Lo-fi
Chic
Chic and cool dining, entertainment and lifestyle options that are
unlikely to fry your wallet in these uncertain economic times. By
the penny-pinching I-S team. Illustrations by Joakim
Smidhagen.
You don’t have to stick to $2
chicken rice servings and shop at the Salvation Army store in these
times of economic slowdown. There are still a whole range of
shopping, pubbing, dining, fashion and entertainment options out
there that are well priced, classy and won’t leave you teetering on
the edge of financial ruin. We show you how and where.
Hitting the town in Singapore
doesn’t have to rip into your bank balance. As in all good cities,
there are many nighttime budget-friendly options. Here’s how you
can live it up el-cheapochic style.
Free Dinner With Your
Drinks
Yes, we all know that in times like these, we need to give up
creature comforts like the happy hour drinks after work. But at
Morton’s (4/F Mandarin
Oriental, 5 Raffles Ave., 6339-3740), you can loosen that belt a
bit during their Mortini Hour (Mon-Fri, 5- 7pm). Tuck into its free
flowing mouth-watering filet mignon steak sandwiches served to you
butler-style when you order their equally mouth-watering range of
martinis at $10.95 each.
Happy Hour Specials with A
View
Over at New Asia Bar’s (71-72/F, Equinox Complex, Swissôtel
The Stamford, 2 Stamford Rd., 6837-3322) Sundowner
Specials allows you to live the high life without bursting
your
bank account with its 50 percent specials off all drinks from
3-9pm daily and midnight-1am on Fri–Sat. Just take it easy if you
want to last the night.
Pick Up Salsa for
Free
What better way to pick up some free sexy dance moves before your
Wednesday night out and about town with free salsa lessons at
Azzucar! (#02-03 Blk. D Clarke Quay, 3 River Valley Rd.,
6336-8718). From 8-8:45pm, Azzucar!’s femme fatale band members
will show you how its done. Its also ladies’ night on Wednesday, so
the chicas can indulge in free-flowing house pours all the way to
midnight.
Men’s Night at
Insomnia
The men do get it at Insomnia (#01-21/22/23 CHIJMES, 30 Victoria
St., 6338-
6883). Once the bastion of the fairer sex, guys can score a rounds
of drinks on
the cheap here every Wednesday night with Insomnia’s Guys &
Girls Night. For
a mere $20, ladies get to enjoy free flow of house pours and
selected beers
between 9pm-midnight while men enjoy free flow between 9-11pm, with
live
rock and Top 40s hits delivered by resident band Batteries Not
Included.
Drink before you Go
Out
Start the night at home with your mates. Get cheap liquor at
wholesale prices at Barworks (#02-33 Chinatown Point, 133 New
Bridge Rd., 6534-1995) and Millie’s Bottle Shop
(www.millies.com.sg), gather at a chosen house, listen to some
upbeat music, and fight for mirror space in the loo.
Get on the Guest
List
Ring up your favorite club (Zouk, 6738-2988; Ministry of Sound,
6235-2292; Home Club, 6538-2928; St. James Power Station,
6270-7676, etc) way before your big night out and ask for you or
for your entourage to be put on the guest list, it could be for a
“bachelor’s night,” “birthday” or maybe you’re all from a “new club
magazine.” Whatever little white lie you tell, sell it, and sell it
well. If all else fails, Mimolette (55 Fairways Dr., 6467-7748) has
its weekly TryBe nights every Friday where you can just
email [email protected]
to be on the guest list.
U Can Party
Start your party early at St. James Power Station (3 Sentosa
Gateway, 6270-7676). UOB Cardmembers can indulge in its Tuesday
Night Specials where a slew of deals that are easy on your next
credit statement. Just flash that plastic to enjoy free entry, 20
percent off bottles and one-for-one on loose drinks every Tuesday
at all St. James’ outlets.
Don’t miss these die-die-must-try
hawker stalls that have fab chow at dirt-cheap prices.
Inspirasi
(#01-11 Bedok
Interchange Hawker Centre, Bedok North Ave. 1)—This famous stall
sells mee rebus, soto ayam and mee soto at only $2 per plate.
