The_King

There’s little that can prepare an outsider for the onslaught of food in Singapore. Every stroll through this city shrouded in tropical heat is interrupted by open-air food centers, coffee shops and restaurants vying for your stomach’s attention. Seek sanctuary inside an air-conditioned mall and you’ll be greeted by sprawling subterranean food halls that seem to span the distance between subway stops. Dining out is a way of life in Singapore. One in four residents say they eat out daily, a recent Nielsen survey found. Many choose food centers, which aren’t your hot dog on a stick-variety mall food courts, but keepers of a proud local cuisine and tradition cobbled by generations of the city’s Chinese, Indian and Malay inhabitants. The abundance and convenience of food in Singapore can be a shock to the system — particularly for someone like me who has lived in a community of tract homes in Santa Clarita, where dining out meant choosing between two equidistant McDonald’s. I admit I have a weakness for Big Macs, but it’s no contest when outside my hotel on a stretch of Killiney Road I can choose between world-class satay, chicken rice, curry laksa, prawn noodles, fish ball soup, dim sum, Indian prata, chicken biryani, beef rendang or Cantonese barbecue — all for about the same price as a six-piece Chicken McNugget meal. Straying from my neighborhood has been even more rewarding. There were the piquant chili crab and salted egg yolk prawns at the East Coast Seafood Center that looks out onto the Singapore Strait, where at night, the tankers and cargo ships are anchored so close together they look like a neighboring city. There was the crunchy fried Hainan chicken wing vendor at the Toa Payoh Lorong Food Center, who commands such a loyal following that customers line up long before opening to beat the crowds. At Golden Mile Food Center, I took my first bites of Peranakan food, a centuries-old cuisine born out of the intermarrying of Chinese and Malays. The cuisine, which requires meticulous preparation, is slowly fading from fashion along with the few remaining chefs who know the recipes by heart. “You’ve only scratched the surface,” I was told by K.F. Seetoh, an evangelist of Singaporean food culture, founder of the Makansutra food guide and the subject of profiles by R.W. Apple Jr. and Calvin Trillin. Over a plate of beet red mee goreng, a local Indian take on stir-fried Chinese noodles, Seetoh spoke about a looming crisis. The storied ranks of Singapore’s food vendors, known here as hawkers, are aging faster than they can be replaced. Their children, equipped with elite educations and living in one of the most affluent countries in the world, have little interest in working 12-hour shifts in 10-by-10-feet hawker stands in unrelenting heat. “Thousands of old heritage hawkers — proud, loud, humble, authentic — are marching toward a cliff,” said Seetoh, who has been keeping a running tab on his Facebook page of the latest dining destinations to close. “They’re going to go down and into the sunset. Behind them are perhaps 10 new hawkers to replace them.” Without them, Singapore wouldn’t have its frenetic dining scene where unpretentious food reigns and the instinct to eat elbow-to-elbow with strangers forms the basis of community. Hawkers typically specialize in one thing, like a Hainanese chicken rice or bak kut teh, a pork rib soup, and rarely charge more than $4 a portion. Their artisan’s way of cooking set standards high, making it hard to find a bad meal in this island nation. “We have professors coming from the U.S. and they go to our canteen here and they say, ‘This is restaurant-type food and you pay two U.S. dollars. You guys are spoiled,’” said Malone-Lee Lai Choo, an expert on urban development at the National University of Singapore. The takeout spread from Fook Kin on Killiney Road in Singapore. The Cantonese-style barbecue restaurant makes a char siu roast pork, center right, with an unusually generous ratio of char and fat to meat. (Tessa Pierson / For The Times) Hawkers are the descendants of itinerant street food vendors who predate Singapore’s founding in 1965. After nationhood, they were licensed and housed in pavilions located in or near public housing, where 80% of Singaporeans live today. That gave the masses access to cheap, clean and abundant food that helped power Singapore’s productivity. By taking away the chore of cooking, it enabled both spouses to work. Government statistics show about 65% of Singaporean households with children include two working parents. That’s a rate slightly higher than in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Buying groceries can also cost more than dining out, providing another reason to eschew the kitchen. The Singaporean government has long played a heavy hand in the way its citizens eat. It has to, it says, for the sake of food security in a country of merely 278 square miles and no room for farms. More than 90% of everything Singaporeans consume is imported from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Brazil. After perhaps underselling its appeal, the Singaporean government has jumped on the hawker bandwagon in recent years. It established a hawker incubation program that allowed applicants to lease a stall at half-price for six months to encourage a new generation. And it launched a campaign to include hawker culture into UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage alongside things such as France’s gastronomic dining and Italy’s Neapolitan pizza. Singapore’s submission is due in March. “You see any restaurant food in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’?” said Seetoh, a proponent of the UNESCO bid. “Nada. It’s all chili crab and satay. Hawker food is a national icon.” It remains to be seen whether Singapore can retain its hawkers’ artisan roots. It’s easier today to buy staples like fish balls wholesale than it is to make them from scratch. More food service companies are operating air-conditioned facsimiles of the hawker centers and supplying the vendors there with semi-prepared meals from a central commissary. There are 114 hawker centers in Singapore, each housing 100 to 200 stalls outfitted with sinks and a few burners. One of the older locations, Golden Mile Food Center on Beach Road, was built in 1975 under public housing that sits on former waterfront property long obscured by reclaimed land. On a recent weekday, the center’s two-story dining area hummed with the sound of undulating electric fans. Hundreds of diners, mostly workers from nearby office buildings, tucked into orders of clay pot rice, braised duck and lor mee, a popular dish of egg noodles submerged in a thick dark gravy. To one side of the floor, in stall B1-30, stood Charlie Tan, chef and owner of Charlie’s Peranakan Food. Tan returned to cooking in 2017 after an eight-year hiatus triggered by poor health. “I was burnt out,” said Tan, 62, whose perpetually furrowed brow is befitting of a man who works from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. “This isn’t ordinary food. It’s very complex. It takes proper planning.” Consider one of Tan’s most popular dishes, ayam buah keluak. The recipe relies on buah keluak, a walnut-size seed found in mangrove swamps that has to be soaked for days to remove poisonous toxins. “Otherwise you get the runs,” Seetoh said. Tan painstakingly empties the flesh of each seed, blending it with minced pork and shrimp before returning it into its casing. It’s then simmered in a sauce with chicken and served with rice and a Popsicle stick to scoop out the contents of the buah keluak. Sour, inky and earthy, it is like eating a mixture of Mexican mole and Filipino adobo. Tan is one of only a few cooks with Peranakan bloodlines still preparing this kind of food in Singapore. He’s even more of an anomaly because he has a son who wants to take over the business. Joshua Chen, 20, recently finished his two-year compulsory national military service. Now he stands at his father’s side, hoping to absorb the elder’s exacting techniques, one dish at a time. “The passion is there,” Tan said of his son, “but I don’t see the flair yet.” https://www.courant.com/nation-world/la-fg-singapore-food-binge-20190129-story.html

