The celebrity chef lineups for the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore has been revealed and they are taking no chances at the $5 billion resort, bringing out some of the world's culinary big guns. The resort will feature restaurants by famous chefs from around the world. The six chefs announced include Mario Batali (New York), Daniel Boulud (New York), Wolfgang Puck (Los Angeles), Santi Santamaria (Barcelona), Guy Savoy (Paris) and Tetsuya Wakuda (Sydney). Chefs Santi Santamaria, Guy Savoy and Tetsuya Wakuda will have their restaurants on the mezzanine layer of the casino while Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud and Wolfgang Puck will have signature restaurants situated near Marina Bay Sands Theatres. Each of the six chefs is personally involved in the concepts, menus, and interior design of the six different restaurants.

When completed, Marina Bay Sands will feature have approximately 2,500 luxury hotel rooms, the rooftop Sands SkyPark, a museum, Las Vegas- style gaming, the Paiza Club for premium players, theatres, entertainment, an outdoor event plaza, and shopping and dining venues. In a press release, Batali calls the resort "the most exciting project I have ever been involved with" but the most philosophical quotes come from the European chefs. Santi Santamaria ponders the possibilities of "culinary poetry" saying he wants his cuisine to "delight the senses and awaken emotional memories with a cuisine of wisdom." Guy Savoy expresses a similar view saying that" cuisine is the art of instantaneously turning produce suffused with history into happiness." They sound like perfect fits for a city that prides itself on the quality and infinite variety of its food.

[via NY Daily News]

You may find it odd that this Richard Mille RM 019 Tourbillon timepiece was recently voted as the 2009's best women's watch in Singapore. Not that the watch isn't nice in theory, but it isn't very practical (or at all practical), nor is it very feminine looking aside from the diamond studded Celtic knot design on the dial and the lovely gleaming onyx movement plate. So while I agree that the watch is cool and probably fun to wear, I would hardly consider it as the best women's watch. But the vote does represent how watch crazy Singaporeans feel, out where the Asia Edition of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève was held this year.

This is not the first time that a Richard Mille watch has been awarded by Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève, and I must admit that the watches are quite impressive in person. Still, it is a shame that many more mainstream appeal women's watches got shafted by a watch that I would predict most women wouldn't choose to wear very often or at all.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com

Should you happen to visit The Lion City, there are a number of fabulous options available for dining. Whether you're looking for a classy place for a business meeting or a more romantic venue, we've got you covered.

Fine dining in Singapore is a major national hobby. As I commented in another article, 10 Things to Eat in Singapore, in most countries, people say: "Hi, how are you?" In Singapore, they say "Hi, have you eaten?" usually followed by "What?" "Where?" and "How was it?"

I was introduced to Singaporean fine dining by Les Amis Group spokesman Raymond Lim at their decadent Les Amis restaurant on Scotts Road (above is their Ciabatta wrapped crispy egg). The restaurant is very true to the French methods of cooking and presentation, but what makes the experience so unique is the Japanese ingredients. It's not quite fusion; they're just making French food with different raw materials -- the results are delicious.

Les Amis Group owns a handful of beautiful dining venues in Singapore, including French, Japanese and Italian restaurants (the most popular European cuisine in the country). Have a look through the gallery for peeks into restaurants all over Singapore including the 2am Dessert Bar, City Space on the Swissotel's 70th floor and the sexy Scarlet Hotel.

This trip was paid for by the Singapore Board of Tourism, but the views expressed within the post are 100% my own.

Plenty of hotels serve up unusual cocktails, but Raffles hotels have a unique claim on cocktail history: sometime in the 1900s, in its Singapore Hotel, bartender Ngiam Tong Boon created a gin-based cocktail named Singapore Sling, in a hue of proper pink designed to appeal to the hotel's female British clientele.

Or so the story goes, there's debate about whether it was originally called a "Singapore Sling" -- in browsing around today, I found reference to a "Straits Sling" and also a "Gin Sling", neither of which have the same ring. There's also question about whether the original recipe is the one in use today -- for more on this, check out "Dr. Cocktail" Ted Haigh's treatise on the subject in Mixologist: The Journal of the American Cocktail, which goes into depth on the subject. Either way, the Singapore Sling served by thousands at Raffles Singapore today is worth trying at home, see the recipe below.