There’s always a long queue because the stuff is so good,
especially the soto ayam which has large, succulent chunks of
chicken and wonderful soup.
Chun Ji Wantan
Mee
(#01-1200, 164 Stirling Rd.)—The wantan mee here
has hordes of people queuing up for it and we can see why—it’s got
sweet, juicy, thick chunks of char siew, great soup and three
wantans for only $2.50-3.
Yuan Chun Famous Lor
Mee
(#02-79 Amoy Street Food Centre)—Be prepared to queue up to enjoy a
hearty while not overly-gooey lor mee ($2) here.
Epok Epok Central Nasi
Lemak
(#01-09, Eunos Crescent Hawker Centre, Blk. 4A
Eunos Crescent) - At only $2.50, you can get a heaping plate of
rice, fish, chicken wings and fried egg.
Everybody needs to eat—but how and
where do you find dining places that
are affordable, yet still chic? Here are some to whet your appetite
with.
Eat Loads and Pay as Much
(or as Little) as You Like
Check out Annalakshmi (#B1-02 Chinatown Point, Podium A, 133 New
Bridge Rd., 6339-9993), an Indian-vegetarian eatery that has good
and cheap nosh. The place is staffed by volunteers, so you can pay
however much you want. Dig into the gobi Manchurian, palak paneer
and khumb (mushroom) masala—the signature items in this “eat what
you like give as you feel” restaurant. The interior is adorned with
Indian paintings and suitably elegant, so you don’t compromise on
chicness. Also at Annalakshmi Janatha, 104 Amoy St.,
6223-0809.
Enjoy Good, Reasonably
Priced Food at Hotel Buffets
Head to The Line (Lower Lobby, Tower Wing, Shangri-La Hotel
Singapore, 22
Orange Grove Rd., 6213-4275), which offers an international buffet
($45 lunch,
$68 dinner) with lobsters, crabs, dim sum, desserts, salads, and
Indian, Chinese and Japanese food. Carousel (Royal Plaza on Scotts,
25 Scotts Rd., 6589-7899) offers a spread of international
grub—including seafood,
salads, and Asian, Japanese and Western selections ($37-39 lunch,
$47-56 dinner).
Ride on the Singapore
Flyer and Get a Great Dining Deal
Bistro Senso (#01-03, 30 Raffles Ave., 6338-8550) has a Ride &
Dine package deal in which you can combine a 30- minute ride on the
Flyer with a meal at the bistro ($48 lunch, $68 dinner). At Hibiki
(#01-02, 6338-2454), a set meal
with a ride on the Flyer under Ride & Dine costs only $39.90
and includes a starter, main course and side dishes. Just request
for a voucher from the outlet and present it when
ordering.
Go for Set Meals instead
of A la Cartes
Like, d’uh, right? Well, the tricky part is, where to get the best
value-for-money set meals? We recommend Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant
(#01-05 Park Hotel Orchard, 270 Orchard Rd., 6737-1160) for its fab
bento sets ($20.90 onwards)—you can come back on payday to splurge
on its a la cartes. We also love the three-course set lunches ($22
for pasta, $32 for steak) at Italian restaurant Da Paolo Terrazza
(#01-56 Chip Bee Gardens, Holland Village,
44, Jalan Merah Saga, 6476-1332).
Make use of that
plastic
Credit cards always get a bad rap for sucking people into debt, but
if you use them cleverly, you can actually save more than a few
pennies. HSBC’s Everyday Dining Offers Programme
(www.hsbc.com.sg/homenaway)
helps you nick up to 50 percent off prices at over 600 dining
outlets if you’re an HSBC credit cardholder. And where else to
better enjoy this eye-popping deal than at the uber-fancy iL Lido
Italian Restaurant (Sentosa Golf Club, 6866-1977) where you can get
a one-for-one deal for its HSBC classic set lunch. Also check out
Ah Hoi’s Kitchen (4/F, Traders Hotel, 1A Cuscaden Rd., 6831-4373)
for its one-for-one chili crab offer, and Blue Lobster (87 Frankel
Ave.,
6442-5090) for its one-for-one premium set lunches. Similarly under
the DBS Indulge program, DBS/POSB cardmembers can dig into over 100
one-for-one dining deals. Whether it’s Asian, European or
international cuisine, these guys have it covered. Log on to
www.dbs.com/sg/cards for more information. If the American Express is
what you have, head down to Uluru Aussie Bar & Steakhouse (40
Duxton Hill, 6223-3654) for its one-for-one set lunch or dinner,
where its hearty steaks are a hit with those who love their meats.
