ONCE upon a time, we took our makan for granted.

COMMUNICATION MAVENS: They are the best people to make the world aware of S'pore food. ST FILE PICTURE

Then the heady effect of affluence set in, and the yearning for world flavours hit us.

It became too easy to like pizzas, pastas, burgers, sushi, ramen and all things new and wonderful.

Well, perhaps not all strange new flavours.

I think we'll be hard-pressed to like kembayau (a fruit with a potato-like texture) with gooey starch - a common snack in Brunei - or perhaps duck foetus or balut from the Philippines, and ant eggs soup from Laos, although folks from those lands feel for them as much as we do for chicken rice.

But take some beef, mince it, grill it and stuff it between two buns, and you get an American comfort dish.

Then give a lot of moolah to a cutting-edge advertising agency to create a healthy dash of branding - something to a tune of how a meal can bond Ah Ma with the grandkids.

Or take girls who want to look like angels, talk in angelic whispers, walk with small steps, eat buchimgae (kimchi omelette) in small bites - and make men who ogle them bump into lampposts.

They have all been brand-blasted. They are eating foreign food and digesting the culture.

Nothing wrong with that. Through conscientious brand-building or by virtue of some unintentional act, they have spread the word of their culture, conquered your hearts and won you over with food. You are hooked.

So, how on earth do we reciprocate with our chicken rice and chilli crabs?

How do we brand-blast the foodies of the world and unite them with a common love for 'kway png' (chicken rice) and Katong Laksa?

Like everyone wants to eat burgers and be seen as really cool and a family dude at the same time.

Or how some Korean television drama about their royal makan had the sedate audiences riveted and, overnight, kimchi, bibimbap and bulgogi went through the roof and landed in people's hearts.

Even tourism to Seoul was boosted and plastic surgeons there were botox-ing Singlish-speaking clients.

So, like Tripitaka and his monkey god, I will be journeying this month. But it will be to hawk our food culture and buy their hearts with stuff like bak kut teh and bubur cha cha.

I take with me no advertising campaign, nor was there some hit Singapore food television drama to go ahead of me.

'Mavens' bitten by local food

My partners are some 'mavens' from giant food companies who had been bitten by our local flavours when they last visited and want to introduce these dishes back home in Canada and the USA.

Communication mavens - that's what Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point, calls people with the innate ability to spread the word and get it to stick in people's minds.

In short, they are kaypohs with naturally great storytelling abilities. The kind of people others talk about and remember for what they so passionately spoke about.

These mavens run kitchens and eateries that feed at least a hundred thousand customers daily.

So, what do I sell them and how do I show and tell of our chicken rice, char kway teow, bak kut teh and chilli crabs?

I can't just sell the taste and recipe, lest I risk ending up touting what they may eventually perceive as balut or kembayau with starch - well-loved by some but not well-received by the rest.

I'll be working with an eager professional team to feed thousands (and perhaps even more mavens).

And as an added career highlight for me, I have an invitation to cook with the legendary three Michelin-starred Jean-Georges Vongerichten at his South-east Asian and Singapore-inspired Spice Market Restaurant in New York.

Stay on this page as I dwell on this mission over the next month.

Makansutra, founded by KF Seetoh, is a company that celebrates Asian food culture and lifestyle. It publishes food guides in and around the region, produces a food television series, develops interactive mobile content and services, operates food courts and eateries, organises food tours and events, and consults on culinary concepts.

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