Also in the East, at Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the signature drink is a "Femme Fatale". This drink is named after Jacqueline Kennedy, who apparently left a lipstick- stained cocktail glass at the Elephant Bar during her 1967 visit, which was only discovered during the hotel's restoration. (Questions arise: how did they know that it was her glass? And of all the descriptions of Jackie O, is "femme fatale" the first that leaps to mind?) Either way, this is another drink designed to appeal to the ladies.


Raffles "Femme Fatale"
7.5 ml Crème de Fraise
Dash of cognac
Top with Champagne

Serve in a champagne flute with a garnish of rose.



Raffles Singapore Sling

30 ml Gin
15 ml Heering Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenadine
A Dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry

Last Friday Diageo showed off the first bottle of The John Walker, the new whisky blend in the Johnnie Walker portfolio. The whisky will sell for $3,000 duty free making it the highest priced line in Diageo's entire drinks portfolio. The new blend was created from a small number of rare and exclusive whiskies taken from distilleries that operated in the 1800s during John Walker's lifetime. Singapore received five bottles ahead of the blend's official launch in September 2009.

The first bottle is signed by Master Blender Jim Beveridge and is being auctioned in partnership with travel retailer DFS at Changi Airport to raise money for The Smile Train, the non-profit charity of choice for DFS. The retailer plans to match the amount raised. The Moodie Report has pictures and video of the unveiling.

Europe – the same corner of Europe, actually – claims the first three spots in Mercer Consulting's annual Quality of Living Survey. Vienna, Austria and Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland lead the list, followed by Vancouver, Canada and Auckland, New Zealand in a tie for fourth.

Little has changed for the top half of the top 10. Last year, Zurich nabbed the top spot, and Vienna and Geneva shared the #2 spot. Vancouver is unchanged year-over-year, and Auckland's #5 finish last year is roughly the same as its tie for fourth in 2009.

Not only are the top places to live ostensibly enjoyable, you're more likely to be there for a while. Life expectancies in these cities start at 79 years. It's better than living a nice long life in a dump, I guess.

The United States doesn't appear until the bottom of the top 30, with Honolulu and San Francisco. From Asia, only Singapore picks up a spot in the world's 30 best places to live. South America and Africa are not represented at all. It's strange, I half-expected to see Mogadishu on this list.

Of the 215 places listed, Baghdad has the distinction of finishing last. Sometimes, common sense prevails.

You know it's bad out there when one of the world's richest men, Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia is divesting himself of his assets like it's going out of style. We last wrote about Prince Alwaleed last month when his Kingdom Holding company sold its 50 percent stake in the exclusive Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva and he's not done yet, two of the world's most famous hotels may be up for sale.

Prince Alwaleed, who is worth $13 billion after seeing his wealth tumble from $21 billion last year, is putting the Raffles of Singapore hotel up for sale for $450 million. The legendary hotel was once the home of writer Somerset Maugham and has been around since 1887. This is the hotel that gave us the cocktail known as the Singapore Sling and has been a stopping place for decades of movie stars.

Also said to be up for sale is London's Savoy hotel. The historic London hotel is currently receiving a major renovation. Its sale price could be around £200 million, the same at which Irish property investment specialists Quinlan Private sold it for in 2005.

The Naumi hotel in Singapore has taken a step that seems to be becoming more and more popular, they have created a women-only floor. These rooms at the hotel will have designer amenities and female-only staff. The hotel has 40 suites and has there are five ladies-only suites. They are hidden behind a glass panel on one floor and accessed by a key card. The rooms have in-room cosmetic products including make-up remover and toner from Aesop and pink and gray wallpaper. The hotel's amenities such as the rooftop pool, restaurant and yoga/fitness studio do not have separate women-only areas. This is the first hotel in Singapore I've seen doing this but other hotels around the world in other major cities such as London also offer this. Rooms at the Naumi are priced at between $420 and $600.

