An awkward Photoshopped image made its rounds online on Sept. 16, 2014, showing Lee Kuan Yew curbing his enthusiasm with his birthday cake in front of him as he is surrounded by some people, including Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, against an unusually black background.

The badly doctored image with its uneven blacking out of background details has set tongues wagging online.

When the image is brightened, the botched Photoshop job becomes more pronounced:

Where is this undisclosed location? Why the need to put up a photo only to prevent anyone from seeing where they are? Who are these people? Why the secrecy? What's the significance?

To begin to answer these questions, we will need to engage the hive mind to collectively crowdsource answers to solve the riddle.

Given what we can tell from the photo, there are a few clues hinting where exactly this party was going down.

Based on the cutlery and cups, we can say with a 95 percent confidence that Lee Kuan Yew's party was at a Japanese restaurant.

For comparison, check out the type of cup used in a typical Japanese restaurant:

Source

No, idiot, these cups:

A few more hints: This area where Lee Kuan Yew and guests are seated is most likely a private dining room area. There is no way the security staff is going to let the ex-prime minister just casually waltz in and out of a restaurant in full view of the public. If this is an exclusive area, people who dine at exclusive places will definitely recognise it in a flash, just by looking at the cutlery.

Furthermore, this typical room/ setting must be near the exit to facilitate movement in and out of the restaurant. So, that further cuts down the number of possible venues.

However, one odd thing to note is that the chopsticks used, from the looks of it, appear to be those disposable wooden type, which seem to indicate the place they are dining at is not that high-end:

But then again, we can't get a clear view, so we can't be too sure.

The logo is quite distinctive, but due to its placement, it's hard to make out the word.

One major clue, though, probably lies with the black napkin holder:

Not many Japanese restaurants have that.

Here are some of the Japanese restaurants we have cross-referenced table, cutlery and cups with, but turned up negative:

Sushi Tei

Tatsuya (Goodwood Park Hotel)

Aoki Restaurant

Dozo Restaurant

Waraku

Hide Yamamoto

Any other ideas? Suggestions? Did anyone happen to see Lee Kuan Yew on Tuesday night?

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