Tourists confused after trying local carrot cake for first time

Singaporeans are all too familiar with the savoury carrot cake, which can easily be found in pretty much any hawker centre across our little red dot. 

But the dish's name has proven to be a little misleading to those unfamiliar with it, including travel vlogger Ken. 

The German national recently visited Singapore and has been documenting his experiences here on YouTube and his social media platforms. 

In one of the videos uploaded on Oct 4, he shared how he and his friend Micheal tried some carrot cake from Lagoon Famous Carrot Cake at East Coast Lagoon Food Village. 

And they were confused when they couldn't find not any trace of carrot in the dish. 

At the start of the clip, Ken and Micheal were seen trying to figure out which version of carrot cake to order. 

"So which one is the best one? Black and white? Black? White? Or mixed?" Ken asked his dining companion. 

Eventually, the duo settled on a plate of mixed carrot cake - which consist of both black and white carrot cake - for $7. 

Upon ordering their food, the hawker attending to them asked another question that left them stumped: Spicy or not spicy? 

Ken shared that he isn't a fan of spicy food but added that if Micheal wanted an extra kick, they could make the dish spicy. 

During this discussion, another diner in the queue chimed in and told the them that they could opt to have the chilli on the side instead. So, they went with that. 

Where is the carrot in the carrot cake? 

Upon receiving their food, Ken and his friend were still a little confused by the dish. 

"What actually is it? I'm still not sure what it is," he asked, adding that it looks like an omelette. 

And they also couldn't see a sliver of carrot in their food. 

"So, carrot. Just to get it right, it's this orange vegetable, right? But I don't see anything that looks like the carrot that I know," Ken said. 

"I don't know either but what I know is that this is the thing in Singapore," Micheal responded, emphasising that this is one of the more popular dishes you can find here.

Before tucking into the carrot cake itself, Ken tried the prawns that were tossed into the dish. 

"They actually taste very different compared to the prawns I had earlier," he said, comparing it to a prawn omelette he tried previously. 

"They are more fishy, more ocean flavour to it." 

He then tried the black carrot cake and found it to be "sweet and savoury" as well as "very soft". 

"You don't need to chew it," he added. 

At this juncture, Micheal was still on the hunt for carrots. 

"I assume there's a carrot somewhere hidden inside but I don't see it," he remarked. 

Moving on from the black carrot cake, Ken tried the white version. 

And he liked it more. 

"I think the white one is even better," he said, adding that the black carrot cake was on the sweeter side while the white rendition was spicy. 

"You get the best of both worlds," described Micheal, who preferred the black version. 

But while they both really enjoyed the dish, they had yet to discover any carrots. 

They were also confused as to why it wasn't a conventional, dessert cake. 

"This is the carrot cake that I know, an actual sweet cake. But this [Singapore version] is not really cake," Ken pointed out while showing a picture of a Western carrot cake. 

A few more Google searches later and Ken realised that carrot cake in Singapore is also known as "chai tow kway" and originated from China. 

He also learned that the dish is not made of carrots, but rather radish. 

"So there's no carrot inside. This is a radish. But why is the name carrot cake, then? There's nothing to do with actual carrots," he questioned. 

So, what is carrot cake? 

According to Visit Singapore, carrot cake indeed does not have any carrots in it and the core ingredients are rice flour and white radish, which some also call white carrot. 

The dish also does originate from China and was brought to Singapore by Teochew immigrants. 

"There, it is known as 'chao gao guo' (fried starch cake) which is made mainly with rice flour," explained Visit Singapore. 

In the comments, helpful netizens said the same thing and explained to Ken that the dish includes radish, which is also known as white carrot. 

Apart from trying carrot cake, Ken also tried other hawker fare such as chicken rice, bandung and prawn omelette. 

As a travel content creator, he is currently exploring Southeast Asia and trying to live like a local. 

"You won’t see many tourist places in my videos, I rather like to show the 'real' sides of each country in my videos. Where do the local people go to eat? Where do they hang out? How do the locals travel through the country? Stuff like that," he wrote in his YouTube description. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com