For the past three years, Dan Pashman of The Sporkful podcast has been on something of a mission: to invent a new pasta shape. All of Pashman’s hard work has paid off with the debut of cascatelli pasta, available for sale from Sfoglini.
Pashman and Sfoglini engineered the new shape to maximize the amount of sauce that sticks to it, make it easier to get your fork on it, and have it feel good when you bite into it.
Cascatelli is designed to maximize the three qualities by which Dan believes all pasta shapes should be judged:
Sauceability: How readily sauce adheres to the shape
Forkability: How easy it is to get the shape on your fork and keep it there
Toothsinkability: How satisfying it is to sink your teeth into it
Pashman documented the invention of cascatelli in a 5-part series on The Sporkful podcast — you can listen to the first episode here — and on Instagram. You can order some cascatelli to try it out at home, but it looks like they are currently sold out of everything aside from 5-lb bulk bags.
Just listed for $15,995,000, this Chelsea townhouse at 328 West 23rd Street will have you drooling from the first look. In addition to the decadent decor and architecture, the home has three large balconies, a full-length roof terrace, and a large garden complete with a hot tub. It also has a very cool 1,000-bottle wine cellar that even has a dumbwaiter to move the wine to the level above. The bragging rights don’t stop here, though. The house was built in the 1850s and later served as a convent for the “Sisters of Saint Agnes,” a charitable order, and when visiting New York, Mother Teresa stayed here.
The home was constructed in the early 1850s as a pair of Italianate homes with its next-door neighbor at number 330, according to Daytonian in Manhattan. After serving as single-family homes for many years, the pair became part of the Leo House, a hotel for German Immigrants, in 1921. Around this time, number 328 also served as the Sisters of Saint Agnes’ convent. It wasn’t until 2010 that the Leo House sold the building to its current owners for $3,996,000. They then embarked on an incredible renovation and expansion by award-winning architect Alastair Standing. It now offers 9,025 feet of interior living space, 2,547 square feet of outdoor space, seven bedrooms, five full bathrooms, and three powder rooms.
Enter on the garden floor, where a hallway leads down to the eat-in kitchen. There are two microwaves, two refrigerators, two dishwashers, and a walk-in pantry. The space has been outfitted with custom cabinetry, white Caesarstone countertops, and an expansive center island.
Perfect for indoor/outdoor entertaining, the kitchen opens right up to the 40-foot-long backyard. A bluestone patio is set up for grilling and dining, and beyond is the lawn that holds the jacuzzi tub.
Up on the parlor floor are the living and dining rooms, the latter of which opens to a lovely balcony. Also on this floor, you’ll find a small library with a wet bar that opens to the balcony. Throughout, there are 14-foot ceilings, crown moldings, solid oak pocket doors, and two gas fireplaces with custom marble mantles and surrounds.
The third floor has been completely devoted to the primary bedroom suite. In the rear, opening to another balcony, are the bedroom and an adjacent sitting room that has a gas fireplace with limestone mantle. A dressing room hallway contains a powder room and four separate walk-in closets. There’s also a separate dressing room with another fireplace and even a wet bar. Finally, the bathroom boasts radiant flooring, a Thermasol double steam shower with two rain/waterfall showerheads, a freestanding soaking tub, and a toilet closet.
The fourth floor is anchored by a large, central family/game room that comes complete with a skylight and a cozy daybed nook. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom in the rear, as well as a large street-facing bedroom that overlooks nearby Pinwheel Park. There’s another full bathroom and a laundry room, too.
When you get to the fifth floor, you’ll be greeted by a central home theater room that’s been decked out with a 110-inch drop-down screen, 4K 3D projector, and surround sound. It also features a skylight and dry bar.
On the top floor, there are two more south-facing bedrooms, along with a large street-facing bedroom or art studio that has 16-foot ceilings, gorgeous clerestory windows, and a gas-burning limestone fireplace.
Up on the roof deck, you’ll enter through a beautiful solarium, which, as the listing notes, “is a perfect spot for reading, meditation or morning yoga.” There are three terrace zones here–the north-facing terrace, the largest middle terrace, and the south terrace. They all feature the same incredible views of the neighborhood, lovely landscaping, and an outdoor sound system.
The cellar level has been finished to perfection. A lounge area occupies the majority of the space and opens to the 1,000-bottle wine cellar. As mentioned, a dumbwaiter makes it easy to bring bottles up to the pantry just off the kitchen. There’s also a workout room and a powder room.
And yet another perk–the home comes with an income-producing studio on the garden level. As the listing explains, it would be “ideal for live-in security, au pair/nanny, or guest accommodations.”
If you’ve been quarantined with kids for the past year, be prepared to drool over the backyard at this Crown Heights townhouse. Located at 1101 Park Place and listed for $2,650,000, the two-family home has a garden-floor apartment and a three-bedroom duplex on the upper two floors. The latter has a deck off the kitchen and a massive (it stretches through to the other block!) backyard with both a stone patio and a grassy space large enough for a swing set and trampoline.
Enter the duplex on the parlor level, where the entire space is open, starting with the sunny living room behind the bay window. From there, the dining room sits under a cool installation of reclaimed wood beams. The home was recently renovated and boasts new finishes and classic details throughout.
At the rear of the floor is the kitchen, which has all new stainless steel appliances and a seated island. There’s a rear deck off the kitchen that has plenty of space for dining al fresco.
There are more options for dining outdoors in the backyard, where a stone patio is covered by a pergola. The grassy section alone is 1,700 square feet!
On the second floor are the three bedrooms. The street-facing bedroom benefits from the bay window and a cool wood ceiling, while the central bedroom makes up for its lack of windows with a skylight.
The primary bedroom overlooks the garden and has a lovely en-suite bathroom.
The garden-level apartment has a living and dining area with an open kitchen, a bedroom with a full bathroom, and an office that leads outside to the garden through a mudroom with a washer/dryer. The basement level also has a large rec room and lots of storage.
The home is part of the Crown Heights North Historic District. It’s around the corner from Brower Park, just a few blocks from the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and a quick walk to the 3 train at Kingston Avenue.
President Joseph Biden was honored in a very New York way at a Queens subway station Wednesday.
As Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, the 46th Street subway station in Astoria was transformed in honor the new president.
One of the signs inside the M/R station was switched from “46th Street” to “46th Joe” and the text below pointing in the direction of 46th Street was switched to “45th OUT” — a reference to former President Donald Trump who lost the election.
Local artist Adrian Wilson was behind the switch, which he created by hand-drawing the mosaic tiled words on a sheet of paper and pasting it over the original subway sign lettering.
He created the art piece to celebrate a new day for the country he said.
“It’s making people smile. It’s welcoming the new president,” Wilson said of his signage which was first reported by Patch. “It’s really just something to commemorate a great day.”
Wilson — who is known for past NYC sign tributes to Aretha Franklin at the Franklin Street subway station and David Bowie on the Bowery street sign — pasted the inauguration day homage at the station at around 9:40 a.m.
It was taken down by 11:30 a.m., Wilson said, but photos of it quickly became popular on social media.
Wilson later changed the sign for Thompson Street in Manhattan to read “Trumpgone St” to celebrate the end of the Trump presidency.
With a death rate more than double that of pre-pandemic years, an air quality regulator on Sunday temporarily suspended its limit on cremations in Los Angeles County in order to get through a backlog of COVID-19 deaths. The order also “anticipates that another surge is approaching as a result of the New Year’s holiday, since deaths tend to occur 4-6 weeks after gatherings.” It says the backlog of cremation cases in the county “constitutes a threat to public health.”
With a death rate more than double that of pre-pandemic years, an air quality regulator on Sunday temporarily suspended its limit on cremations in Los Angeles County in order to get through a backlog of COVID-19 deaths.
Hospitals, funeral homes and crematoriums are exceeding capacity, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said. There are usually limits on the number of bodies that can be cremated due to air-quality concerns, but the restriction has been suspended for 10 days and can be extended.
The order also “anticipates that another surge is approaching as a result of the New Year’s holiday, since deaths tend to occur 4-6 weeks after gatherings.” It says the backlog of cremation cases in the county “constitutes a threat to public health.”
It’s the latest hellish news coming from Los Angeles County and the state of California as the state fights a pandemic which has disproportionately harmed people of color.
Hospitals have declared internal disasters as they have run out of oxygen. Patients are being treated in gift shops and tents and are dying in corridors. Doctors are being forced to make heartbreaking decisions over rationing care.
Los Angeles County surpassed 1 million coronavirus cases on Saturday, with 13,741 deaths.
The county public health department also said that they had found the first confirmed case of the more infectious B117 variant, first identified in the U.K., in an individual who spent time in Los Angeles County but is now isolating in Oregon. The county believes the variant is already spreading through the community.
The state of California has so far administered 36.7% of the vaccines it has received, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. The state is converting stadiums and even Disneyland’s lot into mass vaccination centers to speed up the rollout.
This map of the lower 48 US states hand-drawn by XKCD’s Randall Munroe is super clever: 7 of the states are actually missing. Maybe the pandemic is starting continuing to rot my brain, but I stared at this for an embarrassingly long time before finding any of the absent states. Even now that I know which ones are gone, the map doesn’t look out of place at all. *claps*
You may not have heard of it before if you’re not in architecture circles, but the Architizer A+Awards is kind of a big deal. Sometimes referred to as “the Oscars of architecture,” it’s one of the industry’s premier awards programs and they recently announced the winners of their 8th annual awards, featuring some 194 projects and products around the world.
And hey, China had quite a few slots on that list. Despite some high-profile missteps (hello pants tower), the country continues to be a real architects’ playground for both international and domestic firms, producing some genuinely spectacular landmarks.
Below are some of the highlights from the China A+Awards winners.
Another masterpiece in the Chinese capital from the company founded by legendary architect Zaha Hadid, the futuristic Leeza SOHO has transformed the skyline of Beijing’s Fengtai business district with Hadid’s signature style of variegated curves.
Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing
Beijing Daxing International Airport / ADP Ingénierie, Zaha Hadid Architects
An enormous transportation hub in Beijing, the Daxing International Airport opened late last year, just in time for international air travel to collapse. Another one from Zaha Hadid’s studio, this magnificent creation beautifully integrates the late architect’s philosophy of fluid design into a structure affectionately known locally as “The Starfish.”
The awards don’t just honor corporate towers and enormous construction projects, as this toilet shows. Serving as the pilot public restroom in Kunyu Mountain National Park near the northern Chinese city of Yantai, this courtyard garden is the exact kind of peaceful, isolated convenience you need in 2020.
% Arabica, Shanghai
% Arabica West Jianguo Road / B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio
Shanghai is currently under siege by hipster coffee shops — there’s at least a dozen within a few blocks of this outlet. But the intense competition to provide the best Instagram backdrop has at least resulted in some interesting design projects. Located in one of Shanghai’s most historical and charming neighborhoods — this small cafe keeps it minimalist with a mini-garden and the curved glass out front.
Garden Hotpot Restaurant, Chengdu
Garden Hotpot Restaurant / MUDA-Architects
As the UNESCO city of gastronomy, the Sichuanese capital of Chengdu isn’t a place where you’re like to run out of options for hotpot. Yet this immersive garden hotpot eatery stands out with its one-of-a-kind integration of the city’s renowned hotpot culture and the natural environment.
Quzhou Sports Campus, Quzhou
Quzhou Sports Campus / MAD Architects
Located in Quzhou, Zhejiang — a city that is frankly in need of some greenery — this surreal and visually stimulating project connects the various elements of a sports space with the region’s existing natural forms (northern Zhejiang is known for its rolling green mountains, see below), therefore paying respect to the city’s history and cultural heritage.
Rural Library, Tonglu
Capsule hotel in a rural library / Atelier tao+c
Hidden deep in Zhejiang’s Tonglu area just outside of Hangzhou and surrounded by a forest of bamboos and books, this capsule hotel was redesigned and regenerated from a traditional old building. With illuminating lights inside, the building is “offering a slice of warmth to the calmness of the night.”
Shihlien Biotech Salt Plant Laboratory, Huai’an
Laboratory for Shihlien Biotech Salt Plant / WZWX Architecture Group
As an office for a professional medical-grade salt plant in the eastern Chinese city of Huai’an, the design concept for this striking structure supposedly drew inspiration from the salt production process. Looks pretty sweet to us.
Courtyard Kindergarten, Beijing
Courtyard Kindergarten / MAD
Back to Beijing for this dynamic project featuring a red-roof playground that surrounds a traditional “siheyuan” (四合院) courtyard in the capital. The idea for the project, in part comes from an old Chinese poem: “If you go three days without being punished, the roof will cave in.” Nevertheless, hopefully this place is as structurally sound as it is eye-catching.
Temporary Shengli Market, Puyang
Temporary Site of Shengli Market — Creation of Spatial Order / LUO studio
Located in Puyang in the central province of Henan, this temporary site was built when the original Shengli Market was undergoing renovations. The multi-purpose project was created from sustainable, lightweight and low-cost materials.
