City buzz

SAMPLE EHIME'S SPECIALTIES

DINING

Ehime Food & Sake Fair

YOU may be familiar with produce from the Kanto and Kansai regions or from Hokkaido, but what about food from Ehime prefecture?

Located in the northwestern part of Shikoku, Ehime is the top citrus or mikan producer in Japan, and the fruit is used in ponzu dressing, miso dips, marmalades and even vinegars. The prefecture is also the country's second largest producer of sake.

Diners can now sample Ehime's specialty food and sakes for a limited time at Emporium Shokuhin.

At its Takujo Japanese dining restaurant, diners can sample Ehime specialties such as the Jakoten Katsu, premium fish cake cutlet, and the Mikan Dai Carpaccio or citrus seabream slices. Mikan has been added to the seabream's feed, and the result is slices of fish with a subtle citrus taste.

The seven-course menu, priced at S$98++ has been specially crafted to match a range of four Ehime sakes, such as the Ishizuchi Junmai Daiginjyo. Alternatively, diners can enjoy a sample of three Ehime sakes for S$16++ at Umi+Vino Seafood Wine Bar.

The various sakes and food are also available for sale at the Gourmet Grocer.

By Tay Suan Chiang

MUSIC

Chi/Brazilian Dreams

FRESH from Gentle Bones' sold-out headlining shows last weekend, two more local singer-songwriters will be staging their own big scale concerts this Friday.

Tay Kewei celebrates the seventh anniversary of her musical journey with her show "Chi" - which phonetically sounds like the number 7 or energy in Mandarin - at Esplanade Concert Hall. With three full-length albums released regionally and another three exclusively in Japan, there is no shortage of material for the spunky ex-Project-Superstar contestant. Special guests joining Tay onstage include her husband Alfred Sim and Bonnie Loo.

Across the road at Victoria Theatre, King of Swing Jeremy Monteiro celebrates the CD launch of his latest album Brazilian Dreams with a concert of the same name.

Released earlier this month on digital format, the bossa nova record has soared to the top of the iTunes jazz chart. Expect to hear standards like The Girl from Ipanema and Meditation, with guest singers Juliana Da Silva and Melissa Tham on vocals.

By Dylan Tan

DINING

Six Hands Dinner

TAKE your belly on a trip to Latin America, at the upcoming Six Hands Dinner at the Argentinian restaurant boCHINche next weekend.

For one night, the restaurant's chef patron Diego Jacquet will be cooking alongside Peruvian chef Daniel Chavez of OLA Cocina Del Mar, and Bacchanalia's chef Ivan Brehm who is from Brazil. The seven-course dinner celebrates boCHINche's move to its new home at Amoy Street next Tuesday, and is also an opportunity for the three chefs to pay tribute to their Latin American heritage.

Dishes include a Peruvian seafood ceviche with smoked aji Amarillo and "leche de tigre" by chef Chavez, sweet potato leaves and ricotta tortellini with pea, broad beans, and whey butter by chef Jacquet, and a traditional Brazilian egg custard dessert named Quindim by chef Brehm.

By Rachel Loi

WRITING

Huzir Sulaiman's Playwriting Masterclass

AWARD-WINNING playwright Huzir Sulaiman (Atomic Jaya, The Weight of Silk on Skin) is responsible for nurturing many talented young playwrights such as Faith Ng (Normal) and Joel Tan (Cafe). He also adapted Tan Twan Eng's Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel The Garden of Evening Mists into a feature film.

He is set to conduct a playwriting course specifically for adults. It takes place over six Monday evenings from July 11 to Aug 15, 7pm to 10pm. It is suitable for anyone who writes (copywriters, bureaucrats, civil society folk, etc) but has never thought of writing for the stage before. Of course, if you're simply an aspiring playwright, you're also welcome to apply.

By the end of the course, Huzir would have guided you to write your first one-act play. To apply, write a brief introduction about yourself, your writing/theatre experience and send in a short proposal for a one-act play that you would like to write by June 20 to contact@checkpoint-theatre.org.

By Helmi Yusof

FESTIVAL

The O.P.E.N.

NEXT week marks the opening of The O.P.E.N. (Open Participate Engage Negotiate), a pre-festival of ideas that's a precursor to the main event in August, the Singapore International Festival of Arts.

For a single ticket priced at S$45 from Sistic, you get access to all 43 events, though you have to register your attendance on the sifa.sg website first as there is a limited capacity for some events.

Some headliners include Models Never Talk, a performance art piece where ex-fashion models who once graced the catwalks of Milan and Paris discuss their relationship with clothes and designers.

Also a must-watch is a rock concert by Perhat Khaliq, a fast-rising singer-songwriter from China's Muslim minority community who sounds like a cross between Leonard Cohen and Joe Cocker.

And there's Club Malam, a late evening extravaganza that features concerts, performance art and more. For information on all the events, visit sifa.sg

By Helmi Yusof