SINGAPORE — Sports Hub chief executive officer Oon Jin Teik and two other senior management staff have resigned in what is the latest leadership upheaval at the S$1.33 billion project. Former national swimmer Oon, 55, who officially took on the role in January last year, had informed the board of his decision to quit and will leave his role after the 2019 HSBC Singapore Rugby Sevens in mid-April. Sports Hub’s chief operating officer Wong Lup Wai and chief financial officer Sandy Tay had also resigned in the last few months, TODAY has learnt. Mr Oon is the third CEO to leave the consortium since the Sports Hub opened its doors in June 2014. In a press statement on Monday (Jan 28), Mr Oon said: “Coming from an international sports, global business, and public-private partnership background, I have been very fortunate to have worked with so many talented and dedicated colleagues during the past four and a half years. “They have given me full support throughout my tenure and together with Sports Hub’s internal and external partners, we have accomplished a lot. I am very proud of this national icon, the Singapore Sports Hub.” Responding to queries, the Sports Hub said: “We would like to thank Jin Teik for his invaluable contributions and dedication to Singapore Sports Hub over the last five years and he leaves with our very best wishes to pursue new endeavours.” Sports Hub chairman Bryn Jones will be the acting CEO after Mr Oon’s departure while the board “conducts a global search to find the best individual to lead the Singapore Sports Hub going forward”. Mr Oon joined the Sports Hub in May 2014 as its COO and took on the role of acting CEO three years later after his predecessor Manu Sawhney’s sudden resignation. Mr Oon was promoted to the top job in December 2017. Mr Jones said at the time that Mr Oon was the right fit as leader and that the board of directors did not conduct a global search for its CEO. Prior to the Sports Hub, Mr Oon was a senior executive for environmental solutions company Hyflux from 2011 to 2014 and was CEO of national sports governing body Singapore Sports Council, now known as Sport Singapore. During his tenure with the Sports Hub, he was involved in several major events including the 2015 South-east Asian Games, 2015 Asean Para Games, National Day Parade in 2016, International Champions Cup (ICC) and concerts by Coldplay, Madonna and more. He was also recently involved in the Sports Hub’s joint bid with Sport Singapore and the Singapore Tourism Board to host the season-ending ATP Finals from 2021. Singapore is among five shortlisted cities alongside Manchester, Tokyo, Turin and current host London in the final phase of the bidding process and the result will be announced in March. Mr Oon could not be reached for further comment on Monday. According to sources, Mr Oon’s decision to quit was due to differences with the board over the business direction of the Sports Hub. In response to TODAY’s queries, the Sports Hub said that it would not be making any further comments on Mr Oon’s resignation “in line with our policy not to comment on such internal matters”. On the resignations of Mr Oon, its COO and CFO, the Sports Hub said: “As in the normal course of business for all organisations where a certain level of attrition is to be expected, there have been some departures within the Singapore Sports Hub. “Our focus is to ensure business continues as usual at the Singapore Sports Hub. We have a strong team in place and we remain fully focused on pursuing operational excellence, executing a vibrant repertoire of events, and delivering great experiences for our clients, colleagues, partners and patrons. SPORTS HUB’S ISSUES Mr Oon was the first Singaporean born here to helm the Sports Hub, which is the largest public-private partnership project in the world. Frenchman Philippe Collin-Delavaud was the CEO from March 2011 to December 2015 before Mr Sawhney was appointed in October 2015. However, Mr Sawhney’s departure came during an internal investigation over allegations pertaining to his management style, treatment of his employees and his commercial decisions. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing after the Sports Hub investigated the complaints and decided that no action was warranted. During Mr Sawhney’s 19-month stint, there were a number of resignations from the Sports Hub’s senior management and staff members. Aside from the upheaval in its management team, the S$1.33 billion facility was also initially plagued by a number of issues when it first opened its doors. These included initial pitch problems at the National Stadium and organisers’ complaints about high costs and criticism of its lacklustre events calendar. The pitch issues have since been resolved with the turf drawing praise from visiting sports teams in recent years. The Sports Hub had also beefed up its events calendar as the stadium hosted the sold-out Coldplay concerts, Singapore-Argentina international football friendly and the ICC, which saw over 95,000 spectators turning out to watch Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid during the tournament in July last year. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sports-hub-ceo-oon-jin-teik-resigns-two-more-senior-staff-quit-leadership-shake