All renderings by S3 Architecture, courtesy Corcoran Country Living
Sylvan Rock is a new micro compound being designed in partnership by S3 Architecture and Aston Martin. Located in the Dutchess County town of Milan, the 55-acre property was conceptualized as a nature-first retreat that focuses on sustainability and wellness with an eye towards self-contained living. To that end, there is the nearly 6,000-square-foot main house, three guest pods, a treehouse, two reflecting pools, a pool house with a wellness pavilion, a pond, and an agricultural food garden.
When it comes to the architecture of the geothermal property, it was the natural setting that inspired much of the design. “The roofline mimics the jagged edges of the rock ledge reaching down into the earth, as if the home is born of and launching from the landscape. The resulting design blends our modernist aesthetic with the privacy and context of the rural location to create a unique luxury experience,” explains S3 Architecture partner Christopher Dierig. The facade is constructed of blackened cedar and floor-to-ceiling glass, all set under a unique folded panel roof structure.
This is the first time Aston Martin has ever partnered on designing a single-family residence in the United States. “Creating a luxury residence with warm textures, bold forms, and exceptional privacy is very aligned with Aston Martin’s own vision. We also wanted the owner and their guests to experience the three-dimensional feel of the house in an organic way, just like you experience one of our cars – there is no single façade that dominates,” said Cathal Loughnane, Head of Aston Martin Partnerships.
The lower-level entrance begins with the sleek garage (or, as the listing calls it, “an automotive gallery garage”). On the other side of this space is a lounge, which utilizes Aston Martin’s signature cross-hatched lattice design.
Also on this lower level is a custom-designed wine cellar (not pictured) and an office that is set directly into the rock formation.
Upstairs are the living spaces, which have incredible views of the property and the Catskill Mountains beyond.
The kitchen is enveloped in a wall of custom cabinetry and shelving, which extends into the cozy, adjacent den.
The master suite cantilevers over the rock ledge, providing even more stunning views. The suite features a spa-like en-suite bathroom and a changing room with a walk-in closet and wet bar.
Outside, there is even more space for entertaining, dining, and relaxing thanks to an outdoor kitchen and space for several seating areas.
The outdoor pool is heated and UV-filtered. The pool house doubles as a wellness pavilion and boasts a changing room, hot tub, dry sauna, and two private treatment rooms, where the residents and their guests can enjoy a curated selection of treatments arranged via a local spa partnership.
As mentioned, there are three guest pods, which total 1,574 square feet. The pods are set away from the main house for privacy and will be built behind the planned pond. As the listing says, “Conceptualized as multi-purpose spaces, the pods easily convert from sleeping quarters for extended stay guests to a remote office, wellness or home school in the woods.”
On the other side of the pond will be a romantic treehouse. Finally, down the road, the property will have its own fruit and vegetable food garden.
Less than half a year ago, you could barely walk through the airport without bumping into someone you know. The non-stop human traffic was a testament to its reputation as one of the world’s best airports.
But when Rachel* stepped into the airport on 2 June, there were barely any flights, let alone people.
The once-bustling airport was now a quiet shadow of what it was just a few months ago. An entire terminal had been shut down, the ever-present line of taxis was now dismally short. The departure board, which once flickered every few seconds because there were so many flights, now had more empty grids than flight numbers.
Even the iconic indoor waterfall was out of bounds. The vortex had been shut off, the rhythmic sound of water crashing down conspicuously absent.
As Rachel walked around an eerily empty Jewel, the silence was deafening.
Looks kinda like a giant glass eye.
Singapore to China
The last time Rachel returned home was during Chinese New Year. Back then, Covid-19 was still being dismissed as ‘just a flu’ by the international community.
In late May, she spent days deliberating about whether she should take the risk and fly home to visit her family. A family emergency had cropped up, and it was best if she could head back to sort it out in person.
But flying would also mean an entire month of quarantine—two weeks in China, and another two weeks in Singapore, on the return leg—and would put her and her family at risk of catching Covid-19. Even worse, the Covid-19 situation was incredibly volatile; things were quite stable in China, but could easily worsen in the blink of an eye, and lockdown measures were constantly changing.
Her mum worked in a hospital back in China, and she’d heard firsthand the stories that came with dealing with the frontlines of a pandemic. As early as January, she dutifully wore a mask in public, and learnt how to fold it properly so that it wouldn’t get contaminated.
Even when Rachel flew back to Singapore after visiting her family prior to Chinese New Year, she entered a self-imposed quarantine. She did not want to take any risks.
This time, things were different.
Lockdown measures and quarantines were actually mandatory, and the chances of contracting and transmitting Covid-19 were that much higher.
What if Singapore decided to ban all travel into the country while she was still in China? What if her PR pass got revoked, and she could never come back? What if she caught Covid-19?
In the end, after multiple WeChat conversations and a lot of stress, Rachel mustered the courage and booked a round-trip from Singapore to Guangzhou.
Imagine wearing full PPE, marching through a fancy airport with pillars flanked by house plants.
Breathe in, breathe out. Rachel willed herself to calm down.
She had made the decision to go home, and she was now here, in the middle of an airport, about to step onto a metal contraption with hundreds of strangers. But despite the anticipation of getting to see her family again, nervousness still roared loud in her mind. Excitement and anxiety, two emotional extremes, were interwoven.
At first, everything felt strangely normal. Other travellers milled about leisurely, wearing just masks for protection and nothing else. It was a bit too cold, the space was a bit too big, and everything smelled a bit too clean—just like another day at Changi Airport, except slightly quieter.
But everything changed when she passed through customs. It was, in some twisted way, like stepping into the set of Contagion.
Passengers started pulling out protective gear from their carry-on bags, donning white gowns. Latex gloves snapped against wrists as people struggled to put them on. Some even put up their hoods, obscuring their entire face.
Rachel felt naked next to them.
She had brought an extra jacket—a white windbreaker of sorts which, if you tried really hard, somewhat resembled the top half of a PPE outfit—and latex gloves, but even that wasn’t enough to distract from how exposed she felt. Despite being fully covered from head to toe to fingertips, she couldn’t help but shrink into herself every time she walked past another person.
This writer suspects the interior designer spent a lot of time at Cherry.
The scene seemed strangely surreal: people dressed in identical white suits, walking through electronic gantries, set against a backdrop of carpeted floors, indoor plants, and neon pink signs asking if you were “ready to take off”.
She felt like an extra in a Black Mirror episode. At first glance, everything seemed perfectly in place—people going above and beyond safety measures, staff doing their best to make the travelling process comfortable. But, as she took in her surroundings, there was that slight sliver of dissonance, like something was just that tiny bit out of place.
Things just got weirder from there on out.
On the plane, she found a plastic bag full of snacks in her seat that looked like trash a previous passenger had left behind.
Eventually, she realised that it was Southern Airlines’ idea of an in-flight dining experience. They weren’t allowed to serve hot food because of enhanced safety and hygiene measures, and instead resorted to a bag of snacks not much different from what you’d pack for a school trip.
Strictly Dumpling gives this a 7/10.
The flight attendants, too, were all clad in PPE, their white gowns making them indistinguishable from passengers. She would have mistaken the attendant for another passenger, albeit one with nicer hair and makeup, if not for her overly enthusiastic “Welcome aboard!”. The attendants had scribbled all sorts of messages on their backs—their names, “Pikachu”, words of encouragement—in permanent marker.
This particular flight was packed, because flights to China were incredibly rare.
Rachel was seated next to an old lady who was very chatty for someone travelling during a pandemic. Every time she leaned over to Rachel, just a little bit too close, Rachel’s throat would tense up. When she gave Rachel a light pat on her shoulder, she almost felt her soul leave her body.
Fun times.
Just chilling on a plane in PPE.
She spent four agonising hours on a cramped plane.
Logically, she knew that air was being pumped out at regular intervals, and that being on a plane really didn’t pose that much more of a risk. But she still fought to calm herself down, paranoia biting away at her whenever she tried forcing herself to sleep.
After arriving in Guangzhou, passengers were ushered out to a holding area, where they waited their turn for registration, a swab test, and immigration.
Everyone sat far apart, fiddling with their phones. The air of anxiety and tension gradually simmered down into something more akin to boredom. Even though she desperately wanted to get out of the airport, to take in some fresh air, she told herself that strict measures like these—implementing a swab test for every single passenger—were better than no measures at all.
To make the wait a little bit easier, airport staff wheeled around a trolley with coke and light snacks, but people barely even glanced at it. No one wanted to share food with strangers at an airport during a pandemic.
Waiting their turn.
During the swab test, the staff shoved a hard stick up her nose and stuck another down her throat. She almost gagged.
But everything moved surprisingly fast. QR code this, QR code that, and she was in and out of the arrival hall. Everything had been streamlined for maximum efficiency.
Even the baggage area had been transformed—everyone’s suitcases had been arranged by colour so that people could leave the area quickly and avoid loitering around. Rachel found her suitcase in mere seconds.
Pantone, but make it luggage.
On the bus to the hotel, the staff chirped: “Hui jia la, xin ku la.”
You’ve come home, you’ve worked hard.
Everyone had indeed worked hard. All the passengers slumped in their seats, barely responsive despite the staff’s valiant enthusiasm. The flight arrived at 9pm, but it was almost 1am when they finally got on the bus.
Rachel, too, could feel fatigue bite at her bones. She knew the processes had been necessary—a second wave could come at any time, and incoming travellers like her carried the highest risk of starting a new Covid-19 cluster—but that didn’t make the four-hour wait any easier.
Like the airport, the process of checking into the hotel had been streamlined to prevent people from interacting with each other. Everything was done via QR Code: entering the hotel, paying your deposit, and so on.
Fancy~
The room was luxurious, with carpeted floors and the fluffy pillows—as expected of a four-star hotel. She’d forked out her own money for the quarantine.
She dropped her bags to the floor and finally relaxed.
On the table, there were a few documents that provided surprisingly comprehensive information about her quarantine order.
Aside from pragmatic concerns like what she was allowed and not allowed to do, the brochures also included information on mental health, and even hotline numbers you could call if you felt anxious or stressed during quarantine. There were even fitness suggestions (qigong, apparently, is soothing for the mind and body) and a list of Covid-19 symptoms to watch out for.
Her days passed by in a blur. Trapped in a fancy hotel room, she drowned herself by scrolling through Taobao, watching dramas, and ordering takeout.
But, looming in the background, was that ever-present sense of anxiety. She would only know for certain if she’d contracted Covid-19 when the results of the final swab test came back. Even then, simply moving from place to place already put her at higher risk of catching the virus.
At the end of her quarantine order, staff came to the hotel to do one last swab test, before she was finally released.
She took the high-speed rail from Guangzhou to her hometown, relieved that, at least for now, she was in the clear.
“Let’s enjoy the charms of traditional Chinese fitness exercises!” this one brochure claims. Scan the QR code to get your daily dose of qigong.
China to Singapore
The flight back was surprisingly empty—not that many people wanted to travel to Singapore, it seemed. The attendant that greeted her was dressed in her regular uniform, shirt pressed cleanly and hair neatly tied back in a bun.
Except for the requisite masks, it felt like everything had returned to 2019.
But when the plane was about to land, the attendants started to put on their PPE.
Gone were the prim, proper stewardesses with perfect hair and make-up. Out came the biohazard scene specialists, all geared up in white suits, walking down the aisles to make sure everyone had their seatbelts on.
A pretty empty plane.
Entering Singapore was weirdly normal compared to entering China.
Changi Airport felt almost exactly the same, other than a few temperature sensors to scan passengers and make sure no one was coming in with a high fever.
The only noticeable difference was that the automatic queues—those slightly intimidating gantries that required your thumbprint to open up—were closed.
Rachel walked up to the immigration officer, who told her to pull down her mask so that they could check her identity.
Maybe she looked nothing like her passport photo, or maybe the officer just had bad eyesight, but by the time she was done with immigration, her mask had been off for almost four minutes. She grimaced as she walked away, trying to forget that she had been standing around without a mask for so long.
The lovely smell of airport.
Surprisingly, there were still taxis idling outside the airport, quietly waiting for someone to request a ride.
Rachel flagged a taxi—incoming travellers weren’t allowed to take public transport, which was a good thing, because no one wanted to become Patient Zero for a brand new East-West Line cluster.
Even the knowledge that everyone from the same flight had dispersed, scattering into different Grabs and Comfort DelGros, was worrying.
She was glad to be back. Her heart and mind were settled for now, and she had the next two weeks to Do Nothing before becoming a full-fledged working adult. But she knew that her mind would not be fully at ease until she received the results of her final swab test, at the end of her quarantine order in Singapore.
As she stewed in her own anxiety, watching the Singapore skyline zoom by through tinted glass, she asked the driver: why do you still come to the airport? What if you catch Covid-19?
“Zhong jiu zhong la,” he replied, with all the nihilism of a kopitiam uncle. If I catch it, then I catch it.
