Maria Tan
Hear me out: high tea is one of the most convincing ways we have found to make snacking feel important. I understand the appeal. The room is polished, the cups are delicate, and everything arrives in miniature. There is something satisfying about sitting down in the middle of the afternoon and behaving as though time…
I almost walked past it. Owen Road Singapore doesn’t announce much. A quiet stretch, low buildings, the kind of road you pass through on the way to somewhere louder. Then there it was, unassuming, just numbers on a wall: 117. Anteasocial is a contemporary Oriental specialty teahouse in Singapore, and if you’re looking for a…
It is easy to dismiss high tea in Orchard as an expensive pause between shopping bags. The tiered stands are photogenic, the hotel lounges polished, and the prices increasingly difficult to defend. ome scones arrive dry. Some savouries feel like banquet food made miniature. Some desserts are designed more for cameras than appetite. Still, Orchard…
I did not expect to find quiet at a McDonald’s Queensway Ridout Tea Garden outlet. But there I was, standing outside the McDonald’s outlet at 580 Queensway, listening to the water instead of the traffic. A much loved pond sat just beyond the glass, surrounded by stone lanterns and trees leaning over it. Somewhere behind…
I have often found that the simplest cup of tea carries the most subtle lessons. Not every tea moment is dramatic, ceremonial, or picturesque. Some are ordinary, even fleeting, yet they manage to teach something quietly about patience, observation, and care. Take the leaves themselves. Watching them unfurl in hot water is a small, deliberate…
The first time I really tasted bubble tea, I mean actually tasted it, I was standing outside a shoppers mall in the rain, waiting for a friend who was late. I had ordered something on autopilot from one of the many bubble tea shops in Singapore. But that day, without distraction, I noticed the tea…
I want to write a letter, not to anyone in particular, but to the quiet ritual that has accompanied so many of our days. To the tea in our cups and to the people who take the time to notice it. Tea is patient. It waits for us when we are rushing. It sits quietly…
Scrolling through my feed this morning, I realized how easy it is to forget what a quiet moment feels like. Notifications, stories, messages- they all seem to arrive at once, asking for attention I don’t always want to give. And yet, in the middle of it, I poured myself a cup of tea. It wasn’t…
There is a pot on many kitchen tables in Singapore that no one talks about much. Pale yellow gold in the glass, with a few small chrysanthemum flowers or flower buds drifting at the bottom. It appears after a heavy meal, at a grandmother’s house, or in a hawker centre when the weather turns unbearable.…
I almost didn’t go. Hotel afternoon tea always felt like something you did for a birthday or a special occasion with loved ones, or when a relative flew in and you wanted to seem like you had your life together. Expensive. A little performative. The kind of thing you photograph more than you eat. If…