Tales from the Midnight Culinary Underground
The last bus has gone. Newton Food Centre keeps a few lights on. I walk in past shuttered stalls, chairs stacked, floors still wet from a mop. Then I hear it: the scrape of a ladle, the low hiss of a pot. At 500 Clemenceau Ave N, #01-10, one stall is awake. XO Minced Meat…
Orchard Road lets go of its crowds slowly. By the time I reached Cuppage Plaza B1 28, the shopping stretch behind me had thinned to a few late walkers and the low hum of traffic sliding past shuttered windows. The bright malls were already dimming. The night was settling in the way it does here,…
Orchard Road empties from the top down. By a quarter to midnight, storefronts have started pulling their shutters, glass gone dark over displays that glowed all day. Escalators still run. A few people drift toward the Somerset MRT with shopping bags softened at the handles, while red tail lights smear across the wet glass outside.…
6ix 6ix After Midnight Cuppage Road goes quiet after the dinner crowds thin out. The shophouses along Cuppage Terrace dim, Cuppage Plaza rescinds into darkness, and the street holds only the low hum of a few late cars and the occasional figure walking home. Then there is 6ix 6ix, spilling warm light onto the pavement…
I nearly walked into Cuppage Plaza by mistake. That’s the thing people get wrong about Al Capone’s. It’s not inside the plaza at all. It sits a short walk away at 37 Cuppage Terrace, along that covered open-air stretch where the tables spill almost onto the walkway. I found it by following the sound first.…
I went looking for air, not dinner. It was late, the kind of late where Orchard Road empties out and the malls go soft and grey. I wandered up to the second floor of Orchard Plaza, located at 150 Orchard Road #02-56, and there it was, lit and open, a little Vietnamese store that doesn’t…
Orchard Plaza after dark is a strange kind of quiet. The shiny malls down Orchard Road buzz with crowds, but up here the corridors hum under old fluorescent light, half the shutters down, the air still and slightly worn. I almost walked past Tha Siam Thai Kitchen. If not for the faint thread of Thai…
I’ll be honest, the first bowl that landed in front of me looked a bit sad. Pale noodles, not much going on, and I nearly worried I’d made a wrong call. Then I tossed it, and the whole thing transformed. That’s the trick with Orchard Bak Chor Mee. The sauce hides at the bottom, so…
I almost didn’t see the entrance the first time. Tucked along Robertson Quay at 30 Robertson Quay, #01-15 Riverside View, Shunjuu Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant in Singapore serving an exciting menu of Japanese cuisine. It hides behind a curtain of charcoal smoke and warm lantern light. Then I caught the smell of grilling pork…
If you want to understand Singapore izakaya chefs, or photograph them honestly, you have to stop seeing these places as only casual drinking spots. This guide walks through how to observe, respect, and capture the people who keep Singapore’s izakaya scene alive long after the office towers go dark. Discover the smoky rhythm and masterful…