More than 18,500 lifts within Housing Board estates will be modernised with better safety features such as high-tech sensors and emergency communication equipment over the next 10 years. Of these, around 17,000 are lifts managed by the People's Action Party (PAP) town councils, and 1,500 lifts will be upgraded in the next 15 months, the 15 PAP town councils said in a joint statement. Works on the remainder will be carried out progressively over the next 10 years. Around 1,500 lifts within the Workers' Party-run Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) will also be upgraded over the next 10 years, a spokesman said in a separate statement, adding that around 180 are scheduled for upgrading in the next 15 months. These lifts will be upgraded with modern safety features under the $450 million Lift Enhancement Programme (LEP) funded by the HDB. The joint statement said the PAP Lift Task Force, which was formed in 2016, had completed its review of the lifts with contractors. Coordinating MP for PAP town councils, Dr Teo Ho Pin, who led the task force, said the town councils will upgrade only one lift a block at any one time, with each upgrade taking about two weeks. This will minimise inconvenience to residents. "...Residents will be notified in advance of the shutdown," he said. The PAP town councils managed some 24,000 lifts as of last month, and the WP's AHTC more than 1,700. The HDB programme will equip lifts with recommended components by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). The PAP town councils have also adopted new working protocols to manage tenders and contractors, and is testing a new system to help town councils manage their lifts. A lift surveillance system giving round-the-clock information on lift breakdowns is on schedule to be implemented, said Dr Teo. The HDB programme extends to lifts less than 18 years old at the start of the LEP. Older lifts may be considered for replacement under a different scheme, said Dr Teo. Veteran lift engineer Kok Peng Koon, 80, agreed lifts more than three decades old would have suffered so much corrosion and wear that it would be more feasible to replace them entirely than to upgrade them. With most lifts slated for upgrading, experts said this would serve as an incentive for private and commercial lift owners to follow suit and adopt BCA's list of recommended components. Mr Chee Yan Pong, 73, who owns consulting engineering firm YP Chee and Associates, said commercial parties will have to do so on their own dime. "Rather than through mandate, this is a softer, more progressive way to teach private lift owners to upgrade their lifts," said Mr Chee. The eight safety components were recommended by the BCA in 2016, following a number of HDB lift incidents that caused death or injury. They include sensors, a battery-powered automatic rescue device that can release trapped users safely during lift breakdowns and power failures. One of the features to be installed is overspeed protection, which can detect whether an ascending lift has accelerated beyond its design limit, braking the lift car before it hits the top of the lift shaft. https://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/over-18500-lifts-be-upgraded-10-years

