KReepy KRawlies: Kent Ridge Hall Spearheading Change towards Future Foods
What’s for hall dinner today? Japanese? Western? Worms? Welcome to Kent Ridge Hall, the first (and probably only) hall in Singapore that’s taking the next step towards sustainable living - incorporating arthropods into students’ diets.
Worms have long been touted by scientists as the sustainable meat of the future (Boey, 2008). After all, they have always been considered a feasible source of food in other Asian countries like Thailand. Unlike cows who emit plenty of methane through their farts, worms barely emit anything due to their small size, contributing significantly less to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming (Keasberry, 1963). After reading a research study conducted by scientists from the University of Wageningen in Netherlands, our caterers were inspired to switch things up and throw in something extra special!
How did it all begin? We go back to 23 October 2017, the fateful day our resident giant Kai Yuan found a caterpillar garnished on his egg tofu. He recounts the night of his encounter with the green grub:
“Tbh that day the egg was pretty good, until I saw the caterpillar in my egg moving around. I threw the whole portion of egg away after that LOL.”
Photo credits: Various Kent Ridgeans 17/18
He most definitely was not expecting that extra protein in his hall dinner! While research has shown that it is better to eat certain foods raw (Boey, 1990), our caterers may have started off on too strong a note. Recalling this incident gave our currently-on-exchange Kent Ridgean butterflies in his stomach - he hopes there will be no more worms/caterpillars by the time he returns
After that incident, social media took its course and the news of KR’s latest diet trend spread like wildfire. Despite the widespread reach, Kent Ridgeans were still not keen on undertaking such futuristic meals just yet, causing our caterer to resume normal hall meals.
Everything seemed fine and dandy for a while. However, our caterers did not give up, and persisted in believing that Kent Ridgeans would one day come around the benefits of consuming insects. True enough, they made a comeback just this past week and this time, freshie Sophie Talbot was the lucky two-time receiver of the revolutionary hall dinner. As the saying goes: the early bird catches the worm; Sophie definitely caught some indeed. Both incidents occured when Sophie went down for hall dinner earlier than usual, but what she did not expect was that our caterers had some tricks (or flies) up their sleeve.
In the first incident, Sophie encountered a rather large, black fly on her cabbage. In the second incident, our caterer’s favourite (worms) made a reappearance in Sophie’s broccoli. Scarred from the double whammy, hall dinner has been bugging her ever since. Poor Sophie.
Incident #2 (Photo credits: Sophie Talbot)
Since Sophie’s unfortunate encounter, things have been quiet, with no sign of our KReepy KRawlie friends lurking around. For now, all we can do is bid our time, and wait and look forward to our next Wormy- I mean Western Wednesdays. Who knows when the next time our caterer might serve up a Flea Siam or Spaghetti Beetlenese? Stay tuned to find out! :)
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