darting in and out of rain all afternoon in the museum district on sunday, with ikuo wilting visibly in the heat and humidity. he was flitting through singapore for 24 hours on his way to dive in the maldives, and we end up at kki sweets: no longer at ann siang, it now sits within the school of the arts… choice of three sencha (from lupicia, i’m almost sure: i recognise the descriptions which come off the lupicia labels) to pair with their cakes. we pick a chocolate-basil mousse with a bitter dollop of marmalade above and denser, coarser, orange jam below, and a green apple mousse with a nutty base (pistachio, i rather thought) and a brown coating: not salted caramel, but miso caramel.the day before on the design trail tours: between matter hq and the working capitol (apparently founded by one of vaughn’s relations — a prodigious family full of surprises!) des and i nip off to the provision shop for tea and cake (moist, lemony cake, not unlike the ones i used to churn out in cambridge when under stress) and thence to nylon coffee roasters. (the provision shop now has free wifi and they give me my favourite seat by the glass, as usual, and despite my long absence the staff recognise me.) on the way home i take a small detour down bukit pasoh to look for grassroots bookroom. this mini-essay， 【草根印象】, explains why i teared up almost immediately within.
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird