Kerbside Gourmet

Good food for a good cause – that’s the pitch 20-year PR veteran Ee Poh Luan is selling with Singapore’s second food truck after The Travelling C.O.W. (and the first with a social element attached). Ditching her corporate suits last year, the petite 48-year-old embarked on serendipitous cooking stints with At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy, Wild Rocket and Food for Thought before battling months of bureaucratic red tape to realise her dream of combining gourmet nosh with a nomadic existence. Having not eaten from an actual food truck before – she doesn’t have a Class 4 driving licence either – Ee scoured the internet for ideas and gets her supplies from local sustainable food groups such as Huber’s Butchery, Edible Gardens and Food for Thought.

‘I wanted to bring fine dining down to street level,’ she says. And here’s how the social bit works: you buy a meal, and Ee matches it with one to needy children. Noble cause aside, the mother of three dishes out some pretty good grub – all the more commendable since she’s ‘hardly stepped into the kitchen for 20 years until recently’.

At Kerby (as the clunky 12-footer brown truck, sponsored by Borneo Motors, is known), Ee works in stifling conditions, with occasional help from her elder daughter, around a simple menu that features constantly-evolving items. The pea purée and sous vide egg, sprinkled with olive dust ($12) involves an intricate seven-step plating process and sits prettily in a black plastic container, while both her pastas – a cold mentaiko version ($15) and hawker-inspired curry fish rendition tossed with kaffir lime leaves for an added zing ($12) – are hearty enough for a satisfying lunch. It’s currently found a temporary home at the National Museum (outdoors in a tiny car park next to the main gallery), so whether you’re in the mood for a cold pasta or a good deed, stop by for a quick chat before it moves – it’s hard not to be inspired by Ee’s spunky vision. LMK

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