MELT - The World Cafe at Mandarin Oriental

Looking for a place for a friend's birthday celebration, I chanced upon some online reviews of this restaurant called MELT - The World Cafe at Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  The reviews are mostly positive so I went ahead to make the reservation for lunch.  Reservation through http://www.hungrygowhere.com/ is pretty convenient.  The confirmation came almost immediately.

Today we arrived at around 11.50am.  The staff ushered us in, and along the way showed us what kind of food were available.  There are quite a selection of cuisines, including western, Indian, Thai, & Japanese, mostly Asian oriented, I think.

The ambiance is not too bad, at least to my not-so-high standard.  What they lack of is a superb view of the Singapore skyline.  Too bad, there is none.

When people go for a buffet, they usually start with all the meat and seafood dishes.  Well, at least that's what I did when I was young.  Now that I have gained some age, and hopefully some wisdom, I would rather start with some vegetables and fruits.  Our stomach can digest vegetables and fruits faster than all the meat and seafood, so after a heart-filling buffet, your stomach won't suffer.  For that, they have quite some selections.

Hahha...after the initial round of vegies, then it is time for all that meat and seafood.  They have some sashimi spread, and baked Salmon, and ox tail soup, etc.  A picture is worth a thousand words, just take a look at the spread with your own eyes.

But then I must also point out that they don't have the stuff that I like most:  a) Alaska crab, b) oysters, c) roast beef, d) lobster, e) pork knuckles, f) cray fish.  Ok, they are not that healthy friendly, good to avoid :)  They do have something that you seldom see in a buffet:  Fried Salmon skin!  First time for me to see that in a buffet, as part of the Thai cuisine!  Mmmh...a bit strange.

As the finale, how can we miss the dessert?  They have quite a selection of desserts.  Very sinful.  They are sweet, really sweet, perfect for people who have sweet teeth.

For lunch on a public holiday, the price is S$68++  per adult.

Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction

Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction, is an on-going exhibition at the Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands.  Admission is S$28 for foreigners, S$24 for locals.  It is quite pricey for an exhibition, I was quite hesitant to pay it a visit, but then I finally decided to take the plunge over the Easter long weekend.

Ushering the visitors are Herrerasaurus,  one of the earlier dinosaurs.  Four skeleton fossils were on display, which look like a family of four.  Behind, it is the shadow puppet images of them, with their roars coming out from the electronic speakers.  You get a sense of tense atmosphere, transporting you from the modern world back to millions of years ago, the ages when dinosaurs ruled...

Plant Fossil

Animal Fossil

There are fossils from different ages on display, some of plants, some of animals.  You will be fascinated by how well those fossils had been preserved.  For the plant fossils, you can see clearly the leaves on them.  That plant was living millions of years ago!  Not last year, not yesterday, but millions of years ago, and yet now, it is right there in front of you, face to face, telling you an ancient story, in its own way.

To refresh my poor memory, some important years are displayed.  And obviously there were a couple of mass extinction events in the history of the earth.  One was around 2-3 million years ago.  Half of the species on earth went extinct.  What happened?  Nobody knows, your guess is just as good as mine.  Another one was around 65 million years ago.  Dinosaurs went extinct during that mass extinction event.
However, not all is lost.  There has been advocates in the academic world arguing that our modern birds are actually the descendants of dinosaurs.

If you compare a modern bird's skeleton with that of a dinosaur, don't you see indeed there are some similarities?

In people's mind, dinosaurs are always gigantic creatures, which is not always true.  There were dinosaurs which were of the size of a mouse!  One of them is Marasuchus, living in middle Triassic age.

Marasuchus, a mouse-size dinosaur

Of course, there were indeed gigantic dinosaurs as well, they dominates the entire exhibition hall.

All our knowledge about dinosaurs come from fossil discoveries.  Experts identify dinosaurs' eating habits by looking at their teeth.

A Pure Meat Eater

A Meat & Vegetable Eater

Can you tell the difference?  I was just amazed that living creatures on planet earth have not changed that much, even though millions of years had gone by.

