If travelling were a nationwide competition, Chua Enlai would probably be a gold medallist. The actor and host visited 29 countries last year, 13 of them for the first time. In 2025, “My goal is to travel to my 100th UN country”, he enthused.
And, on all of his travels, “I almost never miss the food at home as I’m always seeking the flavours of where I am. Trying the local cuisine is an extremely important part of my travels. I expect every meal to be an event – be it a street food ‘event’ or a Michelin star-worthy ‘event’. No instant noodles, packets of chilli sauce or room service club sandwiches for me, please”.
Instead, “Dining on fresh, locally-grown produce is a privilege that we don’t often get in Singapore,” he said. “We should travel and eat that good stuff.”
His philosophy is that “we can also find culture, history and architecture on a plate”. “To be honest, I may not necessarily like what I taste, but food completes the experience for me,” he shared. “Temple, tick. Cathedral, tick. Beach, tick. Civic centre, tick. Local food, double 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 bee hiam! It’s savoury and spicy and a delicious accompaniment to anything. I tried to buy some but apparently every household makes it differently and my guide said that the best shito is the one made at home. Sounds like the words of any Baba or Nyonya I know!”
When visiting a new place, he looks for food tours to join; “I also go to Netflix and look up Somebody Feed Phil to see if he’s been where I’m going, then try to go where he went”.
One thing he isn’t partial to: “I don’t have a sweet tooth, so those IG-worthy cafes ‘decorated’ with OTT pastries and various 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?
