Why doesn’t Singapore have Lot Chong Singapore? Yes it does!
I was reading a joke on Twitter the other week about the strange names of some of the food that we can eat in Thailand. For example:
- Why doesn’t China have Khanom Jeen? ทำไมเมืองจีนไม่มีขนมจีน?
- Why doesn’t Tokoyo have Khanom Tokoyo? ทำไมโตเกียวไม่มีขนมโตเกียว?
- Why doesn’t Singapore have Lod Chong Singapore? ทำไมสิงคโปร์ไม่มีลอดช่องสิงคโปร์?
Of course, they are just names of food and don’t always reflect on where they come from. Then today, @spin9 tweeted this picture from a menu in Singapore. On it is one of my favourite Thai desserts which we call Lod Chong Singapore. However, in Singapore they call it Thai Lod Chong! อยู่ไทยเรียกลอดช่องสิงคโปร์ อยู่สิงคโปร์แม่งเรียกลอดช่องไทย!
The origin of Lod Chong Singapore can be traced back six decades to a sweet shop at the then-Singapore Cinema in Yaowaraj Chinatown. In all probabilities, this popular dessert took the name from its association with the cinema theatre, which no longer exists. Proponents of another theory, say Thailand at that time still had no technological capability to manufacture tapioca starch — the main ingredient of those noodle bits with that interesting elastic-chewy texture — of consistent quality. The starch had to be imported from Singapore, hence the name.