Braised pork, Curry chicken and Stir fried vegetables

No chance as Fire is faster then me.

there a few ppl stand guard at the ATM machine, i am thinking confirm the their card got stuck inside. i wonder what happen when the power is back on. do the machine return or must go bank to take anyway they whole day no money to spend without their card ahahahahhaahahahaha that cashless

sauce: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/electricity-supply-disrupted-in-parts-of-singapore

VERMIN

SINGAPORE - A 27-year-old foreign construction worker fell to his death on Tuesday (Jan 22) when the rope he was attached to snapped after part of it became entangled with the side mirror of a passing bus. The Indian national, who was painting the exterior of the Royal Plaza on Scotts, was secured to the rope and hovering several storeys above ground. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM), which is investigating the incident, said the bottom of the rope became entangled with the bus, causing it to snap. As a result, the worker fell to the ground, the ministry said in a statement to The Straits Times. ST understands that the accident took place at the rear of the hotel building. It is not known if the private coach was ferrying passengers. Police, which were notified of the industrial accident at 5.37pm, said the man was found motionless. He was later pronounced dead at the scene by Singapore Civil Defence Force paramedics. The MOM said the worker was employed by CKR Paints and Coating Specialist. The main contractor for the works was Advanced Specialist. All painting and cleaning works requiring rope access at Royal Plaza on Scotts, Singapore have been halted. When ST contacted CKR Paints and Coating Specialist, employees declined to comment on the accident. They also did not elaborate if the company will provide support to the worker's next of kin. "The authorities are already looking into it, so we'll have to wait to see what they say," said an employee over the phone. Investigations by the MOM and police are ongoing. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/foreign-worker-falls-to-death-after-rope-holding-him-snaps-in-bizarre-accident

https://www.facebook.com/massimo.ceccarelli/videos/10216470255081655/

SINGAPORE: About 75 per cent of NTUC FairPrice stores will remain open on the first day of Chinese New Year, the supermarket chain said on Thursday (Jan 24). A total of 110 outlets - out of 146 - will be kept open on Feb 5, it said in a news release. Seventy-nine stores will open until 5pm while the remaining 31 will keep to their usual operating hours. This is a decline from last year, when 138 stores were kept openon the first day of Chinese New Year. An NTUC FairPrice spokesperson said the number of stores it decided to keep open was based on operational considerations such as staff strength and customer traffic. NTUC FairPrice also said that 121 stores will remain open until 5pm on Feb 4, the eve of Chinese New Year. Its 24-hour outlets and the Changi Airport Terminal 3 outlet will keep to their usual operating hours. On Feb 6, the second day of Chinese New Year, all FairPrice stores – except for its Macpherson Mall outlet – will open as per usual. The Macpherson Mall store will reopen on the third day of Chinese New Year. NTUC FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng said the stores that will remain open during the festive period will operate with reduced staff strength. These stores will benefit customers who need last-minute items, as well as those who do not observe Chinese New Year, he said. “The extended store hours empower consumers with more shopping flexibility,” he added. Prior to the Chinese New Year period, the supermarket chain will also extend the operating hours of more than 60 stores, so as to cater to increased customer traffic starting from this Saturday. Deliveries via its online service FairPrice On will be limited to between 8am and 6pm from Feb 4 to 6. Regular delivery timings will resume on Feb 7. More information about FairPrice's opening hours during the Chinese New Year period is available on their website. Source: CNA/cy(aj)

