Out-Of-Body Experience
WINE&DINE|May - June 2019

Singapore-based startup Shiok Meats hopes to build a sustainable future with lab-grown seafood

Charlene Chow
Out-Of-Body Experience

It looks like your average prawn dumpling. It may even smell like it. But the shrimp meat within isn’t fished off the ocean or reared on a farm. It began life in a petri dish. This is Shiok Meat’s prawn dumpling prototype, made with stem-cell-grown shrimp meat. Three of their pilot eight dumplings were showcased at the Second Disruption in Food and Sustainability Summit on 29 March. Says co-founder Dr Sandhya Sriram, “When we opened the steamer, everyone got a whiff and said that they smelt like the ocean. The taste (sweetness) is exactly what regular shrimp tastes like. We have to do a bit of tinkering on texture for sure, and are already working on it.”

Still in its R&D phase, tinkering is an everyday affair for this company started last year. Dr Sriram and co-founder Dr Ling Ka Yi, who met as Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) colleagues, are more than up to the task. Dr Sriram has been working on stem cells from her undergrad to postdoctoral research days. A few years ago, she left full-time research to manage her other technology startups. Dr Ling, on the other hand, is a developmental stem cell biologist with over a decade of experience. She did her Bachelors and PhD at University of Wisconsin-Madison and was last a research fellow at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR.

What spurs them on is the goal of launching their cell-based shrimp meat first in fine-dining restaurants and specialist grocers, and eventually in supermarkets and grocery stores in three to five years. They are already in talks with premium seafood suppliers and fine-dining restaurants in Singapore, Hong Kong and India for possible trials by the end of the year. After shrimp, they hope to move on to cell-based crabs and lobsters.

CELLULAR SOLUTION

Denne historien er fra May - June 2019-utgaven av WINE&DINE.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra May - June 2019-utgaven av WINE&DINE.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA WINE&DINESe alt
New Blood
WINE&DINE

New Blood

The next-generation is breathing new life into the forgotten art of spice-mixing, peppering the traditional trade with renewed ideas and fresh perspectives.

time-read
7 mins  |
April - June 2021
Sharing Is Caring
WINE&DINE

Sharing Is Caring

Compared to its flagship at Serene Centre, Fat Belly Social at Boon Tat Street is a classier and bolder affair, in more than one sense.

time-read
1 min  |
April - June 2021
Nutmeg's Role In Singapore's History
WINE&DINE

Nutmeg's Role In Singapore's History

From tales of it being used to ward off the plague in mid-1300s Europe to one of the ingredients in dessert, we have all known, tasted, or at least heard of nutmeg. But not many know of the spice’s role in Singapore’s history.

time-read
6 mins  |
April - June 2021
New And Improved
WINE&DINE

New And Improved

The ever-profound chef-owner Kenjiro ‘Hatch’ Hashida finds more room, three to be exact, to express a Ha Ri philosophy at Hashida Singapore’s new location at Amoy Street.

time-read
1 min  |
April - June 2021
Pairing Spice-Driven Cuisines With Wine
WINE&DINE

Pairing Spice-Driven Cuisines With Wine

Pairing spice-driven cuisines with wine has long been a challenge but with a little imagination, it doesn’t have to be.

time-read
7 mins  |
April - June 2021
Let Land Grow Wild
WINE&DINE

Let Land Grow Wild

Niew Tai-Ran has worn many hats: aeronautical engineering major, investment banker, avid surfer, and, for the last 14 years, winemaker. Discover how this Malaysia-born, Singapore-native is championing the “do-nothing farming” philosophy at his vineyard in Oregon.

time-read
7 mins  |
April - June 2021
The South Asian Misnomer
WINE&DINE

The South Asian Misnomer

Incredibly diverse and varied than most know, Indian food is far more intriguing than butter chicken or thosai. Here is a crash course on the extensive cuisine from region to region, recognisable for the seemingly infinite ways of using spices.

time-read
8 mins  |
April - June 2021
Keepers Of The Spice Trade
WINE&DINE

Keepers Of The Spice Trade

From its glory days along trade routes to pantry staples all over the world, spices have become so commonplace that we’ve taken them for granted. For these three trailblazers, however, spice is their livelihood and motivation: Langit Collective working with indigenous rural farming communities in Malaysia; IDH’s Sustainable Spice Initiative; and chef Nak’s one-woman mission to share forgotten Khmer cuisine.

time-read
7 mins  |
April - June 2021
Sugar, Spice And Everything Nice
WINE&DINE

Sugar, Spice And Everything Nice

Like food, spices bring vibrancy and variety to alcoholic beverages. Surfacing in unexpected ways on the palate, find everything from cumin to tamarind, cloves to cardamom enriching these drinks.

time-read
4 mins  |
April - June 2021
WINE&DINE

Building Blocks From The Archipelago

For the smorgasbord of dishes found in Indonesian cuisine, it is a little known secret that the modest bumbu, in all its variants, is the bedrock of such flavourful fare.

time-read
7 mins  |
April - June 2021