S$10 Meal For 4?

Last Sunday, I picked up the copy of newspaper at my door and saw this headline: "Dinner for 4 for S$10". This woke me up from my it's-Sunday-switched-off mode, which usually ends at about noon.

S$10? I don't mean to sound like a snob who eats only expensive stuff, but is it really possible?

The paper invited 2 food experts to create dishes within that budget and they came up with 4 ethnic selections. I am not a pro in Malay cuisine nor Indian, so I can only relate to the Chinese and Western ones.

So, let's take a closer look at what they came up with.

Chinese meal include: Tomato and fishcake soup (S$0.95), Fried chicken (S$2.10), Steamed egg with minced pork (S$1.35), Stir fried vegetables with prawns (S$4.35) and Rice (S$0.70) Total cost: S$9.45

Western meal is a Spaghetti bolognese which cost S$7.90.

Now, a few things struck me immediately.

Firstly, all the above computations disregard the other miscellaneous cooking elements such as cooking condiments, gas, electricity and water required.

Secondly, these are meals are made from scratch. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for made-from-scratch foods, but without logging onto the website to examine the recipes in detail, I would think that the bolognese sauce which was made from scratch would take some time and is definitely not a weekday meal. So we can only have this S$7.90 meal during the 2 days of the week.

Thirdly, it is a home cooked meal. I don't know that many people around me that cooked at home everyday. And even if they do cook occasionally, my guess is that they would splurge on their groceries.

And lastly, I think it is just the gluttonous me that was looking at the photos. Cos the serving portions looks more like for 4 kids rather than 4 adults. Maybe that was what they meant.

Comments

  1. I read that article too. The spaghetti sauce is actually those can types which are relatively cheaper.

    I saw the 300g prawns costing only $3. Dunno how fresh are they.

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  2. Market price for ave prawns is $10/kg. But you try ask the fish monger for 300gm lah. Haha...

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