*Name has been changed to protect Rachel’s privacy.
Do you have any Covid-19 travel stories? Let us know at community@ricemedia.co.
As someone who a) thinks Dr. Dre was an amazing producer, and b) read Dr. Seuss’s Fox in Socks to his children roughly 1 million times (enough to be able to, eventually, get through the entire book at a comically high rate of speed w/o any tongue twisting slip-ups), I thought Wes Tank’s video of himself rapping Fox in Socks over Dre’s beats was really fun and surprisingly well done.
That ship is scary and it'll be sad to see it in the harbor :(
Gov. Cuomo at a press conference today (Darren McGee/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)
March 18, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Prompted by the number of coronavirus cases across New York state surpassing 2,000, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all businesses to keep half their workforce home or working remotely.
The executive order — which goes into effect Friday — is meant to reduce density of people and reduce the spread of the virus which has now infected 2,382 New Yorkers and killed 20. In New York City, 1,339 residents have contracted COVID-19.
While the number has drastically risen — the increase is in part due to an increase in testing capacity, Cuomo said. The state has now tested nearly 14,597 people for COVID-19.
Still, he is furthering the state’s action to reduce social interactions and will sign an executive order today directing non-essential businesses to implement work-from-home policies, if they have no already done so.
Businesses that rely on in-office personnel must decrease their in-office workforce by 50 percent.
“No more than 50 percent of the workforce can report for work outside of the home,” Gov. Cuomo said. “That is a mandatory requirement.”
The governor previously enacted the same order to government agencies on Monday.
Essential services are exempt from the order, however. The industries deemed essential include shipping, media, warehousing, grocery and food production, pharmacies, healthcare providers, utilities, banks and related financial institutions and other industries “critical to the supply chain.”
Cuomo acknowledged that the new order will be a hardship for many businesses.
“I understand that this is a burden to businesses, I get it. I understand the impact on the economy, but in truth, we’re past that point as a nation.”
He added that the public health crisis now at hand must first be addressed, before the resulting economic crisis.
The governor also said that the 50 percent reduction may be increased if necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“We’ll see if that slows the spread,” Gov. Cuomo said. “If it doesn’t slow the spread, then we will reduce the number of workers even further.”
In addition to the reduction measures, Cuomo has announced that effective 8 p.m. Thursday that all indoor portions of retail shopping malls, amusement parks and bowling alleys must close.
In addition, he is working to increase the healthcare capacity in the state and aims to establish 50,000 more hospital beds statewide.
USNS Comfort
The federal government, he said, is now deploying the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship with 1,000 beds, to New York City.
The governor is also meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers today to discuss ways to increase hospital capacity.
huh - I didn't know that sign came down. Pretty interesting. I like the "welcome"
As the former Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters continues its transformation into a modern, five-building mixed-use complex in Brooklyn Heights, photos of the project’s first phase have been revealed. Designed by landscape architecture firm terrain, the former Watchtower complex, now known as Panorama, features three public gardens at grade level, as well as an architectural staircase. An open-air courtyard facing Furman Street will serve as a landscaped pocket park steps from the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The public outdoor space, which opened last summer, is meant to engage passersby with an inviting landscape of trees, greenery, and unique seating. As Brooklyn Eagle reported, the area also includes a “selfie platform,” which sits in front of the Brooklyn Bridge and offers a picture-perfect view.
The site, originally home to pharmaceutical company ER Squibb & Sons, consists of five interconnected 19th-century brick and timber buildings, that have undergone a gut renovation.
Developers CIM Group, Kushner Companies, and LIVWRK acquired the Watchtower building, located at 25-30 Columbia Heights, in 2016 for $340 million. Kushner, which held just a 2.5 percent share in the project, sold its stake in the properties in June 2018.
Led by Gensler, the renovation retained some historic architectural elements, including its double-height ceilings and connective sky bridge, while incorporating modern touches in the lobby and rooftop. In total, Panorama includes 635,000 square feet of flexible office space, 35,000 square feet of retail, and 55,000 square feet of outdoor space across 20 terraces.
Photo by Will Femia
Last year, the iconic “Watchtower” sign atop the development was removed and replaced with a new “Welcome” sign. Designed by architect Morris Adjmi, the sign measures 15-feet high and 80-feet wide.
A look at proposals and lofty solutions to reconstruct a crumbling span of the interstate highway
An overhaul of a long-decaying stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway has been described as “hell,” “miserable,” and the “most challenging project not only in New York City but arguably in the United States”—and that’s just according to the commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation.
Built in the 1950s by storied city planner Robert Moses, the BQE carries some 150,000 vehicles per day. Now, 65 years later, a 1.5-mile span of the highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street is crumbling, and city and state officials are mulling ways to repair the roadway.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Brooklyn Heights Promenade is perched atop the BQE’s triple-cantilever section. The 1,825-foot esplanade, with sweeping views of Manhattan and the East River, is structurally connected to the roadway, so any changes that happen to the BQE inevitably extend to the promenade, which has become a sort of communal backyard for Brooklyn Heights.
The chorus of community, preservationist, and urban planners’ concerns has coalesced in the form of an alternative proposal put forward by the Brooklyn Heights Association, a prominent voice in the neighborhood; a bold plan suggested by Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office, who suggests converting part of the triple cantilever into a truck-only road with another level transformed into a High Line-esque linear park; and a blockbuster vision put forward by famed architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group that would transplant the expressway entirely and build over it with up to ten acres of new parkland.
The City Council has even entered the fray with consultant Arup—an engineering firm hired to study alternative proposals for the BQE—suggesting in a recent report that a multi-billion dollar bypass tunnel or decking over part of the expressway with park space are viable alternatives that deserve additional scrutiny.
The DOT is in the midst of exploring those and other options to renovate the BQE. In the meantime, a 17-member expert panel convened by Mayor Bill de Blasio issued its own recommendations. Namely, concluding that the city’s tear-down-and-rebuild proposal is “not an appropriate solution to the problem.” Similarly, it put the kibosh on alternative plans that would shift a temporary roadway further east into Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Instead, the panel—which includes representatives from the New York Building Congress, the Municipal Art Society, the Partnership for New York City, and other local groups—recommends taking immediate steps to reduce traffic on the BQE, including reducing traffic from four lanes to six, in order to “protect the roadway from further deterioration.”
But the larger takeaway from the report is the panel’s insistence that “a broader vision for the future of the highway is required”; it calls for a comprehensive overhaul of the entirety of the BQE, from Staten Island to Queens, rather than the piecemeal approach that DOT proposed for the triple cantilever section.
What are some of the other options? Read on.
The Department of Transportation’s proposals
If nothing is done to reconstruct the triple cantilever the city said it would have to issue weight restrictions and reroute trucks—some 15,000 use the expressway per day—from the road by 2026, and close it by 2036. (More recent data suggests a closure could come within five years.) This would force the expressway into emergency repairs while ushering in nightmarish commutes for drivers. To stave off that dystopian future, the DOT has put forward two potential proposals to renovate the BQE: a temporarily elevated roadway or an incremental, lane-by-lane approach.
The elevated highway—what the city refers to as the innovative approach—would dismantle the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and build a new road in its place for at least three years, with promenade access disrupted for six years, while contractors rebuild the structure below. To clear the way for cars, the city would need to get rid of the esplanade, install a new foundation and columns along Furman Street, and lay down fresh road—just that leg of the process could take a year and a half.
Courtesy of NYCDOT
A rendering of the city’s temporary elevated highway, or innovative, option.
Further north, the Columbia Heights Bridge would need to be taken apart—bridge traffic would be rerouted through Willow Street toward Old Fulton Street—so the elevated road could continue. (It would run over part of the the Brooklyn Bridge.) Once work is complete, traffic would be rerouted to the new BQE with wider lanes and added shoulders for emergency vehicles—something the current highway lacks—and build a new promenade 35 feet wider than its predecessor.
The process would take some six years when all is said and done and cost up to $3.6 billion, the DOT estimates. Transit officials have said they favor this approach because they could pack in the most work in what they say is the most compact timeline. It would also allow crews to build new direct connections to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges without added closure time. Improvements to neighboring parks and pedestrian and bike connections are also possible. Drivers would ultimately see fewer delays with this method and less traffic would need to be diverted onto local roads compared to the city’s alternate plan.
NYCDOT
What a renovated, widened Brooklyn Heights Promenade could look like.
Alternatively, workers could refurbish the BQE lane-by-lane and divert traffic around construction in what the city has dubbed the traditional approach. Work could last more than eight years using this method and require a whopping 24 full weekend closures. (The elevated highway option would require two full weekend closures.) An upside to this plan is that the promenade would only close for up to two years, but the perk of rebuilding a wider walkway would disappear. Costs would also rise, going up to as much as $4 billion. The city would still be able to make safety improvements, but new connections to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges would not be possible.
Pawel Gaul/Getty Images
Homes and backyards run adjacent to the promenade and will have the years-long construction project on their doorstep.
“We recognize that the two construction concepts NYCDOT presented have, understandably, raised significant community concerns,” the transit agency said in a statement. “We ask for your patience as we continue to study these proposals.”
The Brooklyn Heights Association alternative
In November, the BHA presented a plan developed by Heights-based architecture and urban planning firm Marc Wouters Studios, known as the temporary parallel bypass method. The approach would erect a freestanding, two-tiered temporary highway a few feet west of the existing triple cantilever.
“We noticed that there is a narrow strip of land [west of the expressway] that is seldom visited,” Wouters explained. “By putting the temporary parallel bypass there, and putting traffic there, it should allow DOT to rebuild the triple cantilever more easily while keeping the Promenade open for most of the construction period.”
Marc Wouters Studios and Nightnurse images inc.
A rendering of the temporary parallel bypass method.
Instead of replacing the promenade with a temporary road, one stretch would run beside the expressway, enabling the promenade—and local businesses that depend on the foot traffic it attracts—to remain open during the majority of construction.
The temporary bypass would run on land currently devoted to parking lots and Brooklyn Bridge Park’s berms, but Wouters says it would not encroach on usable parkland. He believes it could even create improved pedestrian crossings on Joralemon Street, and other locations, and a potential visitor parking area for the park.
Further north, a second temporary bypass would be constructed along the stretch between Columbia Heights and the Brooklyn Bridge. (It’s worth noting that this plan would not run over the Brooklyn Bridge, unlike the city’s proposals.) The lane-by-lane approach—used in the city’s traditional method—would be implemented for certain parts of BQE repairs, such as for connections between the interstate and the temporary bypasses.
Marc Wouters Studios and Nightnurse images inc.
The temporary parallel bypass plan.
At the moment, there is no cost estimate or schedule for the plan, but Wouters believes the proposal has a comparable price tag and timeline to the city’s options. But even if the city doesn’t go the parallel bypass route, Wouters says collaborating with the city on out-of-the-box thinking to limit the impact on locals is crucial.
“Even if our option isn’t the ultimate option it enables a discussion to take place amongst the community and DOT: What could be other ways of dealing with this?” says Wouters. “I’m remaining hopeful that a better solution will come out of this.”
What about tearing the BQE down?
That’s a question that more people are asking lately, including City Council speaker Corey Johnson. At his March state of the city address, Johnson called for a “fresh look at the BQE problem.” In a more than 100-page report detailing his plan for municipal control of the MTA, he urged the city to study alternatives to the roadway’s reconstruction “including the removal of the BQE in its entirety.”
“We’re talking about spending $4 billion to rebuild a mile and a half of highway—that’s almost two Mars Rovers,” says Johnson. “We shouldn’t assume the best way forward is the old, car-centric way. We can’t change the past but we can make choices that will lead us to a better future.”
The result was a triumph for the Downtown area with miles of new public space, bike paths, and transit routes where the two-tiered road once stood. The surrounding streets were able to efficiently absorb traffic while the mass transit system, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), experienced an annual 15 percent increase, according to The Congress For New Urbanism.
Susan Watts/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
A traffic jam on the BQE.
New York City made a similar move when it replaced what was once the Miller Elevated Highway with the West Side Highway in 2002, after the road gave way under the weight of a cement truck. Over the years, the city has added parkland, open space, and bike and jogging paths along the road.
But the BQE is a crucial viaduct for the city’s manufacturing and industrial sectors, and the DOT maintains that removing it would present its own set of daunting challenges and implications for the city.
“A lot of the trucks are delivering food, furniture, goods—you name it—here in Brooklyn and Queens,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told Streetsblog in November. While she admitted “a part of me would love to say I wish we could do without this roadway,” Trottenberg said that she doesn’t think “that’s where the city is right now.”
Urban planner Alexander Garvin echoed Trottenberg’s concerns, calling it “absurd” that the city would “close itself off to the demands of the rest of the country” by tearing down the BQE. Michael Horodniceanu, who served as the president of MTA Capital Construction from 2007 to 2017 and oversaw the Second Avenue subway, likened tearing down the triple cantilever to saying “my arm hurts, let me cut it off so it won’t hurt.”
