Whether it’s Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day or a random Thursday, chances are you have a packet of nuts from Camel Nuts in your pantry. After all, this 50-year-old homegrown brand has become a household name in Singapore.

Like many of us, second-generation leader Poh Shih Yin grew up around the popular brand—but in a different way than you think. While many of us ran around playgrounds when we were younger, Poh’s childhood was spent running around Camel Nuts’s first factory in Tampines.

Reminiscing, Poh explains that her mother worked 24/7 and would bring her to work when no one was at home to care for her. “I have memories of helping our account tally sums, before computers were introduced in the early 1980s. I liked to use the calculator and thought that it was very important work back then,” she adds. Apart from tallying numbers, she would also help adhere stickers to packaging.

Founded in 1974, by Poh’s parents, Poh Ah Seng and Ong Siew Hua, Camel Nuts was born out of the duo’s passion for quality and healthy snacks. The brand began in a backyard, where the duo gained first-hand experience of the nut making process, from manufacturing to traditional nut roasting. Today, the brand is Singapore’s largest and only nut manufacturing company. A household name, the brand offers a wide selection of healthy and delicious nuts—and one of the reasons why it continues to do so is thanks to Poh.

Poh believes that one of the ways to continue her parent’s legacy and bring the company to greater heights is authenticity. Their ethos in building the business, she says, is through “authentic quality products and authentic genuine relationships with all we work with”.

She adds that the company is a family-oriented one, with many employees having been with them for many years. This means that they can have open conversations about the business. “Where I have made mistakes, they will tell me and I will reflect,” she explains. While not all shortcomings can be fixed immediately, Poh shares how this open communication helps her to be more aware and work towards being a better version of herself.

For fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, big changes such as rebranding can be scary. This is because sales can take a hit if consumers do not recognise the brand after the change. Furthermore, due to our memories, consumers tend to not like rebranded products, commenting that “old is better”.

Despite this, Poh continued to go ahead with the change as she believed that the brand needed to “be more relevant to our young consumers”. The refresh saw its iconic camel and font redrawn into a more contemporary one. Fortunately for Poh, who spearheaded the rebranding exercise, she was able to successfully carry out the change—one of the reasons is due to the brand’s consistent and quality products.

From keeping her family’s legacy to flourishing amidst change, Poh shares her journey in our latest story. 

Read the story here.

There have been some momentous occasions in Hong Kong’s sporting history: the football team’s 1985 victory over China in Beijing; windsurfer Lee Lai-shan’s 1996 Olympic gold; the Edgar Cheung Ka-long and Siobhan Haughey-led six medal bonanza at the recent Tokyo games; even the cricket team’s 2014 World Cup win over Bangladesh. A football match taking place at Hong Kong Stadium on February 4 is set to join them among those memories. 

On that day, US club side Inter Miami, co-owed by footballing superstar David Beckham and starring footballing hyperstar Lionel Messi, takes on a Best of Hong Kong Soccer 11 (sort of the SAR’s own team, but not officially) in a one-off match, presented in partnership with Tatler Asia. You’re going to need to pull in some favours if you want to get hold of a ticket: they sold out within an hour of the match being announced.

One major reason for this: Argentina and Barcelona legend Messi, the world’s greatest footballer, who has revolutionised Inter Miami’s fortunes both on and off the pitch since he arrived in the middle of 2023.

In truth, though, the entire short history of the club has been quite a ride. It began when Beckham signed for Major League Soccer (MLS) side LA Galaxy in 2007, with a deal that gave him the option to buy an MLS club when the league expanded. Fast forward to 2013, Beckham ends his playing career at French club Paris Saint-Germain, and the next day flies to the US to announce that he has exercised his option to buy an MLS expansion team—Inter Miami. In 2018, the stadium was complete; Inter Miami would play its inaugural game two years later.

He owns it in partnership with American construction billionaires Jorge and Jose Mas. Since then, it has quickly gone from being famous as The Club Owned by Beckham to The Club Messi Plays For to something else, with a growing constellation of galácticos recruited to play alongside the Argentinian, the latest of them Uruguayan great Luis Suárez.

What they’ve also become is spectacularly famous. They became the world’s most googled sports team in 2023 and saw their social media following skyrocket— from about a million Instagram followers to more than 15 million. Other MLS clubs have stopped including fixtures against Inter Miami in their season ticket packages, so valuable a revenue earning opportunity have they become. LeBron James, Kim Kardashian and Serena Williams all turned up to watch Messi’s debut match; and for a lot of the club’s fans, games these days are opportunities to watch an icon in Messi.

Messi has said that he’s happy to be at Inter Miami, following a difficult couple of years after he left Barcelona in 2021 and joined French club Paris Saint-Germain. He has pronounced himself impressed by the standard of football in the US these days, pointing out that the country’s clubs can now hold their own against those in the traditionally strong Mexican league. He’s also proved himself on the pitch since he arrived, scoring 11 times in his first ten games.
 
“I came here to play and to keep enjoying soccer, which is what I’ve loved my whole life,” he told ESPN in September. “I can tell you that I am very happy with the decision I made,” adding that he and his family have been made to feel very welcome by the people of Miami.

Known for his humility, Messi has repeatedly surprised people in Miami by driving himself to supermarkets to do his shopping (the supermarkets in question generally come to a standstill, mind you). He’s also been passing on his accumulated wisdom to young players at the club’s academy, who are naturally entranced—as is Beckham himself.

