Latest news with #MikkelLee
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Straits Times
Singapore's national screening programme tests newborns for metabolic and heritable diseases
Find out what's new on ST website and app. It is a preventive measure to detect health problems before the symptoms appear. SINGAPORE – All newborns at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) are screened for metabolic and heritable diseases under the National Expanded Newborn Screening (Nens) programme. It is a preventive measure to detect health problems before the symptoms appear. The procedure – which is not legally mandated – involves pricking a baby's heels to collect a blood sample between 24 and 72 hours after birth. Started in 2006, the programme has detected various metabolic and heritable diseases, including: * Phenylketonuria, which gives the baby a musty smell and lighter skin and can lead to intellectual disability, seizures, behavioural problems, and mental disorder; * Glutaric Acidemia Type 1, which prevents the body from breaking down certain amino acids properly. This leads to a harmful buildup of substances, potentially causing brain damage and movement difficulties: * Maple syrup urine disease, a rare disorder where the body cannot properly break down certain amino acids, causing a characteristic maple syrup odour; and Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Almost half of planned 30,000 flats in Tengah to be completed by end-2025: Chee Hong Tat Asia Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes Asia Behind deadly Thai-Cambodian clashes, a bitter spat between two dynastic leaders Multimedia Lights dimmed at South-east Asia's scam hub but 'pig butchering' continues Business How parents can prevent disputes over their properties Sport Mikkel Lee gets back up to speed as Singapore swimmers eye 2028 Olympics spots Business Banking and finance jobs will change but won't disappear as AI becomes the new normal: Accenture Asia Hottest 'ticket' in Jakarta? Young Indonesians compete for a slot at this novel club * Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, where the body does not produce enough of the hormone cortisol, resulting in the inability to keep blood pressure, blood sugar and energy at healthy levels. The screening programme was expanded in 2019 and now allows more than 40 types of diseases to be detected in newborns. Besides the four conditions listed earlier, Nens can also detect other diseases, including five treatable serious childhood-onset conditions such as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and cystic fibrosis. SCID or the 'bubble boy disease' is a condition where a baby is born without a functioning immune system. Screening involves checking the baby's blood for DNA fragments called T-cell receptor excision circles (Trecs), which show whether the immune system is producing T-cells properly. These white blood cells play a crucial role in preventing infections. While the test does not confirm an SCID diagnosis, abnormalities such as low or absent Trecs indicate that the baby needs to undergo more testing. In 2024, all newborns at KKH were screened under Nens, while the national screening rate in Singapore is 96 per cent.
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Tastemakers: From mezza to mozza, Artichoke restaurant flips the script
SINGAPORE – In Singapore's brutal food scene, where restaurants go belly up in the blink of an eye, staying open for 15 years is a feat. Chefs and owners who get to that milestone should bask in the glow of achievement, of having had the wits to keep all those balls in the air for so many years. Artichoke's Bjorn Shen is not basking. He is converting his New School Middle Eastern restaurant, which turns 15 on Aug 10, into a pizza parlour. The 90-seat restaurant at New Bahru will serve its last Middle Eastern meal on Aug 10 and, on Aug 15, Artichoke becomes a New School Pizza Parlor. Why? 'I've been playing the same video game for 15 years, using the same character and the same weapon. And, like, been slaying all the bosses,' he says. 'After 15 years of playing the same game, I'm getting bored. Can I change the character? Can I change the weapon? 'We're still playing the same Singapore F&B game. But we're changing the weapon now.' Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes Asia Behind deadly Thai-Cambodian clashes, a bitter spat between two dynastic leaders Multimedia Lights dimmed at South-east Asia's scam hub but 'pig butchering' continues Business Banking and finance jobs will change but won't disappear as AI becomes the new normal: Accenture Sport Mikkel Lee gets back up to speed as Singapore swimmers eye 2028 Olympics spots Business How parents can prevent disputes over their properties Asia Hottest 'ticket' in Jakarta? Young Indonesians compete for a slot at this novel club Singapore Kopi, care and conversation: How this 20-year-old helps improve the well-being of the elderly Middle of the barrel He got into Middle Eastern food while working part time at a Greek restaurant in Brisbane, Australia. He had gone there to study hospitality and tourism at the University of Queensland. Cooking with and for his Middle Eastern colleagues spurred him to open Artichoke after he graduated and returned to Singapore. Despite a rocky start when he opened the restaurant in 2010 – diners here did not understand his take on Middle Eastern food – he stuck to his guns. He let his inner dude and irreverence out. The restaurant started attracting attention from the media and diners. He parlayed his image as a self-described 'gun-slinging maverick who didn't care about the rules' into a successful business. Now, he is rocking that boat. The 43-year-old says: 'I'm coming up to 45 soon. I'm not planning to cook in restaurants past the age of 60. It took me 15 years to get here. Can I see myself doing this for the next 15 years and getting to retirement on this one cuisine? I cannot. I don't want to.' He talks about how difficult it is to keep reinventing Middle Eastern food. 'We have to make our way through 10 old ideas before finding one new idea,' he says. 'Now, we're scraping the middle of the barrel. Not the bottom, but the middle. It's getting harder and harder to find cool, new ideas after putting a creative spin on this cuisine for 15 years. So, I'm thinking, 'How many more versions of hummus can I do? How many more versions of falafel can I do?'' Asked if diners who love his food and have become regulars might feel hard done by, he says: 'I'm hoping we've given people good times in the last 15 years.' And to those who have yet to discover Artichoke, he adds: 'We've been here for 15 years. If you haven't come in 15 years, why am I banking on you to come in the next six months?' 'Artichoking' pizza Singapore has had something of a pizza boom in the last few years, with artisanal pies coming at diners in every style imaginable: classic Neapolitan, contemporary Neapolitan, neo-Neapolitan, New York-Neapolitan, San Francisco sourdough, New Haven-New York and Japolitan, among others. Brands such as L'antica Pizzeria Da Michele, Vincenzo Capuano, Fortuna, Roberta's and Pizza Studio Tamaki jostle alongside home-grown ones like La Bottega Enoteca, Blue Label, Wild Child Pizzette and Goldenroy Sourdough Pizza for a slice of, well, the pizza pie. Just as he had 'artichoked' Middle Eastern food – he uses the noun as a verb to describe how he puts his spin on food – he has now 'artichoked' pizza. A big consideration was the Singaporean experience with pizza. 'Our concept of pizza is Pizza Hut, Milano's, Shakey's and Rocky's,' he says. 'It's a crispy-base pizza with a crunch, and lots of toppings that go closer to the edge.' His pizza will come in two formats – Slabs and Rounds. The Slab is a hybrid of the Roman al taglio style, with a foccacia-like dough and usually sold in rectangular slices; and the Detroit style, also rectangular, cooked in a pan, with a thick, crisp and chewy crust and cheese spread out to the edges of the pie. Artichoke's Slab has something a little extra – a half-and-half mix of pecorino and mozzarella cheeses sprinkled on the pan before the dough is placed on top. The pecorino gives the crust flavour, and the mozzarella melts and fries the dough in the oven for a crunchy bottom. The rectangular pies arrive at the table on metal racks so they stay crisp. Variations will include Margherita, topped with mozzarella and pecorino cheeses, red sauce and basil; and Dirty Duck, topped with Balinese spiced duck and snake beans. Prices are expected to range from $22 to $32. Each pie is cut into six squares. Artichoke's Green Supreme is stuffed with mushrooms, peas, garlic and spinach, and topped with zucchini, burrata cheese and mint. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN Slabs will also be made into Stacks, split in half horizontally and piled with fillings and toppings. There are two variations – Green Supreme, stuffed with mushrooms, peas, garlic and spinach, and topped with zucchini, burrata cheese and mint; and Meat Supreme, beef Sloppy Joes, corned beef, bacon and tomato cream. Prices will range from $28 to $32 . Rounds are deep-fried pizza, similar to Pizza Montanara from Naples. At Artichoke, the pizza bases are first deep-fried so they puff up. Then, depending on what goes on them, baked and topped, or topped and baked. The BAP or Bacon Apple Pie comes with pancetta, apple butter, brie cream, hazelnuts and rosemary. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN Variations include BAP or Bacon Apple Pie, with pancetta, apple butter, brie cream, hazelnuts and rosemary; and Black Bolognese, with spicy octopus masak hitam, squid ink and potato cream. Prices will range from $30 to $34. Rounding off the menu will be a selection of snacks, including Beef Lasagne Nuggets, and burrata cheese with strawberry tomato kimchi and perilla; plates including fried chicken and Japanese Oyster & Mushroom pasta; and sweets such as cherry pie. A meal for two might include one snack, two pizzas or plates and a dessert. The average cheque is expected to be $35 to $40 a person – lower than Middle Eastern Artichoke's $69 a person Feed Me menu. Flipping the script on Artichoke will allow it to open all day and to offer delivery and pickup – both not viable in its current iteration. The restaurant in the River Valley area is surrounded by condominiums. Rabbit hole Chef Shen's pizza awakening happened in Osaka in 2017. After days of eating nothing but Japanese food on a trip there, he decided to walk into a 16-seat place called I Love Pizza. It was the first time he ate Neapolitan pizza. 'I was blown away,' he says. 'I'm like, 'Why am I liking the crust so much?' So, I Googled Neapolitan pizza , and then I went down the rabbit hole.' What followed was a deep dive into pizza, although he found it difficult to find proper Neapolitan pizza in Singapore. One place he found was Pizza Fabbrica in Haji Lane. He says it serves pies with leopard spots – the rim of the pizza sports charred spots, the hallmark of authentic Neapolitan pizza. In 2018, he visited 20 pizza restaurants in nine days in Tokyo and, the following year, went on a pizza tour of Bangkok. In 2023, he went to Rome, and then to Caserta, home of I Masanielli, named the top pizzeria in Italy every year since 2019 by the influential 50 Top Pizza guide. In 2020, he started Small's, a four-seat space within Artichoke, then located in Middle Road, serving pizza omakase. Even then, he was 'artichoking' pizza. The meal included Neapolitan-style pies and the highlight was Pizza Alla Banh Mi, pizza dough baked, split and stuffed with a mountain of banh mi fillings – Vietnamese charcuterie, pickles, herbs and tomatoes. He co-owns Baba G's Pizza Place in Seminyak, Bali, with Artichoke head chef Mathew Woon, 41. They serve Neapolitan pizzas there, for a mostly tourist clientele. Bjorn Shen's pizza will come in two formats – Slabs and Rounds. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN So, the switch to pizza does not come out of the blue, he says. Pivoting seems to come naturally to chef Shen. Small's, which went from four seats at Artichoke to a full-fledged restaurant in Lavender Street and back to a seven-seat space in Artichoke, has moved away from pizza omakase. It now serves whatever chef Shen fancies. Currently, it is an All-Fish Korean BBQ menu at $145 a person. The next menu is expected to feature beef and kakigori or Japanese-style shaved ice. Baba G's started out as Babaghanoush in August 2024, serving Middle Eastern barbecue with ingredients from Balinese markets. It became Baba G's Pizza Place in May 2025 . Chef Shen has put in about $200,000, and finds the market there challenging. He is having better returns from Nep!, a 14-seat natural wine bar in Penang he co-owns with two former Artichoke staff – chef Koh Yee Ming, 31, and Goh Chia Ye, 29, a sommelier. It opened in June 2024 and serves small plate food made with ingredients from the markets there. His $80,000 investment has already paid dividends. In 15 years of running Artichoke and doing consultancy work in Singapore and abroad for restaurant groups and hotels, he has come to realise the need to diversify. He says: 'I need to spread my wings out of Singapore. People come to me for consulting gigs here, and I keep telling them I cannot guarantee success. Just because Artichoke's been around for a while, I cannot make your restaurant a success. 