This week, celebrate local heritage with elevated Straits cuisine, support homegrown social enterprises and enjoy the Singapore Night Festival.
SEE
Light up the night
Singapore Night Festival
The Bras Basah.Bugis precinct comes alive this month with The Singapore Night Festival (SNF) that revolves around the theme “Rebirth”.
The 13th edition of SNF goes hyperlocal as it zooms in on the unique history and identity of Singapore’s arts and heritage precinct. Discover stories of the eclectic characters that call the precinct home, experience its charming mix of the contemporary and the traditional, and revel in the magic of the night as you find the special in the ordinary.
Festival-goers can expect to be mesmerised by projection mappings, light art installations, and highlight performances presented in a new refreshed format, with more intimate experiential programmes and food and retail experiences.
Highlights include performances by singer Inch Chua and Tim De Cotta, as well as anchor event Cathay Hotel: The Curse of the Missing Red Shoe, an immersive theatre performance taking place within a re-creation of the historical Cathay complex.
For more information, visit www.nightfestival.gov.sg.
Traditional arts programmes
Stamford Arts Centre
See also: Weekout (Mar 20): Martell, 1-Group, Mandala Club, W Singapore - Sentosa Cove, Bedrock Bar & Grill
Organised for the first time by Arts House Ltd (AHL) and in conjunction with the Singapore Night Festival (SNF), Stamford Arts Centre (SAC) will light the night with over 20 interactive traditional arts programmes for A Date with Tradition on Aug 26 and 27.
Visitors will get the chance to soak in the charm and richness of ethnic arts and try their hands at Indian rangoli by Singa Rangoli and Chinese calligraphy, add their own twist to a shadow puppetry play, or discover the charm of Chinese opera. There will also be a myriad of multicultural performances by Chinese chamber music ensemble Ding Yi Music Company, multi-racial music group SwaRhythm Ensemble, Indian dance company Shantha Ratii Initiatives and Malay dance troupe P7:1SMA. For the full event line-up, visit stamfordartscentre.sg.
BUY
Local, Made Good
DBS Foundation
For the whole month of August, discover over 10 social enterprises that are creating environment and social impact through their businesses with Local, Made Good, an initiative backed by DBS Foundation.
From mouth-watering treats to urban farm tours, support homegrown everyday heroes by buying their merchandise and day experiences. Enjoy 57% off special bundles with the promo code DBSLOCALMADEGOOD on go.dbs.com/dbsflocalforgood. Highlights include a day tour to Edible Garden City, manicures at Nail Social, car rentals from BlueSG, and beers made from surplus bread and pineapple peels by Crust.
Since its establishment in 2014, DBS Foundation has helped close to 950 innovative social enterprises across the region to grow by providing them with holistic support measures such as grants, capacity-building programmes and networking and business opportunities, among others. Since early this year, DBS Foundation has also gone beyond social enterprises to support society-at-large through the launch of a dedicated “Community Impact” chapter that prepares communities for the future by equipping them with future-ready skills and reducing food waste.
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EAT
Contemporary Straits cuisine
Pangium
The chef-owner of Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant Candlenut, Malcolm Lee, has opened his second dining concept Pangium, offering a tasting menu of Contemporary Straits flavours exploring heritage cuisine through a contemporary Singaporean lens.
Opened in partnership with the Como Group, Pangium — named for the pangium tree that springs from the buah keluak seed — enjoys 180-degree views of undulating tropical greenery in the Gallop Extension of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The hilltop grounds allude to a time when the British countryside was a significant reference point for Singapore during its colonial era.
As guests make their way up the private driveway, they pass conserved black-and-white bungalows designed by British architect RAJ Bidwell — Atbara House and Inverturret now housing the Forest Discovery Centre @ OCBC Arboretum and the Botanical Art Gallery respectively. And as you drive further in, you arrive at an uber-modern treehouse-inspired building called The Orangery — designed by Kay Ngee Tan Architects — that houses Pangium spread over two storeys. Inside, the 22-seater’s spa-like interiors, brought to life by President*s Design Award winning firm Lekker Architects, looks out to verdant landscape all around.
For Lee, Pangium embodies a maturity that reflects a coming-of-age for the chef and the culinary evolution of local cuisine that’s taking shape in Singapore. The dining experience here is intended to offer guests tastes, small bites, as well as more substantial courses that will hopefully reignite flavour memories of food once cooked by our grandmothers. Do note the menu will change twice a year, and once a dish is removed, it will not return.
Your meal begins with a series of snacks followed by a bread, a dumpling, a soup and a seafood dish, culminating in a signature nasi ulam (mixed herb rice) course. Highlights include the buah keluak sambal with oxtail and serunding daging (beef floss with roasted coconut); the achar with rose apple, lotus root, starfruit and guava; and the hand-minced duck satay glazed with kicap manis.
For dessert, be prepared for a large spread of delectable bite-sized kueh like ondeh ondeh, kueh ambon, kueh bingka and buah keluak bonbon. Another offering worth mentioning is the sagun kelapa — harking back to the childhoods of Malcolm’s mother and aunt — a young coconut sorbet prepared using only coconut water, flesh and milk.
In summary, a trip to Pangium is an unforgettable experience enhanced by the genial hospitality of the very young service team. Frequented by diners of every demographic, this place is a tranquil destination for couples, families and friends.
Pangium is open for dinner ($258++ per person) from Wednesday to Saturday, and lunch ($198++ per person) on weekends only. For reservations, email [email protected]
DRINK
Wine o’clock
1-Group
Singapore’s annual wine extravaganza, Wine Lust by 1-Group, is back for its sixth edition across the group’s seven iconic and heritage dining properties, with exceptional experiences crafted in celebration of award-winning labels and wine lists.
From now till Sept 13, vinophiles and wine enthusiasts can look forward to pairings with meticulously crafted menus, exclusive winemaker meet-ups, and great retail programmes with exclusive back vintages for purchase.
The group’s freshly minted winners of the World Gourmet Summit 2022 include Botanico at The Garage, which won Platinum for its New World Wine List of the Year; Monti, which clinched the Gold award for its Old World Wine List of the Year; and 1-Atico, for the Restaurant Design of the Year.
While Botanico will host a “Meet the Winemaker” event for guests over a wine-pairing dinner on Aug 25, Monti will serve up a wine-pairing dinner menu on Aug 26 and 28 ($188++, additional $80++ for wines) featuring parma ham as part of the Parma Ham Festival, and wines from Amphora Wines and Omina Romana.
Some of Spain’s consistently top-scoring wines will be introduced in a Spanish Wine Masterclass ($58++ per person) at Alkaff Mansion, while back vintages of La Rioja Alta (the fourth most admired brand in the world) will be available for tasting at $58 per person. And for those with a palate for Argentinian wines, Fire at 1-Atico will feature up to 45 labels from key distributors of Argentinian wines on Aug 24. For more information, visit www.winelust.sg.