Visitors to Singapore have a new place to stay. The St. Regis Singapore is said to be the first new internationally branded luxury hotel to open in Singapore in 11 years. The 20-story hotel is next to the St. Regis Singapore residences which will be in two 23-story towers still under construction. The towers will be home to 173 residences, 92% of which have already been sold at some of the highest prices Singapore has seen. The hotel has 299 rooms and suites and has a ballroom, spa and a fleet of customized Bentleys.

The Singapore St. Regis has 34 butlers who provide personalized service. No self-service coffee bar here, the butlers will prepare drinks and serve them to guests. They will also coordinate courses for room service, offering restaurant-like service in the privacy of your room. The butler service is available to all guests and several butlers are stationed on each floor who are available at the touch of a button. Room rates start at 680 Singapore dollars, which works out to around $465.

[via NY Times]

You've been reading about it, you've been hearing about it, and now it's finally happened: those two tickets up for auction for a luxury suite (plus all kinds of other goodies) on the maiden voyage of the Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 have finally sold -- for $100,000. That sounds like a lot of money to pay for a flight from Singapore to Sydney, but of course it's on an Airbus, it includes a lot of other perks, and that's actually a lot less than what the airline was hoping to get for charity (the "Buy it now" was $380,000). What a bargain!

This intriguing watch comes from Helios, a Singapore watchmaker. The Dragon Limited Edition series has a manual-wind ETA (Unitas) caliber 6498 caliber with 17 jewels, beating at 18,800bph and with a 46 hour power reserve. The 42mm case is 18K rose gold with an AR-coated sapphire crystal and display back. The dial features a dragon whose curving lines are echoed by the wavy hands of the watch. There is also a seconds subdial in seven o'clock position. The watches are a limited edition of 50.

To be accurate, the guy was offered $80,000 for his fish, but he turned it down. Who knew the aquarium scene was getting so ritzy?

The fish that's getting all the attention, and is considered by some to be the most expensive aquarium fish in the world, is a 15" platinum arowana owned by a breeder in Singapore named Aro Dynasty (what a name!). The fish is completely white -- not albino pink -- but white, without a single fleck of color anywhere. Arowanas are not usually so pricey, but this platinum-colored mutation is extremely rare. And just in case you were interested, Dynasty has implied that he is not necessarily looking for an offer higher than $80,000, as the fish is now "off the market."

Off the $80,000 market? Wow, that fish must have a great personality.

The rather stunning design shown here, a collection of six glass towers and 11 villa apartment blocks is another luxury project from starchitect Daniel Libeskind. Reflections at Keppel Bay will be going up in Singapore, offering 1,160 luxury residences along a shoreline. The towers are topped with sky gardens are are linked together with sky bridges. People are already signing up to live in the project which offers everything from modest 732 square foot studio apartments to a 12,900 square foot five-bedroom super penthouse.

[via Property Report]

After seeing what celebrities receive in gift bags, I am liking this trend of seeing non-celebrities receiving extravagant gifts. A few days ago, Nicole brought you the story of a monk who received a luxury car. Now check out Dr. Ho Ching Lin and her new $50,000 watch. Although pretty enough to be an actress, the Singaporean doctor is a pediatrician and an eye surgeon who received the Women of Exception award from watchmaker Parmigiani Fleurier for her work in the medical field.

The Changi Airport in Singapore is scheduled to open the world's first luxury airport terminal in August. The terminal is the equivalent of a first class cabin on the ground. Fliers can pay an additional fee to gain access to the terminal, where they will be treated to the ultimate travel experience, with people to take care of luggage and procure their boarding passes for them, as well as quickly get travelers through security procedures, sans lines. The CIPs (Commercially Important Persons) will be able to lounge in the terminal's comfortable facilities, spared from having to interact with the ordinary travelers, and when it comes time to board their flight, they can even pay to have a limo drive them onto the tarmac and directly up to the plane. Prices have not yet been fixed for the use of the terminal, which cost $10 million to build. It expects to start off with approximately 50 travelers per day.

[Image Channel News Asia]