“The city and the state are trying to figure out climate change, but you have to see the BQE as fossil fuel infrastructure,” says Yetsuh Frank, the managing director of strategy & programs at Building Energy Exchange and a professor in the Urban Design & Architecture program at New York University. “We’re used to seeing protestors against pipelines, but this is every bit as damaging.”
Frank says the BQE also represents a “depressed pocket of real estate.” He was curious how much land could be freed by eliminating even part of the expressway, and examined the mostly elevated stretch that runs from 65th Street in Sunset Park to the Kosciuszko Bridge, where he looked at the street frontage running on either side of the highway.
William Andrew/Getty Images
The triple-cantilver section of the BQE.
Not all of that space would be available for development if the BQE were to be torn down, but even accounting for obvious restrictions—schools, landmarked areas, and so on—there would be 12 miles of buildable land running on either side. If that land was up-zoned, for instance, at a depth of 200 feet, that’d equate to freeing up some 290 acres of land. Depending on zoning, that could be put toward the creation of hundreds of thousands of units of housing, Frank estimates.
“You could add housing, it could be mixed-use commercial, a lot could be done with that,” Frank says.
If the BQE was torn down, a phenomenon known as induced demand—essentially, the more highway lanes you build, the more traffic you create—would disperse traffic into city streets, commuters would find alternative routes, and some drivers would be siphoned from the roads altogether, said Frank. The opposite effect would take place if traffic lanes are reduced, and Frank points to Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct as evidence, where the 90,000 cars that used the now-closed road each day seemingly ”disappeared” after it shuttered in January.
The Comptroller’s vision
Comptroller Scott Stringer, who has vocally opposed the city’s plans, has unveiled a “middle-ground” that presents a dramatic reimagining of part of the BQE while maintaining the expressway.
His plan calls for converting the triple cantilever and the Cobble Hill trench—a depression of the BQE that runs from Congress Street to Hamilton Avenue—into a truck-only highway topped with a nearly two-mile-long “linear park.”
“Repairing the BQE is an opportunity to reimagine a vital section of our city,” Stringer said in a statement. “But to really do that, we need to broaden our vision and consider all the options. We cannot simply preserve the Robert Moses status quo that nearly destroyed our communities and bankrupted our city.”
Stringer says while tearing down the BQE is an enticing thought, it’s not practical because of the sheer volume of trucks that roll through the corridor each day. Under his plan, DOT would reconstruct the bottom-level of the triple cantilever while traffic continued to operate on the middle tier—this would negate the need for a temporary roadway such as those in the city’s innovative plan and the BHA’s proposal.
New York City Comptroller
Scott Stringer’s proposal
Once reconstruction on the lowest level is complete, truck traffic (and express buses) would be permanently moved to that level; and instead of three lanes, Stringer’s office says the road could be scaled down to two because trucks are only nine percent of traffic on this stretch of the BQE.
Stringer says the savings from reconstructing just one level of the cantilever could be put toward building new parkland on the middle section—sort of like the High Line—that would extend south to a new deck of public greenery over the Cobble Hill trench. That park space could include a variety of amenities such as playgrounds, dog parks, ball fields, and bike lanes, all of this while keeping the existing street-level traffic lanes and parking in Cobble Hill.
When all is said and done, the plan would create miles of green space that would start under the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO and stretch south to Hamilton Avenue on the edge of Carroll Gardens and Red Hook. Keeping induced demand in mind, traffic would be diverted to other routes and project funds would also be put toward beefing up local subway and bus infrastructure. The promenade would largely be untouched by this plan.
“We remain hopeful that the agency can view the BQE’s deterioration not just as an engineering challenge, but as an opportunity to create something new and bold that both accommodates essential traffic and enhances surrounding neighborhoods,” Stringer wrote in a March letter to Trottenberg.
At the moment, Stringer’s office doesn’t have a cost estimate or an expected timeline for the project. DOT says it is exploring the proposal.
How about overhauling the BQE with a park?
Others have run with the concept of converting the BQE into a green space. Renowned architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)—the same team behind Manhattan’s Big U flood mitigation plan—entered the crowded field of those vying to reimagine the dated expressway with its pro bono BQP proposal.
That “P” stands for park, and under BIG’s plan, greenery takes center stage. First, Furman Street, along with space currently used for Brooklyn Bridge Park parking and its sound-dampening berms, would be converted into a new six-lane roadway. BQE traffic would be rerouted to that new thoroughfare, which would be decked over with a new platform that would dramatically expand Brooklyn Bridge Park.
All told, the new roadway could be topped with up to 10 acres of fresh green space stretching from Atlantic Avenue to as far south as Red Hook. (That deck could boast a new, meandering Furman Street and even include space for the BQX light rail.) The premise of the plan is to fundamentally reinvent how visitors interact with the infrastructure, says BIG.
Bjarke Ingels Group
A rendering of the BIG’s BQP proposal.
“What we want to understand is, is there a way that we can actually create this as social infrastructure—so not just repairs of an aging highway that then accommodates cars,” says Jeremy Siegel, an associate with BIG. “But how can we double, triple, and quadruple those investments so that they’re working overtime?”
As for the triple-cantilever, BIG has two ideas: The structure could be repaired and turned into a linear park that would link to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Or if the cantilever is too degraded it could be replaced with several uses, such as housing, retail, or more parkland.
BIG is actually not the first to explore a Brooklyn Bridge Park-extending proposal and the firm says some of its vision builds off of the Tri-line Plan—another High Line-esque proposal—crafted by longtime Brooklyn Heights resident Mark Baker, who was once the chairman of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s board of directors. That iteration would convert the triple cantilever into a three-tiered park and extend that greenery down to Brooklyn Bridge Park with six acres of lush parkland.
“If I suggested that to you ten years ago you might have thought I was crazy, but with the success of the High Line, I think New Yorkers can see that it’s in everybody’s interest to take these unused transportation structures and turn them into parks,” says Baker.
A similar vision, based on the BQP and the Tri-Line proposals, was recommended in a February report by engineering and design firm Arup, which was hired by the City Council to study and recommend alternatives proposals for the BQE. In that version, the highway would remain at the level of the Cobble Hill trench and pass under Atlantic Avenue; it would then level off with Furman Street and be decked over with an expansion of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
What about a tunnel?
Aside from being cost prohibitive, tunnels come with a slew of logistical challenges. Yet some still feel they’re an option worth exploring. In Arup’s report, the firm also suggested a three mile, four lane bypass tunnel running from the Prospect Expressway to Bedford Avenue. This would allow the city to transform much of the expressway running through brownstone Brooklyn into a ground-level boulevard with bike and bus lanes, park space, and other pedestrian amenities
The downside? That tunnel comes with a $5-11 billion price tag and a seven to ten year timeline—at least two years beyond the 2025 crisis point of when the BQE is expected to dangerously degrade. It’s a concept that has generated much anxiety for transportation officials and advocates who are quick to point out tunnel projects in other cities—like Boston’s Big Dig—saw ballooning cost overruns and major delays.
But this isn’t the first time a BQE tunnel has been considered.
In 2016, DOT conducted a feasibility study that looked closely at six possible tunnel configurations. The survey explored the myriad issues such an undertaking would raise, chief among them navigating the dense web of existing infrastructure beneath Downtown Brooklyn, including subway lines and massive water pipes.
Of the proposed tunnels, city officials say only one would be workable: a roughly three-mile shaft starting around 21st Street on Third Avenue and ending near Kent Avenue in Williamsburg—similar to the tunnel more recently proposed by Arup. It would essentially serve as a bypass, shooting vehicles past Downtown Brooklyn between South Slope and Williamsburg, with no direct links to the Brooklyn or Manhattan bridges, or any of the local connections for the neighborhoods above the tunnel.
“Those connection points are about 50 percent of the traffic on the BQE currently, so even if we were able to build a tunnel, 50 percent of the traffic needs to go somewhere else,” Tanvi Pandya, the DOT project manager for the BQE reconstruction, cautioned during a 2018 DOT presentation on the project.
NYCDOT
A diagram of a possible BQE tunnel.
A tunnel is not impossible, but unlikely, explained Horodniceanu, who in addition to his tenure at the MTA served as the traffic commissioner with the city’s DOT from 1986 to 1990.
“It’s a question like everything else, it comes down to money,” says Horodniceanu. “You need the means and the political will to allocate the dollars to do it.”
Horodniceanu noted that current tunnel boring technology can create tubes with a diameter up to 54 feet, which can only accommodate two lanes of traffic. The BQE, on the other hand, has three lanes in either direction. Emergency exits, among other things, would also need to be included in the design. To do that, the city would need access to private property along the route—likely exerting eminent domain to acquire those properties.
No matter what method is used to repair the expressway, one thing is certain: There are no painless solutions. “Are you going to please everyone? No. But what’s important here is to tell everyone the truth,” said Horodniceanu. “It’s gonna hurt, but in the end it’s gonna be better.”
As revelatory and encouraging as this may be, it underscores an age-old problem with information which persists to this day: it is one thing to identify a threat, it is another thing to get authorities to do something about it. JL
Steve Mollman reports in Quartz:
A startup whose AI-driven health monitoring platform analyzes billions of data points alerted its clients to the outbreak on Dec. 31, well ahead of notifications from the World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control. Natural-language processing and machine-learning techniques sift global news reports, airline data, and reports of animal disease outbreaks. Epidemiologists look over the automated results. (It) tries to track and move information faster than the disease can travel. It correctly predicted where the virus would land, Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, after its initial appearance.
During the kind of virus outbreak that China and other nations are now contending with, time is of the essence. The earlier the warning, the better the chance to contain the contagion.
One problem, though, is that governments are sometimes reticent to share information. Such was the case in 2002 and 2003, when Chinese authorities were accused of covering up the SARS epidemic that eventually claimed over 740 lives around the world.
With the current outbreak, involving a coronavirus that originated in Wuhan and has so far taken over 40 lives, the Chinese government is being more transparent, as Germany’s health minister noted to Bloomberg on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. (Others share a dimmer view of its efforts.)
But even if Beijing had been less forthcoming, the world now has better information tools at its disposal than it did 17 years ago. One is provided by Bluedot, a Toronto startup whose AI-driven health monitoring platform analyzes billions of data points. Launched in 2014, the venture alerted its clients to the outbreak on Dec. 31, well ahead of notifications from the World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The company says it “uses big data analytics to track and anticipate the spread of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases.” Last August it announced an investment round that brought its total funding to about $10 million.
Bluedot uses natural-language processing and machine-learning techniques to sift through global news reports, airline data, and reports of animal disease outbreaks, as described by Wired. Epidemiologists look over the automated results, and if everything checks out, the company sends alerts to its clients in the public and private sectors.BlueDot tries to track and move information faster than the disease can travel. It correctly predicted where outside mainland China the Wuhan virus would land—Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo—after its initial appearance. Company founder Kamran Khan told the Canadian Press, “On one hand, the world is rapidly changing, where diseases are emerging and spreading faster. On the other hand, we happen to have growing access to data we can use…to generate insights and spread them faster than the diseases spread themselves.”
Neat. Like the same price as a small condo in Singapore.
All images by Ren Nickson, courtesy of Sothebys International Realty.
According to the listing, this unique home in the remote upstate town of Canaan, NY was built by “two prominent colleagues of Frank Lloyd Wright,” who employed stonework techniques used at Taliesin West, Usonian design, and a high peaked roof to make this stunning modern house “a paean to nature.” Situated on 17 acres at 121 Top of Dean Hill Road, the property, asking $1.3 million, includes an equally fabulous guest house with a 3.5-car garage, woodland paths, and perennial gardens.
The 4,100-square-foot, four-bedroom home was built in 1975.
Wright used a similar peaked roof in church architecture. In this wooded setting, the notable modern design is a perfect backdrop for interior architecture and decor that takes its cue from nature, incorporating materials like wood, concrete, and stone.
Starting with a classic entry foyer leading into a cozy and bright family room, vast panes of wood-framed glass, honed concrete flooring with radiant heat, and polished wood finishes meet rugged concrete and stone.
Both drama and comfort are achieved in rooms that are surrounded by visible nature. The living room and dining room offer vast sky vistas as well as patio access and terrazzo flooring that’s even more on-trend now than it was when the house was built–except here it’s done right, and it’s complemented by warm wood walls and custom details like triangular recessed lights.
Recent improvements include a new chef’s kitchen that fits perfectly with the home’s design. Brand-new built-in appliances–including a compact wine refrigerator–are framed by sleek warm wood cabinetry wrapped in stone countertops. Updates also include central AC and numerous custom details.
Also on the home’s first floor are a bedroom and a full bath. A unique music room has views of the wooded property.
Up a dramatic swirl of a wood staircase are more bedrooms and baths, including a modern dream of a master suite. Built-in elements like geometric window frames and polished wood beams that run from floor to ceiling create design statements in every direction.
