Eating Singapore: (Un) Official Discourses of a National Food Culture

This study uses the approaches of digital ethnography and presentation of self to analyze Instagram posts of 14-day food diaries by Singaporean university students and interview data. It is inspired by research on culinary nationalism and foodways that views food as a reflection of the self and of the nation. For Singapore, a relatively young country, food is considered an important marker of national identity. The findings suggest that the students echoed the national rhetoric on the importance of eating local foods, but in practice ate much differently. While traditional foods were consumed, more prevalent were trendy, global, and homecooked foods. I suggest that the visual-verbal platform of Instagram enables privileged access to people's everyday food practices and in this case illustrates a paradox of principle and practice. Such digital practices provide a method of research to examine the reflection of the individual and of the broader culture that they participate in.