What makes Singapore’s culture, arts and heritage so unique?

It really is the myriad performance spaces like the newly-reopened Victoria Theatre, museums, galleries and exciting festivities for our ethnically diverse population. In fact, one can simply spend a day in the Bras Basah/Bugis precinct and experience how eclectic Singapore can be.

What is your fondest memory of growing up Singapore? 

Watching my grandmother and grandaunts make kueh kueh for Chinese New Year every year, and me stealing freshly made kueh bulohs and “love letters”. Going to the old MPH Building at Stamford Road was also a treat when I was young. Although it’s no longer a bookstore, the building has been beautifully conserved.                                                      

Where do you like to eat out and hang out? 

I enjoy eating and hanging out in the east, where I grew up in and still live in today. There is delicious food in Joo Chiat along East Coast Beach, from the East Coast Lagoon Food Village to Big Splash, which brings back fond memories of Sunday swimming dates with friends and family.

Which is your favourite landmark in Singapore?

I don't think I'm being biased when I say the National Museum building. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Singapore (dating back to 1887), and is architecturally beautiful, inside and out. It reminds us of our colonial past but is today a great place to spend time with your family and friends. It's also magical to stand under the dome to just look up and see the sunlight streaming through the stained glass. 

Angelita recommends...

Attractions Visiting the Night Safari is one of the best things to do in Singapore at night—I always try to find the time to bring overseas visitors there. Another gem is the Malay Heritage Centre in Kampong Glam. In fact, Kampong Glam is such a great place to hang out, have a meal and people-watch!

Parks Gardens by the Bay is most beautiful in the late evening, but do venture to the less popular Bay East Garden near Tanjong Rhu to get a spectacular view of Singapore’s skyline.

Arts Some of my favourite art venues include Artspace @ 222, Singapore Art Museum, Asian Civilisations Museum and The Substation.

Restaurants Flutes at the National Museum of Singapore for a great Sunday Roast, Shirokane Tori-Tama at Robertson Walk for something exotic, such as the cockscomb of a chicken (highly recommended). Jaan at the Swissotel for great food and a great view to match, and for really special occasions, Kaiseki Yoshiyuki at Forum Galleria is just magical. 

Angelita's perfect day...

9am: Head to the market. I like going to the nearby wet market at the Bedok Bus Interchange and buying every possible local breakfast dish (fried carrot cake, chwee kueh, vegetarian bee hoon etc) home to share with the family, so that everyone gets a bit of everything!

12pm: Chill out. It’s probably too hot to be out of the house at this time, and I’d definitely be too full for activities after the breakfast smorgasbord! 

3pm: Catch a movie at one of the larger cineplexes. I always choose to watch a movie on the largest screen available, so I usually l head down to Golden Village at VivoCity.

7pm: Have dinner. One of my favourite restaurants in Singapore is Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily. Willin Low is such a talented chef and he’s so passionate about Singaporean cuisine. The menu at Wild Rocket is reminiscent of familiar tastes, yet so innovatively put together that it is always surprising and exciting to eat there.

I’m a fortunate Singaporean. I’m 65 years old. Look at me, I’m still beautiful, I’m strong, I’m intelligent. I’m still rich. If it wasn’t for the bloody government, I’d be the queen of this country.

I’m very spoiled. I’ve never turned on a computer in my life; I’ve never cooked in my life. But that doesn’t mean that I’m useless. I wasn’t trained to be a servant or a maid; I was trained to be a warrior. I was trained to be a boss.

The greatest thing for landowners is to live and die on the land. That means you get up every morning and you want to go to the land, you want to walk on grass, you want to dig in the mud, you want to pluck your own fruit.

[When I was young, my family] received a bullet in the mail. It said “you better watch out” and things like that. But we never got kidnapped.

People put too much emphasis on the sizzle and not the sausage. In the old days, when we used to do a charity for the Red Cross, we would actually cook things ourselves and make the flower arrangements ourselves. Now, you go to a ball and the flower arrangement is five hundred dollars. So why are you raising money to buy five hundred dollars worth of flowers?

I call myself the gentle warrior. People see [a warrior] as a fierce person but we’re not; we’re protectors. I’m gentle until provoked. But I could kill you. And it’s something that’s inherent in my DNA because my father was from the warrior caste, and my mother was born in the year of the dragon.

You remember that guy who was spitting on the woman on the train platform, and nobody did anything? If I were there, I would have put my hand on his shoulder and said, “My friend, can you please stop doing that?” If he didn’t, I was going to press his neck, pull his tongue out and cut it off.

Possessions don’t make people happy. People make people happy. Life makes people happy.  

Who wants a useless sterile garden? Every HDB estate can be converted into a kampong garden. And I can’t stand them doing their community garden which starts with them building a fence around it. What’s community about it? To me, everybody should just be allowed to grow pandan lah, this lah, that lah. So it looks a bit untidy. So what? But it looks real.

[Bollywood Veggies] isn’t about farming. It’s about creating a circle of life. The very rich must help to carry the poor. Everything that has a heartbeat has a place in the kingdom of the gentle warrior.

I’m a rocket train to bring down evil, unthinking drones so that we can change the system.

I’ve been called obnoxious, notorious, even a super b****. Why should I give a s***? I want to die a legend. I want people to remember me forever. It’s good to have a reputation.

The reason for my patriotism is simple: basic gratitude. Just imagine, my father came to this country as a young, uneducated teenager and by the time I was born, he had built a great business which entitled me to live a fortunate life. I love my country. I’m half-Indian and half-Chinese but I see myself as Singaporean. My aim is to die in this country.

My husband thinks I’m a pain in the ass and that I’m fearless. He doesn’t try to change my mind and I don’t try to change his.

Dishonesty is the world’s worst evil. People don’t understand. They always say compromise is good but I’m not a compromiser. If you’re a dishonest liar, I don’t have time for you.

There’s a god incarnate in all of us. I believe that we can all create, destroy or nurture, depending on our situations and what we want to do, and that makes me unafraid.

I think I’m the most interviewed person in this country. A lot of people don’t like to be interviewed because they don’t like to give an opinion.

Teach a child about nature, teach a child to be a warrior, and he will be a natural protector. And that I think is a great element that is missing from our community.