Locals list cheese, truffle, matcha, mentaiko anything as the most overhyped foods in Singapore

SINGAPORE: When a local Reddit user wanted to know what others feel are the most overhyped foods among Singaporeans, for both local and overseas cuisine, others on the platform were very willing to share their thoughts.

U/GoldenRuler2021, who penned the post on r/askSingapore on Thursday (July 17), started the ball rolling by saying that cheese is “way overhyped” in Singapore.

“People go crazy over cheese fries, cheese tarts, cheese pulls, everything cheese,” they wrote, adding that they’ve tried many cheeses, even “atas” kinds such as brie and camembert, but found them to be only “meh.”

“Sometimes sour, sometimes plasticky, and when it melts and stretches, it feels like it’s pulling something inside me. No joy at all,” they added.

Also, although they acknowledged that cheese has some health benefits, since it contains protein and calcium, it’s just not something they would crave, like others seem to do.

They also find tacos and burritos to be only “okay, not bad,” even the ones they tried in Mexico.

“Honestly, I’d prefer prata or chapati. Just feels more satisfying and flavourful to me,” the post author wrote, asking others if there is a food that everyone else loves but they find simply overhyped.

Some Reddit users said they don’t get the hype behind the truffle craze.

“Anything ‘truffle’ is just an excuse to charge you extra for a few cents worth of truffle oil,” one opined, while another wrote, “Most places don’t use real truffles as they are too expensive to get. For most of the time, they use ‘truffle oil’ that has no truffle infusion. It’s artificial flavouring.”

“Truffle anything and matcha most things have become oversaturated and really quite poor in quality,” agreed another.

“Overhyped would be churros during Covid or the raclette cheese pasta or cheese wheel pasta,” wrote a commenter.

Another person who’s tired of the cheese overhype wrote that “cheese fries, cheese pulls, nacho cheese, are really just flavoured oils and fats.”

“Truffle anything and mentaiko, both don’t taste really good to me, idk why, just very meh,” contributed another commenter.

“Mentaiko. There was one period when almost every food had mentaiko on it, bread, rice, noodles… although the flavours don’t match,” another agreed.

One brought up mala hot pot, which they characterised as “cheap junk food in China but sold more expensive than zhi char here.”

“Mala. What’s the point of food if the spices numb and burn away your sense of taste?” another asked.

When one wrote they found McDonald’s Chilli Crab Burger to be overhyped, others agreed, saying they found it overpriced.

Others said that they found salted egg on “everything” to be tiresome. One wrote that food cooked with salted egg yolk sauce or flavouring is “underrated.” /TISG

Read also: Filet-O-Fish burger with “cheese 1/3 of 1 pc” sparks shrinkflation complaints among Singaporeans