The Local Dessert That Has More Calories Than Two Curry Puffs!

Pearlyn Tham
Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:00:00 Z

Watch out: These sweet treats are as sinful as curry puffs

ILLUSTRATION: HO LER LIM

Whether you like yours with moreish curried chicken and potato cubes or with spicy-sweet-tangy mashed sardines, here’s something to chew on: one curry puff has about 180 calories. If you take two, that’s 360 calories in total.

But this story isn’t about whether curry puffs are sinful or not. It’s about the other local yummy eats that have even more calories than two curry puffs!

1. Green bean soup

How bad can this be for you since it’s just soup and beans? But this is usually made with lots of rock sugar, which gives this hot dessert its 240 calories, the number you’ll also consume if you had a curry puff instead.

2. Cheng tng

If you think about it, there’s really nothing much to eat in a bowl of this – maybe a couple of soggy red dates, a few sprigs of white fungus, a handful of boiled barley and some token jelly cubes. But the soup, which we all love lapping up, is full of sugar. One bowl of cheng tng gives you about 260 calories.

3. Ice kachang

This heap of milk-and-syrup-drizzled shaved ice may look substantial but since all the good stuff is generally buried beneath the ice, it has the same number of calories as cheng tng. We’re talking about plain ol’ ice kachang, of course, and not the New Age-y ones that have enough fake fruit puree, jellies and pyrotechnics to rival the more hipster-sounding Korean bingsu.

4. Bubor Cha Cha

It has 390 calories, more than a curry puff and even more than, gasp, a bowl of bak kut teh. And you’ll probably know the reason: this comforting, creamy sweet soup is made up of sweet potatoes and taro in a thick coconut milk broth. Why, it’s practically a meal in itself.

5. Chendol

Topping the list is chendol with 600 calories. To put things in perspective, a plate of oyster omelette or fried mee goreng is about 650 calories. If you have both a chendol and a plate of fried noodles for lunch, the total number of calories consumed is almost half of what an average adult man requires in an entire day.

If you still do want a curry puff (cuz #FOMO), check out the one featured in 10,000 Steps With Tosh: From Crazy-Good Curry Puffs To Chilling Curses In Joo Chiat And Katong.