By Akshita Nanda

It is mee siam and chicken rice, but probably as you have never seen them before.

Food outlets across the island are trying to introduce more nutritious alternatives to local favourites by serving up chewier, healthy variations.
 
So now you can chow down on 'brown rice' chicken rice, or opt for noodles made of brown rice in mee siam or bee hoon dishes. Brown rice, or noodles made from it, has more nutrients than white rice or its related products.

So what makes rice 'brown', you might ask. Well, it is that colour because it is unrefined rice, and it retains the fibre and vitamins that white rice loses during the refining process.

The drive to switch from the white stuff to the right stuff comes from the Health Promotion Board.

Eating wholegrain food such as brown rice and oatmeal reduces the risk of contracting diabetes and heart disease, according to the board.

It can even help diners hit a healthy weight since they feel full for longer after consuming wholegrain foods.

The board is trying to get more Singaporeans hooked on wholegrains by asking food retailers to tweak their menus and helping them find suppliers of wholegrain ingredients.

When Ms June Ho set up a food stall last year, the board suggested she offer dishes with brown rice bee hoon and put her in touch with a supplier as well.

The 43-year-old now uses these noodles in a spicy, dry mee siam that has won her regular customers at her stall in Holland Drive Market and Food Centre.

'It's flavourful without being too strong. It's healthy and not too oily,' says Ms Maria Wong, who heads to Ms Ho's stall up to three times a week for a plate of $1 fried mee siam. Toppings are an extra 50 cents each.

But the 37-year-old executive often goes away disappointed because the mee siam sells out by 9am.

Ms Ho serves only around 60 customers a day, which she puts down to the limited space at the food centre. The stall is also open only from 5am to 2pm most days, and closed on Mondays.

Profits have not been as good as she hoped as the wholegrain noodles cost up to 20 cents more a plate and also take twice as long to cook. However, she will invest her savings in a bigger cafe at Hougang Point next year and hopes to attract a larger crowd of regulars.

Much depends on taste, according to Mr Anthony Ng, 33, who has seen more customers taking up the brown rice option at his chicken rice stall in Telok Blangah Rise Market and Food Centre.

He uses a mixture of brown rice and another nutritious wholegrain rice called red rice. It takes twice as long to cook as the usual chicken rice but costs almost the same as the white rice.

He offers both the usual chicken rice and the wholegrain option, and prices both at $2.50 a plate with soup. The wholegrain set now accounts for over a third of his sales.

'It tastes the same as normal chicken rice,' says retiree Sng Juan Hock, who eats at Mr Ng's stall at least once a week. The 70-year-old and his wife have opted for brown rice at home as well since hearing of its health benefits.

While the rice is taking off at some food outlets, it has been taken off the menu at Kia Hiang Restaurant, which serves Cantonese food. 'We used to throw away a lot of brown rice,' says the owner, Mr Ng Kia Jin, 57. His customers prefer to stick with white rice.

However, the health-conscious owner doggedly still serves brown rice bee hoon dishes at his Kim Tian Road restaurant, although people order them only occasionally.

It tastes especially good in sliced fish soup, he says. He charges the same for wholegrain dishes as he does for those using normal noodles.

Customers are slowly growing more health-conscious so these F&B operators hope that the demand for wholegrain foods will increase.

At Telok Blangah, Mr Anthony Ng hopes to entice older customers into eating brown rice. 'We want them to adapt, but it's hard to get them used to it. My own mother cannot accept it,' he says.

After a 12-hour shift cooking and cleaning at her mee siam stall, Ms Ho goes home and experiments with other local dishes to discover wholegrain alternatives. 'It's tough but as long as customers can eat healthily, it's worth it,' she says.