A tranquil exercise room borders a luxurious modern steam shower, basically nailing the “spa-like” description. From every room, nature is incorporated via wood-framed geometric windows.
Surrounding the home are wood decks and stone-walled patios. The property’s 17 acres are landscaped with perennial gardens and winding stone paths.
One of those paths leads to a stylish guest house–small, but beautifully designed to match the main home and, similarly, incorporate modern design with the surrounding nature. A chic renovated kitchen with a marble-framed bar is wrapped by floor-to-ceiling glass. Wood beams and waxed wood flooring offset contemporary comforts. The guest house is also surrounded by porches and patios for spring and summer living.
Attached to the guest house is a three-car garage with room to spare. Interspersed throughout the property are additional modern design high notes (a low rectangular woodshed, for example, and a high-rise birdhouse that looks a lot like 56 Leonard).
Images from Golden Mile Food Centre/Deen Tulang Specialist by Zachary Tang.
Ask a random person on the street about dishes invented in Singapore, and you’ll get a mix of answers, from Chili Crab and Fish Head Curry to Yu Sheng. More knowledgeable foodies might point you to Indian Rojak or Kueh Tutu. But most people won’t know that Sup Tulang or Sup Tulang Merah was invented in Singapore.
This is assuming they even know it exists.
Not that I blame them. Top Singaporean food blogs show a dearth of mentions of the dish. If it weren’t for Anthony Bourdain’s feature on No Reservations, visitors to Singapore who have to mostly rely on clickbait TOP TEN MUST TRY EPIC FOOD articles and AMAZEBALLS CHICKEN AND RICE DISH videos wouldn’t even have heard of the uninviting dish.
Hence, even if you’re Singaporean, you might not have eaten it.
The few articles you might find on Sup Tulang all point out that the Anthony Bourdain also patronised this stall—perhaps revealing the sad fact that having someone famous eat the dish is apparently more appealing than the dish itself.
On the bright side, Bourdain’s influence also brought a bit of a challenge particularly to foreign visitors; if you can get down and dirty with your hands and leave the table feeling a blend of shame, satisfaction, and accomplishment, you know you’ve just eaten a local delicacy.
After all, eating Sup Tulang is a mess.
Be prepared to use your bare hands. Cutlery is provided, but you’d find that this is a formality rather than for any real utility, as they are too clumsy to manoeuvre around the bones. As you nibble away at the meat, bits of the thick, sweet, and sticky cherry-red sauce will inevitably splatter onto your clothes. You might pick up a chunky piece of bread to soak up the generous serving of sauce, licking and slurping at your fingers as you eat.
That’s not even the best part—Sup Tulang Merah literally translates to “Soup Marrow Red”, and the jewel in the crown is eating or sucking out the marrow.
First you’ll try to knock bits of the marrow out, fiddle with the bones a little, before realising—Oh, that’s what the narrow end of the spoon is for. This is also usually when the stall owner, watching yet another customer try the dish for the first time, brings you a straw with a knowing grin.
Then comes the hit of milky butteriness and the intense flavour of mutton, soaked with tomato, chilli, and mutton sauce.
Without trying it, most would dismiss the dish as unappealing. At the same time, take care not to eat more of it. Something that tastes this good can’t be good for your health. And remember to not wear a white shirt.
Verifying Its Singaporean Roots
Sup Tulang begins with Sup Kambing (Mutton Soup), which in itself is already considered a unique dish in the Southeast Asian region that was said to be brought here by Arabs and Indian Muslims migrating into the Malay Archipelago.
You might think that means you can trace the dish back to Indonesia or India, but it is generally agreed by hawkers that you can’t really find it elsewhere. If we were to look at similar dishes, India has a bone broth called Kharode Ka Soup, or Khurode, Paya, Paye, or even something else depending on where you find it.
Kharode. Source: Wikipedia
There is also something like the Nihari, yet another soup stew that looks vaguely similar to Sup Tulang, and uses bone marrow as an ingredient.
Nihari. Source: Wikipedia
In Indonesia, there is Sop Sumsum.
But make no mistake in thinking any of those might taste similar to Sup Tulang. While those are soup or broths, Sup Tulang is more like a sauce that’s cooked using soup.
With a good broth, infusing the Sup Tulang with the sweet chilli sauce allows for the transformation from Sup Kambing to Sup Tulang, which takes place relatively quickly in the span of 15 minutes. Key point: by now, the marrow has already been cooked together with the broth for several hours.
Then mix the Sup Kambing with seasoning, flour, food colouring, tomatoes, and the most important ingredient that differentiates the dish from stall to stall: the sambal chilli mixture that contains a Masala (spice mixture)—a guarded secret at every individual stall, even between family members at a family-run stall like Deen Tulang Specialist. Deen, who shows us how they cook the dish, doesn’t even know what’s in their Masala even though his Uncle owns the stall.
But if not India or Indonesia, then where?
Searching for the dish’s origins led me to Mohamed Iqbal in early November. The son of Abdul Kadir, he now runs the Haji Kadir chain as a business, rather than manning the stall himself.
From Trash To Treasure
Abdul Kadir, who came from the Indian village Thopputhurai, started Haji Kadir as a pushcart in the 1950s, selling dishes like Mee Goreng, Mee Kuah, Mutton Chop, and Bistik. Mutton Chop and Bistik were particularly popular in the period when “Western” dishes were getting increasingly common.
In the 1950s, his father noticed that bones were usually thrown away by suppliers.
“When the suppliers sell to the shops, they only take the mutton (the meat) without the bones. So a lot of bones is leftover, which they cannot sell.”
The base of the soup for Mee Kuah can be said to be similar to Sup Kambing (mutton/lamb soup), which typically uses ribs, mutton meat, and legs.
“So while he’s selling Mee Kuah, he finds that it is a waste to throw away the bones, cause there’s bone marrow inside and little bits of meat around it.”
He got the bones (with marrow) for free, and would use it for the soup base of Mee Kuah. Reasoning that the marrow was edible, he also served one bone marrow to customers who ordered his Mee Kuah.
You may have heard that taxi drivers know where the best food can be found. How the marrows then became a proper dish before exploding into popularity (relatively speaking) proves this myth to be true.
“One day, one taxi driver requested of my father. ‘Kadir, can you make for me this Tulang (referring to the marrows)? I like this Tulang very much ah. I pay extra lah, you just give me the Tulang with the bones lah, I don’t want the mee,” Iqbal tells me.
Satisfied with the meal, the taxi driver asked Abdul Kadir to cook more of the marrow the next day, when he’d bring his friends over to try the dish. Customers who saw the taxi drivers eating this new creation that they had never seen before got curious, and asked Abdul Kadir for the dish as well.
Demand for the dish rose to a point where suppliers who initially gave the marrow for free started charging 5 to 10 cents per kilogram. Patrons even started asking other Indian Muslim stalls along Jalan Sultan for Sup Tulang, and stalls specialising in Mutton Chops and Bistik saw demand for these dishes dropping. Consequently, these stalls asked Abdul Kadir to stop selling Sup Tulang in hopes that sales would go back up.
This obviously didn’t make sense for any kind of business, and there was no reason for Abdul Kadir to oblige. Eventually, other stalls started making their own recipes of Sup Tulang, each with their own Masala (spice mixture) for a different gravy taste.
For all its different interpretations, Sup Tulang would retain its signature red colour from a mix of tomatoes and sambal. Sometimes, food colouring was used as a tool for consistency since customers would complain that the Sup Tulang was “pucat” (Malay for “pale”) and that didn’t taste the same.
All of this, which Iqbal told me, is also the most commonly accepted history of the dish; it is even documented on the Singapore Government-run Singapore Infopedia, and echoed by the few writers or bloggers who have talked about the dish.
That was, until I visited Golden Mile Food Centre.
It’s not uncommon for dishes to have multiple claims from inventors; the hamburger alone has at least six claims; Singapore’s Chili Crab has two different origin stories.
The Drama-Fraught History of Sup Tulang
Baharudeen.
This is the name that three Indian Muslim stalls would parrot and credit for the invention of Sup Tulang.
Abu Bakar, stall owner of Faheem Plaza, mentioned the name Baharudeen the moment I inquired about the history of Sup Tulang.
My first reaction was to immediately counter with Haji Kadir. Having missed the Baharudeen name in my research, I wondered: did someone give an inaccurate story? Why does it seem like Haji Kadir is the de facto inventor?
Abu Bakar’s account is slightly more detailed. As he recalls—adamant in his position that Baharudeen is the rightful inventor—it was in the year 1965 when he was about 8 years old that he first saw Baharudeen prepare the dish.
Hawkers like Baharudeen would hang slabs of mutton on display, slicing meat off as needed for dishes like Mee Kuah and Mee Goreng.
He then sidetracked a little, talking about how Mee Goreng in the past used to be so much more flavourful with more ingredients like tauhu and “some rojak thing”; coal was used for the fire when stir-frying, and Opeh leaf (from the betel nut tree) was used to pack the Mee Goreng.
From CNA's 'Belly of A Nation'.
But back to Sup Tulang.
Tulang was part of the remains of the sliced mutton, and one day, Baharudeen chopped the Tulang into a few pieces and used it for Sup Kambing (which forms the soup base for Mee Kuah). In the wee hours of about 2 to 3 AM after work, Baharudeen cooked Tulang together with chilis and tomatoes for his own consumption. As you guessed it, this formed the early version of Sup Tulang.
A customer got curious about what he was eating, which Baharudeen then gave him to try. Word of mouth then spread about Sup Tulang, and it became a regular menu item.
Abu Bakar pointed out how Tulang used to be thrown away at Beach Road market in numerous packets. It was after Baharudeen started cooking and selling that other stalls started doing the same.
“So why did Abdul Kadir say he was the one who started it?” I interrupted Abu Bakar as he points me to the direction of Baharudeen’s son, Zakariah, who now—in a surprise twist—operates a drink stall and not an Indian Muslim food stall.
Abu Bakar seemed to display a mixture of confusion and irritation at my question.
“I don’t know, I don’t know. I also say, you must believe also. I also founder, he also founder. You also selling mee goreng,” he alludes to the fact that anybody can claim to be an inventor of the dish.
Recalling the past, he said, “But I’m there that time. I know, that time I also ask him to take one. One Tulang.”
Then as if imitating another person replying to him, he mumbled, “Can take can take.”
“‘What is this?’ I asked him. That time, I’m 8 years old lah.”
He also explained that whether I wanted to believe him was up to me. After all, the supposed inventors, whether that be Bahurudeen or Abdul Kadir, are no longer in this world.
I was then brought to Zakariah, who is now manning the drinks stall M.B Deen Rasa, named after his father. You’ll find the Deen name very common among Indian Muslim stalls, as it is a common ending syllable for Indian Muslim names.
Zakariah repeats the same story about his father Baharudeen inventing the dish, adding one additional detail. Hungry customers coming from night clubs would approach the stalls in the wee hours. Without much ingredients left at the end of the day for regular menu items, it was common for customers to request for hawkers to just cook up something random from leftovers. This was eventually how Sup Tulang became a dish.
Baharudeen’s stall used to be at the front of the market at Jalan Sultan, the first stall you’ll see. Zakariah, then 5-years-old, was neighbours with Abu Bakar since Abu Bakar’s family manned the 4th stall selling Teh Tarik. In an arrangement that somewhat mirrors the current stall placements at Golden Mile, Haji Kadir was at the opposite end of the block.
Despite Abdul Kadir and Baharudeen both coming from the village Thopputhorai, they didn’t appear to be close. Zakariah’s decision to operate a drink stall now instead of working on the original recipe seems to stem on the difficulties in finding manpower. As for disputing Abdul Kadir’s claims, he wasn’t too interested in doing so.
It’s a stance that I’m naturally suspicious of.
You can find records of the stall name “Haji Kadir & M Baharudeen Sup Tulang” online, which was also the stall name when Anthony Bourdain visited. Whereas if you visit Haji Kadir now, it is lacking the “M Baharudeen”.
Image credit: Love Singapore food.
When I contacted Iqbal again asking about Baharudeen, he was clearly agitated in his replies, and refuted the Baharudeen claim to the dish. He had rented the Baharudeen stall from 1998 to 2014 to reduce competition.
The years of rental explains the name change, and might also explain why the Baharudeen name is not mentioned in online sources as an inventor. The Singapore Infopedia article was written in 2010, and the No Reservations episode aired in 2008. As far as I know, although the stall then shared both names, Baharudeen’s family wasn’t involved in the running of the business. It then makes sense if people tracing the history to the stall linked the invention of the dish only to the people currently running it; which happened to be Haji Kadir.
There was definitely something more behind the story, but considering the various parties’ reactions to questions about Sup Tulang’s origins, a lot of it can feel futile. Even Abu Bakar had laughed at me for researching Sup Tulang’s history, while my peers are apparently working on better things.
To the people laying claim to the dish, being the inventor of the dish is a matter of pride.
