Review: Blue Smoke in Singapore

Crispy Iberico pork belly

A restaurant in Singapore I was introduced to is called Blue Smoke, run by chef/owner Ivan Yeo. It's located along Joo Chiat Road, on the east coast of the Lion City. Before dinner my friend and I wandered along the street checking out the various boutiques and shops. 

There were vintage shops selling clothes from the 1980s to antique brooches and jewellery, a biodynamic wine shop where the wines had no sulfites in them, and clothes made by young designers. 

Succulent miso shiitake brioche buns

At the appointed time we reached Blue Smoke, and it's a casual place with an open kitchen at the back. Yeo was there with a bandana on his forehead, as I can imagine it gets pretty hot there as he cooks with open flames and grills.

He's a maverick in that he did not come up through the ranks in the restaurant world -- instead he was in advertising, got jaded, then switched to music, and that was where he saw how restaurants and bars were run from the back-of-house point of view that interested him. Yeo had also had a taste of the restaurant business as his grandparents had opened eateries and he helped out as a kid.

Then he has an uncle who made his own beers and Yeo and his brother were interested in pairing food with these beers, hence Blue Smoke. The concept is that everything on the menu is smoked, but not in the American way of marinating for ages and then smoking it for over 12 hours. Yeo prefers to experiment with various ingredients by grilling them, throwing them on open flames and then seeing what happens.

Hands-down favourite grilled cauliflower

We tried some of his dishes and for the most part they were pretty good. We started with the miso shiitake buns, where brioche buns are cut open and brown butter spread on the insides with smoked shiitake mushrooms. They were a delicious combination.

Next came the crispy pork belly, reminiscent of the Cantonese roast pork. Here they used Iberico pork smoked over lychee wood and then roasted over charcoal, then served with wasabi sour cream to add a subtle kick and attempt to cut the oil. This was a bit too fatty for me but the skin was crispy.

The grilled cauliflower steak was arguably the best dish. It was grilled with miso butter and served over a bed of yuzu sauce and crumbled pistachios sprinkled over it for a bit of a crunch. We all raved about this humble vegetable that tasted so good.

Grilled lamb marinated with a Sichuan spice rub

Another meat we tried was the grilled lamb shoulder that arrived beautifully presented before we attacked it. The lamb was marinated in a mild spicy Sichuan-style spice rub before it was grilled over both wood and charcoal before being served with a side of wasabi sour cream. 

The wood smoked stingray steak was another winner. The fish was marinated with traditional Filipino shrimp paste, homemade sambal belachan (chillis) and then smoked over lychee wood. For me it was at the high end of my spice tolerance, but it was so good that it was addictive and I kept eating it.

Finally the highly anticipated wood-smoked beef brisket... fell flat. Perhaps we were expecting something similar to American smoked meat, but this one arrived at our table looking pale and tasted bland even though it was marinated with garam masala and smoked for 20 hours. 

The smoked beef brisket was bland and flat

Nevertheless the dessert of deep-fried Del Monte banana tempura style with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream helped us have a nice finish. The outer layer of the banana slightly crunchy, warm and combined with cold ice cream was just what we wanted.

In terms of Chinese medicine, Blue Smoke is very heaty! We talked to Yeo after who told us they cook Teochew or Chiu Chow off-menu dishes! He described their fish porridge which made us all salivate, but we were too full and the kitchen was closed for the evening.

This is how Yeo entices customers to come back again and now we know!

Blue Smoke

261 Joo Chiat Road

Singapore

  

Sam's Club Muscles its Way into Hong Kong

Sam's Club will extend shopping and delivery to Hong Kong

Hong Kong retailers will have massive competition coming soon, as warehouse megastore Sam's Club, owned by Walmart, will begin offering online shopping and delivery services, with free delivery for purchases over 599 yuan (US$83).

"So far there has not been online shopping for Hong Kong people. There will be a roll-out of such service with direct delivery within two months. But customers need to be a member... and memberships can't be shared with others," an employee familiar with the matter said.

The membership offers a one-year membership for two people at 260 yuan, while a premium membership at 600 yuan offers more benefits.