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Along the fancy shophouses on the Mohamed Sultan stretch, there’s a sushi sanctuary waiting to be discovered. Step into the peaceful space and you’ll be greeted by a zen Japanese garden flanking the 12-seater sushi counter. Once settled in, you’re encouraged to partake in raking about in the miniature karesansui placed in front of you along with some tea—perhaps to calm the senses for what’s to come. For the uninitiated, you’re in the serene abode of Takahashi Singapore, the first and only outpost of the cult omakase restaurant masterminded by luminary chef Jun Takahashi. 

If anything, the Takahashi namesake is revered in the sushi world as he carved a name for himself when he dedicated six years at former three-Michelin-starred Sushi Saito in Tokyo. After leaving to inaugurate his own haven, Sushi Takahashi quickly rose to fame among the Ginza’s elite, infamously boasting six-month waitlists and a fervent cult following. The international debut in Singapore sees Takahashi appointing chef Rinto Sasagawa—his protege of eight years—to lead the charge.

Thanks to Takahashi’s avant-garde approach when it comes to mentorship, Sasagawa benefited from his mentor’s didactic methods that eschew the traditionalist silences of the sushi world. Blessed with innate talent and armed with profound knowledge that has seen him surpass many seasoned maestros, the prodigious 24-year-old is now primed to present the sublime artistry of Takahashi to the increasingly discerning gourmand on an international scale.

Charting the rich traditions of Japanese culinary art, Sasagawa strikes a harmonious balance with sophistication, flair and modernity. In the signature karesansui zen garden platter, he kicks off with a bounty of the season’s freshest catch: think slivers of seasonal yellowtail sashimi, gently laced with yuzu and ginger; brackish slurps of seaweed and oyster; creamy monkfish liver, aged for a week in a secret sweet yet savoury sauce created by Sasagawa that reminds of Takahashi’s original take.

With a sprinkle of spontaneity, Sasagawa presents a cheeky segment by serving up two types of eels, anago (saltwater eel) and unagi (freshwater eel), both expertly grilled over charcoal. Only after you’ve made your guess, does he then reveal the answer and explain how to tell the difference. Accompaniments of sansho pepper, seaweed crystal salt and freshly grated wasabi offer a multi-dimensional tasting experience. Later, the ultra silky chawanmushi arrives with the comforting warmth of black pepper, whimsical floral notes and sweetness from snow crab, reminiscent of Chinese double-boiled soup.

Besides the luxurious cuts of marinated fatty tuna, standouts include the beautifully smoked sawara (Japanese Spanish mackerel) with hand-grinded scallion ginger paste; creamy ebi (shrimp) dusted with a heady prawn shell powder; Hokkaido nishin (herring) brushed with savoury soy; and the lesser-seen menuke (Hokkaido deep-sea rockfish), masterfully seared with a piece of hot binchotan charcoal, unlocking its rich fatty oils.

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Even with artificial intelligence and other sophisticated marketing tactics available today, word of mouth remains the most powerful medium. And that’s just how the owner of this sleek penthouse found Elliot James, an award-winning design practice with operations in Singapore, Dubai and London.

“The owners came through a referral, and we instantly had great rapport. Our client is an extremely knowledgeable and international owner who has undertaken several renovation projects,” says Elliot Barratt, founder and CEO of Elliot James Group. The request was simple: to have a comfortable family home, with tech woven throughout.

Blessed with windows on all sides, the penthouse offers panoramic sights of the Central Business District and stretches to distant views of Malaysia and Indonesia. Some parts of the view, however, are impeded by adjacent buildings. Thus, adjusting the apartment’s layout to maximise enjoyment of the scenery and create a seamless flow became part of Barratt’s spatial design strategy.

The changes to the layout didn’t only allow for an uninterrupted flow, but also to angle the spaces to enjoy the penthouse’s ace: the view. “It was important to create viewing corridors throughout the apartment to focus the eyes on the horizon,” adds the designer.

The desire to create a light-filled family home also shaped many of the design decisions. Apart from bringing in light by breaking down walls, well-considered materials also enhanced the bright and airy feel of the interior spaces.

Given that this is a family home, adding a sense of warmth was paramount. Barratt achieved this through the use of engineered wood flooring and a largely neutral palette that creates a calming ambience. This, however, doesn’t mean to say decorative touches are in short supply. Quite the opposite: the designer incorporated Phillip Jeffries wallcoverings to bring a sense of individuality to each of the rooms, and used soft furnishings such as Tappeti rugs to add texture.

Much thought went into choosing each element, from the Gallotti & Radice dining chairs to the decorative flourishes afforded by the Alexander Lamont finishes, and the biggest accent piece of all: a bespoke self-playing baby grand piano by British artisans Edelweiss Pianos. A carefully curated art collection ties it all together, including a striking three-metre painting from Australian artist Ella Baudinet that hangs in the hallway.

The bedroom is another area in which the firm’s detailed approach shines. The customised headboard features built-in reading lights, as well as a curved leather inlay with a mirrored stainless-steel finish. It’s paired with bedside pendant lights from Apparatus Studio.

One of the most dramatic interiors is found in a surprising place: the walk-in closet. In stark contrast to the tranquil sleeping area, the wardrobe area is dark, bold and theatrical. Clad in textured black veneer from floor to ceiling, it features sumptuous details such as bronze handles and a leather-clad island in a muted green hue. At the end is a wall of mirrors that reflects light back into the space to ensure an atmospheric appeal and not a gloomy one.

The cherry on top? A hidden, all-white bathroom lies behind two of the wardrobe doors, an unexpected sanctuary that Barratt says is like “entering Narnia.” It is out-of-the-box ideas like this that not only make for a gorgeous home, but will bring delight to its owners every day for years to come.

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