FRESH PICKS

Restaurants turn to less tapped regions to expand their food sources, such as Japan's cheese and wine, and Taiwan's seafood

- Cherie Lok

Nae:um, a one-Michelin-starred restaurant in Telok Ayer, serves contemporary Korean dishes under the direction of a South Korean chef. Its name is equally rooted in that peninsula, derived from a poetic Korean word connoting a fragrance that evokes memories.

The ingredients that make up the restaurant's artful creations, however, draw from a more cosmopolitan range. Seafood, for instance, comes from Japan, Europe, New Zealand and Singapore. About 70 per cent of the fish on Nae:um's current menu is sourced from local fishermen at Jurong Fishery Port. And the diamond trevally — a rarity in fine dining and modern Korean restaurants — caught off Singapore's coasts — is the star of its seafood main course.

With exacting preparation, chef-founder Louis Han wants to introduce diners to the texture and flavour of the underrated yet delicious fish. "I'd like to erase the misconception that what is more costly equates to better quality. With proper handling and preparation with care, locally bred fish can taste just as good as fish from Japan or elsewhere," says the 35-year-old Seoul native.

Like chef Han, fine-dining restaurants in Singapore are casting their nets beyond traditional waters — meat and seafood are usually hauled in from Japan, and wine from France or Italy — and embracing less tapped regions.

It mirrors a wider national shift towards greater supply chain diversity. In 2024, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) greenlit pork from Portugal, beef from Brunei and Poland, and poultry from Turkey. This brought the Republic's total number of food supply sources to 187 countries and regions, up from 140 some 20 years ago.

SFA says this diversification strategy has "proven crucial in mitigating risks associated with global supply disruptions, arising from various factors including disease outbreaks, climate change and geopolitical tensions".