'I can't even guarantee that if I open another restaurant in Singapore, it will be a success. There are so many factors stacked against you. One of them is manpower. Without it, we can't do anything, we're just crippled. So, I've been trying to open in places where manpower is a bit more abundant.' The question now is whether the Artichoke pivot to pizza will work. He says his wife Roxanne Toh, 40, who handles the administrative and human resource side of the business, is fine with it. They have two daughters aged eight and six, and a baby boy is due in August. He says: 'She knows I have this thing for pizza. I've got a stupid pizza tattoo, you know? She knows.' For some years, Artichoke used 'Still not dead' as its anniversary tagline. Scrappiness might get a restaurant through its first few years, but then experience must count for something at the 15-year mark. Chef Shen says: 'If I want to build a lasting thing in Singapore, if I want to really entrench ourselves in the hearts and minds of people over time, it needs to be something that is tailored more to the Singapore taste.' So, despite his love for Neapolitan pizza, Artichoke will serve what he thinks will intrigue Singaporeans and also resonate with them. 'Thick, crunchy, full of toppings. Not like Neapolitan, where all your 'liao' is in the middle and then the sides are like, whoa, throw away,' he says, using the Hokkien word for ingredients. None of this is to say he is done flying by the seat of his pants. He is not a gun-slinging maverick for nothing. On the menu of Artichoke, New School Pizza Parlor, he talks about why it is now serving pizza, ending with 'Let's see if we go another 15 years, or if this was a dumb idea'. There is also a new tagline: 'Cheating death since 2010.' Still not dead, all grown up.
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Hackers hit a US app called Tea, where women review men they've dated
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Stolen pictures included some 13,000 selfies or images featuring photo identification submitted to verify Tea accounts. SAN FRANCISCO - An American app that lets women share 'red flags' or feedback about men they have dated called 'Tea' confirmed on July 25 that hackers had accessed some 72,000 images including user IDs. A preliminary investigation indicated hackers early on July 25 accessed a 'legacy' storage system holding images uploaded by users who signed up before February 2024, a Tea spokeswoman told AFP. Stolen pictures included some 13,000 selfies or images featuring photo identification submitted to verify Tea accounts, according to the spokeswoman. The rest of the pictures were from posts, comments or messages publicly viewable in the app, the company said. No email address or phone number data was accessed, according to Tea. Tea's website boasts a 'sisterhood' of more than 1.6 million women who can share dating advice and experiences anonymously on the platform. The app has attracted interest and triggered controversy with its promise to help women avoid problematic men and get intel on dating prospects. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes Asia Behind deadly Thai-Cambodian clashes, a bitter spat between two dynastic leaders Multimedia Lights dimmed at South-east Asia's scam hub but 'pig butchering' continues Business Banking and finance jobs will change but won't disappear as AI becomes the new normal: Accenture Sport Mikkel Lee gets back up to speed as Singapore swimmers eye 2028 Olympics spots Business How parents can prevent disputes over their properties Asia Hottest 'ticket' in Jakarta? Young Indonesians compete for a slot at this novel club Singapore Kopi, care and conversation: How this 20-year-old helps improve the well-being of the elderly Critics point out privacy risks of date reviews that include photos and names, while fans tout the potential for women to avoid manipulative, dishonest, or violent encounters. Tea became the top free app in the Lifestyle category in Apple's App Store this week after it went viral on social media. Copies of ID card photos swiped from Tea were posted on July 25 on 4Chan, an online forum known for 'incel' culture and rampant misinformation, according to screenshots shared on Reddit and other sites. The security breach, involving images of IDs like driver licenses, exposes victims to the risk of stalking or identity theft, according to Mr Trey Ford, head of security at cybersecurity company Bugcrowd. 'Connecting usernames to actual legal names and home addresses exposes these women to a variety of concerns,' Mr Ford told AFP. 'Identity theft is only the tip of this iceberg.' AFP
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
Mikkel Lee gets back up to speed as Singapore swimmers eye 2028 Olympics spots