HKers already shop in Shenzhen for deals

The news of this retail development had some industry observers describing it as "a retail crisis".

Many Hongkongers are going north on the weekends to shop at Costco and Sam's Club already, and the latter's new service will make it even more convenient to take advantage of really cheap goods, from toilet paper to snacks and electronic goods.

The first Sam's Club outlet in China opened in 1996 in Shenzhen, and today it was 44 shops in 25 cities across the country.

Economist Simon Lee Siu-po, an honorary fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Asia-Pacific Institute of Business believes Sam's Club's new service will be a severe blow to local supermarket chains and HKTVmall, an online shopping platform.

"Sam's Club's offering is bulk purchase with cheap deals. With online shopping and delivery for Hongkongers, they no longer need to stock up food or necessities in local stores," he said.

People buy snacks, toilet paper, electronic goods

"Supermarkets and online platform HKTVmall will be hard hit. Coupled with internal troubles, this will be an aggression from abroad. I am afraid this will cause a retail crisis in Hong Kong."

He believed the only way to protect the local retail industry is to impose a sales tax.

Indeed HKTVmall has already taken a big hit -- its net profit fell 78.65 percent to HK$45.3 million (US$5.8 million) last year from HK$212.2 million in 2022.

In March company vice-chairman Ricky Wong Wai-hay predicted a fall in local consumption amid weakened sentiment.

"In parallel with the influence from the external and global economic and political environment, we anticipate a decline in the local consumer market... growth as in the past will be unlikely," he said.

It's going to be a tough road ahead for Hong Kong retailers. Local residents just want the cheapest stuff they can get as their priority; supporting local businesses has gone out the window...

Three Men Charged in the UK under National Security Act

Three men have been charged under the National Security Act

Three men have been charged under Britain's National Security Act for allegedly assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service according to the London Metropolitan Police on Monday.

The trio are Peter Wai Chi-leung, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Bill Yuen Chung-biu, 63. Yuen is of particular interest because the Hong Kong government confirmed he is an office manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office in London.

Yuen is the office manager at the London HKETO

They are alleged to have carried out surveillance, gathered information, and forced entry into a residential address in the United Kindom.

Yuen is believed to be a former police officer, while Wai is understood to be a city of London Police special constable and the director of D5 Security Limited, and has over 20 years' experience in the British military, police and private security sector.

Finally Trickett was an immigration enforcement officer, and also a director of MTR Consultancy, a security, surveillance and private investigation firm.

With these charges, particularly on Yuen, some countries may review the roles of HKETOs on their soil; in the meantime this latest development could further sour relations between the UK and China.

Nevertheless, pro-China experts were quick to be on the defensive. 

Lau Siu-kai of the semi-official Beijing think tank, the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said: "It is indeed reasonable for the Hong Kong authorities to look into the anti-China activists," he said.

Wai has police and military experience

"Britain might want to demonstrate their responsibilities in protecting these anti-China activists now settled in the country, but is this so-called information really that significant which could threaten national security?"

Meanwhile Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu warned countries against their attempts to interfere with Hong Kong's trade promotion outposts overseas.

"Any attempt to interfere with the work of the [HKETOs] in different places will be against free trade and free economy, and will be harming the economy of the countries that try to do bad things to the operation of the [HKETOs]," Lee added. 

"We will of course, do our best to protect the rightful interest and the rights that [HKETOs] enjoy as a result of legitimate officials working for the Hong Kong government, and we'll urge all governments to respect the rightful duty of our [HKETOs] in their economies."

Trickett has a private investigation firm

In the meantime, Tom Tugendhat, Britain's security minister, said Monday that the National Security Act, which was passed last year to target threats from foreign states, was a game-changer in terms of the country's ability to crack down on foreign intelligence services and hostile actors.

Currently Hong Kong has 14 HKETOs outside China, including one in London, three in the United States, and two in Canada, one in Toronto and the other in Vancouver. These offices enjoy some of the privileges and immunities of diplomatic missions.

Spot Prawns Are Back

BC Spot prawn season is on now! Sweet, juicy and plump!

