Gearing up for the long weekend

CELEBRATIONS WITH A TWIST

Junior the Pocket Bar X Remy Martin 6 Ann Siang Hill For reservations, call 8121 1462

YOU'VE eaten countless pineapple tarts, but have you had it as a cocktail? Popular drinking spot, Junior the Pocket Bar, is collaborating with Remy Martin for a pop-up from now till Feb 27, introducing a series of cocktails made using the famed cognac.

Rolling for Prosperity is a pineapple tart in cocktail form, made with Remy Martin VSOP, pineapple, spiced brown butter rum and lemon and served with a pineapple tart on the side.

To go along with the cocktails, the bar snack menu includes Asian-inspired dishes such as yam gnocchi with baby scallops, pan-seared duck breast with plum sauce, kueh pie tee and egg tart with mandarin orange curd.

The Vegetarian Butcher

CHINESE New Year celebrations are about feasting, but what if you've over-indulged and want to eat clean without missing the fun?

Consider plant-based meat alternatives which are now the rage, with Dutch brand The Vegetarian Butcher being one of the newest additions. Its range of products, which include "chicken", "tuna" and "meatballs" are made mostly from soy.

One restaurant to try The Vegetarian Butcher is at The Social Kitchen at Jurong Bird Park, which offers two new dishes just for Chinese New Year.

There's Prosperity NoChicken Festive Salad, which replaces raw fish with thick chunks of NoChicken. The "meat" and fresh vegetables are tossed in a sweet and tangy sauce. The second dish is the Happiness No "Bak Kwa" Pizza, a crispy thin crust pizza topped with fragrant chargrilled plant-based "bak kwa".

SKY HIGH CELEBRATIONS

CÉ LA VI Chinese New Year Dinner Menu Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Tower 3, Level 57 Till Feb 21 (except Feb 14) For reservations, call 6508 2188

WHY jostle with the crowds on the ground, when you can have your Chinese New Year dinner 57 floors above?

CÉ LA VI Rooftop Restaurant offers a six-course menu featuring Asian cuisine with a modern twist. Start with a silent lo hei with salmon yusheng topped with a peanut, sesame and honey plum sauce.

Follow up with their heirloom tomato salad and burrata served with yuzu-shiso vinaigrette, and black truffle chicken soup infused with dried shiitake mushrooms. Fish is a must for Chinese New Year, so the menu includes steamed sea bass in lemongrass-coconut broth. Although it is the year of the Ox, not everyone eats beef, so there's Iberico pork loin in shiitake tare glaze.

The main draw for dining here is the view of the city skyline, so be sure to book a table at the al fresco dining area.

Cable Car Sky Dining Mount Faber Peak For reservations, call 6377 9688

THERE'S no worry about not being able to impress your date with a sky view when you dine in your private cable car cabin.

One Faber Group which runs Cable Car Sky Dining is offering a one-night only four-course Valentine's Day menu which includes crab and Roma tomatoes on cheese bruschetta, followed by a squash clam veloute.

For mains, there is a choice of filet mignon with figs or lobster with potatoes.

Cable car dining is also available on other nights, featuring an Italian-themed menu. Highlights include pan-seared Sicilian tuna, Osso Bucco alla Milanese and tiramisu.

A bonus is that you can enjoy a sunset view while travelling from Mount Faber to Sentosa.

NOT YOUR USUAL CHINESE NEW YEAR AND VALENTINE'S DAY CELEBRATIONS

Zall Bookstore Wheelock Place, #01-02/03, #02-18

BACK in the day, a visit to Wheelock Place often meant a trip to Borders bookstore. Find joy in thumbing through the pages of a book again at the Orchard Road mall, with the opening of Zall Bookstore.

Opened by the Zall Group, a leading B2B e-commerce group, the Singapore outlet is its first overseas bookstore. It has four bookstores in Hubei.

Its Singapore bookstore offers a collection of more than 30,000 books on Chinese literature, humanities, history and philosophy from China and Taiwan. While the majority of the titles are in Mandarin, Zall also carries some English titles. Besides the non-fiction genres, it also offers adult and children's books.

The bookstore's black and white interior is inspired by calligraphy and the architecture of Jiangnan Watertown. A focal point of the store is its spiral staircase that extends from the first to the second floor, resembling a river bridge in the water towns.

Zall Bookstore also houses a cafe, an art gallery and craft store, as well as event and outdoor spaces.

Its spokesman, Yan Ge says: "Zall Bookstore represents the richness of the Chinese heritage by offering readers an array of books with varied genres, as well as a collaborative setting for our readers to rediscover themselves whilst reading."

While the bookstore is currently open from 11am to 10pm, there are plans for it to stay open 24 hours, just like its Hubei stores.

The [Not-So] Convenience Store From now till March 30, National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road

THE festive season is just as good as any other time to remember the importance of cutting down on waste. And who better to remind you of that than The [Not-So] Convenience Store - a store that looks like any other convenience store but isn't.

There are no single-use items that can be easily picked up, used and thrown away, such as plastic bottles of water, or plastic straws.

Instead, the shelves are stocked with alternatives that deemed to be more inconvenient to consumers but are more sustainable for the environment. For example, the fridge is filled with reusable water bottles and coffee cups. The shelves are filled with bamboo straws and reusable shopping bags. Visitors can browse the items and buy them online.

"Convenience is a big part of modern life. Unfortunately, so are its effects. In 2019, Singapore generated enough waste to fill more than 14,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools," says Astri Nursalim, creative director at Kinetic Singapore, the agency behind the exhibition-cum-store. "With The [Not-So] Convenience Store, we want to tell people that there is a price to convenience and it is being borne by the Earth."

Besides browsing, the public can also donate clean reusable bags which will be distributed to retailers, and also drop off small electronic items for e-waste recycling.

Monopoly Explore! SG Available for download on Google Play Store and App Store

IF YOU'VE played the classic board game Monopoly, and wished that all the paper money could be real, that's now possible.

Local activation and engagement company, First Wave Agency, and global play and entertainment company Hasbro have collaborated to launch Monopoly Explore! SG.

The game, which is to be played on mobile devices, allows players to acquire and upgrade tiles on the board. Along the way, players collect Monopoly$ which they can redeem for rewards such as dining and shopping discounts. There's even a cash prize of S$8,000 to be won.

Don Tsai, founder of First Wave Agency, says: "With restrictive measures being enforced during the pandemic, we wanted to provide an alternative way for people to experience and explore Singapore conveniently through their own mobile device, and be rewarded with great local deals in the process. Rewards are always welcomed, especially during challenging times like these."

Monopoly Explore! SG reinvents the classic board game by introducing tiles in categories that represent four uniquely Singaporean experiences: Foods, Goods, Faces and Spaces. On some tiles, such as the Arts House, players can also learn more about the landmark via informative videos.

Land on The Good Tile and players have a chance to make a donation to local non-profit organisations such as The Food Bank Singapore.