This BINGO's not a Game!

Being part of BINGO can set the stage for bigger things. Bigger things in the form of:
- business partners who were merely coursemates at university
- a business where you're called the boss
- a spouse (*optional and secondary)

(from l-r: Chew Gui Liang, Wayne Chia, Anderson Lim, Yang Shu Wen and Stanley)

Our guests today weren't talking about the game, but the society that unites them all. Anderson Lim founded NUS BINGO - the society bent on breeding entrepreneurs during his undergrad days in 2002. BINGO is the acronym for 'Business INcubation of Global Organisations). Since its establishment, it's helped to put undergrads on the path of 'entrepreneur-hood'. There aren't many uni-based societies that thrust their students into the real world before they graduate, so I see this to be something special for students predisposed to charting their own course in the open waters of career choices.

The world of opportunities that its members are exposed to through the business trips that are organised is tremendous! You can't quite ask for more after spending almost an entire month city-hopping, meeting top-notch academics and rubbing noses with inspiring business leaders real life entrepreneurs.

More than just the business lessons he took way from his trip to India in 2007, NUS BINGO alumnus-turned-entrepreneur Wayne Chia says he's most impressed and heartened to see how ethnic Indians, no matter how long they'd lived and worked outside India, will give back to their motherland through business and investments.

NUS BINGO comprises students with big dreams and many of these dreams become reality!

Meeting Needs Beyond Our Own

The world is so self-absorbed. This sad fact shines even brighter during times like these where we in the developed world are plunged into the deep dark pit of a worldwide recession. The one thing on many people's minds would be about how they can come out of the economic doldrums. When you clamour and strive for things beyond your basic needs, you stand to lose so much more when the hard times hit. We're seeing that right now with investments valued next to nothing.

Despite the 'economic tsunami' that continues to unleash extensive damage, our interviewees today reminded us to go beyond ourselves, to look at meeting many other needs of whose are not our own. They may not even be needs found on our shores. Beautiful People is a wonderful local initiative aimed at matching adult mentors (primarily women) with teen girls. Girls who've fallen off the main road just slightly and who could do with some help steering back on course. We salute our guests Melissa Kwee and Phyllis Ng who're volunteers with this project. If you love to work with teens and feel you can contribute an hour or two a week to coming alongside young lives and lend them a listening ear, a shoulder and a leg up on life, this initiative could do with your help.

We also chatted with Radion International volunteer Lee Min Wei and founder and director of Cafe Diplo, Jonathan How this morning. How Jonathan's established a humanitarian organisation and hooked up with Radio International to send a mission team to Thailand this month is amazing! Looking to assemble a team of 10 volunteers (singles, couples or groups) for the trip to work, Jonathan says volunteers will be working amongst the Lao Hmong community and destitute locals there.

This could well be the most meaningful humanitarian trip across Valentine's Day. If you're willing and available to commit time, talent and resources for the needy (medical expertise is most helpful!), the trip takes place from 11th - 16th February. Interested parties can send an email to Jonathan.

Of Wacky Superheroes & Broken English...

Today is the 2nd day MediaCorp is shut down this week due to cost-cutting measures. Everyone's on forced leave and our office floor (where all the radio station DJs are) is a ghost town. But of course, The Living Room team is still dishin' out your daily dose of 'live' interviews! 

Today, we had director Beatrice Chia and actress Karen Tan in The Living Room to tell us more about Toy Factory's upcoming musical Sleepless Town. It's the one where singer Debbie Gibson was supposed to be in! Yes, yes, it's been resurrected and hitting our town on 27 Feb. 

Here to spill the beans on Sleepless Town: Beatrice Chia & Karen Tan.

Personally, I'm excited not because the musical's filled with wacky superheroes, but that the costumes are created by celebrity designer Federick Lee! *lol* I mean, what are superheroes without cool costumes? And wait, Mark Richmond debuts as scriptwriter & Don Richmond as music composer? This, I gotta see... 

Also on our couch this morning was Heather Hansen, a language trainer from California. We had such a good time guffawing at the things we Singlish speakers say without realising how ridiculous we sound to foreigners. 

"Your pipe is choked," said Heather's plumber. She could not, for the life of her, understand how a pipe could "choke". Did the plumber mean...... "clogged"?  

Then there was the immigration officer who wanted to "chop" her passport. Heather was horrified as she envisioned him with a butcher's cleaver... 

