Celebrity food travels: Actor Chua Enlai’s top places to eat in New Delhi
If traveling were a global competition, Chua Enlai may definitely be a gold medallist. The artist and network visited 29 countries next year, 13 of them for the first time. In 2025,” My goal is to go to my 100th UN state”, he enthused.
And, on all of his journeys,” I almost always miss the food at home as I’m constantly seeking the taste of where I am. Trying the regional cuisine is an extremely significant part of my travels. I expect every meal to be an occasion – get it a city food’ event’ or a Michelin star-worthy’ event’. No moment noodles, bits of chili sauce or room service team sandwiches for me, satisfy”.
Alternatively,” Dining on fresh, locally-grown make is a pleasure that we don’t often get in Singapore”, he said. ” We should go and have that great stuff”.
His idea is that” we may even find culture, history and architecture on a dish”. ” To be honest, I may not always like what I taste, but meal completes the practice for me”, he shared. ” Temple, bite. Cathedral, bug. Beach, bug. Political centre, bite. Native food, twice tick”.
Some of the exotic foods he’s sampled recently are tsuivan ( fried noodles with meat and vegetables ) in Ulaanbator, khinkali ( soupy dumplings ) and khachapuri ( cheese and egg bread ) in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Ghanaian shito in Accra, which is “made of dried shrimp or other seafood with peppers and spices. I thought it was hae butterfly hiam! It’s savoury and savory and a delightful accompaniment to anything. I tried to buy some but evidently every family makes it different and my manual said that the best shito is the one made at home. Sounds like the terms of any Baba or Nyonya I know”!
When visiting a new place, he looks for meals trips to visit,” I even go to Netflix and look up Guy Feed Phil to see if he’s been where I’m going, then attempt to go where he went”.
One thing he isn’t limited to:” I don’t include a special tooth, so those IG-worthy cafes’ embellished’ with OTT pastries and several other bakery items don’t do it for me”.
Asking him to pick one city to share his recommendations for is “like asking someone to choose their favourite child”, he lamented.
But he finally settled on New Delhi, since” I travelled to Delhi twice in the past year”. But his total number of trips to the city number more than five, he estimates, as” I very much enjoy travelling to India. It’s a massive country with so many sights that one can never complete it”. New Delhi, in particular, is” cosmopolitan enough to offer a variety of traditional and imaginative modern fusion cuisines”.
At the same time, the Old Delhi area within the city “is utter chaos yet utterly memorable. Everything and anything happens on those narrow streets. It is fabulously noisy. There are people everywhere going about their daily routines alongside cows and rickshaws”. While he enjoys the sights and sounds of the abundant street food on offer,” I am bit cautious about it as I have a sensitive tummy. I just love watching them cook and put it on display”.
So, where does he like to go when hunger pangs hit?