Meet Calvin, a bold and quirky content creator who’s turning heads in the food scene—not with gourmet dishes, but with his outrageously unexpected flavour mashups. From Tabasco with Coca-Cola to Milo and tofu, and even cereal drenched in ketchup, his videos leave viewers both amused and oddly intrigued.
Far from random stunts, his content challenges conventional food norms and taps into curiosity, humour, and the thrill of experimentation. Whether it’s to spark conversations, test limits, or simply entertain, Calvin is on a mission to remind us that food can be fun, fearless, and totally unconventional.
What inspired you to start creating food videos featuring unconventional and unheard-of food combinations?
I love food. I always think about how different foods can come together, and I always go and discover new food available in Singapore or around the world. I wanted to do this because I have many ideas in terms of how food can come together. But I know that a lot of the restaurants and chefs would not do what I want.
Imagine if I tell them, “Hey, can you put Pei Pa Koa inside the soup?”—they’d probably kick me out. So I’m like, I’m just going to try it myself and see whether it works or not. And from there, it kind of continued, and I continued the journey to discover a lot of my different combinations.
Do you remember the first bizarre food pairing you ever tried and how did your audience react to it?
I remember the first few. I think the first one that got the audience’s attention was McDonald’s ice cream with McDonald’s curry sauce. I remember that one. It was one of the first or second videos—I can’t remember exactly. But basically, people were like, “What the hell is this guy doing? Why is he putting curry sauce inside ice cream?”
I did it at one of the McDonald’s outlets, and even the staff were like, “Are you okay?” Their reaction was mixed. Some were thinking, “Curry sauce from McDonald’s isn’t exactly spicy; it’s a little bit sweet too, so it might actually work.” Others were like, “Please don’t do this. Just eat it with your nuggets.” It was quite interesting to see their reactions.
How do you come up with these unique food combinations? Do you research, experiment, or just take suggestions from your followers?
Most of it is just me thinking. I daydream a lot about food and think about how things can come together. So most of the ideas are random. But over the years, people do give me a lot of suggestions in terms of what to try. If it makes sense, I’ll give it a try. Or if I’m really, really curious, I’ll give it a go as well.
And of course, overseas, there’s a lot of this kind of content. Like, there’s one where someone had coffee with congee. I thought, okay, interesting—I’ll give it a try.
Have you ever discovered a surprisingly delicious combination that you now genuinely enjoy?
I think I’m going to say Pei Pa Koa is my favourite. In terms of all the things I’ve done, Pei Pa Koa with ice cream really, really works. Pei Pa Koa is almost like honey—it’s got a bit of mint too.
Until now, I still eat it, but in a reasonable amount, in proper dosage. Not like, you know, going crazy with half a bottle a day. I still enjoy it once in a while.
What has been the most shocking or controversial reaction from your audience to one of your food experiments?
I think the majority of the comments are all shocked. I would say something a bit different is seeing people actually trying them out. That’s the part that stands out—when people really try it and tag me, or even come up with their own combinations and ask me to try them.
There’s also a small percentage of negative comments, which I usually just ignore. Initially, I took it as a joke—until people started tagging official accounts. They tagged the official police account, the IMH account, and even other government accounts.
I was like, “Oh my God, please don’t come after me!” I always ask them, “Please don’t tag these accounts.” I find it quite funny. I think the people managing those accounts probably took it as a joke too.
Beyond all this fun and entertainment, is there a deeper message or purpose behind your content?
For me, I always want to encourage people to have fun with food and to enjoy it. I always believe there are many different ways to enjoy food, and people just need to be a child again—play with your food (without food waste)—and just have more fun.
Also, it’s about having the mindset of “You never try, you never know.” For example, frog porridge is something very common to me—I grew up eating it.
But to many of my friends, it’s disgusting. I always tell them, “Come on, you never try, you never know.” And once they try it, they say, “Oh yeah, it’s actually nice. It’s better than chicken.”
So I want to deliver a message of discovering new flavours, and having the courage to try something you’ve never tried before. You might end up liking it. I think that’s quite important.
Where do you see your food content evolving in the future, such as collaborations or even a challenge series?
I’ve actually done a couple of challenge series with friends who are bakers. I challenged them to bake something they usually wouldn’t make—like asking one of them to make a laksa Swiss roll. Usually, a Swiss roll is like pandan or chocolate, but laksa? And I asked another friend who makes cakes to make a Pei Pa Koa version for me.
What I hope to achieve eventually is for chefs and F&B places to take my suggestions seriously and work with me to create something unexpected. From there, they might even discover more flavours in food.
Based on my understanding, most of them still play it safe because they need to cater to the masses. But to me, it’s about doing something different. Eventually, that different thing might become mainstream.
What is your vision for Singapore in the next five years?
I’m hoping that Singapore will be more open in terms of unique food combinations, and also more open to bringing in food that is uncommon here. For example, recently, they brought in insects—I love that! It encourages people to discover more flavours.
In China, for instance, they have really interesting food. The most recent one I saw was using the undigested food from a cow’s stomach to make hotpot. It sounds weird, but I want to try it! I know Singapore doesn’t have it yet.
There’s also something called “hairy tofu”—not smelly tofu, but mouldy tofu that’s grown with actual hair-like mould. It comes in a tray, and they mix it around.
I’d love to see it in Singapore. I hope that in the next five years, more of these things can happen so that people in Singapore can try them and experience food from different cultures. A lot of these may seem strange now, but we should continue to discover and explore new flavours.
Connect with Calvin: TikTok and Instagram.
