Food Picks: Nae:um chef's dream on a menu
SINGAPORE – South Korean chef Louis Han of one-Michelin-starred Nae:um in Telok Ayer dreams of running a small guesthouse some day, in the mountains near Seoul.
So, the 35-year-old has crafted his new menu around that dream. The restaurant presents its menu as a series of themed episodes and Episode Nine, called A Hanok Prelude, presents food he would serve at that guesthouse.
Judging by the food, guests lucky enough to stay at the guesthouse are in for a treat. The menu, priced at $228 a person for six courses or $268 for eight, celebrates produce now in season. This is a well-thought-through menu, but four courses stand out.
Tomato Dongchimi comes with tomato jelly, avocado cream, spring petals and greens, slices of velvety shima-aji or striped jack, and a dollop of caviar. Sure, the caviar is luxe, bu t it is the umami-filled tomato jelly that perks me up.
Chogye, chilled chicken broth spiked with vinegar and mustard, gets something of a makeover. Gone are the noodles, replaced with pan-seared ribbons of squash. Steamed organic chicken and squash blossom stuffed with chicken mousse take centre stage, and they are delicious with the broth; tart and refreshing with konbu vinegar.
I am also bowled over by the brown butter-doenjang sauce in the diamond trevally course. It makes a case for burning butter expertly. That butterscotch vibe tempers the savouriness of the fermented soya bean paste, and it is magic with the confit fish.
So Galbi, the main course of seared short rib, is a triumph. Extravagantly marbled beef is prized, but really, some of us value flavour and chew. This course has spades of it. The beef – marinated with dallae jang, which is made with soya sauce, wild chives that are in season in spring, sugar and sesame oil – is then grilled over binchotan. Served alongside, perfectly seared maitake mushrooms and kale.
Nae:um, which opened in 2021, will close for about eight weeks in early Jun e for renovations. Squeeze in a meal there before it reopens for a new season.
Where: Nae:um, 161 Telok Ayer Street
MRT: Telok Ayer
Open: Episode Nine is available at 6, 7 and 8pm (Mondays to Saturdays); noon, 12.30 and 1pm (Saturdays), closed on Sundays
Info: Call 8830-5016 or go to naeum.sg
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
17 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Italian brainrot: The AI memes only kids know
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The dozen-plus cartoonish AI creatures have fast become memes, inspiring a stream of new content. TOKYO - In a Japanese shop selling pocket-money trinkets, there is a rack of toys, stickers and keyrings based on a global crew of AI-generated characters that almost every child knows about - and very few adults. A walking shark in oversized sneakers, an orange with muscular arms and a twirling 'Ballerina Cappuccina' with a mug for a head are among the strange stars of the online phenomenon called Italian brainrot. 'At first it's not funny at all, but it kind of grows on you,' 16-year-old Yoshi Yamanaka-Nebesney from New York told AFP. 'You might use it to annoy someone and find that funny.' The name nods to the stupefying effect of scrolling through mindless social media posts, especially over-the-top images created with artificial intelligence tools. Shouty, crude and often nonsensical Italian voiceovers feature in many of the clips made by people in various countries that began to spread in 2025 on platforms such as TikTok, embraced by young Gen Z and Gen Alpha members. The dozen-plus cartoonish AI creatures have fast become memes, inspiring a stream of new content such as Brainrot Rap, viewed 116 million times on YouTube. A YouTube Short titled Learn To Draw 5 Crazy Italian Brainrot Animals - including a cactus-elephant crossover named Lirili Larila – has also been watched 320 million times. 'There's a whole bunch of phrases that all these characters have,' said Yamanaka-Nebesney, in Tokyo with his mother Chinami, who had no idea what he was talking about. School-age Italian brainrot fans can be found from Kenya to Spain and South Korea, while some of the most popular videos reference Indonesia's language and culture instead. 'I went on trips with my boys to Mexico' and people would 'crack jokes about it' there too, Yamanaka-Nebesney said. 'Melodic language' Internet trends move fast, and Italian brainrot 'hit its peak maybe two months ago or a month ago', said Dr Idil Galip, a University of Amsterdam lecturer in new media and digital culture. Italian - a 'melodic language that has opportunities for jokes' - has appeared in other memes before. And 'there are just so many people in Indonesia' sharing posts which have potential for global reach, Dr Galip said. A 'multi-level marketing economy' has even emerged, with AI video-makers targeting Italian brainrot's huge audience through online ads or merchandise sales, she added. Ms Nurina, a 41-year-old Indonesian NGO worker, said her seven-year-old loves the mashed-up brainrot world. 'Sometimes when I pick him up from school, or when I'm working from home, he shouts, 'Mommy! Bombardino Crocodilo!'' – a bomber plane character with a crocodile head. 'I know it's fun to watch,' said Ms Nurina, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. 'I just need to make him understand that this is not real.' Some videos have been criticised for containing offensive messages that go over young viewers' heads, such as rambling references in Italian to 'Bombardino Crocodilo' bombing children in Gaza. 'The problem is that these characters are put into adult content' and 'many parents are not tech-savvy' enough to spot the dangers, warned Ms Oriza Sativa, a Jakarta-based clinical psychologist. Tung Tung Tung Sahur The best-known Indonesian brainrot character Tung Tung Tung Sahur resembles a long drum called a kentongan, which is used to wake people up for a pre-dawn meal, or sahur, during Ramadan. Indonesia has a young, digitally active population of around 280 million, and Tung Tung Tung Sahur is not its only viral export. In the summer of 2025, video footage - not AI-generated - of a sunglass-wearing boy dancing on a rowboat during a race at a western Indonesian festival also became an internet sensation. Mr Noxa, the TikToker behind the original Tung Tung Tung Sahur clip, is now represented by a Paris-based collective of artists, lawyers and researchers called Mementum Lab. 