A Friendly Update From The Nosh Team

And just like that, it's been 4 weeks of writing lab lessons!

Here's an update of what's been happening so far:

1. THE NOSH HAD MORE THAN 50 STORIES FOR YOU
Originally we Noshers had over 50 story ideas for our magazine (see how much we want to write for you all), but they were mostly unconfirmed ideas. With the help of our teacher who gave us some advice, we managed to scrutinize our story ideas and group them into different columns that we will have in our magazine. 
Don't worry, it's not the quantity that matters, it's the quality of our stories!

2. Design class with Mr. Victor Seow
On one of our lesson, Mr. Seow, our design lecturer gave a class on magazine cover and layout. It was productive and enriching, especially for Nosh's designers as it gave them a better idea on how to design the magazine, layouts and all. Even really basic stuff like the Masthead on a magazine also requires a lot of consideration to be put into it; such as how big the designer wants it to be, what font, and where to put it. The teacher also gave us useful tips on how to make sure we have sufficient space for our articles so that when we print, so our delicious photos won't get cropped out.

Having minimal knowledge about magazine design prior to this class, we found this class really helpful indeed.

3. The Nosh team's first individual assignment!

It's a backgrounder article, on something current and related to our theme, which in our case, was food. Many of us had no prior knowledge on what a "backgrounder" is, and a lot of us thought it meant that we had to do a write-up on the background of a particular topic, just like the name 'backgrounder" suggests. In face, a "backgrounder" is an article explaining about a current trend/topic, and the key element in doing a "backgrounder" is to make sure the 5Ws and 1H are answered (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How). 

Click to find out what each Noshers have learnt from this CA

Here are my group's thoughts on how our backgrounders were, and the experiences gained while working on our individual backgrounders:

My interview and writing skills were put to the test again over the past weeks while working on my backgrounder assignment. I failed to score an interview with Chin Mee Chin Confectionary’s founder, due to my inexperience. It was discouraging to be turned away and brushed off by them.

However, I still needed to find another story urgently. Coming from a Peranakan background, I decided to find out more about my heritage, focusing on Singapore’s Oldest Peranakan restaurant, Guan Hoe Soon. The lady boss made this experience completely different. She was so warm and supportive, welcoming me with the various Peranakan dishes. I felt blessed to be able to interview her.

I learnt more about the history of Peranakan cuisine. I was surprised to find out that most Peranakan restaurants were set up by Hainanese as they worked in Peranakan households. It was heartening to see the owner’s dedication to tradition and her respect for her roots. She refused to sellout her brand and commercialize. Her strong passion to make her customers happy served as the foundation of her business philosophy, and I find that to be very admirable. She even stated she is not too bothered if the restaurant suffers a loss, as she stated hard work is what will ensure it’s success.

I have learnt an important life lesson from this simple, strong-willed woman. She has reminded me to constantly work hard and be humble, and I am extremely thankful for having the opportunity to meet her. 

- Mandy

Singapore is a ‘Food paradise’ and surely there’s a reason to it. Eating has become every Singaporean’s favourite pastime. However, we have so many food places around how do we find out which are the right ones on our taste buds?

Working on this article, I have learnt that mobile savvy youths depend on their food app to guide their senses to the perfect place to have their meals. It seems that not only does the taste of food that attracts youths but they are also looking at the ambience, convenience of the food place. Don’t try to buy these youths with tempting food photos and mouth-watering reviews. They will only believe it if they are credible- posted by users who’ve visited the place.

I have discovered that youths really depend on that device that fits nicely on their palms, don’t belittle its thickness, it can actually fit all the food you can find in Singapore.

- Pamela 

Completing my backgrounder proved to be a gauntlet as my interview skills were once again put to the test, not only this but I also had to look for foreigners to understand what the iconic durian meant to them. I was not really able to do much research on the topic as my focus was not on the history or genetic make up of the fruit and instead it was on how the fruit is part of the Singaporean lifestyle and culture. It was enthralling to realise that the fruit is still intolerable by westerners and was compared to innards of animals - another “normal” cuisine in Singapore.

