We all know that Singapore is undisputedly one of the safest and cleanest countries in the world—home to the best airport in the world as well as cheap yet amazing hawker food, our Little Red Dot is indeed a country that easily piques one’s interest.

Yes, many of us agree that the temperatures here can drop by 10 degrees or so, but there are so many reasons to love Singapore that we endure our all-year-long summer. Besides being famous for the banning of chewing gum and our seemingly animated colloquial slang, Singlish, there are plenty of reasons for us to be oh-so-proud Singaporeans.

Here are 13 Homegrown Brands That Will Make All Singaporeans Proud of Our Little Red Dot—we bet you didn’t know that half of these are homegrown brands! #majulahsingapura

AWFULLY CHOCOLATE

What started as a statement to tackle dessert vendors everywhere, home-grown Awfully Chocolate has successfully established itself as one of the best and most popular chocolatiers around the world. Famed for its variety of chocolate-laden desserts, we absolutely go mad for their All Chocolate cake, that sees a simple chocolate cake between layers of dark chocolate fudge.

BANYAN TREE HOLDINGS

Established in 1994, Banyan Tree Holdings is founded by Singaporean businessman Ho Kwon Ping. In 1995, Ho and his wife Claire Chiang chanced upon an empty plot of land on the western coast of Phuket which was soon after developed into Banyan Tree’s first resort.

Since then, Banyan Tree has grown to be Asia’s premier luxury hotel and resort brand with close to 40 properties internationally. It now has hotels as far apart as Mexico and Seychelles.

Photo Credit: Bee Cheng Hiang

BEE CHENG HIANG

Bakkwa—an all-time favourite snack amongst Singaporeans that is enjoyed particularly during the Chinese New Year period. For the uninformed, Bakkwa is essentially smoked and roasted pieces of pork with a consistency similar to jerky.

Founded in the 1930s by Singaporean businessman Mr Teo Swee Ee, Bee Cheng Hiang started out as a humble stall in Chinatown. Today, Bee Cheng Hiang sees over 260 retail outlets serving their famous bak kwa in 13 other countries across countries including Vietnam, South Korea and Cambodia.

BREADTALK

You’ve probably had a few of Breadtalk’s ever-popular Floss buns for breakfast if you grew up in Singapore. Founded in 2000, BreadTalk has expanded rapidly within the past 2 decades, establishing a distinctive presence in 18 locales across Asia, the Middle East, and most recently Europe.

Other brands that are under the Breadtalk Group include Din Tai Fung, Food Republic and Toast Box, which would probably sound very familiar to Singaporeans as well as those living in our neighbouring countries.

Photo Credit: Visit Singapore

BENJAMIN BARKER

An esteemed purveyor of smart-casual attires for men, Benjamin Barker is a home-grown fashion label founded by Mr Nelson Yap, who—you’d be surprised to hear—is a film graduate from the University of Melbourne as he had the intention to pursue a career in film-making.

The brand’s first store opened in Marina Square in 2009 and now sees retail stores in Melbourne, Seoul, Malaysia and a flagship store in Los Angeles.

Yap says that he intends to develop Benjamin Barker into a lifestyle brand by combining retail, F&B and hospitality—they even have a Benjamin Barker Café located in Cathay Cineleisure Orchard now!

Photo Credit: Miss Valerie Tan

BROWHAUS

One should never underestimate the importance of eyebrows in changing your image. Many of us, image-conscious or not, would be familiar with the brand Browhaus, which is a one-stop salon dedicated to perfect your lashes and brows.

Browhaus was established in 2004 under the wings of Spa Esprit Group, a homegrown brand founded by Singaporean businesswoman Cynthia Chua. The brand now has outlets all over the world, including stores in London and New York City. What more can we say? Browhaus is on fleek!

Photo Credit: Charles & Keith

CHARLES & KEITH

Set up by sibling duo Charles Wong and Keith Wong in 1996, Charles & Keith is a Singaporean fast-fashion footwear and accessories retailer which now has over 600 stores worldwide, including locations in Africa and Latin America.

