Singapore’s Jungle Kitchen Debuts With 6 Indigenous, Tropical Foods

Singaporean start-up Jungle Kitchen has launched a six-product tropical vegan food range focused on Indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques.

Jungle Kitchen is on a mission to bring Southeast and South Asian ingredients, recipes, and preparation techniques to consumers globally while celebrating the quality and diversity of what it says are often overlooked flavors.

Jungle Kitchen

Jungle Kitchen’s inaugural range includes a superfood mince made from ten vegetables, roots, and herbs, a creamy jackfruit curry, young jackfruit in brine, banana blossoms in brine, as well as a hot sauce and relish made from local peppers and vegetables.

“Jackfruit is a good example of an ingredient that has recently gained popularity in the West, but has been a staple in Asian diets for a long time,” Mukeeta Manukulasuriya, co-founder of Jungle Kitchen, said in a statement. “Jungle Kitchen’s mission is to blend the trendy with the traditional, spotlighting versatile, tasty superfoods, such as Moringa and Kohila, to global palettes.”

The company puts a focus on local ingredients and working with small producers and farms — building a supply chain that is fully verified and sustainable. It’s working with the farmers to implement more sustainable practices. To further its sustainability commitment, Jungle Kitchen also eschews plastic packaging.

Stepping up sustainability

“Most of us can tell you where the best beef in Japan or the best pork in Spain can be found, but we have yet to do this as thoroughly with Asian produce. Where in Malaysia can I find the best gula Melaka? Where do the spiciest chilies in Asia grow?” asks co-founder Surekha Yadav.

Jungle Kitchen is spotlighting versatile ingredients including Moringa and Kohila. It’s also working toward on a broader effort to include building a crowdsourced compendium of Asian flora, focusing on rating and ranking the quality and sustainability of particular areas or farms.

The team is also already at work on its next range of products which will include more ready-to-eat meals, such as Asam Pedas Pisang Flower — a vegan take on the regional favorite of sour and spicy fish curry — as well as Butter Jack Masala, which sees jackfruit cooked in a buttery gravy reminiscent of the dish popular in Northern Indian restaurants.