Why is everything red and white? The 9th August is Singapore’s National Day!

One of the things we love about living in another country is discovering the different holiday traditions. We always really enjoy Singapore’s National Day Holiday – and this year we created some extra special recipes to celebrate!

Every year Singapore presents a National Day Parade (with live TV broadcast) which is so popular that you have to enter a ballot to get tickets.The parade includes a display of the country’s military might and lots of performances. The audience also plays a part by singing along with the national day songs. Each year there is a new song written that is played repeatedly on TV, so everyone knows the words. Some of these become classics, and we already know many of these songs!

And, of course, there are the fireworks. Singaporeans pack in all the way around Marina Bay to see them. They start camping out in the best spots early in the morning and by the time the fireworks begin you can hardly move. We found this out the hard way our first year and got stuck in the crowds. So this year we decided to stay at home and watch the parade on TV and make a National Day Dinner.

Raw Jicama and Capsicum Alfredo

We had a blast putting together red and white ingredients (inspired by Singapore’s flag). It looked great and tasted better. Happy Birthday Singapore!

The main course of our dinner was red and white Raw Vegetable Noodles with Raw Alfredo Sauce.

How we did it…
We used our spiralizer to make noodles from a couple of red capsicums and a jicama. The sauce is made from cashews (soaked for a couple of hours), coconut milk, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. All of that went into the food processor until it was smooth. Combine the noodles with the sauce and add some cherry tomatoes for some extra red.

National Day Halo-Halo

For dessert we made a National Day Halo-Halo (some of you might remember our Halloween Halo-Halo).

How we did it…
First we made a quinoa-coconut ‘rice’ pudding by cooking some quinoa, substituting half the water with coconut milk, until it is thick and creamy. This is them layered with strawberries, white dragon fruit, pomegranate and raspberries. We served it with some gula melaka (palm sugar) syrup for a little extra Southeast Asian sweetness.

Watermelon Juice

To wash it all down we juiced some ice-cold watermelon for a really good looking drink.

We were really happy with how our National Day Dinner turned out. It is so much fun to immerse yourself in the culture and festivities of another country. It makes your experience of a place so much richer than it would be otherwise. We encourage you all to make plans, get dressed up and create a day to remember.

Be inventive, celebrate and have fun!

Eating our National Day Dinner

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to also check out our National Day picto-quote art drawing!