5 Best stores for Picnic Supplies
Our city may be infamously hot and humid all year, but it’s the drier middle months that are ripest for an idle afternoon picnic without it, quite literally, raining on your party. To take your grassy gathering beyond scarfing down bags of potato chips, here are five stores that will help you get a delicious bundle together with minimal fuss.
Dean & Deluca
Best for the whole package
The Big Apple-based gourmet grocers’ new flagship here makes shopping for classy, Martha Stewart-esque picnics simple with its customisable wicker-basket gift sets. For a banquet even the matriarchal Stewart can’t fault (or so we’d imagine), pack yours to the brim with goodies from their resplendent range of breads, organic marmalades, artisanal cheese, herb-infused crackers, dried fruits and wines.
Dean & DeLuca | Address: #04-24 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road | Tel: 65097709 | Opening hours: Daily 11am–10pm
Balmoral Bakery
Best for Asian delights and local pastries
With its familiar postbox-red signboard and unassuming interior, this HDB bakery has stuck to the same ammo of familiar and well-made pies, puffs and pastries for over 40 years. Must-tries include the mini chicken pies plump with chicken chunks, peas and potatoes, equally-stuffed samosas and char siew sou (barecued pork pastry). Even if you’re not a fastidious sweet-tooth, their custard puffs—airy choux pastry injected with thick, not-too-cloying custard.
Balmoral Bakery | Address: #01-06, Blk 105 Clementi Street 12 | Tel: 67792064 | Opening hours: Daily 9am–9pm
Huber’s Butchery
Best for meats
The family-owned European-style gourmet deli and butcher prepares a range of premium meats flown in from a tightly-curated list of farms. When sliced and plattered, their self-made hams, sausages and cold cuts are particularly convenient for a more sophisticated picnic. Appetite-stirring choices include the chorizo infused with red wine, smoked duck breast and black forest ham.
Huber’s Butchery | Address: 18A & 18B Dempsey Road | Tel: 67371588 | Opening hours: Tue–Fri 11am–7pm; Sat & Sun 9.30am–7pm.
SuperNature
Best for organic food
The health-savvy swear by this holistic mega-store for good reason. While prices here are slightly higher than earthbound, the TLC-showing spread that suits every dietary restriction more than justifies. If you’re feeling ambitious in the kitchen, their bulk of fresh, certified-organic vegetables and sustainably farmed (or caught) meat and seafood will have every recipe covered. Otherwise, fill your basket with preservative-free juices, organic corn chips, and egg and gluten-free breads and sweet stuff.
SuperNature | Address: #01-21/23 & 27 Park House, 21 Orchard Boulevard | Tel: 63041336 | Opening hours: Mon–Sat 10am–7pm; Sun 10am–6pm
Two Blur Guys
Best for a tea-time spread
Aside from their heftier offering of juicy burgers designed by chef Jimmy Chok (formerly of Bistro Soori), this hole-in-the-wall cafe also churns out an assortment of freshly baked treats daily, and at agreeable prices too. Point out your choice nibbles—we recommend their brownies, English-style chicken pies, carrot cake slices and crumbly raisin scones—to be boxed up and whisked away to your alfresco feast.
Two Blur Guys | Address: Orchid Hotel, 1 Tras Link | Tel: 66364183 | Opening hours: Mon–Sat 11am–9.30pm
