{"id":26301,"date":"2026-01-06T20:42:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=26301"},"modified":"2026-01-06T20:42:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:42:36","slug":"cookhouse-food-netizens-slam-bento-meals-purportedly-offered-at-hwa-chong-institution-singapore-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=26301","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Cookhouse food&#8217;: Netizens slam bento meals purportedly offered at Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The newly started hybrid canteen model at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) has stirred controversy online, after a netizen likened the offered pre-packed meals to &#8220;cookhouse food&#8221; served in the military.<\/p>\n<p>Reddit user Taenyfan95 shared two bento lunch options on Saturday (Jan 3), claiming that it was what secondary school students at HCI received.<\/p>\n<p>The meals pictured consist of rice as well as sides of vegetables and\/or meat, plated in turquoise-coloured divided trays.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope this doesn&#8217;t become a trend,&#8221; wrote the user.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" style=\"height:500px\" ><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/singapore\/comments\/1q2kyws\/we_are_feeding_sg_kids_cookhouse_food_from\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">We are feeding SG kids cookhouse food from Secondary School<\/a><br \/> by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/taenyfan95\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">u\/taenyfan95<\/a> in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/singapore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">singapore<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.reddit.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The school said last October that it has partnered with caterer SATS to manage its canteens beginning 2026. Food prepared at SATS&#8217; central kitchen is available alongside offerings from some on-site stalls, the Straits Times reported.<\/p>\n<p>A HCI teacher, Charles Low, told the publication then that canteen operators had found it challenging to maintain affordable pricing. The bento meals can be pre-ordered through an app, with menus rotated monthly.<\/p>\n<p>The Reddit post had garnered more than 2,500 upvotes and over 600 comments, mostly from netizens who similarly turned up their noses at the presentation of the meal.<\/p>\n<p>Many agreed that the food appeared akin to cookhouse meals, with a few comments taking it a step further by comparing it to prison food. Some also called the food &#8220;depressing&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>One Redditor remarked: &#8220;I get healthy eating but imagine eating this every recess for the rest of your life at school until you graduate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A user surmised that the food seemed like &#8220;a mishmash of &#8216;nutritious&#8217; ingredients&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If the food is what we&#8217;re used to eating outside such as nasi lemak, mee rebus etc, just that it&#8217;s from a central kitchen, then maybe it would be somewhat more bearable&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n<p>However, another netizen questioned the nutrition value of the bentos.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not even nutritious, missing key proteins, fats and calcium necessary for growing teenaged kids,&#8221; they alleged.<\/p>\n<p>Another netizen pointed out the portion of rice served: &#8220;It&#8217;s like 65 per cent of the actual meal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;We hate it&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Several commentors claiming to be students at HCI also slammed the pre-made food.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hi HCI person here, I&#8217;m just gonna say on behalf of everyone that we hate it,&#8221; a Redditor declared.<\/p>\n<p>Replying to comments, the user said the meal &#8220;actually didn&#8217;t taste as bad as I thought it would be&#8221;, and that the options are priced at between $3+ and $4+.<\/p>\n<p>Another netizen who identified as a HCI student said &#8220;no one wanted&#8221; the new meals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My class had six people who willingly paid for the food while the rest all went for the live stalls&#8230; Thank goodness there&#8217;s still the 4 (I think) live stalls and vending machines,&#8221; they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The original poster, user Taenyfan95, elaborated in a separate comment that a friend&#8217;s child studying in HCI purportedly said the queue for the on-site stalls stretch for up to 45 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>HCI previously shared in a Facebook post in November that the hybrid canteen model will offer &#8220;greater variety with international cuisine, festive delights and shorter queues&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The ban mian, Japanese cuisine and minced meat noodle stall will continue their tenancy, the school added.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"523\" width=\"500\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FHwaChong.Official%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02E6NoMU9J9L6SQ6jpNepNDhRPFQmvGmTmqxqqtiEmAYJFBAxt3V9Q6jetZPuz97rvl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\">\u00a0<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>[[nid:725717]]<\/p>\n<p>lim.kewei@asiaone.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/singapore\/cookhouse-food-netizens-slam-bento-meals-hwa-chong-institution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The newly started hybrid canteen model at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) has stirred controversy online, after a netizen likened the offered pre-packed meals to &#8220;cookhouse&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}