But what I’m concerned with is less about the truth than it is about how stories like Baharudeen’s are left untold.
I’m not here to take sides or tell you who invented what. Oral accounts of history are often unreliable even when taken directly from the source. Even assuming complete honesty, people don’t have eidetic memories; they interpret the past differently. Then there’s the vested interest of having the good marketing that comes with being the inventor of the dish.
It’s not uncommon for dishes to have multiple claims from inventors; the hamburger alone has at least six claims; Singapore’s Chili Crab has two different origin stories.
In the context of Sup Tulang, where a perfectly usable ingredient was thrown away, wasn’t it natural that people would eventually want to do something about it? Multiple people could have come to create the same dish, albeit in slightly different ways.
But in the end, does it matter? I can point to the poverty of cultural history and how having concrete knowledge of how hawker food originated solidifies a sense of national identity, citing scholarly articles from Brown and Mussell or Lily Kong. Or perhaps I start a philosophical debate on the merits of having an objective truth we can agree on.
That’s really for you to decide if it’s important, and not something I really give a shit about when sucking on the Foie Gras-equivalent of our local cuisine. If you ever want to try the dish for yourself, Golden Mile Food Centre is a good place to start.
Know something about a dish that we don’t? Write to us at community@ricemedia.co.
Before the holidays, NASA announced their plan for going back to the Moon by 2024.
With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with our commercial and international partners and establish sustainable exploration by 2028. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap — sending astronauts to Mars.
The plan involves many supply runs and a small space station orbiting the Moon so that things like rovers and lunar landers are in place when manned missions need to land on the Moon or even continue on to Mars. You can check out all of the details on NASA’s website.
Brownstone-obsessed Brooklyn developers Dahill & Bunce have put their obsession to work in this 20-foot-wide Bed-Stuy townhouse, which, after a design-savvy renovation, they’ve served up for sale at a notable-for-the-neighborhood $3.495 million. The meticulous renovation puts all the right airy, livable modern finishes into place while preserving plenty of details that distinguish the 1882 Neo-Grec townhouse at 158 Halsey Street. The resulting three-bedroom triplex–plus garden apartment–totals about 4,000 square feet. The house has an extension which puts it at a rare 60 feet deep, and there are five private outdoor areas throughout.
A highlight of this pristine property is its painstakingly restored millwork. Hallways and stairs feature European hand-brushed high gloss wainscoting panels. Parlor floor doors are fabricated from book-matched fumed white oak with hand-brushed raised panels.
Doorjambs, surrounds, casings, cast plaster rosettes, corbels, wood pediments and crown molding were designed in-house by Dahill & Bunce. Floors throughout the house are fumed rift-sawn white oak with walnut borders and detailing. The home’s front parlor living room boasts a classic window bay and a newly fabricated gas fireplace with a restored marble mantel.
The kitchen is a study in elegant modern style. Cabinets are crafted in a dark fumed white oak veneer with touch latch drawers and doors. Custom fabricated open metal cabinets are patinated bronze with polished edges and black glass backs. The eye-catching backsplash and island worktops are done in statement Calacatta Paonazzo marble, and chef-grade appliances are by Thermador, of course.
Off the kitchen, the dining room is framed by a wall of French doors for maximum light throughout the whole floor. The doors lead onto the deck which has both access to and views of the garden below.
The home’s very top floor is a warm yet modern retreat clad in oak and teak. This spa-like master suite includes a bedroom, dressing area and master bath. The bathroom walls, ceiling and custom vanity are hand-oiled teak. Hidden from the street, this floor is set back from the cornice by a private terrace.
On the in-between floor are two more bedrooms, each wit massive walk-in closets. Thre is also a nursery/home office and a bright and spacious bath.
Off the rear bedroom is a large terrace overlooking the garden. Back downstairs, a beautifully-appointed one-bedroom apartment serves to generate income or as a guest suite; there’s also a finished basement. All mechanical systems have been updated, including a zoned Mitsubishi HVAC system.
According to records the house was purchased in 2016 for $1.1 million. So, while the renovation spared little expense, there’s still a hefty profit to be made on the flip should the home sell for anywhere near its ask.
Photo credit: Drew Dies and Katherine Pastrana courtesy of Compass.
This seven-bedroom free-standing Ditmas Park townhouse at 777 Rugby Road, asking $2.275 million, has plenty of curb appeal, starting with a big, gracious front porch perfect for summer afternoons. On a leafy block lined with ornate Victorians, this home has been renovated to create plenty of space for modern living while keeping its bygone-era charm.
Up a tidy brick walk past a landscaped front front garden is a dream of a wraparound porch, complete with a porch swing. Through the home’s original double doors is the parlor floor with a bright open floor plan and lots of original details.
You’ll find well-preserved parquet floors, wainscoting, stained glass and the original stairs coupled with warm modern renovations. The large living area has a bay of three windows for plenty of sunlight. The formal dining room seats 12.
A renovated eat-in-kitchen boasts Cesarstone countertops and stainless steel appliances. Next door is an all-season sunroom with seven windows, perfect as a breakfast room, playroom or den.
Out back, a grassy, landscaped back yard provides plenty of play space. The home includes a two-car garage and a long private driveway.
On the second floor are four light filled bedrooms, all with great closets. Also up here is a full bath.
The home’s top floor offers three more large bedrooms. The cozy top-floor architecture combines a modern garret vibe with sun-filled rooms.
A large finished basement offers a versatile open area/rec room and a beautifully renovated bath with a glass enclosed shower. Also down here is a spacious laundry room with full-sizes LG washer and dryer–a perk not often found within city limits. Recent upgrades include a new roof, hot water heater and water main, updated electrical panel and Nest thermostats.
Listen in as Anthony Vincent covered Metallica’s classic Enter Sandman in 20 different musical styles, ranging from yodeling to The Eurythmics to Hans Zimmer to Lil Uzi Vert to John Denver.
Wow: The primary was held on June 25 with Cabán originally leading Katz by more than 1,199 votes, until affidavit and absentee ballots were counted, putting Katz ahead by a mere 16 votes.
The BOE certifies the results of the Queens District Attorney’s race and names Melinda Katz the winner Queens (Photo: Melinda Katz)
July 29, 2019 By Allie Griffin
The Board of Elections unanimously certified the election results in the contested Queens District Attorney Democratic Primary race today, naming Borough President Melinda Katz victorious over public defender Tiffany Cabán.
Despite the board’s certification, the race is far from over, as Cabán’s campaign continues to contest more than 100 affidavit ballots in court that it says were erroneously invalidated by the BOE. The next court hearing is set for July 31.
In a statement, a Cabán campaign spokesperson said they viewed the outcome of the election “undetermined” until the court renders its decision.
“Today’s certification by the BOE is a formality that will allow our campaign to move forward with its efforts to restore wrongly invalidated ballots in court,” said campaign spokesperson Monica Klein.
“Our campaign is fighting to protect Queens voters from being disenfranchised and allow their voices to be heard. Eligible voters’ ballots must not be disqualified due to the BOE’s failure to provide them with adequate assistance and guidance at polling sites. Until then, the outcome of this election remains undetermined.”
Katz beat Cabán by about 60 votes following the manual recount, according to published reports.
The contested affidavit ballots, 114 in total, were tossed out by the BOE since they contained voter errors or were cast at the wrong polling site. The majority of these ballots—roughly 70—were not counted because the voter did not clearly state their party affiliation.
The court ordered that the BOE had to certify the current results before Cabán’s campaign could legally contest the uncounted votes.
“More than a 100 ballots cast by eligible and registered Democratic voters continue to hang in the balance, and will determine the final outcome of this election,” said the campaign’s attorney Jerry Goldfeder.
The primary was held on June 25 with Cabán originally leading Katz by more than 1,199 votes, until affidavit and absentee ballots were counted, putting Katz ahead by a mere 16 votes. The small margin called for a manual recount in which more than 90,000 ballots were sorted and recounted.
Katz welcomed the board’s announcement and said she was holding a party for her supporters tonight at a Forest Hills bar/restaurant called Banter tonight to celebrate.
“This is a great day for the people of Queens, who have waited patiently for the long recount process to conclude. Today, the Board of Elections certified that we have won the campaign for the Democratic primary for Queens District Attorney. I am grateful to the Board, and particularly to the dozens of BOE employees who undertook the painstaking work of evaluating each of the over 90,000 votes cast in the primary.”
English speakers tend to use the term “dumpling” as an all-inclusive, generic term for “deliciousness wrapped up in a doughy exterior.” In China, however, a wide array of dumplings can be eaten in different ways, in different regions, and at different times of year — so much so that the term “dumpling” is almost meaningless on its own. Here we break down some of the different types of dumplings — soup to rice — so you can flex on your next dim sum or xiaolongbao outing.
First things first: dumplings aren’t just a Chinese food staple — for many people, dumplings are a cornerstone of their identity.
Most dumpling types are closely associated with a region of China — even sometimes a single city or town — and tend to inspire a passionate following among locals from that area.
In general, though, dumplings can be roughly divided into two categories based on their shapes: round dumplings, and long, strip-like dumplings.
Round dumplings include buns (包子 baozi), steamed buns (馒头 mantou), hua juan (花卷), xiaolongbao (小笼包), soup dumplings (汤包 tangbao), and shaomai (烧卖 or siu mai in Cantonese). See what we mean about so many types?
Meanwhile ones that are long and strip-like include wontons and shrimp dumplings (虾饺 xiajiao or har gow in Cantonese). Rice dumplings are in a category of their own, which we’ll get to later.
Buns 包子
Buns (also known as baozi, 包子) might be the most common dumpling type in China. These buns are a common sight at grab-and-go eateries and convenience store counters in China, as people tend to eat them at breakfast. The city of Tianjin in northern China is closely associated with this type of dumpling, partly because China’s oldest baozi brand, Gobuli (狗不理) was founded there. Meanwhile a fried variety native to Shanghai, shengjian bao (生煎包), is so enduringly popular it’s been spun off into cosmetic face masks.
Steamed Buns 馒头
You can think of steamed buns (or mantou, 馒头) as baozi without filling. These are mainly made of flour and are commonly considered street food, especially in northern China. Instead of fillings, people usually eat them dipped or smothered in spices and sauces, like soy milk and preserved bean curd.
Huajuan 花卷
Huajuan and steamed buns are close cousins, but huajuan are considered more special for the “flower” shape that gives them their name. They are often eaten plain, since they tend to be on the sweeter side and/or are sprinkled with green onion.
Xiaolongbao 小笼包
Soup-filled xiaolongbao (小笼包) are said to have originated from the Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze) region way back in the Qing dynasty. Though several dumpling chains claim to be the “originator” of xiaolongbao, there’s no dispute that this variety is considered synonymous with Shanghai. Together with baozi, these are one of the most prevalent types of dumpling outside the Chinese mainland, popularized through restaurant chains such as Taiwanese brand Din Tai Fung.
This soup dumpling (guan tangbao) is actually a bigger-sized version of xiaolongbao. The difference between these two are xiaolongbao has pleats on the surface, while soup dumplings don’t. People from southeast China usually add crab meat to make them more of a delicacy and you commonly find them on the breakfast table for people in that area.
Tangyuan 汤圆
Soft and sticky tangyuan are commonly eaten during Lantern Festival in spring. Fillings range from sweet — such as red bean and black sesame — to savory, like pork. These days, some makers have “modernized” them with fruits like mango, strawberry, and even durian.
These dumplings are a perennial favorite of northern Chinese people. They have a variety of fillings such as pork, corn, and carrot. People often eat these dumplings during the Winter Solstice (冬至 Dongzhi), which is also traditionally a time of family reunion.
Wontons are hugely popular in southern China. These parcels come submerged in soup, and are usually smaller than other types of dumplings. When the wonton is well-cooked, it will appear translucent, so you can tell what’s inside before even taking a bite. There are also a number of different varieties, including fried wontons and miniature in-soup versions native to Fujian, known as bianrou (扁肉).
Pot stickers are essentially a fried version of jiaozi, and are the closest thing in Chinese cuisine to Japanese gyoza and similar varieties found in other parts of Asia. Legend has it that they came to be after a court chef accidentally let the bottoms of jiaozi he was making burn — a pretty delicious mistake.
Siu Mai 烧卖
To talk about dumplings in the Cantonese-speaking regions of China, one must first talk about dim sum. The phrase in Cantonese can be loosely translated to “touching the heart,” and the heart of that “heart” is definitely siu mai. People in China’s southeastern region often eat them with glutinous rice or vegetable fillings, while people in Guangdong province tend to enjoy them with pork inside.
Shrimp Dumplings 虾饺
Shrimp dumplings, or har gow (虾饺 xia jiao in Mandarin) are another dim sum staple in the south of China. The first shrimp dumpling was purportedly invented in Guangzhou in the early 20th century, which makes this type of dumpling only about a hundred years old. Traditional shrimp dumplings are half-moon-shaped, with twelve pleats, and are considered by many to be the hallmark of a stellar Cantonese chef.
