First dibs: ARTBOX 2024 – 6 days of over 300 world food, art & music stalls

Singapore may be small, but you can certainly live large with our bustling lifestyle scene. The almighty ARTBOX is back for just 6 days from 26 to 28 Jan and 2 to 4 Feb at Singapore Expo Hall 2!

This year’s festival, named ARTBOX AVENUE, is bigger than last year’s, with a greater variety of local and international food and retail stalls. It’s aptly themed like a bustling inner city, teeming with arts and culture.

Now, count on us to give you the inside scoop on where to eat and shop!

We first gravitated towards Bread First Everyday with its colourful storefront towering over everyone else’s. With humble beginnings in a Kovan coffeeshop, the stall sells a great variety of Western grub, which includes sliders named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

We settled on The Raphael (S$14), a set of 2 yellow curry chicken sliders and a generous side of crispy fries. Each slider is hefty – a juicy hunk of fried chicken is slathered in a smooth Thai-style curry, sandwiched in a crispy golden-brown mantou with Chinese celery, chilli and onion slices. I found the curry to be a pleasant savoury-sweet that had me going back for more.

With our palates warmed up, we made a beeline for Kwazy Korndog that serves up Korean-style corndogs in the likes of Cheezy Corndog (S$7) and Potato Corndog (S$7).

The adventurous eaters that we are, we got a Milo Corndog (S$8). The first in Singapore, the Milo Corndog doesn’t taste as weird as it sounds. Topped with condensed milk and rainbow sprinkles, it was akin to a classic chocolate donut!

We also got a Super Ring Corndog (S$8). Topped with crushed crackers and drizzled with nacho cheese, this tasted like nostalgia.

Kimchi Dining: Aesthetic Korean restaurant overlooking Orchard Road with IG-worthy dishes

Up next, we headed for Chris Pork, an Indonesian stall selling all things pork, including different types of pork belly.

We got the Original Pork Sausage (S$10) and the Salted Egg Pork Belly (S$12), both with a side of Savoury Rice (S$2) as recommended by the friendly owner. They both came in generous servings!

Made with a recipe that dates back to 1948, the pork sausage was incredibly toothsome and flavourful. The salted egg pork belly had a nicely salted crust, made better with the chilli which had a spiciness that crept up on me. These were complemented by the savoury rice packed with Indonesian cassava leaf which had a slight mint undertone.

To round off our meal, we went for some Mochi Donuts from the Y2K-esque Sugar Belly, the first locally-grown pon de ring shop with options like Sweet Potato (S$6) and Sakura (S$6).

I’d go as far as to say that these donuts were made for Singaporeans as their satisfying strawberry glaze was “not too sweet”.

Finally, you can wash it all down with some Thai-inspired drinks from night market regular Sofnade. Drinks are priced at S$3 for a Medium cup and S$5 for an XL bucket, with offerings such as the classic Thai Milk Tea. The Thai Corn Milk Tea took me, a corn-hater, by pleasant surprise!

Once you’ve eaten your fill, head over to the shopping district for some retail therapy. With vendors from Korea, Thailand and more, the area is set up to emulate an actual shopping street, street signs and all.

Don’t miss out on the mini clothing boutiques and the booths selling handmade items such as crocheted plushies and illustrated stickers. You can even get a jaguar tattoo and a tarot reading!

Tickets are currently on sale, and go individually for S$6. It’s a steal for it buys you a full day of fun. A single evening truly isn’t enough to explore ARTBOX AVENUE in its entirety, so you best cancel your weekend plans and snag yourself a ticket, or maybe even two!

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