It is amazing to see a 100% Singaporean brand grow from being a humble shoe shop in Amara Shopping Centre to venturing internationally and imprinting their global footprint across regions in Asia, the Middle East and Europe alongside Latin America and Africa!

OLD CHANG KEE

Lo and behold, the ultimate go-to for curry puffs and giant fishballs. Old Chang Kee started out as ‘Rex Curry Puff’, an assuming stall situated near the then Rex Cinema along Mackenzie Road.

Old Chang Kee has expanded expeditiously to opening franchises in Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. Just weeks ago in June 2018, they officially launched the opening of an outlet in London where guests can get their hands on Singapore’s famous curry puffs.

OSIM

OSIM would probably be first to come into your mind when luxurious massage chairs are mentioned. With brand ambassadors including Korean superstar Lee Min Ho and Chinese actress and model Fan Bingbing, OSIM has managed to climb its way to becoming a top-tier global brand.

Originally starting out as an electrical and household appliance company in 1980, founder Ron Sim saw an opportunity to bloom in Singapore’s healthcare products industry and thus started OSIM to advocate for a healthy lifestyle.

Credit: Razer

RAZER

Razer is a global gaming hardware manufacturing company established in 2005 by Singaporean entrepreneur Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff.

Step into any IT retail store such as Challenger and COURTS and it would be hard to miss the bright green triple-headed snake logo that dons the front of every Razer product. They offer a wide range of products in the likes of gaming equipment and wearables including smartwatches.

Photo Credit: Skin Inc.

SKIN INC.

The homegrown skincare brand is founded by Sabrina Tan, an IT-expert-turned-skincare-guru who took the leap of faith to step into the beauty industry after having worked in IT for 11 years.

Skin Inc. offers a range of skincare products that combine technology and beauty, providing customers with customisable skincare products. The brand has been a winner of over a hundred beauty awards and their products are now sold in over 20 countries in Asia and Europe.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

Awarded ‘The World’s Best Airlines’ by Skytrax World Airline Award in 2018 is Singapore Airlines, which has constantly been on the list for the world’s top 10 airlines for the past decade.

SIA has 26,000 group employees who are dedicated to making all traveller’s experience the most comfortable and pleasant experience with their impeccable service. Oh, how lucky we are!

TWG TEA

Short for The Wellbeing Group, TWG Tea is a brand that offers fine harvest teas since its founding in 2008. In a short span of 6 years, TWG Tea has vastly expanded to having outlets in countries such as Canada, Korea, Germany and Australia.

Its parent company is OSIM International, so you can be sure that it is not any atas tea brand from Europe!

So there’s a running joke that Asians have bubble tea running through their veins than blood, and there’s no denying that we do absolutely love our bubble tea.

From regular milk tea to cheese tea to fruit tea, with a variety of pearls, we love them all, and yet we still can’t seem to get enough, if it wasn’t already evident enough from the magnitude of bubble tea shops popping up all over the place.

Here some people have gone the extra mile to plate up bubble tea in ways we’ve never considered before. Genius or insane? We find out.

Photo Credit: Celest Lim

BUNS

We don’t suppose it requires much more of a description once you’ve seen the image. It’s an earl grey tea-infused fluffy dough bun filled with earl grey tea-infused cream and the classic chewy tapioca balls.

CHOCOLATE MALT TOAST

For slightly more, you can also get a Chocolate Malt Bubble Tea Toast. Kind of a cross between Horlicks and Milo in the form of a Nutella spread, it oozes nothing but sweet decadence with a pop of surprise in each bite.

Photo Credit: Nini

DORAYAKI

If you grew up watching Doraemon, you’d know his absolute favourite snack would be dorayaki, a Japanese pancake stuffed with fillings such as Azuki paste. Over in Taiwan, you’d find a stall called Quolofune selling Pearl Milk Tea Nama Dorayaki apart from regular dorayaki flavours. It’s a winning combination of sweet black sugar tapioca and freshly whipped soft cream.

Photo Credit: Nini

EGG TARTS

We’ve had chocolate egg tarts, passion fruit egg tarts, so why not bubble tea egg tarts? We don’t just mean tossing a spoonful of tapioca on top of a regular Portuguese egg tart though. Found inside a train station at Liang Liang Hao, they serve up hot pockets of eggy goodness with tapiocas almost all but melting into the egg mixture.

Photo Credit: Nini

PANCAKES

Combine a Japanese’s fluffy souffle-style pancake with tapioca pearls and you’ll get a dish that looks like someone plucked it straight out of your mid-day office daydreams. Described as a lovely mesh of milk tea-infused cream with black sugar pearls atop the fluffiest, airiest pancake ever that even guys would enjoy as it’s not overly sweet.

Photo Credit: Nini

PANCAKES..?

Before you question why pancake appears twice (maybe thrice, if you consider Dorayaki one too), there are so many different types of pancakes served with tapioca we couldn’t help but give them their own individual spotlight.

Photo Credit: Nini

PIZZA

Regardless of whether you think pineapple belongs on pizza, this might be enough to spark a new debate. While the idea of chewy black sugar balls in a bed of melted cheese and crust might seem sacrilegious since dessert pizzas are already a thing, what’s there to lose with tapioca on pizza?

Photo Credit: Shopaholicdeb

ROLL

Another creation by our very own Breadtalk is their Earl Grey Bubble Tea Roll to wrap up their Taste of Taiwan release. The same earl grey tea-infused cream and tapioca are wrapped within a light and airy Swiss sponge cake with little flecks of tea leaves added to the mix. It’s sure to make everyone say “wow” when you bring it to the table.

Photo Credit: TP Tea

SOFT SERVE

You’ve probably also already heard by now that TP Tea sells their signature soft serve with tapioca as toppings. You can expect a satisfying creamy bite of milk tea in the form of ice cream that contrasts perfectly with the thick chewy tapioca pearls.

Photo Credit: The Benjamins

TOAST

Picture two slices of crispy bread with chewy tapioca pearls stuffed in the middle, drizzled in a sauce of your choice. Sounds crazy? You’ll be surprised to know that some people love it.

Wu Pao Chun Bakery—Taiwan’s famous bakery—is opening in Singapore. Established in Kaohsiung in November 2010, Wu Pao Chun Bakery is best known for its award-winning Taiwan longan with red wine bread and Taiwan Litchi Rose Champion Bread.

Breadtalk Group will be entering into a joint venture agreement with Wu Pao Chun to open the bakery in Singapore.

The founder of Wu Pao Chun is a Taiwanese baker who rose to fame after winning the title of Master Baker in the bread category of the 2010 Bakery Masters competition held in Paris.

Wu Pao Chun currently has three outlets in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung and other than the iconic Taiwan longan with red wine bread and Taiwan Litchi Rose Champion Bread, it also offers a range of European Bread, Japanese Bread and Taiwanese Wheat Toast.

Breadtalk Group has yet to announce the official opening date and location of Wu Pao Chun Bakery in Singapore.

The BreadTalk International Headquarters (IHQ) sits in the midst of the Tai Seng area. You might not know, but it is actually a comprehensive lifestyle mall that has all your favourite BreadTalk brands, dessert parlours, beauty services, personal care store, optometrist and more under one roof.

Spanning across 7,000 square metres of land and 10 storeys, the spectacular infrastructure is located along Tai Seng Street and just opposite of Tai Seng MRT Station.

BreadTalk IHQ will also be celebrating their third anniversary this month, with freebies and contests for all. Simply upload a photo taken within BreadTalk IHQ Mall with the hashtag #BreadTalkIHQ in October, and the 30 most creative entries will win attractive food vouchers.