Log on to www.americanexpress.com.sg
for more yummy deals.
Throw a Chi-Chi Party,
DIY-style
Just because times are bad doesn’t mean you can’t show off your
hosting skills. Throw a fancy party at home with some help from
cheese and gourmet store La Fromagerie (5 Mohamed Sultan Rd.,
6732-6269). Stocking
an eye-popping 150 variety of cheeses as well as unique port wines,
you
can take home its premium European cheese platter ($22 per pax) or
its
specialty gourmet canapés by the established Le Saint Julien
restaurant ($32 per dozen). This way, you can have you
party and enjoy it—without slaving over the stove.
When it’s time to tighten our
belts, one of the first luxuries to go is travel. So how can you
get your travel fix without splurging on airfare? We suggest you
stretch your imagination and create exotic cultural experiences
right here in Singapore.
Bali High
Get a taste of Bali without shelling out anything from $250-400 on
airfare. You can recreate the Bali feel for a night at Little Bali
(9 Lock Rd., 6733-0185,
www.littlebali.com)
in Gillman Village. Walk through the grand Majapahid gate and
you’ll enter a world of traditional thatched “alang alang” roofed
traditional Balinese huts, where frangipanis bloom and you can kick
back and imagine you are in Kuta or Ubud with a cool crowd of
locals and expats who are in a totally laidback mood. They have a
special Sunday brunch promo where you
can get a Bali Jimbaran BBQ Seafood Platter for four at $80 and
jugs of Sangria at $40. So that’s approximately $30 per person for
a “trip” to Bali complete with food and mates.
An Afternoon in
Italy
Put on your Zegna suit or Versace dress, your Ferragamo shoes and
Gucci sunnies and take a long leisurely lunch at Senso Ristorante
and Bar (21 Club St., 6224-3534). While Singapore is full of good
Italian restaurants, we think there is something about the outdoor
courtyard here that makes you feel like you are in Rome or Florence
or some other oldworld Italiano city. The courtyard has the feel of
a mini piazza complete with marble statue. They have over 500 wines
to choose from with some of the best from vineyards in the Tuscan
region. A meal with a starter, main and dessert with a bottle of
wine shared
between four would set you back approximately $110, which is a
heckuva lot cheaper than the $1,800 you would have to pay if you
bought yourself a plane ticket to Rome.
Trippy
Supperclub
Supperclub (Odeon Towers, 331 North Bridge Rd.,
6334-4080,
www.supperclub.com), the world famous club/restaurant/avant garde
performance venue in Amsterdam that sees long queues every weekend
has arrived on our shores. And being inside this funky nightlife
institution feels like being transported to an uber cool
underground dance club in Amsterdam or Berlin...whichever you
prefer. The novelty of lounging in beds and eating, while watching
live performance acts that include a lady with a pink wig blowing
soap bubbles, is enough to make you feel like you have left stuffy
Singapore.
Travel by Association
Armchair travelers who love their Discovery Travel & Living
channel and who want to learn more about other cultures but can’t
get enough annual leave, can try couch surfing. This is where you
let travelers from other countries who are looking for free
accommodation crash on your couch and in return you can interrogate
them and find out all about Bulgaria, Greece, Macau, Ulan
Battar, or wherever else they come from. Go to www.couchsurfing.com,
look up the profiles of people who are passing through Singapore
looking for a host, and if they don’t look like psychos you can
start corresponding with them and they’ll arrange the dates for
their stay with you. The other benefit is, if you are planning to
travel to say, London in the near future, instead of buying
a guide book, you can share your couch with a traveler from London,
and he or she will hopefully serve as a walking, talking Lonely
Planet guide book. For those with no couches or who still live with
the parents, you can hang with seasoned backpackers, listen to
their jaded retelling of travel adventures and let some of their
wanderlust rub off on you at and backpacker hostel and
pub Prince of Wales (101 Dunlop Street, Little India.
