Colors: Blue Color

The Ultra Music Festival Singapore has been a yearly affair for some festival goers since 2016. Thousands of people paying hundreds come from all over the world to attend the festival every year. The event will once again be held this weekend on the 8th and 9th of June. However, many rumors have been circulating. Some accused the music festival of not making payments to their performers or other contractors.

Amidst these rumors, they recently released the news that they are going to move the festival indoors. With this news, many festival goers felt cheated as being held indoors meant that there will be a smaller, cramped space, no more fireworks, and even dropping of one of their stages. Fans all over were unhappy with this update. The event has always been held at Ultra park, a grass field just beside Marina Bay Sands. Now, it will be held at B2 Sands Expo and Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands.

And as if that news isn't bad enough, Ultra Singapore's headliner, Martin Garrix, has pulled out of the festival due to an injury. The DJ suffered a serious ankle injury and have been instructed by doctors to be off his week for the coming weeks.

Some fans of him are deeply upset by the news as they are going to the festival just to see him perform.

A local netizen lambasted Mustafa Centre for an unpleasant experience that he had with one of the shop assistant. 

This particular assistant was a foreigner from PRC. He was unable to converse in English with the netizen. To top it off, the staff was also very unhelpful to the netizen's simple request, which was to be referred to the section where charcoal pills are sold.

You can read his full exchange here:

Earlier at Mustafa Centre:

Me: Hi do you have charcoal pills?

PRC staff: Semor?

Me: I’m looking for charcoal pills.

PRC staff: Wo bu zi dao. And then he just stood there ignoring me.

Me again: Do you have any staff here who speaks English?

PRC staff: Semor?

Me: English English! Speak English! And he just stands there ignoring me.

I asked him again loudly and this time, the customers turned to see what was happening and some even gave that annoyed look at the staff.

He then replies something in Chinese which I couldn’t understand and points to the counter staff.

Me: You’re working in Singapore and you don’t know English. Well done!

Approached the counter staff and she angrily directed me to the cosmetics department to look for a Sales staff to get charcoal pills. 

I had to go a few rounds to find for a Sales staff who brought me back to the pharmacy side to get the pill for me.

The netizen was clearly frustrated at not being able to communicate his request to the staff.

He made it clear that he was not a racist and that this was a matter of poor service by foreigner staff who can neither understand nor converse in very basic English. In a country like Singapore where the main language of work is English, this is unacceptable.

 

Dear SG Gov,

I’m not racist or against people from China but FOR GOD SAKE! Hire people who can speak English at the very least! From ordering food at a coffee shop to this, it’s getting worse by the day! We Singapore or Chinapore? What’s our first language?! Nowadays, I see a lot of non-Chinese kids taking Mandarin as their second language just because it’s the majority and so that they can get a job in companies who hire “CHINESE SPEAKING ONLY”. Shame on you!

Dear Mustafa owners,

I know you have an unbelievable pool of customers coming in and out of your shopping mall 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But don’t let that get to your head. Please hire staffs who are friendly and helpful. Not staffs who don’t know how to speak English, reply us in Mandarin or just ignore us or worse, direct us to wrong departments! it’s time you taught your staffs some manners!

#ithellaamorupolappu #wobuzidao #kaninala #seruppuparakkum #upyourgame#mustafacentre #sggov #ministryofmanpower

The netizen's rant is well-placed. We need skilled people to work in Singapore. For someone employed in the service sector, that skill is the ability to communicate effectively in very basic English.

They also need to be trained with the right customer-service skills to be more customer oriented, so that an incident like this does not happen again.

After 16 years of disappearing from Singapore, A&W made their return to Singapore at the Jewel. Queues were insane as masses flocked to once again taste their coney hotdogs and rootbeer floats.

They are opening a 142 seater restaurant at the basement of AMK hub in June. Hopefully, with this new outlet, queues might lessen. And come on, who isn't happy that there are going to be more outlets around Singapore? Hopefully one will open near where you stay as well!

A&W also aims to open a third outlet in 2020. They also have plans to get a halal certification for their outlets.