People all over China typically eat pyramid-shaped rice dumplings (粽子 zongzi) wrapped in bamboo leaves during holidays such as the Dragon Boat Festival. Much like Tianjin is for baozi, Jiaxing in Zhejiang province is famous countrywide for zongzi, and is home to one of its most famous manufacturers, Wufangzhai (五芳斋). Today parents also like to make rice dumplings for their children before important exams, because the “zong” in zongzi is a homophone of “zhong” (中), which in Chinese means to “get good grades.”
You’ll never run out of things to do with kids in Singapore with our list of 101 kids’ activities from indoor children’s activities to fun things to do with kids outdoors. Bonus: many of these family activities are FREE!
We are always on the lookout for fun kids’ activities in Singapore. Check out our ultimate list of children’s activities, free things to do with the whole family outdoors and indoor kids’ activities in Singapore in our mega roundup of over 101 kids’ activity ideas. Plan a fun family day out with obstacle courses, water play activities, go-karting and outdoor playgrounds. When it’s raining or too hot outside there are plenty of indoor activities for little kids and even teens, like visits to the aquarium, kid-friendly museums, indoor playgrounds and art galleries! Plus don’t miss our kid-friendly cafe roundup so you can plan a fun meal after your activity!
The Singapore Zoo still tops our Singapore must-do kids’ activity list and makes a fun family day out with its well-planned walking trails, beautifully kept gardens, and free-roaming animals (oppressive bars and small cages are kept to a minimum). Kids love feeding the animals from rhinos to elephants (book these early!). Plus the newly opened KidzWorld is a must-visit, with seven indoor and outdoor zones, including interaction opportunities with the friendly cats, chickens, rabbits, and horses!
2. Visit Singapore Botanic Gardens (FREE!)
Taking a stroll around Singapore Botanic Gardens the UNESCO World Heritage Park is a great activity for kids in Singapore. Look for turtles in Symphony Lake, have a play at the COMO Adventure Grove playground (pictured above) or roll down the giant hill in Palm Valley. You aren’t allowed to cycle in this park but you can give those legs a good stretch, admire the beautiful plants and see if you can spot any wildlife! Read More:Family-friendly Guide to Singapore Botanic Gardens
3. Splash at Gardens by the Bay’s Waterpark (FREE!)
Take the kids to the beach where they can cool off in the sea and build sandcastles in the sand. Find a beach near you with our list of all the best beaches in Singapore. Pack a mat and a picnic or if you want shade choose between the various beach clubs – Coastes is a fave as kids can play in the sand and sea and Ola Beach Club is great for older kids thanks to all the water sports. Tanjong Beach Club has volleyball and a pool so makes for a fun family day out.
5. Visit Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden (FREE!)
Image by Syazana Hishamuddin
Take the kids to Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden within Singapore Botanic Gardens (you can only enter if you’re with kids!) and you’ll find a treehouse with slides, a sandpit, mini-maze, zip line and climbing structures plus a kid-friendly cafe on site for refuelling. Just remember — this kids’ activity is closed on Mondays!
6. Family Activity in Singapore: Bird Paradise
Image credit: Beate Baldry
Bird Paradise Singapore has officially opened in Mandai Wildlife Reserve and makes for a fun family outing. This amazing new bird park with walk-through aviaries is home to 3,500 birds across 400 species from loris to pelicans, penguins, flamingos, emus, and cassowaries. They’ve also launched a new glamping experience for the year-end holidays, where families can cosy up in a whimsical bell tent right in the heart of Ocean Network Express Penguin Cove! While the very limited dates are already sold out, we’re certain that new dates will be released next year. Here’s a look at what to expect from bird feeding highlights to shows and playgrounds!
7. Thrill-seeking Family Activity: Megazip Adventure Park
Image via Singapore Tourism Board
Looking for a kids’ activity in Singapore that the older ones will enjoy too? Teens love this MegaZip Adventure Park, in Sentosa, home to the Megazip – the 75-metre high, 450-metre long, 50 km/ph flying fox guaranteed to give thrillseekers a ride.
8. Sporty Kids’ Activity: Inflatable Water Park Hydrodash
Image: HydroDash
HydroDash is that immense inflatable obstacle course floating in the sea just off Palawan Beach on Sentosa. Looking for things to do with kids in Singapore that the whole family will also enjoy? This family activity ticks the box! The inflatable water playground comprises floating platforms to balance on along with steep slides to climb up and slide down as you navigate the slippery obstacle course.
9. Kayaking Activity with the Kids
Image via SportsHub Facebook
Have you taken the kids kayaking? We reckon water sports make a great kids’ activity in Singapore! The Water Sports Centre at the Singapore Sports Hub at Kallang offers kayak rental from $12 for two hours (best to book ahead as they are popular!). For newbies, book a lesson with certified instructors on the Kayak Orientation Programme (great for 9-year-olds+). If you are lucky you might even spot the family of otters who call the Kallang Basin home.
10. Obstacle Course Kids’ Activity at Forest Adventure
Head to beautiful Bedok Reservoir and marvel at your mini monkeys in action as they navigate the suspended obstacle course at Forest Adventure. This is such a fun activity to do with kids and adults alike – it makes a great bonding activity as you help each other navigate the course – and the views are just stunning. Don’t miss the zip line across the water! Watch our video of kids climbing the ropes here.
11. Cruise to St John’s Island for a Beachside Picnic
St John’s Island and Lazarus Island are just a short boat ride away and make a fun family day trip for beach lounging (but be warned: there’s not much shade). The new Lazarus Island features, including the glamping and staycation experiences are perfect must-dos these school holidays. Plan this family activity with this family-friendly guide – you can even get the boat over from Sentosa now! Or get your little adventurers on a nature hunt to seek out dolphins, reptiles and migratory birds! Read more here.
12. Playgrounds at Lakeside Garden, Jurong (FREE!)
Image: Nparks
Pack the sun hats and head to Lakeside Garden in Jurong for this free kids’ playground of animal-inspired play areas (zip lines, dens, swings, slides, mini trampolines and rope courses). Bring swimmers and cool off at the Clusia Cove water play area afterwards – a super fun free day out for kiddos!
13. Head to Hay Goat Dairies (FREE!)
Images via Hay Goat Dairies Facebook
Get a chance to get up close and friendly with the goats in the only goat farm in Singapore Hay Goat Dairies. Taking a tour of the farm makes for a fun free family activity – you can even view the goats being milked. Remember to purchase hay to feed the goats and you can take home some fresh goat milk. Read all about this and other farms in Singapore here.
14. See the Largest Bronze Sculpture in the World
Take the kids to see the largest bronze sculpture in the world Love The Last March at Gardens by the Bay by artists Gillie and Marc. The sculpture features a procession of 45 of the world’s most endangered species marching together, led by a great mountain gorilla. Visitors can download the app and scan the QR code to bring the sculpture to life as well as learn more about each animal. Read our family guide to Gardens by the Bay.
15. Take the Kids to See SG’s Street Art (FREE!)
Image: Andrea Liu
Plan your art walk route around Singapore with our super comprehensive street art guide and you’ll find the kids are excited to spot the next piece of street art (many of which are done by our fave artist Yip Yew Chong) while getting some culture and physical activity in all in one!
16. Cycle Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to Spot Nature (FREE!)
One of our favourite spots to bring the kids out is Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. This lush green park has a wonderful mix of nature, cycling paths and fun playgrounds along the way. A fun family activity is cycling alongside the river that’s 3km long and seeing if you can spot any herons or kingfishers. Read all about our best cycling routes and get the free downloadable map of Bishan here.
17. See Dinosaurs at Jurassic Mile (FREE!)
Image via Changi
Jurassic Mile is Singapore’s largest permanent outdoor display of 20 different life-sized dinosaurs (one dinosaur is 5 metres tall!). This one-kilometre dino-themed cycling and jogging track along the 3.5km Changi Airport Connector path links the Jewel Changi Airport to East Coast Park and the Park Connector Network (PCN). It’s free to enter but do take scooters or bikes as it is quite a walk for little legs. Find out more here.
18. Enjoy the Slides at Admiralty Park Playground (FREE!)
Image: Beate Baldry
Spending a morning at Admiralty Park with all the different slides on offer is a fab activity to do with kids in Singapore. Go early as it gets hot and busy! This free playground is perfect for kids of all ages (we spotted teens having loads of fun here too). There’s a zip line and swings but mainly lots and lots (27 in fact) of different slides! And it’s all free!
Yes, Singapore is home to plenty of wild crocs. Bring your binoculars and plenty of water and head over to Sungei Buloh with a treasure hunt checklist – makes it more fun for kids to tick when they spot something: snakes, monitor lizards, birds, monkeys, butterflies, dragonflies and if you are lucky, crocodiles! A fun family day out! Watch our video on Sungei Buloh here.
20. Catch a Bumboat to Pulau Ubin
The boat ride to Pulau Ubin itself is a lot of fun, then when you get to Pulau Ubin hire bikes and ride around the island, exploring the few original villages that still remain. Have lunch and a refreshing coconut at one of the local seafood restaurants. You could even camp in Pulau Ubin with some planning! A very fun family activity for the weekend.
Craving a little weekend thrill? You’re going to love whizzing down the outdoor tracks at the Luge in Sentosa! The experience kicks off with the Skyride, a four-seater chairlift with stunning views of Singapore’s skyline and the sea. Once you’re in the driver’s seat, let gravity do the hard work as you zoom around hairpin corners, through tunnels and down slopes, and even speed into an exciting forest that lights up once the sun sets. The Skyline Luge is a huge hit with visitors, so it’s best to make an online booking.
22. Explore the Battle Box & Fort Canning Park
Image Credit: Richa Tiwari
A great family activity for history buffs. After taking in the history of the underground bunker at Fort Canning Park, walk through the park and look for other World War 2 artefacts. Looking for free things to do nearby? Check out Jubilee playground for slides, swings and more.
23. Hike with the Kids at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (FREE!)
Boost your kids’ sense of accomplishment as you summit Bukit Timah Hill (it’s Singapore’s highest peak and quite a number of steps, so better for older kids unless you don’t mind carrying the little ones halfway). Just don’t feed the monkeys (and keep snacks hidden)!
24. Take the Kids to Universal Studios Singapore
Image RSW
The Transformers Ride and the Battlestar Galactica ride at Universal Studios Singapore are firm favourites with older kids, but there are some fun rides for young’uns too – the Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase plus the shows are popular with kids. If you’re looking for a kids’ activity in Singapore that will keep you busy all day long – a family trip to this theme park could work!
25. Cool off at one of Singapore’s Water Parks
Image: Wild Wild Wet
This kids’ activity is great for our sweaty climate! You can find crazy slides, bucket dunking and massive amounts of fun, all from as little as $8 (or free for little ones!). Check out our list of the best waterparks in town! Don’t fancy splashing out the cash to cool off? No problem! Check out the Best FREE wet play areas in Singapore here!
26. Adventurous Kids’ Activity: Spot Wild Animals
Image via Pexels
Singapore may be a sparkling city but let’s not forget there once was jungle everywhere and plenty of wild animals still live in this city! We have spotted wild crocodiles, monitor lizards, hornbills and our favourites – otters – which are such a delight to watch. Oh and there are snakes, too. Read here for the best places to look for these animals in the wild.
27. Take the Kids for a Hike Around MacRitchie (FREE!)
Image: NParks
Walking around MacRitchie Reservoir is a fun physical activity to do with kids in Singapore. Bring water and watch out for monkeys.
28. Explore Kids’ Nature Playgarden at HortPark (FREE!)
Image: Beate Baldry
Bring hats (as it is not very covered) and go early to avoid the hottest part of the day. At Nature Playgarden at HortPark kids’ activities include unstructured play and a chance to let their imagination run wild (while getting their hands dirty) amongst nature. This free park offers nine different play features built with natural materials. Further into HortPark there’s a herb garden, playground and lovely paths to stroll.
There are regular beach clean-ups held by Trash Hero (check their Facebook), or get your own party together, bring your own gloves and a big bag and educate the kids about reducing plastic as you choose a patch of the island to clean up with the kids. A great worthwhile family activity.
30. Scoot or Bike along Robertson Quay (FREE!)
Image credit: Jess Bernard
Scoot or cycle along Rob Quay, stopping off to grab a coffee at Common Man Coffee Roasters. If you’re here for lunch check out some of the kid-friendly restaurants in the area (some have healthy kids’ meals, others are right near playgrounds). And of course, snap a pic for the ‘gram on Alkaff Bridge.
The train playground in Tiong Bahru makes for a fun kids’ activity and when the kids have had enough of the “choo choo train playground,” head to the Wet Market to gorge on pau at Tiong Bahru Pau (or grab a croissant at Tiong Bahru Bakery).
Check out the Cyclist Park at East Coast Park featuring obstacle courses and bumpy hill courses. Then grab something to eat nearby, splash in the sea and build sandcastles before heading to the Marine Cove playground.
