Kiera Xu
The first time someone brought me to Cuppage Plaza, I almost walked past it. It sat there off Orchard Road, a little worn at the edges, nothing like the polished malls nearby. My friend just said, “Trust me,” and led me up a quiet stairwell that smelled faintly of grilled fish and soy sauce. Then…
The first time I ate sushi in Takashimaya, I was eighteen and completely broke. My aunt slid a plate of salmon across the counter and told me to eat slowly, because good fish deserves patience. I’ve never forgotten that. Over the past six years, I’ve eaten my way through nearly every Japanese restaurant and sushi…
Some tables are only meant to hold plates. Others, without anyone planning it, begin to hold parts of our lives. They sit beneath bright mall lights, beside glass railings or near the hum of a food court. People come and go. Trays are cleared. Menus change. Yet certain tables become quietly familiar, not because they…
I wasn’t planning to eat at Food Opera Singapore that afternoon. I’d come down Orchard Road for something else, got ambushed by the heat, and ducked into ION just to cool off. The escalator brought me down to B4, and the smells started before I even saw the place: garlic, coconut broth, something charred and…
Some restaurants become favorites slowly. There is no dramatic first meal, no dish that changes everything, no moment when we decide this will be the place we return to. We simply find ourselves there again. The same entrance. The same familiar menu. Perhaps even the same table, if it is available. Over time, the restaurant…
The first time I went to Cuppage Plaza, I got lost. Not physically. The building is small, tucked just behind Orchard Road near Somerset MRT Station, worn at the edges in a way that most malls have long since scrubbed away. I wandered up and down its floors expecting one grand restaurant, one clear reason…
There was a time when food came after the shopping. It waited at the end of the trip, after the errands were done and the bags had grown heavier. A quick bowl of noodles before heading home. A drink shared while deciding whether to make one last stop. Dessert, perhaps, if there was still time.…
There is a particular calm in watching someone eat alone in a mall. A tray set neatly before them. A bag resting on the chair beside them. One hand holding chopsticks, the other occasionally scrolling through a phone. Around them, the lunch crowd moves in waves: colleagues looking for tables, families gathering after errands, students…
If you’d told me I could walk out of a sit-down italian restaurant having paid roughly $10 a head, I’d have raised an eyebrow. But that’s exactly what happened when I finally tried Saizeriya Changi City Point, a popular store known for authentic italian cuisine in singapore. I’d heard the buzz for ages, and I’m…
There is a familiar rhythm to a Singapore food court. The scrape of chairs against tiled floors. The soft clatter of trays being set down. Someone calling out a number from behind a stall. A child pointing at a drink stall display while a grandparent scans the room for an empty table. Around them, lunch…