RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: KIMLY COFFEESHOP @ CLEMENTI AVENUE 5

There are three heartland coffeeshops within 100 metres of each other in Clementi Avenue 5. This is the third one we've visited, Kimly Coffeeshop on Block 345. Even though this food court does not actually have a proper signboard, it is part of the Kimly group which has several other establishments in and around Clementi. If fact, it's the biggest coffeeshop franchise in the land, with 89 shops! 

When we visited after work on one evening, we found it quite well attended, as HDB coffee shops are not just eating places, but where people congregate, sit around and while their time away (occasionally getting into scuffles and fights). We've never witness one of those fisticuffs, we're far away from Yishun anyway. 

The Ginseng chicken
tastes better than it looks.

This coffeeshop has your usual assortment of stalls, but there's an old familiar favourite from Block 380, still doing brisk business. Victor's Western Grill & Pasta is a little more expensive than other stalls of this kind, but he is still popular because his portions are generous and tasty. Having not had his food for a while, he joked that his stall "was lost but now found". I can only say amen to that!

Classic chicken chop with brown sauce
and aglio olio spaghetti.

KIMLY COFFEESHOP

Block 345 Clementi Avenue 5

Singapore 120345

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: KEDAI KOPI @ CLEMENTI AVENUE 5

We have eaten here many times, long before this coffee shop became gentrified. Previously, it looked dark and dingy, but the breakfast fare was excellent - wanton mee, pei tan chok, yong tau foo, mee rebus, soto ayam, koay teow tng. For lunch and dinner, there was economy rice, teochew porridge and zichar, Western food, and even earlier, Thai mookata. The prices were cheap, and this place had everything. However, after the pandemic, there was a buyout and the coffeeshop gentrified.

You know the story, the old tenants left or retired and the new stalls had new prices - more expensive. The old faces and air of familiarity evaporated. The old place (we don't even know its name) was anything but halal, but the new establishment was completely halal. It looks much brighter and slicker now. We are still trying to get to grips with the new Kedai Kopi @ Block 380, and getting to enjoy its new dishes bit by bit. We still miss the old stalls, but that's how life is - you learn to move on and adapt. 

Fried Hokkien prawn mee.

Volcano Ayam.
It's actually spicy ramen in all but name.

Here are what we ate, different from what we used to enjoy, but let's give this place a chance. We will soon develop new favourites, and who knows, get hooked all over again.

The goreng pisang was puny,
but the champedak very juicy.

KEDAI KOPI

Bock 380 Clementi Ave 5 #01-376

Singapore 130380

Kedai Kopi | Muslim Friendly Coffeeshop (@kedaikopisg) • Instagram photos and videos

SUKA MAKAN: MA MAISON @ ANCHORPOINT

We're back at Anchorpoint, and this time it's for faux-French cuisine. Ma Maison is a chain eatery, a sort of upmarket version of Saizeriya, and since its French food, it gets to be a little more dear as prices go. For those who can't afford Les Amis, I suppose this will do. 

Ma Maison is French for "My Home". Just slap on a French name to any product, and it will sell for 25% more, possibly even higher. The decor is cutesy but not really French, it's supposed to look Continental but a Japanese version of it as viewed through rose-tinted glasses. There are no wait staff in maid outfits, but the service is good and generally ready to please.

Gratin French Onion Soup.
My cup floweth over, and it looks
so much better with the fake candle.

Ginger Pork. Very tender.

Beef Stroganoff with Beef Katsu,
served with Omurice (omelette & buttered rice).

It's as tasty as it looks, fortunately.

We came for a simple meal, and got just that. No complaints whatsoever. It just looks fancy. These are the pictures, which are actually quite inviting except if you are actually French and will not be fooled. Will we return? In a word, yes. (Because we're not snobs too.)

Did not know that French played cricket.

MA MAISON @ ANCHORPOINT

370 Alexandra Road #01-12

Singapore 159953

AnchorPoint | MA MAISON

FRIENDS IN RHYTHM / Singapore Percussion Association & Friends / Review

 

FRIENDS IN RHYTHM

Singapore Percussion Association & Friends

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (12 August 2026)

I never knew about the Singapore Percussion Association (SPA) until late last week. Now I know. Founded by Mario Choo, percussionist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the association presented a very enjoyable 70-minute concert with members Benjamin Boo (Principal percussionist of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra) and Hazizi Jaafar (freelance percussionist), and their friends.

Photo: Umagic Studio

The well-attended concert opened with Calvin Warren’s Truncated with three men huddled around assorted drums and cymbals. This was a brief but exuberant “fanfare”, erupting with energy and flair, a literally striking beginning to the evening.

