In celebration of the nation’s 54th birthday, foodpanda has dug into its data and reveals what tickles Singaporeans’ palates. As a melting pot of cultures, influences and heritage, there have been countless debates on this topic. To set the record straight, foodpanda has set out to answer an age-old question – what is the country’s national dish?

In the two weeks leading up to National Day, every order placed on foodpanda will be counted as a vote to crown Singapore’s true National Dish.

foodpanda has experienced a huge increase in the order frequency since its launching in 2012. Between 2012 and 2017, the average weekly order frequency has been increasing every year and has more than doubled in the seven-year period. Overall, between 2017-18, the Halal food category was the fastest-growing, almost tripling in orders.

Top Orders on foodpanda

From 2017 to 2019, Chinese cuisine has been the overall number one pick by Singaporeans over American, Western, Mexican, Malay, Southeast Asian, and even Singaporean cuisine itself.

Consistent over the past couple of years, Singaporeans favoured Chinese food as their go-to cuisine, with local Singaporean cuisine making its steady ascend to the top. However, it remains to be seen if this trend will hold strong and if a local Chinese dish will be named Singapore’s official national dish.

Singaporeans are also creatures of habit when it comes to late-night orders. Over the past couple of years, foodpanda noticed an exponential increase in the demand for late-night delivery. Between 2017 and 2018, late-night orders increased by almost 250 per cent, with most of the orders (79 per cent) being placed between 12 AM to 2 AM.

The fastest growing food categories for late-night deliveries served up a surprising insight – Turkish cuisine rounded up the top five list, along with a significant increase in demand for desserts.

What’s Singapore’s National Dish?

Different people have different ideas of what would accurately represent the country. Tapping into seven years of insights, foodpanda is set out to identify the dishes that Singaporeans truly love and adore.

When it comes to which region in Singapore is ordering the most, the West was the hungriest region in 2018, more specifically, the residents in Bukit Panjang ordered the most compared to any other in Singapore. Data shows that Bukit Panjang truly loves their Yong Tau Fu, but is it enough for the dish to become Singapore’s national dish?

For every order placed on foodpanda from today until 8 August, it will add to the point count for that particular dish. foodpanda will be tracking the results in real-time and showcasing what the 27 neighbourhoods in Singapore think the national dish should be.

From Char Kway Teow to Chicken Rice, Mee Goreng to Biryani, foodpanda will crown the winning dish at the end of the two-week period, to be revealed on National Day. May the true Singaporean dish win.