High 5: 4th August 2017 by Mrs Tan

Good morning Mdm Tan, Mr Lee, Mr Chung, teachers and all Gessians, it is my pleasure to share with you High 5 today. Our focus will be on one of the Habits of mind: Creating, Imagining and innovating.

Creating, imagining and innovating are a part of the daily lives of most people. Changing a recipe to suit your taste or trying a new method to get something done at work uses these Habits of Mind.

Last week, Ms Lee Pei Ying shared on the innovative McDonald’s Nasi Lemak Burger which was released by fast-food chain Mcdonald to celebrate Singapore’s National Day. It was reported that the burger, as well as other items such as the Chendol McFlurry were sold out islandwide less than 2 weeks since it was launched.

On the same Friday, a burger joint in Malaysia, myBurgerLab tweeted that it will launch its own version of the popular Nasi Lemak Burger – the Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang Burger.

Based on a food reviewer online, the Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang Burger is made up of charcoal buns which are spread with peanut butter (rather than fried peanuts), topped with chopped fried anchovies, pickled cucumbers, sambal, a battered piece of chicken with rendang paste on top and a fried egg. While the burger is by no means a nasi lemak dish – especially without the rice – the essence of nasi lemak and rendang are apparent in the flavours, from the lemongrass to the spicy sambal.

myBurgerLab told Channel NewsAsia that they already had the recipe since three years ago, but they decided not to launch it because they felt it was a boring product. They thought: ‘Why would you eat a nasi lemak burger when you can have nasi lemak?’
So, Why will they want to launch now?

“Times have changed and people want some form of fusion in their food nowadays.”

This is another good example of a restaurant innovating their food menu to keep up with the time.

How about other example from our home ground?

‘NUS creates beer with probiotic twist’, the news was first published 29 June 2017. The probiotic beer is the brain child of Ms Alcine Chan, a fourth- year student at the National University of Singapore’s faculty of science. Ms Alcine Chan is our senior gessian of class 4H in the year 2010.

There are many health benefits of Probiotic such as boosting immune system, preventing and treating urinary tract infections and improving digestive function. An example of beverages with probiotics is the delicious Yakult which is a probiotic fermented milk drink.

While good bacteria are often present in food that have been fermented, there are currently no beers in the market that contain probiotics. Developing sufficient counts of live probiotics in beer is a challenging feat as beers contain hop acids that prevent the growth and survival of probiotics.

By propagating the probiotic and yeast in pure cultures, and modifying conventional brewing and fermentation processes, Alcine managed to increase and maintain the live counts of the strain of probiotic. The NUS research team has also filed a patent to protect the recipe for brewing the probiotic sour beer.

These examples show that ‘Originality does require a pair of fresh eyes’ to recognise the change needed to improve our way of life.

Let’s look forward to celebrate Singapore’s National Day next Wednesday and please stay tune to watch the NDP 2017 Show for more innovative performances such as the largest unmanned drones display in Southeast Asia, seeking to inspire Singaporeans to imagine the immense opportunities that our future brings. I am even prouder to be a Singaporean as I watched the NDP rehearsal from Marina Bay Floating platform for we as a country is constantly keeping up with time too.

Thank you.