The blog, which was recently voted Best Food Blog in the Asia-Pacific Blog Awards 2010, showcases Singapore’s best hawker food pleasantly sprinkled with insights on food origins, our culture and socio-political scene.

Dr Leslie Tay (right) is the man behind those well-taken pictures and frank reviews. He started his food blog four years ago out of his love for hawker food, and has seen it flourish from an informal personal food blog to the default food resource for Singaporeans.

When he’s not eating, shooting or posting about food, Dr Leslie Tay is a Senior Family Doctor at Karri Family Clinic.

Singapore Kopitiam (SK): Many have said that eating is Singapore’s national past-time. What do you think of the role of food in our country?

Dr Leslie Tay: Singapore is a food paradise. Our people are crazy over food, much more than people in many other countries. Just by the number of food blogs per capita we have in Singapore, it’s obvious that Singaporeans love to eat (and shop). Our island is unique in the sense that we can find local food like hokkien mee, nasi padang, roti prata to international cuisines like Japanese, French and Italian. So we are in a good position to enjoy food from all round the world.

SK: What got you started on your food blog?

Dr Leslie Tay: I started my food blog primarily because I enjoy hawker food, and I enjoy writing about our local cuisine. I am proud of our uniquely Singaporean food that cannot be found elsewhere. It started out as a project to just go and eat all the best hawker food in Singapore, as I’ve never actually made a concerted effort to do so.

So it was basically my hobby, to eat, take pictures and write my review of the particular hawker stall. Four years on I realise that even though I’ve reviewed hundreds of food stalls, there are still a lot more waiting to be discovered! As my kakis (friends) and I always say, it’s really jia buay liao (can’t finish eating)!

SK: We know that you are a full time doctor and part time foodie -- so where do you get your food tips?

Dr Leslie Tay: Our blog now has grown into a community, with almost 2,000 members in the forum, 8,500 fans on Facebook and 70,000 people who read the blog every month. These people keep writing in to suggest new places to eat! If I have a specific question I’ll post it up on Facebook and people respond by commenting. The community of forum-ers are also constantly scouring our island for good food, so I look at what they eat, if it looks really good I will go and try it for myself.

When I first started, I had to ask my friends for their recommendations. But now it’s like a community effort. I have a bunch of very close kakis who always go and eat together. They help me organize makan (eat) sessions and charity events. It can’t be done without the help of my friends and volunteers.

SK: Having tasted so much, what are some of your favourite dishes?

Dr Leslie Tay: I have to say the best food in the world is Singapore hawker food, because it’s so shiok (satisfying)! When you go overseas and come back, you feel like eating hawker food more than anything else! Maybe because you can only find hokkien mee in Singapore but you can find Italian pizza almost everywhere in the world. Our food is unique to our country and we grow up eating hawker food so I guess we’re very used to it.

I go through crazes and now I’m into finding the best ngoh hiang and yong tau foo. So I have been trying out some of the recommendations from our friends as to where the best yong tau foo and ngoh hiang are.

SK: Could you recommend some must-try dishes to our friends from other countries?

Dr Leslie Tay: After four years of blogging, I have compiled a list of “really must try” stalls, which I feel are two cuts above the rest. We have also conducted polls to find the best of the best hawkers in Singapore.  So if we’re talking about hokkien mee, then the poll results tell us that the best is between Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee at Old Airport Rd Food Centre and Geylang Lorong 29 Hokkien Mee.

We have also done a poll for chicken rice, and our readers have voted that Tian Tian Chicken Rice (Maxwell Food Centre) as the best.

SK: Besides the professionally taken pictures, you have even adopted a charity, held charity dinners and supported many social causes. Do you think IeatIshootIpost.sg is more than a food blog? What other aspects of yourself do you showcase on your blog?

Dr Leslie Tay: Life is more than food and the blog is just one part of my life. I believe that “man does not live by bread alone” and so although food is important, it certainly isn’t what life is all about. I think that one finds meaning in life when we are able to look beyond our own needs to help a fellow human being. 

In a blog community like this there are a lot of like-minded people who would like to contribute to the same causes, so I basically just let them know what we are doing and invite everybody to contribute in whatever way they can. Every year we try to organize something to support charity -- this year we’re helping www.goducate.org by raising money to buy a van for the displaced children in Sandakan.

That said, we’ve already reached the goal already, with more than $20,000 raised.  So we’re launching our next project soon and we’re looking at Cambodia or Batam to see what their needs are.

SK: What have you gained from your blog?

Dr Leslie Tay: I’ve made a lot of friends, got myself on TV, newspapers and on various magazines. I’ve also done some workshops and talks for some of my sponsors. I am really enjoying all these extra-curricular activities which I would never have gotten to do as a family doctor, so it’s been a great ride so far!