If you haven’t been, here are 7 Places At BreadTalk IHQ To Dine At. Yes, all your favourite brands are under one roof. And there is free kopi for the month of October! You have to read on to find out more.

#1 ARTEASE

Artease specialises in teas, and you can expect unique concoctions such as Caramel Popcorn (regular – S$4, large – S$5) and Iced Honey Espresso (S$4.50).

The Caramel Popcorn (Salty) comprises a harmonious blend of caramel, milk, roasted rice tea and sea salt; a sweet rendition is available too. If you want an effective pick-me-up, the Iced Honey Espresso (S$4.50) is amazing. The coffee is intense and the added honey gives the drink the right amount of sweetness.

Artease’s selection of cooked-to-order sandwiches is especially popular amongst the working crowds here. For the month of October, Artease is offering two new sandwiches with their homemade jams—Earl Grey and Matcha Jam Toast—for only S$2 (U.P. S$2.80).

30 Tai Seng Street, #02-09
BreadTalk IHQ, Singapore 534013
Tel: +65 6222 6966
Daily: 10am – 10pm
Nearest Station: Tai Seng

#2 BREADTALK

16-year-old local bakery BreadTalk is a household name that needs no elaborate introduction. The Singaporean brand prides itself on constant innovation and boasts a collection of classic and contemporary bread created from the finest craftsmanship.

This month, the brand is launching a series of never-seen-before gourmet bread creations that will whet your appetite.

Through a collaboration with Taiwanese Chef Johnny Chen Yung-Hsin, Champion of the 2015 Mondial du Pain (World of the Bread), BreadTalk has recently launched 5 stunning crafted buns that include 3 of his award-winning breads and 2 unique, locally inspired creations that will be sold exclusively in Singapore.

The collection includes First Love (bo-luo brioche with strawberry rose jam filling), Circle Of Life (bo-luo brioche with longan walnut filling and topped with diced pistachio), Five Blessings (a complex red quinoa and red yeast rice dough with walnut, pumpkin seeds, diced cheese), SingaShake (Danish dough with coconut custard, kaya and biscuit stick) and Ah Lemak (savoury yeast dough with anchovies and cheese).

30 Tai Seng Street, #01-04
BreadTalk IHQ, Singapore 534013
Tel: +65 6636 4344
Daily: 7am – 10pm
Nearest Station: Tai Seng

#3 DIN TAI FUNG

Hailing from Taiwan, Chinese restaurant Din Tai Fung is world-famous for their exquisite steamed pork dumplings. Each Xiao Long Bao is a masterpiece; they undergo six preparatory stages and the most complex step involves the chef pleating at least 18 intricate folds on the dumplings.

The comprehensive menu features over 100 dishes and bestsellers include the Oriental Salad in Special Vinegar Dressing (S$4.50++), nutritious Steamed Chicken Soup (S$10.80++), Fried Rice with Shrimps and Eggs (S$12.80++) and everyone’s all-time favourite Steamed Pork Dumplings (S$10.30++ for 10 pieces, S$7.80++ for 6 pieces).

From now until 31 October 2016, Citibank cardmembers will receive a complimentary Sliced Duck in Crispy Spring Onion Pastry with a minimum spend of S$90.

30 Tai Seng Street, #01-02
BreadTalk IHQ, Singapore 534013
Tel: +65 6702 0060
Daily: 11am – 10pm
Nearest Station: Tai Seng

#4 EVERTON CREAMERY

The popular ice cream joint at Everton Park has an outlet here at BreadTalk IHQ and we cannot be more thrilled because it is now nearer to us! The two-year-old ice cream brand produces handcrafted gelato with natural ingredients and abstains from artificial enhancers and chemical preservatives; think intense, thick and creamy texture that explodes with flavours.