When we told Jason & Esther - our listeners now living in Sydney - about our Singlish session over lunch, the couple had a good laugh. Esther added that once she remarked to an Australian colleague, "He's so blur!" and the poor guy had no clue what she meant! 

My jaw dropped. Aussies don't understand what "blur" means? *gasp* 

 Lunch with our listeners from Sydney: Jason, Esther & their adorable kids.

Well, after an excellent zi-char lunch off Eng Neo Ave and a free flow of good conversation, we adjorned to Ben & Jerry's @ Dempsey for some ice cream. It's always wonderful to meet our listeners outside of work. What a lovely way to end the week! 

MP In The House, but the Butler's Gone Missing!

Happy Lunar New Year! It was surreal for Pamela & I as we returned to the office today after the long Lunar New Year weekend and public holidays. This is the week MediaCorp 'shuts down' in a cost-cutting effort company-wide. Darkened corridors, empty car parks and quiet as a graveyard. Most staff are on forced leave except for what I'd love to label as 'essential' staff like us. Gee...it's nice to know we're 'vital' since The Living Room goes on - rain or shine, good times or bad.

As usual, we had some great conversations going in the studio. Hope you didn't miss them!

Before I go on, here's some trivia:
- Which Member of Parliament set up a theatre group with his wife and some friends some years back?
- Which constituency's residents were initially concerned when told that a former polyclinic building in their estate would be turned into a foreign worker dormitory, albeit temporarily?
- Which public relations firm just hired an MP as an account director for its public affairs practice three weeks ago?

Answers: Baey Yam Keng, Queenstown, Hill & Knowlton

We hosted perhaps the most youthful-looking MP this morning. We invited him onto our show the day after we'd heard he had joined Singapore's largest PR agency Hill & Knowlton. After explaining to us how a common thread ran through his jobs at EDB, MICA and most recently Capitaland, it didn't seem far fetched that he would join the industry and farther hone his communications & PR skills. Furthermore, which MP wouldn't be in need of those skills given their regular meet-the-people session and the granting of the occasional interview with the media. You can read periodic blog entries by Yam Keng at http://www.p65.sg.

Kickstarting today's first episode in the Year of the Ox was our chat with theatre and stage director Loretta Chen and actor Timothy Nga. After chatting with the both of them, something tells me What The Butler Saw will be a blast. It's the same sense I had after we featured Hossan, Elena and Dwayne on our show ahead of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs. And the show was truly sensational, drawing rave reviews! So we say, times are bad, morale's low, handouts have been announced, what are you waiting for?! Go spend it on tickets to catch this promising production that boldly sells itself as the 'wackiest farce' in town this year! We all need some cheers and lots of laughter in these times! Staged by Zebra Crossing Productions, it opens at the Drama Centre Theatre next weekend.

Spice It Up!

Spices, Spices, Spices. Although Singapore food uses lots of it, how much do we really know about the various types of spices? how to store them? cook them? 

Lucky for us, we had the Spice Queen of Singapore in The Living Room today. She's no stranger to those in touch with the culinary scene here. Devagi Sanmugam is a renowned food columnist, cooking instructor, entrepreneur & author of 16 cookbooks! 

I loved listening to her ~ she talked about spices with such passion. For instance, I learnt from Devagi that if you listen really carefully, different spices give off different crackling sounds when they're cooked, so you can always tell - by listening - when they are ready. Only a Spice Queen can speak of spices like that!

 Queen of Spices: Devagi Sanmugam spices up our morning!

Well, 30 minutes was too short to have all our questions answered. A few listeners called in with queries but we couldn't air them all. The good news though is that Devagi runs a Spice Appreciation Workshop at her cooking school, Epicurean World. And if you're keen to taste her cooking, drop by her newly-opened restaurant Spice Queen @ Race Course Road!

Guess who else spiced up our day? Pierre Png. And if I dare say so myself, he is handsomer in real-life. *wink* 

Pierre came to tell us about a CNY telemovie he's lead-starring in, called A Kucinta Reunion Dinner. We chatted too about his Peranakan roots, his love for food (especially his dad's home-made ngor hiang) and his plans for the Lunar New Year. 

Be sure to catch Pierre, with Mindee Ong (881 fame), on the 2nd day of CNY @ 10pm. Only on Channel 5!  