Are you a huge fan of Mcdonald's curry sauce? I know many of you are. Well, a fan documented the history of it on Reddit. You can read the full post here and hopefully after reading it, you will fully appreciate the curry sauce.

McDonald's Curry Sauce history - the riots and why they are selling it in a bottle

If anybody wonder why people are carrying and buying bottles of McDonald's curry sauce, you'll understand after reading this article, which is also found here with pictures.

I have to admit that I don't like most of McDonald's offerings, even if writing the McLaoSai/McSpicy article makes it seem otherwise. But even I have to admit that I like McDonald's Chili Sauce and Curry Sauce.

I would even go so far as to say those are the reasons to visit McDonald's and not anything else on the menu. Or maybe I just like sweet things and I'm inclined to like anything with sugar in it. Don't judge.

But less of me, and more of facts.

TLDR; Almost caused a riot

The entire McDonald’s Curry Sauce tragedy that can be found from sm ong. You can also browse it on Reddit r/Singaporeif that's what you prefer. Here's a modified summary that I also wrote for GoodyFeed:

  • Sometime in the 1990s, Curry Sauce was added to McDonald's in Singapore.

  • Before 14 Nov 2011, it was truly a great time to be living in. People had UNLIMITED CURRY SAUCE privileges.

  • But alas, good times never last. 14 Nov 2011, Singapore unexpectedly ran out of curry sauce (!!!) #ripcurrysauce

  • A week later the curry sauce was back… but it tasted different.

  • It just wasn’t the same. People cried. People rioted. The old sauce had peanuts. The new had soybeans.

  • From then on, unlimited curry sauce privileges were removed from the population and we had to ration curry sauces.

  • Times were bad, and people had to fork out hard earned money for a meager portion. Some even begged secondary school kids for curry sauce (evidence required).

  • Feb 2015, the sauce once again disappeared, this time due to a congestion at the United States West Coast ports.

  • June 2015, it returned.

  • July 2016, McDonald's sold 375ml bottles of the stuff for S$4.50, limited to 4 per customer, Purchase with Purchase. Apparently sold out in a week or two.

  • 30 May 2019, McDonald's to sell 375ml bottles again, for S$5.50, limited to 4 per customer, Purchase with Purchase.

What is McDonald's Curry Sauce?

Curry but not really curry. Some has described it to be similar to German Curry Ketchup or Currygewürzketchup, though looking at the ingredients, it's likely that they are similar recipes/products with rather different tastes.

Despite being called curry sauce, it doesn't actually taste that much like curry. Nobody really knows why it's called curry sauce. But we know its unique to the region, and maybe even Singapore.

It's sweet, but only very mildly spicy, with a nuttiness that makes it kind of like a cross between satay and Japanese curry.

In case you're doubting my taste buds, a recipe by iEatiShootiPost uses packaged Japanese curry roux cubes and peanut sauce as an ingredient. And this also explains why the weirdos at SoraNews24 made Japanese Curry with McDonald's Curry Sauce.

No one knows what the nutritional value of McDonald's Curry Sauce is, but the ingredients include some spices used in curry, like Turmeric and Chili Pepper.

So how do we eat it? Dip nuggets in it, dip fries in it, pour it on burgers. Nobody really cares, just use it as you would ketchup.

Except you guys. You guys totally deserve all the judgement.

14 November 2011: End of Curry Sauce

This was the day McDonald's released the following statement:

We know many of you have come to love our signature curry sauce, and are sorry that it is temporarily unavailable. This is due to unforeseen supply issues, and we expect new stocks of curry sauce to arrive from the US by the end of next week. To all our valued customers and curry sauce lovers in Singapore, we sincerely apologise and thank you for your patience!

Before the statement, people already started noticing that some stores stopped giving the sauce. After the official statement, people started the #ripcurrysauce movement on Twitter. Surprisingly, there were a lot of comments asking for Mayo on the McDonald's Facebook announcement.

“It’s more saddening than the death of Steve Jobs.”

Notably, it reveals that the sauce is made in the US, despite the sauce being not available there.

23 November 2011: End of Old Curry Sauce

About 1 week later, the curry sauce is back.