Spot prawns are back!

It's that time of year when these prawns with a distinctive reddish brown body with white spots in their tails, and white horizontal bars on their carapace.

In British Columbia about 2,450 metric tonnes of the spot prawns are harvested annually, about 65 percent of which are caught in between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

Fresh spot prawns with white dots on their tails

Ninety percent of the haul is frozen and exported overseas to Asia. The rest are enjoyed here, with some sold in supermarkets, others in restaurants.

When cooked, the meat has a sweet taste and is perfect when boiled in their shells and then when the meat is extracted, dip it in some diluted soy sauce with ginger and it's even better.

The season is short, about six to eight weeks, so be sure to try some soon!

 

Will Visitors from Eight Mainland Cities Boost HK's Economy?

Can tourists from other parts of China revive HK's economy?

Hong Kong can boost its tourism numbers now that Beijing has approved visitors from eight mainland cities. They are... drumroll please...

These visitors can stay for up to seven days

Taiyuan, the capital city of Shanxi province

Hohhot in Inner Mongolia autonomous region

Harbin in Heilongjiang

Lhasa in Tibet

Lanzhou in Gansu province

Xining in Qinghai province

Yinchuan, capital city of Ningxia Hui autonomous region

Urumqi in Xinjiang

From May 27, residents from these cities will be able to apply for the Individual Visit Scheme to travel to Hong Kong and not need to join a group tour and can stay for seven days at a time.

The Individual Visit Scheme has been around since 2003 post-SARS in a bid to kickstart Hong Kong's economy. 

But will adding visitors from these eight cities help boost the city's businesses?

Does HK need more poseurs on the streets?

Tourism officials are projecting these tourists will visit Hong Kong for at least three days, meaning they will stay in hotels, but will they find the prices acceptable? They might do what others in the Greater Bay Area have done -- spend the day in Hong Kong and stay overnight across the border...

Are these the tourists who will spend money? 

Seems the Hong Kong Tourism Board has given up on long-haul visitors even though they are the ones who have the money to spend...

Picture of the Day: Aurora Borealis in Your Backyard

No need to go to north to see northern lights!

There is a warning this evening of a massive geomagnetic storm tonight that threatens to affect power grids, communications and navigations systems.

Caused from a dramatic blast from the sun, the storm is the strongest to reach Earth since October 2003.

However, the upside is that people as far south as Florida and Southern California can see the aurora borealis, or the northern lights.

Indeed this evening on social media, lots of people in Vancouver posted pictures of the aurora borealis so I went out into my backyard just after midnight to take a look. The iPhone's sensor in the camera is more sensitive to wavelengths produced by the aurora and can produce an image that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

So I snapped a few pictures and indeed I got this amazing shot!

Demanding Tech Exec Loses Job Over Controversial Comments

Qu claimed she worked so hard she forgot about her children

The big news in China is a tech executive who pushed her staff to work very long hours -- basically coined "996", or from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. But she was so extreme that she was fired.

Qu Jing was the former vice president and head of communications at Baidu, which is the Chinese equivalent of Google.

However, last week she posted a series of videos on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok where she spoke about how devoted she was to her job, her strict management style, and demands on her underlings.

Baidu left Qu go following her comments

In one video she talked about her personal sacrifices as a working mother. She admitted she worked so hard that she forgot her eldest son's birthday and what grade her younger son was in at school. Qu said she didn't regret it because she "chose to become a career woman."

"If you work in public relations, don't expect weekends off," she said in another video. "Keep your phone on 24 hours a day, always ready to respond."

Needless to say her department had a high turnover rate and her videos didn't resonate and instead grated young viewers who are fed up with gruelling work hours and immense pressure. Many have adopted tang ping or "lying flat" -- or just doing the minimum to get by.

As a result Qu lost her job at Baidu, and she later apologised for her video posts.

But it didn't end there as people discussed her and her videos online.

"In her voice and in her tone, there's deep indifference to and lack of empathy for the common plight of her colleagues," said Ivy Yang, a China tech analyst and founder of consulting firm Wavelet Strategy.