Check out the stunning views from the Singapore Flyer. Watch the sun set over Singapore and take in the city lights (you can even have a sky-high cocktail here).
34. Sail the Singapore River
Pick up a water taxi in front of the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel at Robertson Quay and get off at the Promenade in front of the Singapore Flyer. Bring the scooters so the kids can scoot all the way back to Clarke Quay for a well-earned drink (for all of you!).
35. Go Wakeboarding in Singapore: Sporty Kids’ Activity
Image: Singapore Wake Park
Sporty kids as young as six and teens alike will love Singapore’s first and only cable-ski Singapore Wake Park. Get pulled along East Coast lagoon by suspended motorised cables – instructors are on hand to help. Read our guide to all the places to learn to wakeboard in Singapore here.
36. Check out the Live Turtle & Tortoise Museum
Image credit: Pelago
Feed the slow moving turtles at Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum and marvel all things turtle at only $10 per ticket. Click here for tips on how to encourage your kids’ interest in nature and animals!
37. Fun Kids’ Activity Go Rock Hunting (FREE!)
Image credit: Beate Baldry
Are you a rock hunter? This is a fun free activity for kids in Singapore. Paint rocks, sign them, then hide them around Singapore (Rob Quay and West Coast Park are good areas). If you find another rock, you get to keep it (first snap a pic of it and post to the Facebook group to thank whoever hid it for you!).
Head to Kampong Glam for boutique browsing in Haji Lane to your heart’s content! Reward your little walkers with a treat from one of the cafes in the neighbourhood. Click here for the rundown on SG’s best independent boutique shopping!
39. See How Veggies are Grown at Bollywood Farms
Image credit: Bollywood Farms
At Bollywood Farms you can join a rice planting activity or just stroll around the 10-acre farm admiring the cocoa trees, pandan and myriad of edible plants. Enjoy a meal in the on-site restaurant, Poison Ivy Bistro whilst you’re there.
40. Visit The Arena @ Keat Hong Playground (FREE!)
Image credit: Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim
Is there a medal for a city with the best free playgrounds? Seriously our little red dot is a contender! Choa Chu Kang Playground, also known as The Arena @ Keat Hong, makes waves for its three amazing outdoor playgrounds in one sprawling space. With a stunning treehouse-like tower, massive slides, pirate ship play equipment and swings, there’s something fun for children of all ages in each of the three playgrounds.
41. Eat Ice Cream the Singapore Way
That is, between a slice of rainbow-coloured bread! Find this treat being sold by the Ice Cream Uncles on Orchard Road – probably the only “street food” left in Singapore.
42. Thrill-seeking Kids’ Activity: Zorbing!
Image credit: Adventour
Yes, you can actually do zorbing in Singapore! There is land zorbing where you can roll down hills in a massive ball (you can do this at your private residence if you happen to have the space, or if not at their grounds near Holland Village). There is also water zorbing if you have a condo pool or private pool! A super fun activity for kids of all ages.
43. Saturday Kids’ Activity: Visit a Fire Station (FREE!)
Head to the Central Fire Station (or your local fire station) on a Saturday morning and let the tinies learn about firefighting (and maybe even take a ride on a fire truck!). A fun and educational kids’ activity in Singapore – plus entry is free!
44. Fly a Kite at Marina Barrage! (FREE!)
Image: Pixabay
Head over to the lovely green patch called Marina Barrage and get those kites out! Flying kites is a fun free kids’ activity that the whole family will enjoy. Bring the swimsuits for little ones so they can jump around in the (very small decorative) water fountains nearby afterwards.
Take the kids to Sentosa and look for Little Lyn, Reef the Chief, Curious Sue, and Dreamer Dee – collectively known as the Explorers of Sentosa! The family of four giant sculptures were made using reclaimed wood, by internationally renowned Copenhagen-based recycling artist Thomas Dambo. The sculptures are free to view and situated along Palawan Beach till 2024.
47. Treat the Kids on a Trishaw Ride
A trip with Uncle Trishaw makes a memorable kids activity (Image by Trishaw Uncle via Facebook)
All the better if your trishaw has flashing lights and blaring music! While we’re bumped that the rides are currently temporarily closed, you can visit their website here for the latest updates. This family activity is especially a fun one to do if you are new to Singapore.
47. Visit Macabre Haw Par Villa
Haw Par Villa, built in 1937 by the Tiger Balm founders as a kind of religious theme park, is home to more than 1,000 vivid statues and tableaux that are at turns terrifying, enchanting, and hilarious. This one comes with a warning – it is very graphic and so this activity is not really recommended for young kids (but older teens and horror-seeking adults might find a visit an eye-opening activity and there are areas that are beautiful if you avoid the 10 courts of hell!)
Ever tried longkang fishing? This fun kids’ activity in Singapore is where you can try catch fish in a large open pond with a little hand-held net – and you get to keep the fish you catch! Check Qian Hu Fish Farm or Hai Bin Prawning at Punggol or if you are after proper fishing for older kids try D’Best Recreation where you can fish with a rod in the Sure Catch zone.
50. Take the Kids to Explore Coney Island
Coney Island has rugged beaches (nothing like the expansive sandy beaches of Palawan or Siloso but still fun). Explore this stunningly green forested island on foot or by bike along the 2.5 km Coney Island Park Connector around the Serangoon Reservoir (but beware: some paths on Coney Island itself can be shingly and loose). This family activity is hit with birdwatchers (so pack binoculars), you might spot one of 80 species of birds on Coney Island Park, including the resident male Baya Weavers, Oriental Magpies, or flocks of parakeets.
Older kids from 9 years old can zoom at The Karting Arena which has a 500 metre electric karting circuit with loops and hairpin bends. Read up on all the places to go karting in Singapore here.
52. Take the Kids to Pasir Ris Park Playground
Playground at Pasir Ris Park (Image courtesy of Michell Tam)
Kids of all ages will love exploring Pasir Ris Park‘s huge free adventure playground. Burn that last bit of energy by riding bikes around the gardens (the wide flat paths are fantastic for beginner cyclists!). There are fishing and kite-flying activities, too!
53. Head to a Public Pool with Slides!
Take the kids to a public swimming pool with slides and some even have lazy rivers and other fun from just $1.50 per adult (less for kids!). There are six swimming pools at Our Tampines Hub from a Jacuzzi and a cute garden-themed kids wading pool with water fountains, water spray guns and a mini waterfall while SAFRA Yishun has an inviting pool with a fun pirate-themed slide for kids. A fun family day out!
54. Walk the Southern Ridges (FREE!)
See how far your kids can trot by tackling the 10km Southern Ridges which connect Kent Ridge Park with Mount Faber Park and Labrador Nature Reserve. This family hiking activity includes the Henderson Waves — the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore.
55. Play for Free at West Coast Park (FREE!)
West Coast Playground is a fave activity for older kids (Image courtesy of Michell Tam)
West Coast Park is one of our favourite adventure playgrounds with eight play zones, space for scooting and cycling, grass for flying kites, go-karting for the big kids and even a sea breeze to keep everyone cool!
56. Play Pirates at the Sembawang Playground (FREE!)
Image by NHB
Take your little pirates to play on the “battleship” playground at Sembawang Park. The beach nearby was very thin (and quite littered) when we last checked so don’t count on any sea action here.
57. Try Prawning
This popular local family activity involves patiently fishing for prawns! Kids love this as it is easy to manage (easier than fishing with a rod). D’Best Fishing offers prawning in a small air con room (great for if it’s midday and hot outside or raining), Hai Bin in Punggol offers prawning too! Or check out our latest fish farm longkang guide for Qian Hu Fish Farm.
58. Play Tourist: Book a Duck Tour of Singapore
Image by DUCK & HIPPO via Facebook
See the city and take a thrill ride at the same time with a Duck Tour of Singapore. A fun family activity to do with visitors to Singapore or when the grandparents are in town.
59. Check out River Wonders
River Wonders is stroller friendly, mostly covered and takes you on a journey to admire different animals from manatees to monkeys. The free-ranging monkey enclosure is a highlight and it’s fun going on the river ride.
60. Experience a Cable Car Ride
Image: The Singapore Cable Car is a fun family activity
Make it a family day trip! Take the cable car to Mount Faber, and have lunch at Arbora Hilltop Garden and Bistro at the top of Mount Faber. The views up there are stunning and walking over to Faber Point and Henderson Waves (or even all the way over to Hort Park) is a great way to make a whole afternoon of it.
61. Wander the Neighbourhood of Joo Chiat (FREE!)
Image credit Samantha Ho for Sassy Mama
Joo Chiat is where you’ll find the famous pastel Peranakan shophouses on Koon Seng Road, along with a number of beautiful temples – perfect for memorable snaps of the kids against pretty backdrops.
62. Take the Kids to Seletar (FREE!)
Image credit: ParksFunMom
Take the kids to Seletar – there’s a water playground, nature trails, and lots of great cafes and restaurants – Wheeler’s Estate restaurant is right next to the free outdoor playground so your kids can play in your view while you enjoy a meal or drink dining alfresco.
63. Visit Fort Siloso (FREE!)
Fort Siloso (Facebook Sentosa Official)
A must-do activity for history buffs, Fort Siloso was the site of the Japanese surrender to the British in WWII. You’ll find military paraphernalia and weapons, the remains of fortified tunnels, and wax figures of Japanese and British soldiers. Go on the Fort Siloso Skywalk – another free thing to do in Singapore while you are there. This 181 meters-long trail provides a scenic treetop trek en route to Fort Siloso – 11 stories above the ground!
64. Check out Imbiah Trail and Bridge (FREE!)
Imbiah Trail & Sentosa Nature Discovery is a 2.3km nature trail featuring interactive exhibits, sculptures and a lookout point, along with different flora and fauna along the route. The Imbiah Bridge (also a free activity) is a 25m elevated boardwalk that links the Nature Discovery Trail to the Imbiah forest.
65. Take the Kids for a Pony Ride
Image: Gallop Stable Punggol Ranch
Take the little ones (as small as 3 years old) for a short pony ride at Gallop Stable – there’s one at both Horse City and Pasir Ris, and rides are $10.
66. Watch the Sunset with the Kiddos
Did you know there’s a working lighthouse in Singapore? Raffles Marina Lighthouse and its pier is one of the best places to catch the sunset in Singapore. As a fully-functioning lighthouse, the Raffles Marina Lighthouse will flash its lights every 10 seconds which is fun for the kids to experience. Check out more places to watch the sunset or sunrise in Singapore here.
Image credit: Gardens by the Bay Take the kids to experience the Garden Rhapsody light and sound show at the Supertree Grove – it’s truly magical – kids love to be out in the lush gardens at night. Each show is 15 minutes long, and you’ll be treated to stunning light displays. This family activity is on daily, 7:45pm & 8:45pm and it’s free!
Indoor Kids Activities in Singapore
69. Family Activity: Indoor Playground Superpark
Image: SuperPark fun kids activities for kids of all ages
SuperPark is great for all ages, but older kids will get to truly enjoy all the fun heart-pumping kids’ activities around this super (and massive) indoor playground at Suntec City Mall! There are two levels of unlimited activities, including popular ball games as well as Archery, Skate & Scoot, Augmented Climbing, SuperClimb and Tube Slide, amongst others. Kids love the pedal carts and it’s probably one of the few playgrounds where parents can play with their kids in. Read all about SuperPark here.
70. Educational Kids’ Activities at Science Centre Singapore
Image Credit: Science Centre Singapore
Older kids will have fun making discoveries about electricity and fun optical illusions at the Science Centre Singapore. It’s jam-packed full of permanent exhibitions from “Know your Poo” to the famous Fire Tornado Show. Each exhibition is interactive and provides super hands-on activities for kids as well as more text-heavy info for a deeper understanding of the topic for the older ones. There’s also a Tinkering Studio for free hands-on activities for kids. Then head outside to the adjacent splash pad for a fun water-play activity. We love this indoor edutainment place so much we wrote a whole guide on Science Centre here!
The landmarked Brooklyn home has a ton of “old world charm”
A landmarked Victorian house in Ditmas Park with a huge pool (who doesn’t dream about that on these increasingly warm, summer days?), has just listed for $2 million.
The Colonial Revival-style house has eight bedrooms, three bathrooms, a sunroom, a hot tub, a marble surround fireplace, and a patio in its rear yard. The house, built in 1904 by Benjamin Driesler—per the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designation report—boasts doric columns, large gables, and a “polygonal corner tower.”
Details that add to the house’s “old world charm,” as described in the brokerbabble, include crown molding, hardwood floor, custom millwork, and wood wainscoting.
The Ditmas Park property is located in a tree-lined block at 1600 Dorchester Road, between East 16th and 17th Streets, a block away from the Cortelyou Rd B and Q train station. Taxes for the property are $752/month.
Warner Lewis, Ari Harkov, Kerrie Lynch, and the Harkov Lewis Team of Halstead Real Estate have the listing.
Photo by Will Femia
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