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What truly flavours. “I’m always curious about how any food trigued by the thought of one of my favourite local The surprisingly enthusiastic reaction from
will taste in ice cream form,” Chan said, “Why not? dishes as a dessert, I dropped by their shop at the customers to the Chicken Rice gelato was what
belongs to That’s the question we always ask when it comes revamped Funan Shopping Centre and opt for their kicked off the creation of other savoury flavours
Singaporeans to a new flavour.” He estimates that Tom’s Palette taster set of three small cones that also allowed me at Butterknife Folk. “We made Chicken Rice gela-
to for our own entertainment,” said founder Ingrid
to sample Muah Chee, a glutinous rice snack coat-
has created a whopping 190 flavours in the shop’s
are the memories history, “we are constantly innovating and don’t ed with peanuts, as well as White Rabbit, based on Lim, “it was to push the technical boundaries of
want to be known for just one particular flavour.” the Chinese milk candy that’s also a favourite of creating savoury gelato flavours and whether we
we had of living Of the locally-inspired flavours that Tom’s Singaporean children. could get the gelato to taste exactly like the orig-
If you were wondering how exactly this chick-
and growing up in Palette has produced, Chan listed Nasi Lemak ice en rice gelato tasted, I could immediately pick out inal dish, just in a cold and creamy form.”
While I might not be stocking up on pints of
cream as one of the most memorable. Nasi Lemak
Singapore. is a Malay dish consisting of fragrant coconut and the distinct chicken rice flavour with a hint of chicken rice ice cream anytime soon, I’ll definite-
pandan rice and topped with dried ikan bilis an- ginger, garlic and chicken stock at first bite, along ly keep visiting Singapore’s artisanal ice cream
chovies, peanuts and other savoury add-ons, defi- with a few improbable grains of rice as I chewed. shops to see what other Singaporean dishes get
nitely not a food one would expect to find in ice It was a little surreal to encounter these savoury turned into ice cream flavours.
cream form. Chan shared the painstaking details tastes in a dessert, but not bad tasting at all.
of its creation, from the detailed research of cook-
ing methods to balancing the ingredients used to
highlight the main features of the dish. The result:
an ice cream made from glutinous rice infused
with coconut, pandan and lemongrass, and topped
with a blended mix of white chocolate, ikan bilis
and peanuts that was instantly recognisable and
surprisingly popular among customers.
I frequented the Tom’s Palette shop at its old
premises when my office used to be in the same
building, and every visit was always an adventure
as they rotate the flavours very frequently. On this
visit to their new shop along Middle Road, I con-
sidered the Hainanese Kaya (a coconut spread
Always innovating:Tom’s Palette usually found on toast) briefly, but instead opt for
some Milo Dinosaur, a childhood favourite based
Another long-standing artisanal ice cream on the malty chocolate drink with chewy bits of
shop that has piqued the palettes of Singaporeans Milo powder, paired with a scoop of Salted Egg
since 2005 is the quirkily named Tom’s Palette. Yolk which I prefer over actual salted egg yolks.
Founder Chronos Chan and his wife Eunice Soon
had no culinary experience and started the shop How about that Chicken Rice
after a chef friend taught them to make chocolate gelato? Butterknife Folk
ice cream, but in the following years gained a rep-
utation for some truly unusual flavours like White And now let’s talk about that Chicken Rice
Chocolate Nori (Japanese seaweed), Soya Bean gelato that kicked off this story, which I first en-
Dough Fritters and Parmesan Cheese and Crackers. countered at Butterknife Folk which opened in
To my surprise, Chan shared that he actually 2016. Chicken Rice is just one of the slew of Photo / Butterknife Folk
does not like sweet food, which pushed him to Singaporean food-inspired flavours that the shop
explore different flavour profiles in ice cream and made available in the month of August 2020 in
create many of Tom’s Palette’s unique and savoury celebration of Singapore’s National Day, In-

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