More than this, I realised that the durian is part of a culture that Singaporeans are more than eager to share with their western buddies, no matter their apprehension of the intimidating ball of spikes. As a Singaporean, I am quite ashamed to say that I have never tried the fruit and don’t intend to and am quite grateful to have been able to understand my culture just a little more through this article.

- Scott

Working on a backgrounder on the indie coffee culture in Singapore has made me more aware about the variety of coffee cafés we actually have here. As a coffee addict myself, the only places I used to go to for my coffee fix were Starbucks and Coffee Bean. However, after visiting six of these artisanal cafés in one day, I now know of more places with even better coffee and ambience and I’ll definitely be frequenting them more often.

I was also lucky enough to score an interview with the operations manager of Maison Ikkoku while I was there. He told me more about the indie coffee scene in Singapore and how these independent cafés take pride in excellent customer service and their identities.

I’ve learnt that even though Singapore is a small country, there are many unique and interesting cafés that many people do not know of because they are mostly situated far away from the city area and are not as overhyped as Starbucks or Coffee Bean.

- Dewi

For my backgrounder, I chose to explore the evolution of the bubble tea trend in Singapore. This topic is one that is quite close to my heart, as I’ve always liked bubble tea ever since my primary school days. But now it's rare to see people buying the old school type of bubble tea anymore, because Taiwan bubble tea brands like GongCha and Koi have overtaken those "old school brands" like Each A Cup, Sweet talk, etc. My backgrounder explored the reasons behind this.

It was a very interesting article for me to work on. Even though I did not get an interview with people behind the bubble tea brands, I interviewed bubble tea drinkers and what they think of the rising popularity of GongCha and Koi. From these interviews, a key insight I got was that youths are more susceptible to peer influence, thus making them easier targets for bubble tea brands like GongCha and Koi.

Through working on this article, I've learnt how material things are indeed very temporal. At the rate the world is changing and new things are being invented everyday, it's hard for a brand or a trend to stay popular forever. There will always be new and better things, and so we shouldn't get too caught up in the latest fad or trend as they will soon all die out. 

- Wei Sze

When I thought about the story idea behind my backgrounder, I was eager to put a health spin to it. Since I have a history of insomnia in my family, I figured “Hey, why not try to find out why and how food affects sleep?” I have read a few magazine articles about insomnia in the past so, I dug up everything I could find about food-related topics to insomnia. And truth be told, it was a tireless episode for me. I spent a few sleepless nights (the irony) researching all I could understand about insomnia and how diet apparently makes an impact on people suffering from it.

Surprisingly, I found out there weren’t many research and studies about insomnia in Singapore. The only legitimate statistics were dated way back in the 1996s. The hardest part wasn’t just simplifying medical terminologies into layman’s terms for the readers – there were a large number of words like “L-tryptophan”, “complex or unrefined carbohydrates” and whatnot – but also sourcing for specialists and experts related to the field of study. The latter was truly a challenging process, as I required scientific experts to shed some light on the relationship between food and insomnia. Fortunately for me, I managed to interview an expert on both sides – a Nutritionist who is well-versed in diet and nutrition as well as a Naturopathic Physician who has vast professional experience and knowledge on insomnia. 

At the end of writing the article, I felt an immense surge of pleasure as I had gained so much knowledge about insomnia and how easy it is get a good night Zzz’s merely from eating the right kind of food, as well as avoiding some unhealthy food habits. Not only can I share the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ to all the readers out there, but also to my family members and friends who are suffering from chronic insomnia or sleep deprivation. I guess now I would be able to provide some source of comfort and relief when I enlighten them that a healthy diet can actually be the recipe to their sweet slumber nights!

-Claudia

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Till our next update! :)