Many workers opt to "lie flat" these days

"A lot of what she said really struck a nerve, because people feel that in their own workplaces very often. The fact that she said it in a way that's so direct and in your face, it just generated this kind of emotional response," she said.

This is what the bosses are thinking, and she was merely saying it aloud," Yang added.

It's not the first time a boss has landed in hot water endorsing long working hours.

In 2019 Alibaba's Jack Ma was under fire for endorsing the "996" trend, calling it "a huge blessing."

On Thursday Qu apologised "for causing such a big storm." 

"I have carefully read all the opinions and comments from various platforms, and many criticisms are very pertinent. I deeply reflect on and humbly accept them," she wrote.

She seems to have been really tone deaf when it comes to the attitudes of young workers these days. They are exhausted from working hard for very little gains, hence the philosophy of "lying flat". 

Did she not get the memo???

Scrumptious Baked Goods at YVR

Delectable baked goods from Pure Bread at YVR

The other day I discovered a pretty good bakery -- at Vancouver International Airport no less.

It's called Pure Bread, a play on pure bred? 

Just looking at its showcase of various pastries, breads, cookies and cakes was enough to tempt me to try some.

So I bought a few items and brought them home to try and was not disappointed. 

What caught my eye was the raspberry rhubarb biscuit, with raspberry jam in the middle that is quite thick and not runny. The biscuit itself isn't sweet, but it's not particularly fluffy, otherwise it wouldn't hold the jam well.

I also got the rhubarb ginger scone, again not sweet and had a very subtle ginger flavour. It could have been a bit more pronounced, but we'll take it.

Finally the chocolate chip cookie had sour cherries in it which made it very interesting to try, the cherries curbing the sweetness of the chocolate chips. It was hard to stop eating this cookie!

And the shop even has bone-shaped biscuits for canines!

I was happy to discover Pure Bread has several locations in Vancouver: Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, Gastown, and one coming on West 4th Avenue. There's even two locations in Whistler.

Looking forward to trying other items again soon!

Singaporean Artist's Versatility on Display

Cheong focuses on life in the countryside 

Also at the National Gallery Singapore was an exhibition on artist Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-1983) who used several different mediums in his art. This particular show, Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer, wanted to demonstrate his artistic process, and that things would change from the initial sketch on the canvas to the finished product.

Abstract II could be a landscape

This is not new -- artists have always worked and reworked their paintings to get the composition right or started over with something else. We can discover this thanks to X-ray scans, infrared photography, and even microscopic analysis to give us a better understanding of artists' work and thought process.

Cheong's paintings are figurative, and the paintings shown are mostly when he and fellow artists travelled to Bali in Indonesia in 1952 and later in the 1970s. He made numerous sketches that became the basis of several paintings. They are rustic countryside scenes of farmers working in the fields, a boy lying on a buffalo's back, and mothers looking after their babies.

The figurative style becomes three-dimensional in Singapore Scenery, where he coated a wooden board with a layer of resin and then fixed thin copper strips to create shapes kind of like stained glass. Resin was then poured between the copper strips to form layers and brilliant colours in yellow, brown and red.

Singapore Scenery uses resin and copper strips

He also made some multimedia pieces. One called Abstract II uses painted and shaped aluminium sheets, zing plated iron rods, and metal tacks mounted on a board. It looks like a three-dimensional collage that could be interpreted as a landscape or an organic form. 

Another painting called Landscape was made on jute, a fibre made from coarse threads. He took the jute and mounted it on canvas to create more texture in the work. The composition of the painting evokes Song dynasty ink paintings with the meticulously painted landscape, though the topless women in the painting featured prominently in the foreground are from Southeast Asia.

This ink painting is made on jute

Cheong's various styles reveal his versatility and interest in experimenting with different mediums. The one using resin and copper wire is impressive and tedious, but he is determined all the same. 

National Gallery Singapore's Provocative Art

The Supreme Court Building and City Hall make up the gallery

The National Gallery Singapore is definitely worth a visit when in the Lion City, as it holds the world's largest public collection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian art totalling over 9,000 items. 

