ST×NLB Cross-References: Fishy filling for epok-epok
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Epok-epok come with various fillings. Some are fishier than others.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
SINGAPORE – On behalf of the ST×NLB Crossword team, thank you for playing our very first original puzzle. (If you haven’t, this story contains spoilers. Give the puzzle a go before reading on.)
We hope you enjoyed spotting the local references in this week’s puzzle and that you’ll be back every Sunday for more. Each puzzle will be accompanied by a companion column, Cross-References, giving a breakdown of the clues and answers, crossword-solving tips and book recommendations from our partners at the National Library Board (NLB).
As a little Easter egg to mark the launch of this collaboration, NLB librarian Sasha Tan and I co-constructed this puzzle and included the names of both our organisations in the answers. Did you grin or groan when you saw STRAITS TIMES (8A and 9A) and NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD (19A, 25A and 27A) emerge on the grid?
We intended many of our clues to be accessible to players new to crosswords and reward local knowledge. Things specific to Singapore like NRIC (10D) and colloquial terms like CHIONG (14A) and ATAS (7D) make for answers that should be easy for a local to get.
Other clues were designed to offer a bit of a challenge for existing crossword enthusiasts.
Here are some comments on our favourite bits of this week’s puzzle. The full answer key is at the bottom of this story.
11A. [Box-bound entertainer] stumped some of our play testers, since it isn’t common to see a MIME in Singapore and the two letter Ms don’t cross other answers. But we felt the image of a mime pretending to be trapped in an invisible box was popular enough that it still made for a fair clue.
12A. [Fishy filling for epok-epok] refers to SARDINES, which we originally clued as “Might appear in curry puffs”. But are sardine puffs a type of curry puff? Or are they a totally different thing? Play testers were split on this question, leading to a rephrasing of the clue. We tried “Might appear in puff pastry” before settling on referencing epok-epok specifically to put that local flavour back into it.
2D. [Tinder trickster] refers not to a swindler but a CATFISH, or someone whose identity in real life does not match his or her online profile. Some people take on fake personas to cheat or blackmail victims.
5D. MEIJI is the company that makes Hello Panda. Did you know it stopped selling the snack in Japan in 1989, just two years after its launch? The international version was first produced in Meiji’s Singapore factory in 1991 and it remains popular here and around the world. Kudos to /u/Kiasu_K on Reddit’s /r/Singapore message board for that little tidbit.
6D. [Teacher’s imperative in red] could be an easy solve for anyone who has ever received a fat zero on a test accompanied by the dread-inducing command SEE ME in red ink, which strikes us as being quite a Singapore-coded experience.
17D. [It follows Single’s or Dante’s] gives you two ways to get to INFERNO, either via the hit South Korean reality dating show on Netflix or the 14th-century Italian epic The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri.
18D. [Income, say] might be the trickiest clue in the puzzle, as solving it relies on knowing that Income, formerly known as NTUC Income, is a prominent INSURER here. Tip: Clues that end in “say”, “e.g.” or “for instance” typically offer one or more examples of some class of thing. To figure out the answer, ask yourself what category the examples belong to.
Book recommendations
Let the week’s puzzle inspire your next read, courtesy of NLB. Follow the links to borrow.
23A. “I am disappearing. I am disappearing but not FAST enough.” – The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
25A. “The LIBRARY always felt like a mirror of the world, and on that day, more than ever.” – The Book Of Form And Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
20D. “Allow yourself not to shoot through life like an ARROW speeding with purpose.” – Notes On A Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
Don’t have the NLB mobile app? Download it now on the App Store or Google Play to enjoy more great reads.
Across
1. It comes with crosshairs (5): SCOPE
4. Dark-faced cat breed (7): SIAMESE
8. Sea-to-sea connectors? (7): STRAITS
9. _____ New Roman (5): TIMES
11. Box-bound entertainer (4): MIME
12. Fishy filling for epok-epok (8): SARDINES
14. Rush, in local parlance (6): CHIONG
16. Contribute money (4,2): CHIP IN
19. Countrywide (8): NATIONAL
23. One breaks it in the morning (4): FAST
24. Art counterpart (5): CRAFT
25. Haven for bibliophiles (7): LIBRARY
26. How a soft serve arrives (7): SWIRLED
27. Get on before take-off (5): BOARD
Down
2. Tinder trickster (7): CATFISH
3. Sugar pill (7): PLACEBO
5. Hello Panda maker (5): MEIJI
6. Teacher’s imperative in red (3,2): SEE ME
7. High-SES (4): ATAS
10. It’s pink for citizens (4): NRIC
13. Changi Airport code (3): SIN
14. Scam (3): CON
15. Aptly named percussion instrument (4): GONG
17. It follows Single’s or Dante’s (7): INFERNO
18. Income, say (7): INSURER
20. Assign work to, informally (5): ARROW
21. Deduce (5): INFER
22. Cut of pork (4): LOIN
If you have feedback, write to us at stgames@sph.com.sg. See you next week.
