Sunday, July 23, 2006

 

Changing of the Guard?

If I could give this year a name, it would be The Year of Endings. In the realm of permanent passings, HDB founder Lim Kim San just passed away on Thursday (20 July) and earlier this year, Rajaratnam (22 Feb). The elections of 6 May saw many (24) MPs retiring and the PAP appreciation dinner was on Sat (22 July). Among them was David Lim who also announced last month that he would be leaving NOL later this year. On Friday (21 July), Lee Hsien Yang also announced that he would be leaving Singtel.

 

Marche Marches On

Interesting. The Sunday Times today (pL27) reported that the Pasar Gourmet (a Chew Swee Cheng company) Marché franchise ends in Apr 2007. Marché Heeren has already closed and its space will be taken over by Vila'ge, a restaurant that is virtually a duplicate of Marché (and started in 2004 at China Square by ex-Pasar Gourmet staff). Marché Suntec closes in Jan 2007.

At the end of this year (Dec), Marché International itself will open an outlet in VivoCity. Am looking forward to that because the standard at the Marché franchisee outlets droped after the Suntec outlet opened.

 

Beadcurd War

I found Teo Pau Lin's beadcurd articles in the Sunday Times (16 & 23 July) interesting. It helps sort out the confusion (which often occurs in the hawker world). According to the Sunday Times of 13 May 2001, Rochor Beancurd was founded by China-born Mdm Tan Kim Keow who started off with a cart along Rochor Rd (about 1983 I think because one of the articles said they started making beancurd 23 years ago). Around 1989, the stall at Short Street opened & the one at Sims Ave opened 4 years later.

In 2002, the youngest brother, David Koh, 38, left and opened Beancurd City in Jln Besar. However, he didn't do well there & opened up a Beancurd City outlet next to the original Short St stall last month. The sister, Koh Chay Luang, 44, is helping him.

Meanwhile, the eldest brother, Koh Koon Meng, 61, opened Rochor Beancurd House on Geylang Road in 2004 and has just opened a second outlet along Tg Katong Rd.

The original stall at Short Street, Rochor Original Beancurd, is run by the middle brother, William Koh, 47, and his wife, Mdm Eng Ah Moi. They are not on speaking terms with their younger brother so you might want to avoid that particular topic if you patronise their stall (or David's for that matter).

 

Gambling Internet Cafes

Interesting article in today's Sunday Times (pp3-4): electronic gambling dens run under the guise of Internet cafes. The article focused on Touch Internet in Toa Payoh but said there were several others in HDBland across the island. Guess the police will be very busy over the next few weeks.

 

I'm Back in Play

After a long hiatus, I'm back again. This seems a useful place to park my record of interesting Singapore news articles. Don't expect regularity though.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?