The exhibition is very interesting, telling visitors stories, imparting knowledge in a fun and engaging way.  The admission, definitely worth it.  

Au Chocolate Marina Bay Sands

A friend introduced this casual French dining restaurant called Au Chocolate to me on Saturday.  The restaurant is tucked into the end of Marina Bay Sands Shoppe's level 1.  It is on the same level when people come in from Art Science Museum.  Ignorant me, I had never noticed this restaurant.

Apparently this restaurant is quite popular.  Online reservation was full 2 days before.  And upon my visit, indeed a lot of tables had been reserved.  Luckily, they always have some tables for walk-in customers, and we were there early!

Fresco

The restaurant attempts to create a French retro feel, maybe Louis IV era?  The ceiling is decorated with elaborate fresco, which is not common for restaurants in Singapore.

Water is chargeable, so I decided to go for coffee instead.

Coffee, S$6.00++/cup

The taste is decent.  Probably I had got too used to the strong fragrance of Italian coffee, so this is not so much a prop to my senses.

Duck Confit, S$28++

My order was duck confit.  What is a duck confit?  Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Duck confit (French: confit de canard French pronunciation: ​[kɔ̃.fi d(ə) ka.naʁ]) is a French dish made with the leg of the duck. While it is made across France, it is seen as a speciality of Gascony. The confit is prepared in a centuries-old process of preservation that consists of salt curing a piece of meat (generally goose, duck, or pork) and then cooking it in its own fat.

To prepare a confit, the meat is rubbed with salt, garlic, and sometimes herbs such as thyme, then covered and refrigerated for up to 36 hours. Salt-curing the meat acts as a preservative.

I was pleasantly surprised that the duck meat was not unpleasantly salty, even though it had been salt cured.  The meat was tender, the skin was crispy, but then being a health conscious guy, I still didn't eat the whole duck skin, just a bit to test its crispiness.  In terms of portion, it is just nice for me, full in the stomach but will not cause any discomfort.

King's Breakfast, S$26++

My friend got the King's breakfast.  The portion was big, the presentation was colorful and appetitizing.

Just when you think this might be a French restaurant operated by some enterprising French, it is actually a Singaporean operated restaurant, started by Singaporeans and sustained by Singaporeans.  It is quite an interesting place.

Secret of the Fallen Pagoda - Treasures from Famen Temple and the Tang Court

A Buddha's true finger relic was discovered in the crypt of the fallen Famen Temple Pagoda in 1980s.  It was one of the few true relics from Buddha himself.  Together with the discovery of the relic, a large amount of treasures from the Tang Imperial Court were also discovered, including some items that people could only read from historical records, but had never seen any physical items before.  

Singaporeans are really lucky, Asia Civilisation Museum is bringing all that treasure to Singapore, and you don't have to travel for thousands of miles to witness the beauty of such treasure. 

The first item that caught my attention is this silver gilded incense burner.  It roughly has 3 layers from top to bottom, representing the ancients view of the world, which consists of heaven, human realm, and the underworld.  The details are fascinating, they are elaborate and great attentions were paid to the minor details.  

The second item that drew my attention was the basin decorated with Mandarin Ducks.  The ducks are so lively, as if they were playing with water right there.  Mandarin ducks in Chinese culture signifies the love & harmony among couples.  I would guess it was an item from the Tang Imperial Court, considering the lavish use of precious metals, as well as the great craftsmanship. 

Next comes the silver reliquary, which is the 2nd layer (counting from outside) of reliquary which contains the Buddha's finger relic.  

Then comes one of the most precious items in the find, the 'secret ceramic'.   

This ordinary looking bottle is one and the only one 'secret ceramic' on display.  It looks very normal, nothing exceptional, but the difference is in the details.  The biggest difficulties in ceramic making is the or uniform is the color, especially when the entire item is of one single color only.  This 'secret ceramic' bottle, commissioned by and only for the Tang Imperial Court, is one of the rare physical items that people can witness.  No other items survived the test of time in the past thousand years or so.  

