4 things that made us go WTF in Singapore this week

From stolen public benches to gay porn as complementary meal entertainment, these are the stories that made us go WTF this week.

A gross injustice to our Hainanese chicken rice

As if Hollywood’s critique-riddled Crazy Rich Asians didn’t stir up enough backlash about misrepresenting Singapore; now there’s upscale UK supermarket Waitrose’s take on our beloved Hainanese Chicken rice. The paid article between Waitrose and The Guardian (where it was published) left out key ingredients while including strange choices like lime juice and honey, replete with pretentious plating. Say what? Chicken rice with no sesame oil or ginger? Some felt that this was taking “fusion” too far; with a particularly enraged Singaporean going off in a diatribe on Facebook to “please stay away from the food of my people and stick to your gloppy mush”. This dish gets no sympathy points as it clearly lacks depth; kind of like purists would say Crazy Rich Asians lacked the Singaporean minority races?

R-rated entertainment at Changi Road eatery

While some of us do enjoy mindless entertainment in the background as meal accompaniments, diners were treated to a little more than sitcoms with their Herbal Soup at Seng Kee’s last Sunday (Oct 7). Originally reported by Zaobao, diners at the Changi Road eatery received a rude shock when in the midst of a meal, a bizarre 12-second clip of two men getting explicitly intimate in bed was shared on the public TV screen. The eatery has chalked it down to a prank diner transmitting the video to the Smart TV over the complementary internet. Let’s hope no kids were present.

Scoot and IKEA capitalize on stolen bus-stop bench scandal

As we all know by now, a 22-year old Singaporean was caught stealing a metal bench from a bus stop by unscrewing the bolts in broad daylight and carrying it home. And just like that, the advertising mavens have swooped in for the kill. IKEA Singapore’s newest item guarantees no dismantling and a bargain price of $159 (as opposed to $1500 for the public bench); while Scoot’s crafty “great benches at a steal” proves that PR teams can put creative spins on newsy buzz. Both companies have had a history of being quick to act on trending topics, like IKEA’s S-hook ad from Ahliangate and Scoot’s tongue-in-cheek flight tickets advert following the Daryl Aiden Yow saga.

Literally and figuratively mopping up after diners

While we’ve heard of disgruntled service staff spitting into coffees or putting a little something extra in meals of demanding patrons, this literal act of a cleaner in Changi “mopping up” after diners takes the cake of all things nauseau-inducing. He should be kept away from the cutlery. Or anything that requires a minimum standard of hygiene. If nothing is sacrosanct these days, we expect hawker goers to start switching up their tissue packets with anti-bacterial Dettol wipes.