6299-0130).
Check Yourself Into a
Boutique Hotel
Here are some of the things we love about staying in hotels: We can
be anonymous, the service staff always call us Sir and Ma’am,
making us feel like really important! We can get drunk and dance
alone in front of the mirror pretending we are rock stars on tour,
and there is chocolate on our pillow when we get back in the room.
Naumi Hotel (41 Seah St., 6403-6000,
www.naumihotel.com)
and New Majestic Hotel (31-37 Bukit Pasoh Rd., 6511-4700,
www.newmajestic.com) have rooms that are luxurious and
unique enough to get us all excited. The Naumi Hotel is ideal for
having an espresso and watching the TV or getting some quiet alone
time to catch up on all those half-read novels sitting on your book
shelf. New Majestic with its
unique themed rooms is especially good if you want to get some
me-time. Room rates start from $330.
When times are tough, even the
most chic don’t give up on style. They just change their tack. With
some smart shopping you can look a million dollars on a limited
budget. Suit Up at Dan Stevenson Tight pocketed yuppies wanting to
look like David Beckham but who don’t have the spare cash to
splurge on a Hugo Boss or Armani should head down to Dan Stevenson
(184A Telok Ayer St., 6223-4340). Here you can look sharp in a
Saville Row-styled suit without
the British prices. Prices range from $25 for a tie, $45 for a
shirt, $92 for a pair of leather shoes and up to $249 for a
suit.
The Root of
Style
Get a piece of high fashion going for a song at TigerLIVE (#01-02,
St. James Power Station, 3 Sentosa Gateway, 6736-9339). The
illustrious local fashion designer Jonathan Seow whose label Woods
& Woods has shown at the eminent Paris Fashion Week alongside
luminaries like John Galliano and Yohji Yamamoto, has collaborated
with TigerLIVE to come up with a series of limited edition t-shirts
for the entertainment center’s second anniversary. Coming in two
striking designs and four subtle hues, the t-shirts goes for an
affordable $75 from November.
Rent-A-Bag
Balenciaga, Fendi, Gucci, Prada....We all know how you fashionistas
covet the latest IT bags from these fashion houses and we know how
one can cost a small fortune. So what better way to be a bona-fide
fashionista than joining sg.be-afashionista. com, where from
$49.95-$159.95 a month, you can rent...yes, rent the latest Hermes
Birkin or the Fendi Spy bag without breaking the bank.
Get Budget Catwalk Ready
Kicks at On Pedder
All of us at one point or other have stepped into the hallowed
halls of On Pedder at Takashimaya Shopping Centre and drooled over
the Jimmy Choos and Christian Louboutins heels on display there,
but alas, their stratospheric price tags are beyond the reach of
most of us. Fret not, just one level up, its sister boutique Pedder
Red (#03-16 Takashimaya Shopping Centre, 391 Orchard Rd.,
6735-5735), has been satiating budget shoe lovers with trendy
kicks, minus the obscene prices. For $80-$350, fashionistas can get
their
mitts on the season’s latest.
Flea Mart
Smarts
Flea markets in Singapore are going upscale and chi-chi. Expect to
find trendy second-hand clothes, CDs, vinyl records and other
possessions. Treasure seekers on a budget might want to check out
these new flea marts like Rapunsale, which happens twice a year at
Loof (#03-07 Odeon Towers
Extension Rooftop, 331 North Bridge Rd., 6338-8035), Zouk’s (17
Jiak Kim St., 6738-2988) quarterly Flea & Easy, the
“indie-pendant” Flea.Fly.Flo.Fun
(community.livejournal.com/fleaflyflofun) which happens every two
months, and MAAD which hawks original creations at the Red Dot
Traffic building (28 Maxwell Rd., 6534-7001) every month. Prices
range from $2-400 and you can
find sartorial gems like Zouk’s Tracy Philips’ used vintage fare,
cheap offerings from boutiques like Woonderland and Bread &
Butter and even handmade goodies from Makisquarepatch.