Supreme Court with its wood panelled ceiling

Not only are the works hung on the walls or placed around the rooms interesting to look at, but the buildings themselves. The museum is housed in the former Supreme Court Building and City Hall, and they are linked together with short walkways shielded from the heat outside.

You can even go into the Supreme Court chambers, a dark room with beautifully precise wood panelling on the ceiling, and the room has a dock for the accused, and some items are behind glass cases to make use of the room.

I had visited the museum before so I went to see some new exhibitions. Some of the post-modern art are curious to consider. Take The Pleasure of Being, Crying, Dying and Eating by Montien Boonma from Thailand.

The cyclical nature of life and death in this work

There are round tables set up for dining with what look like chopsticks made of slender bones on top of the red tablecloth. Nearby is a giant column made of bowls stacked up and taking a closer look, the bowls have what look like dinosaur bone designs on them.

The cylindrical shape of the installation signifies the cyclical nature of life, and the title refers to the Buddhist belief that life has the stages of pleasure (eating), and suffering (crying), from birth (being) to death (dying), and then rebirth. Montien uses the ordinary objects to explore his Buddhist views, and also to mourn his wife who succumbed from her illness.

Poor farmers with their musical instruments

Another Thai artist, Paisal Theerapongvisuanuporn, shows the massive gap between the rich and the poor in Music, Lives and Peasants. Fantasies of being wealthy are beyond the reach of poor farmers who are worked to the bone. They carry musical instruments with them playing folk songs in a bid to ease their sense of displacement. 

Meanwhile, there's a voice coming from Michael Shaowanasai's Exotic 101, with a pole on a small round stage for supposedly a woman to perform pole dancing or some kind of suggestive dance.

This is Shaowanasai's commentary on sex tourism, as the voice gives instructions on how to become an exotic dancer. This work was made in 1997, during the Asian financial crisis when the Thai baht was devalued over 20 percent and the country faced a financial meltdown. As a result, sex tourism relies on exploiting women from the countryside who are poor and desperate for money.

What would you do with a pink pistol?

From Indonesia is Jim Supangkat's Ken Dedes, which shows the replica bust of an ancient Javanese goddess, combined with a woman who is topless; the work draws attention to the multiple and conflicting layers of Indonesian identity.

While Supangkat wanted to use the myth of the goddess to extol feminine power, his work was actually criticised for insulting Indonesian culture. 

One curious work shows a bunch of pink crackers shaped like pistols that are randomly placed in a mound on the floor. Indonesian artist FX Harsono called this work What Would You Do If These Crackers Were Real Pistols? 

Also part of it is a desk inviting the viewer to sit down and write their opinion, but no one did!

Controversial Indonesian art

It was fascinating that a museum like this in Singapore exhibited such provocative works that had such strong and critical opinions about their respective countries!

Picture of the Day: Peonies in Bloom

The brief life of peonies make them even more special in May

For a brief window of about two weeks in May, my mother's highly-anticipated peonies bloom and just as quickly wilt.

It's an annual spectacle we take in and watch in awe as these giant flowers unfurl themselves like creased silk sheets from a tight bud.

Giant bursts of pink in the garden

Her green thumb secret is using fertilizer she has composted for months that she spreads on the soil three times a year to ensure the blooms come out. There are well over a dozen of them together on the bush, making it hard to photograph them all.

But here they are in their pink glory! They are Chinese peonies, not at all like the western ones that look like giant carnations.

They inspire those Chinese watercolour paintings. But here I've captured them with my iPhone before their beauty fades...

Picture of the Day: Golden Sweetness in a Massive Bottle

A giant bottle of sauternes for dessert, please

I was very lucky to dine at a three Michelin-starred French restaurant in Hong Kong, the stunning Caprice in the Four Seasons Hong Kong.

Helmed by chef Guillaume Galliot, the food is impeccable and so is the service. Guests are spoiled rotten throughout the meal with the tempting bread basket that you must resist otherwise you will quickly fill up your stomach, and the cheese trolley is an olfactory bouquet if that's your idea of fromage heaven.