Choose from 16 different rotational flavours (single scoop – S$4.80, double scoop – S$8), and an additional S$0.50 will be charged for premium flavours. We especially enjoyed the classic Pistachio, the all-new Mocha Crunch, and the interesting Taiji YuanYang (a mixture of peanut butter and black sesame to mimic traditional glutinous rice balls or ‘tang yuan‘).

We say have the “full works”—The Belgian Waffle (S$9.30) comes with a single scoop of ice cream).

30 Tai Seng Street, #02-01A
BreadTalk IHQ, Singapore 534013
Tel: +65 9436 3479
Daily: 11.30am – 9.30pm
Nearest Station: Tai Seng

#5 FOOD REPUBLIC

Food Republic is probably the most popular food court in Singapore. There are numerous outstanding vendors that you have to try—namely Ah Chew Yong Tau Foo, Li Xin Teochew Fishball Noodles and Sergeant Hainanese Chicken Rice.

The Sergeant Hainanese Chicken Rice is a household name and the Yuan Yang Chicken Rice Set (S$7.50) is a treat. Li Xin Teochew Fishball Noodles’ Signature Dry Fishball Noodles (S$4.30) is a traditional favourite, and the bowl of al dente noodles and springy fishballs is one that we can never get sick of.

Why not order a piping hot bowl of Yong Tau Foo Soup (S$5.20) from Ah Chew Yong Tau Foo too? The price includes six ingredients and your choice of noodles, or seven pieces of yong tau foo. Ah Chew Yong Tau Foo also does a splendid Chee Cheong Fun (S$2.40 for two pieces).

30 Tai Seng Street, #01-06
BreadTalk IHQ, Singapore 534013
Tel: +65 6444 6019
Nearest Station: Tai Seng

#6 RAMENPLAY

RamenPlay is another brand by BreadTalk that has enjoyed popularity since its debut. Expanding their line of ramen bowls and donburi, RamenPlay is also serving Shabu Shabu now and you can pick from either pork (S$13.90) or beef (S$14.90) with two soup choices (clear or kimchi).

Since the area during lunch is catered to mainly working professionals, RamenPlay has also launched bento sets for a quick grab-and-go. Our favourites are Pork Yakiniku Bento Set (S$8.80) and Teriyaki Chicken Bento Set (S$8.80).

Paired with fragrant Premium Koshihikari Rice imported from Niigata, Japan, the Bento Sets make for a delicious and value-for-money lunch choice.

From now till 31 October 2016, RamenPlay is offering its Cha Shu Tonkotsu Ramen in a spicy broth. Enjoy 25% off selected sides with every order of Cha Shu Tonkotsu Ramen!

30 Tai Seng Street, #01-03
BreadTalk IHQ, Singapore 534013
Tel: +65 6444 5516
Daily: 11am – 10pm
Nearest Station: Tai Seng

#7 TOAST BOX

Toast Box has successfully combined nostalgia and modernity into an Asian cafe concept. The homegrown eatery draws inspiration from coffee shops in the 60s and takes pride in serving aromatic traditional Nanyang Kopi (S$1.80).

While we love our Kaya Toasts, the Curry Chicken with Rice (S$7.70 per set, inclusive of Homemade Barley) set is actually a gem and an underrated find! The Hainanese-style curry reminds us of home, and it is precisely such simple goodness that we know we can always count on.

The all-new Cheesy Ham & Egg Thick Toast (S$6.10 per set, inclusive of a hot medium size Kopi/ Teh) reminded us of a French Croque Madame but with an Asian tweak. The pillowy white toast is topped with ham, egg and melted cheese.

30 Tai Seng Street, #01-05
BreadTalk IHQ, Singapore 534013
Tel: +65 6636 4506
Daily: 7.30am – 9.30pm
Nearest Station: Tai Seng

To celebrate BreadTalk IHQ’s third anniversary, the first 30 lucky shoppers spotted in the mall between 12pm to 2pm on weekdays will receive a complimentary cup of kopi or teh as long as your ID contains the digit ’3′ in it!

This post is brought to you by BreadTalk.