To celebrate International Museum Day which is also part of my work, I brought my family last week to the NEWater Visitor Centre, located at Koh Sek Lim Road off Upper Changi Road East.
In case you do not already know, NEWater was one of the great stories of invention in the time of need. Many would know that it is largely driven by Singapore’s lack of this essential liquid resource. Its launch spun off many positive stories in the media, and resulted in water scarce Singapore producing companies like Hyflux, one of the leading players in the water industry today and a darling of the local bourses.
Last Saturday (28th April) we celebrated my dad’s 67th birthday at Broth, a charming Australian style restaurant along stone-cobbled Duxton Hill. For the unitiated, Duxton is a charming little neighbourhood of clubs and restaurants sandwiched between the financial district and the more boisterous Chinatown area in Singapore.
Good things come in small packages, and this boutique restaurant never failed to live up to its promise. After reading several rave reviews here, here, and here, we decided to give it a try. I worked with its owner Steven Hansen before on an event at a museum and it went pretty well. A nice and friendly chap who came here from Melbourne a couple of years ago, Steve also runs River Cafe located at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute at Robertson Quay, another quality Aussie style dining joint.
The overall ambience and food quality was superb. We gave a thumbs up for most of the dishes, including the lamb loin, steak, pork chop, salmon and starters. Of course, the dessert of sticky date pudding literally took the cake!
Do you know that Singapore’s founding father Sir Stamford Raffles used to live up on Fort Canning? Or that this used to be called Bukit Larangan or “Forbidden Hill” in Malay?
With about 45 minutes to kill after breakfast and before Ethan’s Chinese enrichment classes, my family decided to frolick this hilly green oasis in the middle of our concrete jungle. It was a certainly a pleasant walk in the park even with the warm midday sun beating down upon us.
Our climb started with a peek at the map of Fort Canning located beside the stairs.
My family loves to go to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, one of our island’s most well-loved tourist attractions which draw about 3 million visitors annually. Its enticing mix of free admission, beautiful 52 hectare landscape, awe-inspiring greenery and thoughtful touches makes it a must visit for us. We always feel rejuvenated after our trips there.
Our journey begins near the Visitor’s Centre section of the Gardens. Most of the amenities are located near here.
Yesterday morning, we did our usual pilgrimage to Hay’s Dairies (upon the request of our kid, who else) and I had the chance to use my new Panasonic DMC-FX01 camera. Do join us on our virtual tour and hopefully you can learn a thing or two about how you can attract crowds to your farm-based attraction. Hmmm…. are they a farm or are they an attraction?
Our journey to the North West took almost an hour from our home down under. The trip was pretty rough for a 3.5 year old.
Close to lunch last Sunday, I was looking for a gold coloured tie to go with my black shirt for this event and decided to try my luck at Liang Court. I recalled fondly that they might have some boutiques there, since they cater largely to a Japanese expatriate market. This used to be one of my favourite childhood hangouts, with the lethal combination of a Swensen’s Restaurant, Kinokuniya Bookstore and of course Daimaru.
Of course, things have changed quite a lot since.
The most obvious difference was that Daimaru and Swensen’s were gone. In place of Daimaru’s 4 levels are a budget electronic shop in level 1, some furniture shops at level 2, and Books Kinokuniya (thankfully still around as its one of my favourite) in level 3.
Last weekend, I brought my family to Ka-Soh Restaurant, a famous old chain specialising in Fish Head Noodle. Tucked away in a nondescript corner of the Singapore General Hospital – of all places – the restaurant was literally sitting in darkness in the hospital campus when we arrived for dinner.
Despite its relatively inauspicious location, the restaurant had a good crowd when we arrived. Apparently, Ka-Soh is one of the original purveyors of fine fishhead noodles which does not use evaporated milk to thicken its soup. Instead, the milky white soup came from hours of boiling the bones of “Sang Yu” or snakehead fish. I understand that this dish is especially popular due to its purported ability to heal one’s wounds.
Although the wait was somewhat long, we enjoyed our dinner that night. The decor and ambience was casually comfortable, with a modern and minimalist Zen look. Waitresses were also generally attentive towards our needs and even advised us not to order too much for fear that we could not finish our food. Our favourite dish without a doubt was the fish meat noodles and we lapped up every single drop of the yummy soup.
Courtesy of www.uberburger.com
Over the years, we have seen quite a few high profile F&B failures in Singapore. They include Rainforest Cafe at Liang Court, Hello Kitty Cafe at Downtown East, and of course the numerous bubble tea shops whose bubbles have popped.
The latest casualty in the scene is Uber Burger. This uber upmarket joint has folded on 7 February 2007 barely 10 months after a much-heralded opening. Famous for their S$101 Wagyu Burger stuffed with truffles, foie gras and all things decadent, they claimed to offer unique mouth watering experiences that you can never get at cheaper chains.