Our signature curry sauce is back. It's now in a brand new packaging, but it's still the same taste that everyone loves. Thanks for your patience, curry sauce lovers!

Except... it didn't taste the same. People commented the new one is sweeter and more diluted.

The ingredients used were clearly different; the new one used soy beans and soy butter, while the old version had peanuts, which McDonald's claim to be for allergy sufferers.

Not only that. We were also no longer allowed unlimited curry sauce privileges. And if you wanted more, you had to pay S$0.30.

Feb 2015: Disappearance for 4 months

After a relatively peaceful 4 years, the sauce once again disappeared, this time due to a congestion at the United States West Coast ports.

We would like to assure our customers that despite the situation at U.S. West Coast ports, any disruption to our supply of condiments and ingredients is only temporary. We have a variety of supply sources and in this instance, McDonald’s Singapore has secured supplies from other McDonald’s approved producing countries for most of our products. There are, however, some products for which we are unable to source the same product from any McDonald’s approved producing countries outside of the USA. Hence, these products will be temporarily out of stock. Please refer to http://mcdonalds.com.sg/…/update-on-west-coast-port-conges…/ for the list of products.

Unlike the 2011 incident, people during this period were a little more civil, but there was clear unrest within the population. 

June 2015: Once again, return of the sauce

Issue seems to have been resolved, curry sauce back to menu.

July 2016: Era of the 375ml bottle

McDonald's started selling 375ml bottles of the stuff for S$4.50, limited to 4 per customer, Purchase with Purchase.

Nobody knows whether this was a good thing. McDonald's were clearly using our addiction to the drug to fuel their corporate greed.

Local addicts didn't care. It was apparently sold out in a week or two.

June 2019: 375ml bottles and the uncertain future

If McDonald's knew how to do anything, it was marketing and controlling supply. Nearly 3 years after the previous sold out, thirst for the sauce is once again, at its height. Bottled supplies of the sauce run low. The July 2016 stock were basically non-existent at this point, and addicts had nowhere to go to.

Except McDonald's.

30 May 2019, the evil M are to sell 375ml bottles again, but this time for S$5.50, a S$1 increase in price. It is still limited to 4 per customer, Purchase with Purchase.

I worry of the time curry sauce goes out of my economic capacity, but for now I can only pay up and pray McDonald's don't decide to bankrupt me by preying on my addiction.

To McDonald's: If the curry sauce sells out again, it's clearly totally all me. I demand a commission.

 

McDonald's Curry Sauce history - the riots and why they are selling it in a bottle from r/singapore

 

A helpful netizen has warned Singaporeans against using their credit cards to pay for in-flight meals on Scoot airways. 

He claimed that he was charged twice for a meal he paid. At first, he tried to pay with his credit card but was told that the payment did not go through. He paid in cash instead.

However, when he received his credit card bill, he realised that he was charged there too.

"Thankfully I kept the cash receipt... Have spoken to both my bank and Scoot. Bank says [that] this seems to be a more frequent occurrence lately, with many customers simply letting it go because of the hassle of recovering the money. 

Scoot have told me that they are investigating, but they don't seem to be taking it very seriously at all." 

Pretty sure passengers who have paid for their flight deserve to be treated with some sincerity and respect. 

For people who have yet to board their flight, it never hurts to err on the side of caution. You're welcome. 

Jollibee is gaining a reputation as a very elusive fiast food outlet to get to, especially if you are big fans of the food served by Jollibee. Currently, there are only five outlets available in Singapore if you want to get your fix for fasr food chicken that does not have the letters K, F and C in its name. 

However, those living in the North East part of Singapore specifically in Punggol, can look forward to the opening of an outlet at Waterway Point. Yup, now you can start to enjoy a combination of spaghetti or rice and fried chicken nearby if you stay around Punggol. 

Jollibee have not announced when they will open, but the outlet that once belonged to BurgerUp now has Jollibee hoarding covering it while renovation works are ongoing. The other five Jollibee outlets in Singapore can be found at Lucky Plaza, Square 2, Changi City Point, Paya Lebar Square, and Jurong East MRT Station.

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