'Noxa is a content creator based in Indonesia. He's under 20,' they told AFP. 'He makes fast, overstimulated, AI-assisted videos.' 'He doesn't call himself a 'contemporary artist', but we think he's already acting like one,' said Mementum Lab, which is focused on complex emerging issues around AI intellectual property, and says it is helping Noxa negotiate deals for his work. Mr Noxa, in comments provided by the collective, said the character was 'inspired by the sound of the sahur drum I used to hear'. 'I didn't want my character to be just another passing joke – I wanted him to have meaning,' he said. Cultural nuances can be lost at a mass scale, however, with one 12-year-old tourist in Tokyo saying he thought Tung Tung Tung Sahur was a baseball bat. And the generation gap looks set to persist. 'What's that?!' laughed a woman as she puzzled at the row of Italian Brainrot dolls. 'It's not cute at all!' AFP
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Animated sitcom South Park finds new relevance skewering the Trump era
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A scene from the second episode of the 27th season of South Park featuring (from left) US President Donald Trump and US Vice-President J.D. Vance. NEW YORK – When the 27th season of South Park premiered in July with a scene showing US President Donald Trump in bed with Satan discussing American financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the White House attacked the animated sitcom as a 'fourth-rate show' and said it 'hasn't been relevant for over 20 years'. But the episode drew strong ratings, and when the series returned on Aug 6 with its second episode, some of the Trump administration officials and allies who were skewered – including US Vice-President J.D. Vance – took a different tack and tried to show they could take a joke. 'Well, I've finally made it,' Mr Vance wrote on social media as he reposted a scene from the show that imagined Mar-a-Lago as Fantasy Island (1977 to 1984) and the vice-president as Tattoo, the short sidekick who was played by French actor Herve Villechaize in the original TV series. Not all of the officials who were roasted laughed it off. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was portrayed as a serial dog shooter who was obsessed with her appearance. (She wrote in her 2024 memoir about killing her dog with a gun.) Speaking on conservative talk show The Glenn Beck Program on Aug 7, she said it was 'lazy' to make fun of women for how they look. 'Only the liberals and the extremists do that,' she added. 'If they wanted to criticise my job, go ahead and do that. But clearly they can't. They just pick something petty like that.' In the South Park episode, Got A Nut, Mackey, a school counsellor, loses his job because of budget cuts and takes a position with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He accompanies ICE on raids of a Dora The Explorer Live! show and of heaven, where he is told to round up only brown angels. South Park, which has routinely roasted political figures with satire and dark comedy since its debut in 1997, has regained momentum, as its tart observations of the second Trump administration are commanding attention and breaking through online. Before the episode aired, the Department of Homeland Security's account on social platform X shared a screenshot from a South Park trailer showing masked ICE agents – and added a link to its recruitment website. The South Park social media account responded, 'Wait, so we ARE relevant?' and added a ribald hashtag. The second episode also briefly portrays Mr Charlie Kirk, the founder and chief of the pro-Trump, youth-focused non-profit organisation Turning Point USA. The man himself embraced the parody and approvingly shared several clips on his social media accounts, including a segment in which Cartman fiercely debates 'woke liberal students'. 'Not bad, Cartman,' Mr Kirk wrote on X, where he changed his avatar to an image of Cartman sporting a Kirk-like haircut. NYTIMES
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Two Vietnamese tourists die at sea amid strong winds in Greece, embassy confirms
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Both tourists were found unconscious at sea and were pronounced dead at a health centre. HANOI - Two Vietnamese citizens fell into the sea on Aug 8 at Sarakiniko Beach, Milos Island, Greece, according to a press release from the Embassy of Vietnam in Greece late on Aug 9. According to the local media, the two Vietnamese citizens were on a cruise when the woman was blown off to the waters below due to strong winds, the man then jumped into the sea to try to save her, but the waves carried him far away from the cruise. Both were found unconscious at sea, and pronounced dead at the health centre of the island. The Embassy of Vietnam in Greece promptly contacted and coordinated with local and domestic authorities, as well as the travel company involved, to investigate the incident. The embassy also carried out citizen protection measures, and reached out to the victims' families in Vietnam to offer condolences and support. Following instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassy of Vietnam in Greece has been closely cooperating with local and domestic authorities to assist the victims' families with related procedures and funeral arrangements. The embassy of Vietnam in Greece advises Vietnamese citizens travelling in Greece that as there are currently gale-force winds, they should avoid standing close to cliff edges, boat sides, and refrain from going out to sea during storms to avoid tragic accidents. VIETNAM NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
