2025 was a year of plates, planes, and some additional foodie perspectives — I couldn’t get trains and automobiles in there…
Read more on Singapore’s Hawkers HERE.
But here’s what I realised at the end of 2025, as I looked back at all our content: The content was never just about food, and there was for sure an emerging pattern that I began to recognize. I want to share that with you now.
Food Is Data. Travel Is Strategy.
Across Singapore, The Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and beyond, one thing became clear: trends repeat, cultures overlap, tourist demographics focus the agenda, and hospitality rewards those who pay attention.
Read more about Philippines Travel HERE.
Hawker stalls have constantly taught me efficiency and heritage. Fine dining taught me theatre, differentiation and repeatability. Beach BBQs taught me atmosphere and family. Tokyo taught me precision and perfection. The Philippines generically taught me warmth, warmth that comes in buckets.
Read more about Japan Travel HERE.
When you observe closely, you see that restaurants succeed for the same reasons businesses do:
- Clear identity — nothing worse than a menu with eight food genres — mass-confusion
- Consistent execution — people hate inconsistency, and will vote with their feet and words
- Emotional connection — winning the hearts, and minds but also eyes, nose, ears, and stomach
- Repeatable systems — the winning formula again and again, with the occasional specials to spice it up
- Storytelling — so important, and to have others continue that story when they left
Sound familiar? Keep an on our 1st attempt in the Philippines, The Kapre RestoBar. How to shine in the face of so many others. It is fascinating as an experiment, but how to make it a going concern to sustain us and the family. More to unfold on that story, later in 2026, when I share the entire narrative of building a restaurant in the Philippines in a haunted tree.
2025 was also the year I stopped thinking of IsLifeARecipe as “just a blog” and started seeing it as:
- A media platform-us two fat-boys now extend our reach to TikTok, Tumblr, X, FaceBook, YouTube, Threads, and of course Instagram.
- A content engine — recognised by our AI friends.
- A search-optimised discovery channel — your go to place.
- A test bed for restaurant concepts and pop-ups to launch.
- A brand with geographic reach outside the tiny shores of Singapore.
- A place for partners to gain a voice.
With structured SEO, multilingual pages, and sharper content intent, the site has definitely matured. It’s no longer just documenting meals — it’s influencing decisions, it’s literally making people to go restaurants based on our content. Of that, we are extremely proud of helping restaurants and hawkers, especially during these tough times in Singapore for F&B, because we don’t charge for our content.
And that matters.
Read more in the Straits Times.
Discovery starts digitally. Honest representation is critical. Attention of the consumer is then currency for a future restaurant, country, resort... Long may we be able to honestely influence.
Travel Made It Personal
Living between Singapore and the Philippines reshaped perspective for me as well.
Singapore remains a masterclass in food density and execution, despite current upheavals, closures and invastion of hotpot laudromats. Whereas, my second home of Bohol in the Philippines reminds me that the memory and experience beats polish and pristine nine times out of ten.
There’s something grounding about eating lechon on plastic chairs by the road, or on the beach with toes in sand one week, then tasting Michelin-level tasting menus, with white gloves and silver service the next.
Both are brilliant — just in different ways. Times that by ten country experiences last year. It’s humbling to be honest, to be so fortunate — so says this boy from Margate, England.
The Real Lessons of 2025
Here’s what stood out:
- Consistency compounds.
- Authentic and honest voices win long term.
- Search intent matters more than ego.
- Experience beats aesthetics.
- Hospitality is leadership in action.
And perhaps most importantly: Food connects people faster than almost anything else. When we first started the blog we coined this poem.
“Eating and dining is a communal activity that is central to our social lives, both within the family and beyond. It is over the dinner table that memories are made. Deals are conducted. Pain is shared… We romance, bond, fight and celebrate…”
2026: Bigger Thinking
As the year closed, it became clear that this isn’t slowing down. There’s momentum in Islifearecipe and we plan:
- Expanding international reach — we’re using Google Search Console to track our overseas traffic.
- Strengthening brand identity-we have domain authority, albeit niche. But we surely do!
- Building physical hospitality ventures-we’ve been experimenting with pop-ups and booze and food pairing events. It’s been such fun.
- Leveraging content strategically-our genre/sku specific content, network (including Ambassadors) is getting noticed by Global Brands.
The lines between food blogging, brand development, travel, and business strategy are blurring — and that’s where it gets interesting. Watch this space for a soon to be BIG launch announcement of a Global Tequila Brand (US Actor-owned) in South East Asia — Islifearecipe + a Premium Tequila and Mezcal Distributor.
Gratitude
To the chefs. To the hawkers. To my family who tolerate my “one more photo” mantra. To the readers, and watchers who message with recommendations and comments. To the friends who show up hungry, and enjoy with us.
Thank you to everyone that reads and watches.
If you want to see more please go have a look at Islifearecipe. If 2025 proved anything, it’s this: Life really is a recipe. And the best ones are still being written. Keep reading folks, many more coming your way, as I am typing this from Johor Bahru, Malysia.