SINGAPORE – In 2023, Mikkel Lee's swimming career looked set to soar after he posted a blistering 47.25sec anchor leg in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay at the Asian Games in 2023 – the time was more than a second faster than Joseph Schooling's record of 48.27. His confidence, however, took a hit after he missed the cut for the Paris 2024 Olympics 50m and 100m freestyle. And when he did not meet the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) qualifying mark for his pet event, the 50m butterfly, at the Berlin Swim Open in April, he felt lost. The 22-year-old, who is studying finance at Indiana University, told The Straits Times: 'I was struggling in Berlin. I had three events, the 100m free, 50 fly and 50 free, and I was aiming to qualify on the 50 fly but I didn't have a great race as I had a terrible breakout that cost me quite a bit of time. 'I was alone in a foreign country, I had the 50 free left and I was losing my head. I felt the 50 fly was my one shot to make the world championships and I blew it.' A call with Singapore Aquatics technical director Sonya Porter helped Lee get back in the right headspace. Lee, who won the 50m fly gold at the 2023 SEA Games, said: 'She told me one bad swim doesn't make me a bad swimmer, and to go back and shut off everything. Close my eyes, and think of all the good races I had, like the Asian Games and SEA Games swims. That gave me the confidence I needed for the 50 free the next morning.' Eventually, he won the 50m freestyle final in 21.99 to go under the 22.05 WCH qualifying mark. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes Asia 'Nothing like this has happened before': At least 16 dead as Thai-Cambodian conflict continues Multimedia Lights dim at South-east Asia's scam hub but 'pig butchering' continues Business Banking and finance jobs will change but won't disappear as AI becomes the new normal: Accenture Singapore SMRT to pay lower fine of $2.4m for EWL disruption; must invest at least $600k to boost reliability Singapore Tipsy Collective sues former directors, HR head; alleges $14m lost from misconduct, poor decisions Asia Hottest 'ticket' in Jakarta? Young Indonesians compete for a slot at singing club Singapore Kopi, care and conversation: How this 20-year-old helps improve the well-being of the elderly He added: 'Making the cut was relief more than anything else, because I missed the Paris Olympics, and it's an event I haven't really made a breakthrough in, and I was hoping that I can piece everything together and have the perfect race.' Besides Porter's timely intervention, Lee also felt that he has become faster from training with bigger and stronger swimmers in the United States. He said: 'I want to be the best in the world, so I have to race with the big guys. I used to race well only when I'm ahead of the pack and it's clean and calm waters and there's no waves and turbulence. 'In the US, the waves are way bigger, so I have learnt how to not avoid the waves but take it head on but at the same time not be disrupted.' Confidence boosted, Lee is hoping to qualify for Los Angeles 2028, especially with the Olympics including 50m events in the butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke for the first time. Other national sprinters who will compete at the WCH include Teong Tzen Wei (50m fly), Quah Zheng Wen (50m back), Chen Jun Hao (50m breaststroke), Amanda Lim (50m free), Quah Ting Wen (50m fly), Levenia Sim (50m back) and Letitia Sim (50m breaststroke). Noting that 'the expanded programme will be inspiring for the younger generation', Lee said that the depth of the squad would also mean that more swimmers could qualify for the Olympics. Of the 16-member team competing at the WCH, national swimming coach Gary Tan is hopeful that some of them can progress from the heats. Teong qualified for the 50m fly final in 2022, while Gan Ching Hwee has made great strides in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle, and Letitia Sim has done the same in the breaststroke events. Tan said: 'We have chosen to prepare in Singapore as the world championships will be held on home soil and there's no need to acclimatise and travelling would be a hassle. 'While it was tough to be displaced from our usual training venue at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, which was used for test events, we are grateful to train at the weather-proof facility at the Singapore Sports School. 'Our swimmers are in good spirits and look in good shape. Hopefully, this translates to fast times in the races. Although it's going to be much tougher and faster than previous world championships, we believe they can set new personal bests and have a shot at the semi-finals.'
