Brandish your food cravings proudly on a T-shirt that screams “Nasi Goreng Forever” or coyly confesses “I’m into Chee Cheong Fun”.
For those not in the loop, nasi goreng is Malay for fried rice – wok-tossed, smoky, extremely satisfying, and enjoyed all over the island.
Chee cheong fun? That’s silky rice noodle rolls, often drizzled with sweet sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds that slip deliciously down your throat. It’s the breakfast bite that warms both belly and soul.
These tees aren’t hawking burgers or pizzas from fast food joints. They’re declarations of devotion.
Whether your heart beats for dum biryani, murtabak, chili crab, or chicken rice, there’s likely a shirt out there with your flavour printed across the chest.
Back in the 1970s, T-shirts became personal billboards. They bore the swagger of Elvis, the mop tops of The Beatles, and the peace symbol that served as a powerful visual representation of anti-war sentiment.
As food culture gained prominence later in the century, edibles made their way into art as with Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans, and then into fashion with fruit motifs on dresses.
That trend is still cooking. In one of Singapore’s more bizarre fashion-meets-politics moments, a woman was famously turned away from a polling station at the last Presidential Election because her pineapple-print dress resembled the symbol of a candidate.
But Singapore, true to its culinary melting pot reputation, went further than just adding durians and rambutans onto cotton frocks.
Designers here sauteed the global food-fashion trend with our UNESCO-recognised hawker culture to create T-shirts featuring everyday culinary favourites.
In food-centric Singapore with its rojak of cuisines, it’s very likely that such food-themed T-shirts will soon become our new unofficial national uniform.
If not, it will still become a way of declaring undying loyalty to our favourite dishes without uttering a word.
These tees aren’t just tasty eye-candy. They could spark conversations. Spot someone in a chicken rice tee and you might just want to swap hawker recommendations.
A murtabak T-shirt? That’s an invitation to debate the eternal chicken versus mutton filling question.
Such T-shirts were first served up by indie designers. In 2023, Musoka Club’s Dress Code: Kopitiam series became a cult hit, featuring graphic images of kopi cups, kaya toast, and steaming bowls of noodles.
Then, the big players wanted a bite, and in 2025 global fashion brand Uniqlo launched its UTme! Local Delights collection, featuring icons from chicken rice to roti prata.
Its line-up stirred mild controversy, with mutterings that the designs looked suspiciously similar to Musoka’s.
But, if anything, this storm in a teacup only whetted appetites for more food-themed fashion, and these tees became bright, bold ambassadors of Singapore’s food culture.
With social media acting as a virtual marketplace, each new design became a viral dish that is snapped, shared, and savoured not only by native food lovers.
A foreigner, who had studied at the German school in Singapore, splurged on a dozen of such tees, during a recent visit here. She said: “They’re souvenirs that don’t just say I was here. Instead, they express my story, my Singapore.”
