 Cents Fest and Ramen Revolution aren’t enough to keep us entertained, there is a vending machine festival, VendFest 2017, going on at Tampines 1 from 21 to 27 July 2017.
This bizarre-sounding festival features vending machines from several restaurants and companies, namely:
- Chef-in-Box – dishes from various cuisines
- Foodbox – various chicken dishes
- House of Seafood – chilli crab, black pepper crab, salted egg crab
- Juicy Fresh – fresh orange juice and various snacks
- Shiok Pizza – Hawaiian pizza and pepperoni pizza
- Saybons – Western soups, mains, salads, and desserts
- Singapore Chilli Crab – chilli crab with rice or pasta, and various hawker dishes
- Joo Chiat Kim Choo – bak zhang and Nyonya zhang
- Fastflex – dishes from various cuisines
The most novel vending machines are from Shiok Pizza and House of Seafood. After all, it’s not everyday you see an entire crab doused in chilli sauce coming out from a giant metal box.
House of Seafood’s machine dispenses crabs that are 1kg each, and they are priced at $79.90 no matter which sauce – chilli, black pepper, salted egg – you pick. The crabs were heavily doused in sauce, and are broken into pieces so you won’t have to struggle with eating it. Plastic gloves are also included in the box that it comes in.
Shiok Pizza’s pizzas are 12 inches in diameter, and cost $16 each. They only offer two flavours, Hawaiian and pepperoni. While the idea of watching your pizza coming out of a machine sounds interesting, the Hawaiian pizza we had didn’t satisfy in terms of taste.
Some other dishes worth trying are Fried Carrot Cake ($4) from Chef-in-Box and various snacks from Juicy Fresh. The latter includes mostly healthier versions of snacks, and treats such as vegan chocolate.
Those who spend more than $10 get a chance at a Maggie mystery vending machine, which lets you get one of three flavours of instant noodles!
Address: 10 Tampines Central 1, Level 1 Atrium, Tampines 1, Singapore 529536
Event dates: 21 – 27 July 2017
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