HarborX™ · Cur8™ Vignette — Mark

You and Dex walked past the foo dogs at 19:35 with the kind of tiredness that has stopped being tiredness and become a mood. The Lobby was cold and bright; Spices, one room over, was dark and warm: bamboo, bronze, flowers, and the koi pond through the glass. The host had one line from Cur8™ — end of a working day, the pavilion if free — and the pavilion was free. The Guide is right that it is the atmospheric end of the room.

The menu is a tour of South and Southeast Asia led by an Indian chef, and you let it lead. Satay with peanut sauce and pickles first, the crispy catfish the inspectors flag, then grilled squid scored and charred under a green herb sauce with a chilli-lime dip; a dark, slow braise that tasted of star anise and patience; a lamb shank in its own curry; and tandoori chicken, blistered orange, over a nest of red cabbage. Six plates, two people, no speeches.

Dinner minted 1,080 HarborX™ Coins. At 22:05 a thousand of them paid for the AV home — coins earned at a Peninsula table, spent on the ride away from it, the whole cross-vendor loop in one evening. The photographs are yours, added by tap from your camera roll and anchored as yours; the card was drafted before you reached the lobby doors and posted nowhere.