SINGAPORE – The smell hits first: charred meat and barbecue smoke, laced with the sharp sweetness of roasted pineapple and pickled cabbage, drifting across the fourth floor of Bugis+.Inside Xita Lao Tai Tai, a barbecue chain from Shenyang in north-east China, the lunch rush is just beginning. Staff weave briskly between tables with claypots of glowing coals, while patrons chat, laugh and settle into the serious business of eating.Sights and smells like this are becoming familiar in Singapore’s malls, shophouses and hawker centres.According to Market Research Singapore, the number of Chinese food and beverage brands operating locally grew from 32…