How Come This Crossword Got No Grid One?
The puzzle title suggests that this is a diagramless cryptic crossword where the grid has rotational symmetry. A quick Google search of the non-English-looking parts of the flavor text reveals that Singlish is involved in the puzzle. More generally, the theme of this crossword is Singapore (where Singlish is spoken); many of the clues reference events, people and vocabulary relevant to the country.
| Across | Clues | Answer | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oh dear, I got lost and so did a goondu | YOYO | AIYOYO-I-A = YOYO |
| 3 | Feature Ah Beng's girl, high to low, except inside a bunch of flyers | STARALLIANCE | STAR + A(H->L)LIAN + CE |
| 8 | Many an enlistee, nowadays! | TEEN | &lit (many is container indicator) |
| 9 | I was born in the oldest healthcare institution - a breath of fresh air | SIGH | S(I)GH, SGH is Singapore's oldest hospital. |
| 10 | Water from Malaysia - it's a downside and something we can't live without | AIRCON | Water in Malay is AIR, + CON |
| 11 | It's fashionable, it's in, it's nasty-looking...? | STYLO | container clue (naSTY-LOoking), hinted by "it's in" |
| 13 | Some Malays' religious headgear are one for one, by the way | MATREPS | M(I->A)TRE+PS |
| 14 | No, only one lead role fits a movie setting | NARNIA | N(A + Role)NIA, nia is a Teochew word meaning “only” |
| 15 | Squid in another language? Nah, it's fish in another language! | IKAN | IKA (Japanese) + N (ikan is Malay for fish) |
| 19 | Pai kia is heartless rock | REEL | REBEL (pai kia = hooligan/gangster) - B |
| 20 | He say it's not fake one: we learned NS from them | ISRAEL | sounds like IS REAL, Singapore modeled its conscription army after the Israeli Defense force |
| 21 | Put on mask to increase lifespan, they like to say? | ACTBLUR | ACT (put on) + BLUR (mask), "ACT BLUR live longer" is a common piece of advice in Singapore |
| 23 | Do first... later anyhow kena squeeze | KNEAD | anag(KENA)+d |
| 24 | Misbehaved son - as they say in Chinese: kao peh kao bu! | ERRANT | ER (son in chinese) + RANT |
| 25 | Mistakenly rob me? Your own fault lor | ORBI | anag(ROB)+I |
| 26 | Left bodoh to zuobo | LOAF | L + OAF, zuobo (做無 in Hokkien) literally means to do nothing |
| 27 | Don't do well in this? Go home get scolded by the same thing | MOTHERTONGUE | double definition; MOTHERTONGUE is a school subject |
| 28 | Particle where there was nothing in smoke signal | FLAG | F(O-> LA)G |
| Down | Clues | Answer | Explanation |
| 1 | Alamak! Finish search before texting "Why you so in front?" to notable man | YUSOFISHAK | Y U SO + FISH (=search) + alamAK |
| 2 | A prominent wok is insanely hot to use | OTHMAN | anag(HOT)+MAN, Othman Wok was a Singaporean politician |
| 3 | Spiral thing you eat while slacking? | SNAKE | double definition, "eat snake" means to skive off |
| 4 | Stall to nua after a rough start | ARREST | AR + REST |
| 5 | Rice cake not heavy, can remove some skin: it's found in some hot soup | LONGAN | LON(ton)G+cAN |
| 6 | Before school starts in a week from now, come back together | INSYNC | IN+S+rev(CNY) (CNY is a week after mystery hunt) |
| 7 | Hater of dipping snack changes direction after free sampling, then changes direction again | NAYSAYER | rev(fReE+ YA(N->S)YAN) |
| 12 | Very gila (crazy) about new post-hole covering | OVERLAYING | anag(VERYGILA) around N after O |
| 13 | Show food limpeh eat but leave out fragmented alias | MANIFEST | MAKAN+I+FEAST - AKA |
| 16 | Be on top of a hill that has a floating variant | BRIDGE | B+RIDGE, floating bridge is a Singaporean variant of Contract Bridge |
| 17 | Undo reply | REVERT | double definition |
| 18 | Throwaway angpows he got? Pretend one la | WAYANG | container clue, hinted by "got" |
| 19 | Suddenly siam from election tiebreaker | RUNOFF | double definition |
| 22 | Call to say it's not looser? | TITLE | sounds like TIGHTER (only in singlish) |
After solving all the clues, we can use the hint from the flavor text to piece the grid together:
Y | O | Y | O | S | T | A | R | A | L | L | I | A | N | C | E | ||
U | T | E | E | N | R | O | N | A | |||||||||
S | I | G | H | A | I | R | C | O | N | S | T | Y | L | O | |||
O | M | K | E | G | Y | S | V | ||||||||||
F | M | A | T | R | E | P | S | N | A | R | N | I | A | E | |||
I | K | A | N | T | N | C | Y | R | |||||||||
S | N | B | R | W | R | E | E | L | |||||||||
H | I | S | R | A | E | L | A | C | T | B | L | U | R | A | |||
A | F | I | V | Y | I | N | Y | ||||||||||
K | N | E | A | D | E | R | R | A | N | T | O | R | B | I | |||
S | G | R | N | L | O | A | F | N | |||||||||
M | O | T | H | E | R | T | O | N | G | U | E | F | L | A | G |
The next step is to observe the entries on the border of the grid. With the exception of YOYO, the rest of them—FLAG, OVERLAYING, YUSOF ISHAK, MOTHER TONGUE, and STAR ALLIANCE—clue how to extract from the puzzle.
First, we overlay the Singapore flag on the grid. Further confirmation is given by the fact that the grid’s dimensions are 12x18, a match for the 2:3 ratio of the flag.
Next, we take the squares that overlap with the stars. As per the flavor text, we read starting from the top (obtaining EARTH instead of HEART).
Lastly, we translate the answer into Yusof Ishak’s mother tongue (Malay) to get the final answer, BUMI.