My Perfect Weekend with home-grown singer-actress Boon Hui Lu

Who: Singaporean singer-songwriter and actress Boon Hui Lu got her start as a child star in Mediacorp dramas such as Rhapsody In Blue (2006), before joining Taiwanese singing competition One Million Star in 2012. The 29-year-old is known for songs like Messed Up (2020), which features fellow Singaporean singer Kenny Khoo, or Feng Ze. Boon tied the knot with her long-time music producer Cheong Waii Hoong at the Fullerton Hotel in October. Cheong, 31, also a Singaporean, co-founded the record label Reason Brothers with Khoo.

While Boon and her husband are based primarily in Taiwan, she often returns to Singapore for work. She stars as a woman who can see the dead in the series Till The End, the finale of which will air on Nov 24 on Channel 8 at 9pm. It is available to stream on mewatch. She will be one of the artistes performing at the sold-out Yes 933 Hits Fest concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Nov 25.

“On days when I’m not working, I like to be by myself and read, especially on the weekends. My husband and me are very late sleepers. I usually go to bed around 3 or 4am because I think, for singers-songwriters, nighttime is particularly good for inspiration. It’s quiet, there are fewer people buzzing you on the phone, and you can just put everything down and focus on writing.

Because I sleep so late, I usually wake up late. It might be noon or 1pm by the time I wake up, so I am not the kind of person to go brunch-hopping. I’ll usually sleep in, then go to a nice cafe to have a late lunch at 3pm or so and read. Cafes are usually less crowded during those hours.

The cafes I really like here are the PS.Cafe branches at Raffles City and One Fullerton – they are very nice places. I like their laksa ($28). It’s very expensive, given that I can have laksa for $5, but it is a weekend splurge for me.

When I am in Taipei, I like going to this famous place, M One Cafe, which has two branches – one in Da’an District and one in Xinyi District. I like its rosti. Alternatively, I might go a chain coffee house like Louisa Coffee.

I am now reading an old self-help book, How To Win Friends And Influence People. I read less fiction now, and more self-help books such as Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck.

My reading choices are associated with my job: I have to handle feedback, including criticism. Sometimes, when I get affected or overwhelmed by the criticisms or expectations of me, these books give me tools to help me keep my emotions in check.

I spend my nights jogging with my husband in Taipei and grabbing supper after. There are a few re-chao (the Taiwanese equivalent of zi char) places that we like to go to. For example, there is Baxian Grill near Da’an Forest Park. I love the steamed stinky tofu and fried pig intestines there, since these are not things you see often in Singapore.

Sometimes, we pop down to the night markets as well. I frequent Raohe Street Night Market and Tonghua Night Market for the food, like stinky tofu and a really nice tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) stall that always has a long queue.

We don’t always go for Taiwanese food though. We enjoy Japanese hotpot like Orange Shabu Shabu, which has a few branches around Taipei, since you can end your hotpot off with a seafood porridge cooked in the hotpot broth. There is also a nice izakaya called Chikupa, also at Da’an District, that feels authentically Japanese.

If we are in Singapore, we might go for a run at the public parks near Hougang, where I live, and end off with supper at Hong Chang Frog Porridge & BBQ Fish in Braddell Road.”

• Till The End airs on mewatch.