Another item that looks very ordinary now, but it was considered to be a treasure is this colored glass bottle.  Tang Dynasty was the period Chinese culture was much more open to foreign cultures.  This bottle is said to come from modern day Syria- Palestine region.  

The exhibition is on until 4 May, 2014, which is less than a month from now.  It is worthwhile to pay it a visit and be awed by the great craftsmanship of our ancestors.  

Admission is not free for all, but they have lots of those promotional cards hanging in north-east line MRT trains.  Each card entitles free entry for a maximum of four visitors.

Risky Investment?

I went to a local bank to place a 12-month fixed deposit to take advantage of their promotional rate of 1% p. a.  The gentleman serving me kindly recommended some other alternative options to gain a slightly higher return.

One option is to place the money in a structured deposit, which will give out returns as follows:

1st Year 1.4%
2nd Year 1.5%
3rd Year 1.6%
4th Year 1.7%
....

If you average out all the years, the effective return is ~2% p. a.  I thanked him for recommending this option to me, but I stated that I was not interested.  The return is too unattractive.  I told him that a 10-year Singapore Government Bond has a return of 2.45%.   Then his argument kind of surprised me.  He said bonds are risky investment, compared to the structured deposit that he is offering, which is totally risk-free.

I had nothing to say if someone claims that Singapore Government bonds are more risky than a Singapore bank's structured deposit!

I feel lucky that I had spent the time and effort to learn all the basics of finance, and the nature of different investment instruments.  As a result, I am not at the mercy of ill-informed RMs, or even worse, dishonest RMs.

Part 2: Gaudi in Barcelona - Park Guell

Park Guell is a park in Barcelona, commissioned by Eusebi Guell, an industrial tycoon, designed and built by Antoni Gaudi between 1900 and 1914.  It took 14 years from design to completion of this park, you might have great expectations of this.  Now, let me bring you there for tour.

To get to Park Guell, you can take the Metro L3 (Green Line) and alight at Valcarca station.  Remember to alight at Valcarca, not one station before it.  From both stations you can get to Park Guell, but one takes a much longer route.  Once you come out from Valcarca, there are clear signs to lead you the way.

Slopes Leading to Park Guell

The park is located at a hill top.  There are many up slopes to climb to get there.  The city has been very considerate, you built escalators to help the poor tourists in many sections.  Did I hear a sound of relief? :)

After almost 30 minutes of up slope, you will finally get to the ticket office and entrance.  Tickets are at 8 euros per person, and 400 people are allowed to enter every half an hour.  Your ticket has your eligible timing to enter.  If you miss your timing by 30 minutes, too bad, you can't enter.

Admission Ticket to Park Guell

Park Guell claims to occupy a total area of 17.18 ha, or 0.1718 km^2.  I had great expectations!

Entrance

There are two houses of typical Gaudi style, decorated with broken ceramics standing on the two sides of the main entrance.   These two are the ONLY two major structures in the park!

Supposed Covered Market

The center piece of the park is an empty columned hall which was supposed to be a covered market.  The entire hall is empty.  Zen style of decoration and architecture give people a sense of peace & calm, rich feeling with minimal decorations, but Gaudi style?

In front of the empty hall, there is the most famous lizard in the world.  Whoever that had been conned to come to Park Guell would have to have a photo with this ugly lizard, so they will remember forever in their life how they had been conned by Gaudi.

Ugly Lizard by Gaudi

Atop of the empty hall, there is more emptiness.  A big open space where you can have a glimpse of the city of Barcelona.

And, that's about the end of the tour!

It took Gaudi 40 years to build one facade of Church of Sagrada Familia and 14 years to build Park Guell.  Some may argue that he was a perfectionist who wanted everything to be perfect, especially for a place for GOD.  I highly suspect it was just a beautiful excuse.  Remember that joke?  A young lawyer happily walked into his father's law office and told his father proudly that "Dad, I finally finished off that traffic accident case which had dragged you for 20 years!"  The father was visibly upset and said, "Son, I was hoping you can get your son through college with that case!"  


