Part of the nine-kilometre Southern Ridges and designed by RSP Architects Planners & Engineers and IJP Corporation Ltd, the Henderson Waves is a monstrous 274-metre long structure that connects two parks in Singapore. The undulating ribs flow organically across seven wave spans. It is hard not to think you might have somehow snaked your way into a whale’s belly or two while making your way through.

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Take a mobile shipping container and add to it nine cities and ten chefs. What do you get? Singapore Takeout: a revolutionary mash-up between hawker-style street food, a pop-up kitchen, and a food truck. Trendsetting foodies, consider this your warning: this post may just set your heart aflutter.

Singapore Takeout clearly isn’t your typical meals on wheels. For one, the 20-foot by eight-foot custom-made shipping container unfolds both into a 30-seat restaurant and a working kitchen – with such must-have professional amenities like induction cookers and a salamander. Here, ten up-and-coming Singaporean chefs cook up inspired Singapore cuisine that runs the gamete from traditional to contemporary. We’re talking lemongrass infused laksa dumplings, chocolate, foie gras and pork xiao long bao, and a modern reinterpretation of ice kachang. The roster of chefs includes some of Singapore’s leading talents such as Ignatius Chan of Iggy’s, one of San Pellegrino’s top 50 restaurants in the world, and Willin Low from the cutting-edge, Wild Rocket.

Together, the chefs and container are on a global tour to import the flavors of Singapore to a city near you. For 3-days at a time, Singapore Takeout will touch down in everywhere from Moscow to Delhi, Paris to Dubai, New York to Hong Kong. In each stop, local chefs will unite with the Singapore team to introduce the world to the city’s vibrant dining scene, from hawker eats to fine-dining delights.

Get your fork on the ready and check out when they’ll touch down near you. A shipping container surely has never looked or tasted so good.

Looming from the Singapore skyline as a shimmering mirage, the Marina Bay Sands is an astonishing monument to architectural genius Moshe Safdie. The three 55-story towers are crowned by a rooftop skypark 200 meres in the air, which includes an infinity edge outdoor pool to capture the sights of Singapore.

Everything about the Sands is worth ogling, and no matter how many times you rub your eyes, it’s real. With some 2,560 hotel rooms to choose from, chances are you will want to be doing some sightseeing from the inside. The rooms are spacious, well appointed, and with each room having a balcony, include either a view of Singapore or the ocean.

If you’re feeling really luxurious, you can go all the way up to a Presidential suite, which includes a baby grand piano and butler service. And it wouldn’t be Asia without a soundproof Karaoke room to blast the night away.

Singapore is a melting pot of Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures and a foodie haven, where everything from the cheap and delicious hawker food in Chinatown to celebrity chef restaurants on rooftops can be found.

The oppressive humidity causes your whole body to weep in sympathy, and you’d suspect that Singapore’s revolution from a sweaty flight stopover to must-see destination happened at around the time air-conditioning became popular.

Singapore’s mix of cultures is evident in the buildings and surrounds, from towering skyscrapers to temples. Although not all is sacred in a push to become more Westernised – a beautiful church in the centre of town has been turned into a pub!

Singapore-based The Salad Shop is a funky, fresh hub for busy city workers to grab a quick bite of ‘fresh food fast’ over lunch. While the smorgasbord of greens and salad toppings are enticing, it is the atmosphere that really draws you in. Designed by the same clever team that brought us the Chocolate Research Facility, the interior is sleek, chic and eclectic all at the same time.

Dazzling white tables line the room with wooden chairs and colourful patterned stools, while industrial ceilings above meet wood paneled walls below. Best of all however, are the immense spoons and forks cut out from solid backdrops that function as the restaurants windows. The whole place is then sweetly finished off with a row of perfectly attractive lamps printed with various pastoral landscapes.

The Salad Shop advertises as being a place for ‘herbivores, carnivores and everything else in-between’, but what it really is is a place for people who strive to enjoy the dining experience, even when schedules are tight. Who said fast food had to be generic and unappetizing?

The Tippling Club is a bold Singaporean space where molecular mixology is married with chic design and cutting-edge gastronomy, all wrapped up in a lush rainforest. Here, English-born chef Ryan Clift and barman-cum-chemist Aussie Matthew Bax, dare to push the boundaries of cuisine and cocktail creativity.

Through engaging each customer in the imaginative process both in the kitchen and behind the bar, Bax and Clift aim to offer up a joint that is more like one big chef’s table — a table where flavored smoke, dust, and air flow out of your drink while rare spirit bottles hang nonchalantly overhead. And on the menu? How about the fennel, tarragon, licorice, and smoked bluefin paired with a concoction of absinthe, gin, champagne, bitters, and ‘green fairy fog’? So whether it’s the open-air forest terrace or their tasty cocktails, this rad space is sure to draw you in — and keep you lingering for hours. Better take a cab.

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Ok, so I’m wearing this t-shirt right now. It’s by Singapore-based fashion label Hooked Clothing, and it’s just about my favorite tee at the moment. Why? Why not. Tees are fun and Hooked has me hooked.

What do you get when the head of a creative agency obsessed with chocolate, conceptualizes, designs, and opens his very own chocolate boutique-cum-cafe? In the case of Singapore’s Chocolate Research Facility, the answer is an exotic wonderland of dripping chocolate from the walls, tables resembling chunks of chocolate, and a plethora of chic, stylish stacks of eclectically packaged bars. Designed by Chris Lee and his Singaporean-based design firm, Asylum, the Chocolate Research Facility is an inspired shop with over 100 flavors of tasty chocolate from honey melon and cassis to longan and pumpkin seeds. The fun packaging is full of quirky subtleties too, like identifiable clues that hint at flavors, such as a blurry photograph to suggest alcohol content. Together, the creativity of the concept, combined with scrumptious chocolate dolled up in clever packaging, is not only generating a lot of adrenalin-filled chocolate buzz in Singapore, but around the world, too.

The nice thing about black metal is that it’s so hard for it to be co-opted. Between its often extreme ideologies and its inherently abrasive sound, it’s hard to imagine anyone trying to sell you a pair of sneakers with it. Even as some bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth have wormed their way into the mainstream, the vast majority of black metal fans and bands out there are happy to stay in the filthy pits of the underground. A prime example of such a band is Singapore’s Istidraj. These guys prove that prohibiting chewing gum and banning Beatles songs really don’t make people more passive and well-behaved. These guys make metal so freaking harsh, it’ll make even the most hardened hescher’s knees buckle. This is what punk was supposed to be about.

Having just spent a week turning my blonde hair green in the chlorine of the pools of Singapore, I was happy to discover some new local design to take my mind off such a disaster. Budi Satria Kwan was born in 1985 in Makassar, Indonesia. He currently works and lives in Singapore as an artist, creating t-shirts, postcards and posters. Check out his work on his tastefully minimalist website.

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