Prive @ Keppel Bay

We join our colleagues in bidding a tearful farewell to the late Saturday morning talkshow, All About Food. She breathed her last breath on 27 December 2008 and passed away peacefully as a weekend talkshow. All is not lost though. She's been reincarnated into a capsule and replaces what was formerly 'Buon Appetito' on 938LIVE.

However my mum's taught me that we can stinge on anything BUT food. So it is with this wise saying that has prompted us in The Living Room to fill the void. Henceforth, we plan to bring you more food features by way of food reviews, interactions with chefs, bartenders, bakers, farmers, food connoissieur, photographers, consultants and restaurateurs on air and on this blog.
We begin this endeavour with our review of Prive (pronounced as 'pre-vay') - a multi-concept F&B lifestyle venue that encompasses a bar, a cafe and a fine-dining restaurant.

REVIEW
The restaurant's just had a menu makeover and you'll be in good time to be among the first to try the new menu devised by Michelin-starred Master Chef, Wayne Nish. Wayne who's a New Yorker is a trend-setter and champion of fusion cooking. And it comes through in his dishes. Take for instance, Torchon and Saute of Foie Gras de Canard ($32) under 'Starters'. It allows the diner a compare-and-contrast of a chilled cake of creamy goose liver and one that's fragrantly sauteed with a honey-like soy sauce. The Carpaccio ($28) was a light pink palatte-pleaser of yellowtail tuna slice refreshed with ligurean olive oil.

Wayne was also experimental with his Poached Hokkaido Scallop Lasagna ($48), choosing to use sliced tomatoes as the 'pattie' rather than sea urchin roe cream as indicated by the menu. Basking atop the flat sheet of pasta were six juicy scallops calling for the fork to strike. Wayne quipped he might attempt at using the zucchini in place of the tomato the next time. Here's a chef who'll never stop at bringing the enjoyment of food to the next heaven.

If steak's your kind of meat, choose the New York Strip Steak ($68) from the grill. It's 340g of USDA Prime Angus Striploin packed with aromatic juices that made the accompanying dish of brown sauce redundant. The narrow cut made it easy to chew on, but be wary of pockets of fat.

Don't walk away from Prive without a stab at their dessert selection. If you're down to your last cent or final air pocket in your stomach, make it the Molten Center Chocolate Souffle ($23)! Attack it as soon as it's served to avoid disappointment. Leaving it standing may lead to a potential cave-in of the blob of ice-cream and pastry into a pipin' hot bed of chocolate sauce. If you haven't called for the bill, add sixteen dollars more to it by ordering the Lemon and Rasberry Chiboust ($16). Nothing like the zing of Italian meringue to end off a meal.

Alcoholics, you can proceed to the Bar just out the door to your left or the Bakery Cafe beside it for a cuppa. I'd personally recommend the latter's glorious milkshakes. Needless to say, be prepared to pay more than what you'd get at Macs. It's a world of a difference both in quality and price. Some things aren't worth stinging, like my mum says.

Corrinne May on The Living Room!

You've heard her sultry voice on the radio, on soundtracks of movies & TV series. Her latest album 'Beautiful Seed' became Singapore's #1 best-selling album on the very week it was released!

We're of course talking about singer-songwriter Corrinne May, who was our guest on The Living Room today, together with hubby Kavin Hoo. But while it appeared that we had 2 guests, we actually had 3... 

Yes, Kavin & Corrinne are expecting their first child - a girl - come April this year! *grin* And if you're wondering how a 6-months pregnant Corrinne May looks like, here she is: 

Match Made in Heaven: Corrinne May & hubby Kavin Hoo. 

Kavin & Corrinne met at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, and moved to Los Angeles to embark on a music career upon graduation. Corrinne has since released 4 albums: Fly Away, Safe in a Crazy World, The Gift & Beautiful Seed; while Kav started a successful music production company, Earthtones Studio. His instrumental albums have sold over a million copies to date. 

We got Kavin to share about his latest album 'A Moment in Time' (now out in major music stores) which features Corrinne's vocals on 2 tracks. Find out more about what the dynamic duo is up to by clicking on Corrinne & Kavin's websites. 

Well, it seems we won't be seeing as much of Corrinne May once her little bundle of joy arrives ~ at least not for a while. We will surely miss her angelic voice and beautifully-penned songs. But she'll be back! In the meantime, we wish her all the best as she embarks on a new journey... to motherhood. 

Kavin & Corrinne with old Berklee friend, Tong Jen of Symphony 92.4FM.