You can find all my blog posts about my Spain-Portugal-Gibraltar trip here.

Part I: Gaudi in Barcelona

Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926) was a famous architecture that brought Barcelona to international fame, with his crazy architectural designs.  The never ending construction of Church of Sagrada Familia is well known across the world.

Standing on Munjuic, the high point where you can see the entire city of Barcelona, Church of Sagrada Familia is one dominating structure.

Gaudi was the architect who conceptualized the design of this church, and he himself finished a small portion of it, over a long period of 40 years!

Nativity Facade, Church of Sagrada Familia

Nativity facade, one of the 3 facades of the church, was designed by Gaudi before his death.  The facade describes the story of, as you know, Nativity, the birth of Jesus Christ.

Close-up Of Nativity Facade

The story is really simple.  You have Virgin Mary cuddling baby Jesus in her arms, with Joseph standing by them.  On one side, you have the 3 wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.  Simple story, simple sculptures, then why did it take Gaudi 40 long years just to finish this one facade?

Sea Turtle

Actually, it was intended.  Gaudi put two turtles statues at the base of the facade, one land turtle, one sea turtle.  The reason is to indicate that the progress WILL be slow.  The justification was that you must take all the time needed to have a perfect work.  When it comes to work for the home of God, it is even more important to be slow.  Well, I will express my own opinion to that justification later.

Just to show you how slow Gaudi made it to be, let's look at the following two scenes.

Virgin Mary riding on a donkey

Slaughter of Babies by order of King Herod

In the first scene, describing Virgin Mary bringing baby Jesus to some place (I am not so familiar with the bible story here, please let me know if you can help), riding on a donkey.  Gaudi spent a year just to get the right donkey.  What do you mean the right donkey?  He insisted on a particular donkey, how particular it should be?  Nobody knows, it was by Gaudi's feeling.  He had to FEEL right with the donkey.  After a long search, and found Gaudi's 'particular' donkey, he insisted to lift the donkey up to the height of where it stands now to make the live model.  You can imagine how uncooperative the donkey would be.

Next, let's look at the second scene, which describes the slaughter of babies by the order of King Herod.  The soldier who is going to throw the baby to death was modelled after a drunkard in Barcelona at the time.  Gaudi insisted that this evil soldier must be modelled after some bad guy in the city at that time.

Now, do you have an idea of why it took so long?

Interior of Church of Sagrada Familia

Gaudi conceptualized the interior of the church to be a forest.  The pillars represents the trunks of trees, with branches spreading out at the top.  And it does feel like you are in a forest, minus the fresh air, of course.  The design is so unique that I don't think you will ever find another church that looks even faintly alike.

On the opposite side of the Nativity facade, it is the passion facade, which is modern addition and designed by another architect.

Passion Facade

In the Passion facade, the architect honoured Gaudi by having his face carved onto one of the characters as shown in the photo above with the red circle.  It was said to be the face of an old Gaudi, which looks a bit different from the young Gaudi.

Well, enough of Gaudi for one day, let's continue with another entry.



You can find all my Spain-Portugal-Gibraltar trip blog posts here.

14-Day Spain-Portugal-Gibraltar 2013

The Eye, City of Art and Science, Valencia, Spain

In Oct-Nov this fall, I had the opportunity to visit Spain, Portugal and British colony Gibraltar with CTC tours.  The tour had been memorable and pleasant.

I will use this blog entry as the 'Table of Contents' for all my blog posts about this trip.

At first, I thought of writing about this trip in a pure chronicle way, which is the easiest, you just follow the itinerary.  At a second thought, I decided to do it on a themed basis.  I will group relevant and interesting places and encounters together.

Let's open our eyes and have an open mind to explore this journey together.

Part 1: Gaudi in Barcelona
Part 2: Gaudi in Barcelona - Park Guell