Three Volley Salute & Taps

SINGAPORE: Actor Aloysius Pang has died after sustaining serious injuries during a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) training exercise in New Zealand, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said in a statement on Wednesday (Jan 23) night. The statement is reproduced in full below: Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Operationally Ready National Serviceman, Corporal First Class (National Service) [CFC (NS)] Pang Wei Chong, Aloysius passed away at 2045hrs on 23 January 2019 (SG time) at Waikato Hospital, New Zealand. An Armament Technician from the 268th Battalion Singapore Artillery, CFC (NS) Pang was carrying out repair works inside the Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer (SSPH) with two other SAF personnel on 19 January 2019 at Waiouru Training Area, New Zealand. Unfortunately, CFC Pang sustained injuries when the gun barrel was lowered. He was evacuated to Waikato Hospital, a regional trauma centre where he underwent a number of surgeries to treat his injuries. Dr Teo Li Tserng, Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, was flown in to assist the New Zealand medical team tending to CFC (NS) Pang. Despite surgical attempts to repair damaged organs putting him on artificial life support, CFC (NS) Pang succumbed to the injuries and passed away. An independent Committee of Inquiry will be convened to investigate the circumstances leading to the incident. A press conference will be held on 24 January 2019 to present the preliminary findings and will be chaired by the Chief of Defence Force. The SAF will be making arrangements to bring the body of the late CFC (NS) Pang back to Singapore. The Ministry of Defence and the SAF extend their deepest condolences to the family of CFC (NS) Pang and will continue to render assistance and support in their time of loss. This is a developing story. Please refresh for updates. Source: CNA/hs https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/actor-aloysius-pang-dies-serious-injuries-saf-training-accident-11158830

Jollibee can be found in many parts of the world but the fast food giant doesn’t have branches in mainland China. However, a Filipino couple saw a Jollibee copycat when they were out and about one day — and it’s called JoyRulBee. Overseas Filipino Worker Christopher Guzman posted photos and a video of the fake Jollibee on Facebook over the weekend, which he saw while out with his wife somewhere in Guangxi province. In the video, Guzman showed that the storefront sports a logo that looks exactly like the OG Jollibee. The interior design of the store also looked like it was inspired by a Jollibee branch. It also offers the same food that is being sold in Jollibee branches: burgers, ice creams, fries, fried chicken, and spaghetti. Unlike in the Philippines however, JoyRulBee offers a whole fried chicken, which Guzman ordered. Guzman also wrote in his caption to a video that it was the first time he’s seen JoyRulBee in the 10 years that he has been living in China. Both the video and photos have gone viral. The video has been shared more than 2,700 times while the photos have been shared more than 9,700 times. In a Facebook chat with Coconuts Manila, Guzman refused to divulge the exact location of the store in Guangxi but simply said that he and his wife found it near his workplace. Sadly, JoyRulBee’s food doesn’t taste as good as the real fast food chain. “It’s the same style as Jollibee, but the taste is different,” he said. “Jollibee tastes better. It’s almost the same price [compared to the real one].” Because the taste of the food left him feeling underwhelmed, Guzman said he’s not sure if he’s going back to JoyRulBee. Netizens think its funny that a company actually had the guts to copy the world-famous Bee. Frances Pobre wrote: “China, you copy everything!” Photo: Christopher Guzman’s Facebook account Setty Etang tagged a friend and wrote: “Even Jollibee has a pirated version.” Photo: Christopher Guzman’s Facebook account Jinks Salas said: “They (JoyRulBee) can be sued by the real Jollibee.” Photo: Christopher Guzman Have you seen Jollibee copycats in the Philippines or in other countries? Tell us by leaving a comment below or tweeting to @CoconutsManila.

Hopefully, both the driver and pedestrian involved in the accident here learned some valuable lessons in paying more attention on the roads. Painful lessons, really, especially for the jaywalking dude who got knocked down last Friday. While waiting for the red lights to turn green at the traffic junction between Sembawang Road and Jalan Mata Ayer, a motorist in the midst of discussing seafood managed to capture an incident that saw a young man being knocked down by a car. Said young man was in the wrong in the first place — he tried to cross the road while the lights weren’t in his favor. Of course, the driver is at fault too for not slowing down at a pedestrian crossing and didn’t pay enough attention while making a left turn. The end result? The jaywalker got knocked down after failing to dash past the careening car. The pedestrian turned out relatively okay as he got up instantly but probably shook and definitely in pain. On the Roads.sg Facebook page, folks weren’t sharing any sympathies for the jaywalker. https://coconuts.co/singapore/news/jaywalker-gets-knocked-sembawang-road-folks-offer-no-sympathy/