Bino

GUUM opened in April 2024 as the second venture by Chef Louis Han, the man behind the successful Korean fine dining NAEUM. In contrast to Chef Louis’ first venture, GUUM is more of a casual dining concept while still retaining elements of modern Korean cuisine. 

guum interiors

Located in Keong Saik Road (and counting other recent openings such as Imbue as its neighbors), GUUM is among a number of Korean restaurants in the area. While these other Korean joints can also be described as casual, GUUM differentiates itself by offering touches of high-end dining in a beautiful space.

The name GUUM means to “cook over fire” or “grill” and the Korean barbecued items are the heart of the menu here. However, in contrast to DIY approach of traditional Korean BBQ restaurants, the grills are cooked in an open kitchen before being served to diners. Moreover, the folks at GUUM employ a number of cooking techniques rather than standard grilling. 

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The former 15 Stamford by Alvin Leung has been “rebranded” as 15 Stamford with the departure of the demon chef Alvin Leung from Capitol Kempinski Singapore’s flagship restaurant. 

With this rebrand comes the unveiling of the restaurant’s new proposition, Where The Land Meets The Sea. This is a new menu comprising the best of both worlds – where hearty steaks intertwine with fish and other seafood courses. The new menu is also markedly more western, in contrast to the Asian influence of the menu back when the restaurant was under Alvin Leung. 

The kitchen is now helmed by Executive Sous Chef Jay Siaw, with he and his team offering over 50 dishes in this new menu. I recently visited the restaurant for dinner to try out the new menu.

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It’s hard to imagine that Araya, the Chilean restaurant in Mondrian Singapore Duxton, opened just a few months ago in Q4 2023. In that short span of time, it has been making waves in the city’s dining scene with stellar reviews for its South American coastal cuisine.

Update: Araya has received a Michelin star in 2024, a mere 9 months after it opened.

Araya is located in the dining complex of Mondrian Singapore Duxton that includes Noa Lounge, Suzuki Omakase and Tribal Dining. 

The restaurant, which is helmed by Chefs Francisco Araya and Fernanda Guerrero, has recently launched a new degustation menu, the Costa (S$368) which is a celebration of all things seafood. The idea of a marine-centric menu seems quite apt since Chile boasts a long 6,437km Pacific coastline. 

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Cassia, the Chinese restaurant in Capella Singapore, has updated its menu with a number of new dishes. I personally find Cassia to be one of the most underrated Chinese restaurants in Singapore. A venue that’s located inside Sentosa does not have a big captive audience to depend on so it is paramount for the cuisine to stand out in order to convince people to come all the way.

By that measure, Cassia does not disappoint. The Chinese restaurant has a decent number of loyal customers and even during some weeknights, one finds a good crowd within its premises. I have personally been to Cassia around 4 times now and the food has remained consistently excellent, no matter which chef is helming the kitchen.

 The current chef, Alan Chan, is known in Singapore’s culinary circles for having brought a Michelin star to Four Seasons Singapore’s Jiang Nan Chun, whose kitchen he helmed for 6 years until 2021. At Cassia, he brings the same magic – utilizing his skills with age-old techniques in Cantonese cuisine and melding them with more modern ones. 

Here are some of the new dishes to expect in Cassia in 2024:

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Min Jiang at Dempsey is commemorating 5 years since it opened in its Dempsey Hill location back in 2019. I reviewed it back then when they first opened and loved their creatively concocted dishes. Many of the specialties that they presented at the time are still available today such as the Turbot and Gold Fish Dumpling. From now until 31st May, they are also presenting an ensemble of 5 new dishes for their anniversary. 

The 5 dishes all contain elements of egg in them and can be ordered as ala carte or as a set for S$138++ per person. During my most recent visit to Min Jiang at Dempsey, I tried the set menu.

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Hari Raya Puasa or Eid al-Fitr this year falls on 10th April 2024. This is the best known holiday for the Islamic community because it marks the end of a month-long fasting from dawn until sunset during Ramadan. This is the time when people visit their families in what is known as balik kampung. In larger countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, people would travel hundreds of miles back to their hometown. In Singapore, it’s a lot simpler, often requiring a bus or MRT ride back to their elders’ homes. By custom, people gather during this time and ask for forgiveness from parents and grandparents.

Gatherings usually involves eating plenty of goodies or kuih raya – whether those given as gifts or those laid out for visitors to sample. Traditional cookies include Kuih Semperit (Custard Butter Cookies), Kuih Bangkit (Tapioca Cookies) and Kuih Makmur (Peanut Cookies) although a lot of creative variations have popped up over the years. 

Below you will find a list of some of the more unique hari raya goodies and cookies I have found along with traditional ones. This will be a growing list, with new items and shops listed as the season progresses.

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Sims Vista Market and Food Centre which is located in 49 Sims Place and a few minutes walk from Aljunied MRT Station, has always seemed pretty underrated to me. Size-wise, it is considered quite a big hawker centre with 5 “blocks” translating to at least 10 rows of food stalls. At first glance, the size of this hawker centre seems disproportional to the neighborhood it is serving. A casual visit revealing a number of stalls with limited opening hours and even some totally vacant ones seem to reinforce this observation. 

To understand why such a large hawker centre is built in a neighborhood of modest size, it is more apt to derive some perspective on the estate of Sims Drive/Sims Place. It used to be a denser neighborhood than it is today. The area around Sims Drive used to be filled with HDB blocks that have been slowly demolished over the years. Some of the HDB blocks have been replaced with condos, condos under construction or are empty lots now waiting for the next government tender. There are still some of the older HDB blocks that remain inhabited. These were constructed in 1976 – the same year Sims Vista Market and Food Centre was built. It was upgraded in 1976 and underwent its most recent renovation in 2021. I used to be quite bothered by the rather dark environment (even in the day) as well as the number of pigeons flocking to feed on scraps – but these issues were mostly taken cared of after the 2021 renovation.

Sims Vista Market and Food Centre is one of my most frequently visited hawker centers in Singapore so here are my recommendations on where to eat the next time you head down here. The stalls are arranged in no particular order.

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