Watching movies—the perfect form
of escapism is sadly becoming more of a luxury, what with
nonsensical $10 ticket charges. Here are some ways to have your fix
of celluloid pleasures for less.
Cheaper Big Screen
Fare
If you’re hankering for the latest flick but you want to scrimp,
then pre-paid movie vouchers and gift cards are your refuge. There
are numerous dollar scrounging deals in the market, such as the
Cathay E!-pass ($50-100) for $6 tickets from Mon–Fri before 5pm and
$8 tickets for the weekends, HSBC
Everyday Movie Privileges Pre-paid Card with a value of $75 for 10
movies at Golden Village cinemas and EW Movie Gift Cards with a
value of $60 for 10 weekday movies at Eng Wah cinemas. Log
onto www.cathay.com.sg, www.hsbc.com.sg and www.ewcinemas.com.sg for more information. You can also sign up for a
membership with the Singapore Film Society and attend over 100
films annually from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to arthouse
classics at screening venues conveniently located around town. At
$90 for a yearly membership, it’s a real steal. Log onto
www.sfs.org.sg for more information.
The Home
Cinema
Why bother heading to the cinemas at all when you can watch the
latest blockbusters in the comfort of your pad? Join an online DVD
rental store like Hollywood Clicks (6836-9445) for good rental
deals on an extensive collection of audio-visual fodder. All you
have to do is sign up for one of their membership deals,
select your films and they will arrive within one to two
working days in your mail. For $24.61 monthly, you can rent an
unlimited number of movies. For more information, log onto
www.hollywoodclicks.
com. Alternatively, get yourself an annual premium membership ($21)
from our trusty National Library (100 Victoria St., 6332-3133) and
help yourself to its eclectic collection of audio-visual material
including DVDs from critically acclaimed documentaries and trite
Hollywood fare.
The Free
Shows
Catch the periodic free open-air film screenings at the lush
grounds of the National Museum (93 Stamford Rd., 6332- 5642). You
can catch beloved classics like Singin’ in the Rain under the
evening sky. Log onto www.nationalmuseum.sg
for the latest schedules. Or, if you
are keen to get a first glimpse of the next big thing in
Singaporean cinema, then keep the
nights of the first Monday of the month free for First Take, a
program that showcases three new short films from budding local
filmmakers. Head over to The Substation Theatre (45 Armenian St.,
6337-7535) from 8pm to watch a slew of local celluloid nuggets for
free.
Instead of dropping a fool’s
ransom at an auction why not try creating works with your bare
hands - pottery, painting and sculpting aren’t all that difficult
to get a hang of.
Painting
My Art Space (21 Tanjong Pagar Rd, 9690-5775) is giving away free
lessons in different disciplines ranging from oil, acrylic
painting, watercolor and basic drawing introductions in the name of
art. For a more in-depth introduction to acrylic painting sign up
for a seven-lesson course (Oct 24-Dec 5) at the
LaSalle College of the Arts (1 McNally St., 6496-5000,
www.lasalle.edu.sg). The course will clue you in painting
techniques, composition and color and values.
Batik
Painting
Why not try your hand at some batik painting at The Substation (45
Armenian
St., 6337-7535,
www.substation.org). Classes run from mid and late October to end
November. Course fees are $120 for four sessions (excluding $40
for
materials). You’ll get the chance to work with Ika Zahri whose
batik
works have been exhibited at the New York Art Expo.
Glass Art
Add some style and complexity to your home with glass art. Art
Glass
Solutions (30 Kuo Chuan Ave, 6440-4957) course fees range from
$100-500 but we say its money well spent for an interesting
lesson in fragile beauty.