i enlist in 96 so consider a old man? when i enlist, still have army cooks but ord after cookhouse become outsource. in the past, color water only served at lunch on tue & thur and taste like sky juice that have color in it. the roti are from changi prison which can be use as sandpaper. the only way to swallow it was to drip it first in whatever hot drink the cook serve at breakfast. The only ok food to eat at bf was the hardboil egg which even the cooks had no abilities to screw it up. margerine was the the big tin planta brand, occasionally there will be jam. the worst thing i ever had at bf was yam cake which was stone cold, apparently the duty cook woke up late and no time to steam the yam cake and he serve it cold. he also unlucky as then 46 just change RSM and he arrive at 0600 to eat bf with the trooper kias and he saw what was serve and charge the cook on the spot. the farker went DB for a month for it. that RSM really good, he make sure the men are taken care of and he only go after the NCOs and those HQ warriors.
Early outsource cookhouse are much better than nowaday. the first place to have the cookhouse outsource were the BMTC and then parents accompany son on the first day tour just started. i was posted to tekong after unit shut down for 6mth. i had my first outsource cookhouse food at camp3. it was great and being perm staff, we can take all six dishes while the recruit must choose 2 out of 4 meat and 1 out of 2 veggie. after almost 20 mths of saf cook standard, it was like heaven in tekong. The tekong caterer was ntuc foodfare, not SFI. after return to gedong, the cookhouse at 42 were outsource first because brigade HQ are over there. some of the 46men kenna caught for eating there but i didnt bother. IMHO, the last few ICT b4 i MR, the SFI cookhouse were only a couple of notches above SAF cooks, many of us reservists give lousy rating to the cookhouse food till the trainers come to the coyline to find out why rating so low.