And to finish the meal, how about a splash of sauternes with your dessert? The best of course.

The wait staff carry out a 2014 Chateau d'Yquem in a massive bottle -- is it a Salmanazar (9 litres or 12 bottles) or Balthazar (12 litres or 16 bottles)?  

The sommelier has definitely worked out his biceps because he has no problems pouring a bit of the sweet golden wine from the giant bottle.

We later checked out where the cheeses were stored in the chef's table dining room, and tucked in the back are several of these large empty wine bottles!

Press Freedom Under Attack

Palestinian journalists were recognised for their work this year

Today is World Press Freedom Day and Palestinians were awarded the UNESCO press freedom prize for covering the Israeli war on Gaza. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists, more than 100 journalists and media workers, mostly Palestinian, have been killed in the first seven months of the conflict in Gaza since October 7 last year.

However, Gaza's Government Media Office says the toll is more than 140.

"In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances," said Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals during the announcement.

RSF released its annual press freedom index

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders released its annual press freedom ranking and Hong Kong continues to rank low on the list, though five spots higher than last year at #135.

Sandwiched in between the Philippines and Sudan, Hong Kong still ranks poorly due to the changing situation of other countries.

"Hong Kong is +5 places [up], but only due to the movement of other countries in the Index. Hong Kong's score actually has fallen -1.8 points, which is a significant change," explained Aleksandra Beilakowska, the NGO's Asia-Pacific Bureau Adovcacy Officer.

Last month she was denied entry into Hong Kong and was searched and questioned for six hours at the airport before she was deported back to Taiwan where she is based.

Interestingly Canada ranks #14, while the United States is #55. China is #172 and Eritrea is at the bottom of the list at #180.

Yesterday the Nikkei reported that Chinese-owned media are distancing themselves from Asia's highest profile journalism prize in a bid to avoid being seen as "colluding with foreign forces."

Fewer outlets are participating in this award

The Society of Publishers in Asia gives out awards annually to regional and international media outlets ranging from breaking news to photojournalism, features and video stories.

However, media outlets like Beijing-based Caixin Media, Shanghai-based Sixth Tone, state-owned The World of Chinese, and even the Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post have dropped their SOPA membership or have not submitted entries for the awards.

Luwei Rose Luqiu, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said these outlets distancing themselves from SOPA shows a further tightening of press freedom in China, to the point where even the space for Chinese English media, which used to be relatively lenient and aimed to align with international peers is narrowing.

"However, for Chinese media, whether to participate in SOPA has little impact because such awards do not affect their readership," she said.

It's a pity this is happening, resulting in journalists having fewer opportunities to have their work judged against peers and recognised in the industry. It may come to a point where SOPA becomes irrelevant which would definitely indicate a further decline in press freedom not only in Hong Kong, but the region...

So Long, KITEC

KITEC is a large complex with offices, concert space, banquets

When I think of Kowloon Bay, it reminds of me of the first two jobs I had that had offices there, and later on the headquarters for the MTR. It is also where there is a giant complex called KITEC, which stands for Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre.

It's about a 15-minute walk from the MTR station, or if you can catch it, a five-minute free shuttle bus ride. It's where students used to take classes at a college there, and for Chinese New Year, large companies would hold their banquets there for staff, since they could hold about 1,000 people.

Many companies held their CNY banquets here

And for indie music fans, KITEC was the medium-sized venue where they heard bands such as Rubberband, Miyavi, Laufey, Tom Odell and Dean Fujioka to name a few. 

It was also the venue for other events -- Funassyi fanatics saw the pear fairy there in 2018, and nine years earlier Hello Kitty fans got to see their favourite feline in a special exhibition there marking her 35th anniversary.

It was recently announced KITEC will close permanently at the end of June, after it was bought for HK$10 billion by a consortium led by Billion Development and Project Management in 2021.

Last March, the Hong Kong government approved the reconstruction of the site into three commercial buildings that includes an industrial exhibition space, and commercial and engineering facilities.

The mid-sized concert venue will be sorely missed

Built in 1995, KITEC was originally owned by Hopewell Holdings and has 1.76 million sq ft in space. 