Photo: Umagic Studio

Next came Lou Harrison’s First Concerto for Flute & Percussion, a three-movement fast-slow-fast work with Eric Lamb, Head of wind, brass and percussion at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory accompanied by Choo. Busy Bach-like counterpoint occupied the swift outer movements, sandwiching a central movement of haunting beauty, with long-breathed aria backed by the quiet chime of gongs, evocative of Bali or somewhere exotic in the Orient.

Coloratura soprano Wang Tong, also Mario’s wife, was literally carried on stage for a sparkling performance of Les oiseaux dans la Charmille, the famous Doll Song from Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. This arrangement by Choo included accompaniment by piano, flute, marimba and triangle and ratchet (cog rattle). Those familiar with Sumi Jo’s performance know what to expect when the automaton winds down, with Wang Tong brought back to life with a giant key by Hazizi. 

Photo: Umagic Studio

Tickled by the spectacle, people in the front row started taking photos, but were stopped by very obtrusive Esplanade ushers despite a prior announcement that photos and videos were permissible. Who are the real-life automatons now?

Esplanade staff only know how to spoil a show.

Photo: Umagic Studio

For Ben Cato’s Hidden Universe, three men huddled around a marimba for another love-in. This time, the sonorities resonant but mellow, with the syncopated rhythms being more comforting rather than strident. Mario’s remark “I just love off-beats” was on the dot.

Photo: Umagic Studio

The bell is an instrument from the world of percussion, and a tribute was provided by Thai pianist Poom Prommachart, head of junior music at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, in the form of Marc-Andre Hamelin’s Etude No.3 d’apres Paganini-Liszt. This is a fiendishly distorted vista of La Campanella heavy with bass notes, exaggerated grace notes, misplaced harmonies and general virtuoso mayhem. Hamelin, who was in Singapore last weekend, would have approved.

Photo:  Umagic Studio

Wang Tong returned for the lovely Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (The Beautiful Dream of Doretta), the most famous aria from Puccini’s early opera La Rondine. Accompanied by pianist Poom, this was just enchanting. Andrea Venet’s Omnes Trio completed the three-man percussion fiesta, now huddled around a central bass drum and smaller drums. Opening with a strike of a tam tam, and a hint of a theme on cymbals, another rhythmic and exuberant show erupted to close the percussion showcase as it began.

Photo: Umagic Studio

Photo: Umagic Studio

The enchanted evening closed with the Xinjiang folksong, Shang De Yi’s Serene Pastures of July, imbued with Central Asian flavour and mystique, as Wang Tong was accompanied by the full monty tutti. As an encore, she and Poom obliged with Schumann’s Widmung (Op.25 No.1), a dedication to every person in the audience. One can hardly wait for the next SPA concert.

Photo: Umagic Studio

WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT BOOKS KINOKUNIYA?

A guard stands at the entrance of Kino.
You mean people steal books? That's sad.

What would we do without Books Kinokuniya? This would be a rhetorical question if it were not so simple. Big physical bookstores are under threat in Singapore. Over the years, they have been closing, including the wonderful Borders at Wheelock Place, the old stalwarts like MPH (once proudly at Stamford Road), the many Times bookstores. Even Popular, famous for selling textbooks and assessment books, has been bought over. All we have are small indie bookstores and a single giant - Books Kinokuniya. 

Online sales and e-books have helped bring the bricks-and-mortar bookstore to a sad demise. Books Kinokuniya, with its three shops - Takashimaya Square, Raffles City and Bugis Junction - stands alone, but for how long? 

I never read e-magazines, only physical ones.

The aisles should be packed during
a public holiday, but not today.

Browsing is why we have physical bookstores, and nothing feels better than leafing through albums and magazines, and then buying them for a read, hopefully repeated at a later date. Sadly, I am also a Tsundoku, one who has more books than the time to read them. Yet, I persist. 

Visiting Kinokuniya at Orchard Road is a monthly ritual for me, mainly to buy magazines - on classical music (Gramophone, BBC Music, International Piano, Pianist), football (FourFourTwo), history (BBC History and various mooks or magazine books), current affairs (The Critic) and Mekong Review for Asian issues. Then I'll also buy one book - usually on history or world / regional topics.

Nobody beats Kino in Japanese literature,
translated into English.

When Kino has its 20% sale, usually during festive periods and National Day, I buy more, with the hope of reading the lot during weekends and late nights. The photos come from my latest visit, the public holiday Monday after National Day. I came by public transport and returned with a bundle of books. The next big sale will be just before Christmas, and I am already anticipating this.

Musical scores - not a lot to choose from.
The staff are always courteous and helpful.

So to answer the question. Life will be lots duller without Books Kinokuniya, but I'll have more time to cover those unread books.

Post-National Day, I did the patriotic thing
by buying the OG book on Singlish.
Why cannot, meh?