Life Style

Globetrotting bartender Hideyuki Saito has created a graffiti-themed cocktail menu melding art, travel and taste.Saito, the senior director of bars at the Tokyo Edition hotels in the Japanese capital’s Ginza and Toranomon neighbourhoods, has drawn on a decade of visits to various countries for the menu.He began his bartending career in Tokyo but left in 2010 to work in London, New York, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. In 2017, he was one of eight bartenders to reach the final of the Bacardi Legacy global cocktail competition in Berlin, Germany.After 10 years abroad, Saito returned to Japan to join Tokyo Edition in 2020.Hideyuki Saito left Tokyo in 2010 and worked in London, New York, Southeast Asia and the Middle East before returning to join Tokyo Edition in 2020. Photo: The Tokyo Edi...

It is my third time interviewing Cheman Cheung in the past four years and each time, the entrepreneur has something new going on.Cheung founded the wellness brand Nüte in 2021, selling smoothie bars online. He has since added two sister brands under Nüte: Benko, a Japanese-inspired bento (boxed meal) shop at Basehall, the upscale food court in Hong Kong’s Central district; and more recently, Gróa, a casual seaside restaurant that opened in April in the south of Hong Kong Island.Gróa in Repulse Bay serves plates inspired by Mediterranean and Japanese cuisine. The name, which means “to grow” in Old Norse, sums up the restaurant’s ethos. “We want people’s well-being to grow here,” Cheung says.“It’s much more than just a restaurant for us. We want people to come in and leave with a lovely memo...

Guitar Man, the final film featuring late actress Kim Sae-ron, is set to be released on May 30, offering fans a glimpse of her radiant on-screen presence one last time.Guitar Man is a musical film that follows the emotional journey of a gifted guitarist who seeks hope through music and relationships, even amid life’s hardships.Kim plays Yoo-jin, the keyboardist of a live band called Volcano, which the main character Ki-chul, played by co-director Lee Sun-jung, joins. The story portrays the band members’ struggles and growth as they journey together in search of hope.“It’s painful to be here alone today when she should be sitting beside me. I cried watching the film. No matter how many times I see it, her story remains so tragic.”

Set within Regent Hong Kong, Lai Ching Heen stands as a beacon of Cantonese culinary excellence. With two Michelin stars and a legacy spanning over four decades, this Hong Kong institution has successfully married tradition with innovation since its opening in 1984.Remodelled and renamed in 2022, Lai Ching Heen has dedicated itself to the art of creating authentic Cantonese cuisine, focusing on premium, seasonal ingredients and time-honoured cooking methods. The restaurant’s culinary philosophy is expertly embodied by executive chef Lau Yiu Fai and head chef Cheng Man Sang. Together, they have transformed Lai Ching Heen into a celebrated destination, showcasing their commitment to quality and artistry.The restaurant’s culinary philosophy is expertly embodied by head chef Cheng Man Sang (le...

“I can’t wait to make 10 more movies,” Kristen Stewart said the morning after making what Rolling Stone magazine called “one hell of a directorial debut” at the Cannes Film Festival.Nor can film critics, judging from the rave reviews of The Chronology of Water, her startling take on the American swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch’s visceral memoir of surviving abuse as a child.All the producers who Stewart said passed on her script, saying its subject matter made it “really unattractive” to audiences, must now be crying into their champagne.Variety magazine called it “a stirring drama of abuse and salvation, told with poetic passion”, while Indiewire critic David Ehrlich said “there isn’t a single millisecond of this movie that does not bristle with the raw energy of an artist”.The fact that she has...

Scientists have developed an “ultra-fast” test which can slash the time patients have to wait to find out which type of brain tumour they have.Patients usually wait six to eight weeks to find out their type of brain tumour. But the new “game changer” tool, which assesses the DNA from a sample taken from the tumour, can achieve this in around two hours, experts found.This means patients can start treatment faster, and the test may even help surgical teams while they are operating to remove tumours, they said.Researchers from the UK’s University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust assessed the new test on 50 patients.The new brain tumour test is a “game changer”, allowing suitable treatment to start almost immediately. Photo: ShutterstockThe research team, which publi...

Feasting on zongzi – sticky rice dumplings – is synonymous with celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival, which takes place on May 31 this year.Legend has it they were created back in 278 BC, after exiled Chinese poet Qu Yuan killed himself by jumping into a river. To prevent fish eating his body, mourning villagers threw bamboo leaf-wrapped rice dumplings into the water – which evolved into the holiday treat we know today.Not all zongzi are the same, though. Aside from the essential components of sticky glutinous rice filling and bamboo leaf wrappers, zongzi differ widely in appearance, ingredients and flavours depending on the particular region of China.The Legacy House’s Cantonese-style zongzi feature a characteristically wide variety of fillings. Photo: HandoutTypical ingredients include p...

On a Saturday morning in April, readers gathered in a park in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta for a monthly book club. Around 260 strangers sat on the grass, heads down, captivated by what they were reading.It almost looked like a regular book club, but there was a twist.Everyone here was reading something different: from fantasy, romance and religion to business and self-help books. Titles read included Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, The Vegetarian by Nobel laureate Han Kang, and The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.Non-traditional book clubs have gained momentum around the world in recent years.Silent Book Club Jakarta is part of a movement that spans from the US to Taiwan, where readers reject the traditional book club format and bring a novel of their own choice and no judgment ...

A rare sports bar dedicated to showing women’s sport has built a loyal following in the northwestern United States, with the founder and many patrons hoping progress towards equality for women athletes will come with the growing popularity of such establishments.The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, opened its doors in 2022 to great community reception.“The line was four blocks long the entire weekend when we first opened. It was mayhem,” said Jenny Nguyen, the founder of what is believed to be the country’s first women’s sports bar.Of the gender-based wordplay in the name, created by inverting two letters, Nguyen, 45, called it “a tiny change that makes a dramatic difference”.Patrons at The Sports Bra watch women’s basketball. Photo: Instagram/wnbaportlandShe said the bar is a place where s...

Molecules in blood and urine may reveal how much energy a person consumes from ultra-processed foods, a key step to understanding the impact of the products that make up nearly 60 per cent of the American diet, a new study finds.It is the first time that scientists have identified biological markers that can indicate higher or lower intake of the foods, which are linked to a host of health problems, said Erikka Loftfield, a National Cancer Institute researcher who led the study published earlier this week in the journal PLOS Medicine.“It can potentially give us some clues as to what the underlying biology might be between an ultra-processed food association and a health outcome,” Loftfield said.Ultra-processed foods – such as instant noodles, sugary cereals, carbonated soft drinks, potato ...