There goes a multi-use building that attracted a diverse group of people! 

Review: Tambuah Mas Indonesian Cuisine

This restaurant has been around since 1981

In Singapore a family friend took me to eat Indonesian food, something I haven't eaten in a very long time. She took me to a restaurant called Tambuah Mas in the basement of Paragon shopping mall on Orchard Road.

Whole deep-fried fish with its skeleton

It has been operating since 1981 in various locations, serving Indonesian cuisine particularly from Padang, Sulawesi and Java. 

We arrived a bit early as it opens at 11am but they let us sit at a table and peruse through the menu first, though we had to order by scanning a QR code.

The food arrived soon after which was quite impressive, though the results were mixed. One of the restaurant's signature dishes is ikan nila, a whole fish where the meat is filleted with the bone attached and deep-fried for a kind of Halloween skeletal presentation. 

Crispy baby squid with spicy sauce

A fresh water fish was used and this one had a distinctive smell and taste that wasn't off, but wasn't very appealing. Perhaps the fish was frozen? The fish meat was quite tough too, unfortunately, and we were not able to finish it.

Cumi-cumi goreng is a dish of delightfully tiny, crispy baby squid topped with a spicy-sweet sauce. These were crunchy and slightly spicy hot and very addictive, though for two of us the portion was quite large.

I really enjoyed sop buntut makassar, a bowl of spicy ox-tail soup, where the meat has been simmering for a long time and once we used our spoon to touch the ox tail, the meat fell off very easily. The soup was so flavourful that eating it evoked the soothing feeling of comfort food. This hearty soup with some rice -- which we had -- made it an ideal combination.

Comforting and flavourful ox-tail soup

Finally to balance the dishes, we had some vegetables in the form of stir-fried okra or lady's fingers with onion, practically the only non spicy plate on the table! 

To cool off from our spicy meal we ordered cendol, or shaved ice with coconut milk, green bean jelly, jackfruit and young coconut milk. So refreshing and delicious!

We walked off a fraction of our calories by wandering around the shopping centre's bakery stalls where they sold tempting items like nutella rye brownies, cranberry cream cheese fold (with numerous thin pastry layers), circular croissants with various toppings, and traditional desserts like lapis sagu, kueh telur, and pandan chiffon cake.

Cendol with jackfruit and green bean jelly

If only our metabolism was kickstarted into high gear...!

Tambuah Mas

Paragon 

#B1-44

+65 6733 2220

Gourmet Coffee in Singapore

The menu has over 200 coffees to choose from!

In Singapore, a friend took me to a coffee shop called Bacha Coffee. It's a cafe and shop within the Takashiyama Shopping Centre on Orchard Road. The brand was started back in 1910 in Marrakesh, specialising in Arabica coffees.

Bacha sources the best coffee beans from 35 coffee-producing countries and the menu is purely for coffee connoisseurs. The menu features more than 200 coffees with a description for each, which makes it hard to choose! But even if you don't know your coffees, the staff can help you in the right direction, kind of like asking what kind of wine you like to drink.

A hazelnut cake to go with our cups of coffee

As I don't drink much coffee and it was already early afternoon, I decided to try a decaffeinated coffee called "Night in Moka". It is described as: "This exceptional naturally decaffeinated coffee is enduring with delicate notes of fresh herbs, nuts and citrus breaking through warm flavours of dark chocolate."

The staff look sharp in their white jackets and quickly serve guests with their coffee cups along with a gold-plated coffee pot with a long, skinny spout. While the price (S$11/US$8) is expensive, the pot allows you to drink over two cups of coffee.

While there is no milk served with the coffee here, there is the option of whipped cream to elevate the coffee experience. There's also some pastries to accompany your gourmet cup of coffee, and we ordered a hazelnut one that went well with our coffee!

It was nice to sit there and catch up with my friend while trying out our cups of coffee without being rushed. 

Whipped cream, not milk for coffee

My friend also noted this brand is also the sister brand to TWG Tea, and that the two brands are always usually in the same location, and together. Both brands are owned by a Singaporean company.