Singapore Arts, Beauty and Inspirations Male Blogger

Chinese restaurants seems to be getting far less attention as compared to their Western counterpart these days. Perhaps the overwhelming growth in the number of Western restaurants due to modernisation unknowingly supressed the presence of those few Chinese Restaurants. I felt that it would definitely be a sad thing for the Baby Boomers and Gen X if their children or grandchildren from the Gen Y / Z would not be able to find an authentic Chinese restaurant to celebrate their birthdays.

I myself admit that I wasn't really fond of Chinese cuisine since I being from a Gen Y category. I was one of those who seek exotic food thus neglecting the opportunity to thoroughly appreciate Chinese cuisines. We should all change our mind set to actually think that Chinese food is never comparable to Western. Before I begin the review of some of the prominent dishes that were served by Grand Mandarina Restaurant, let me just introduce to you the CEO, Benson Tong (on the right) who is the chef of vast experience gained from different F & B establishments, a F & B consultant as well as a private chef. On the left is Executive Chef Eric who helmed the kitchen of Grand Mandarina Restaurant. They work hand in hand, with a group of experienced chefs under their wing.

It is so true that diners would trust a chef much more since they are the ones who would prepare our food. It could be a physiological factor but the presence of chefs who made the effort to come out of the kitchen to interact with diners definitely set us at ease.

With my plate's outer circumference glittering with gold, I couldn't wait for the meal to start!

We started off with the complimentary Cherry Tomato with Plum Sauce to whet our appetite. Popping the skinless cherry tomatoes whole into my mouth and enjoying the sweet-sour explosion that ruptured in my mouth definitely delighted me. I was already hoping to have more pops!   

The Steam Vegetarian dumpling with dice assorted mushroom and vegetable in black pepper is a vegetarian dish. An excellent option for vegetarians out there since this dish is one out of other vegetarian options from the menu. The crystal skin was of a chewy texture, slightly sticky and thin. Wrapped within was a mixture of mushrooms with a hint of peppery taste.

I admit that I squeezed an entire sliced segment of Crispy Rice roll filled with smoked shredder duck and bamboo shoot into my mouth, afraid that it would fall apart. It was actually skilfully and firmly wrapped that falling apart was not a concern to the other bloggers. The contrasting texture of the silky smooth cheong fan and the 'crunch' factor pleasantly surprised me. (As crunchy as a fried bean curd!) 

The Pan-fried bun filled with mince pork and cabbage, also known as shen jian bao was definitely not an easy dish to prepare. Since making it would be rather time consuming, many places in Singapore do not sell this dish. The bun itself was a mixture of slight fluffiness and crisp, resulted from pan frying. The ingredients were quite compact but could do better with more meat.

Being a meat lover, I rejoiced at the sight of meat.

As we all know the skin of pork belly has 2 types of textures. Biscuit hard or waffle crisp, explained by Chef Benson. The skin of the Crackling pork belly here belongs to the waffles crisp texture that doesn't challenge our teeth. As for the fatty juicy tender meat, I had no issues with them.

The Signature Crystal Char Siew definitely was my favourite dish that day. Just like its name suggests, the char siew was evenly torched, its surface caramelising and forming a thin layer of delicate 'crystal'. I could even hear the cracking sound as I bite into the tender char siew!

The Roasted Duck with summer truffle sauce was also one of the restaurant's note-worthy dish. Nothing would go wrong with crisp skin, tender meat as well as fats (not everyone would enjoy eating fats though). Not forgetting the presence of little truffle bits spotted in the sauce itself. 

Deep fried Chilean Seabass with crispy fish skin served with egg white crumble and golden broth was another dish that plays with textures. The fish skin was as crispy as a keropok (prawn cracker), balancing nicely on the slab of Chilean Seabass which was also slightly crispy on its outer and firm within. It compliments so well with the fluffy texture of the egg white as well as the rich golden broth. 

The textures of Steam wild yam in Imperial sauce somehow reminded of aloe vera in terms of its firmness as well as its sliminess, not necessary in a negative way. Chinese yam was used for this dish with vinaigrette and finely sliced chilli padi to enhance but not overwhelmed the neutral tasting yam.

The last dish that I was so tempted to try but couldn't, due to allergy was the King prawns in Coconut, coconut crustacean broth with silken longevity noodle. The coconut husk was first steamed before the prawn broth boiled with coconut juice was added in. By observation, the noodles was silky smooth and the other bloggers were enjoying slurping them down. I could also only watch them enjoy extracting the cholesterol juices of those big prawn heads as well.

Last but not least, we had Dessert of the day which was not from the menu. (You may make a call to check if its available.) I felt that each component of the plated dessert was to be enjoyed separately since they were not exactly complimenting each other. I would say it was a Chinese version of petite four that includes coconut ice cream, red bean paste, durian pengat and crispy charcoal shell coated with black and white sesame seeds. 

Overall the dining experience was surprisingly positive, from a Gen Y person's perspective whom wasn't quite fond of Chinese cuisine in the first place. Thanks to Chef Benson who loaded us with plenty of F&B knowledge regarding the dishes as well as his team for the preparation of the food. Thanks Vet for extending the invite as well.

The restaurant is situated in a really accessible location, conveniently located just a road across Outram Park MRT Station. It is a 2 storey building that should not be difficult to spot.

Grand Mandarina is open daily from 11:30-­2:30pm for lunch and 6:30-10:00pm for dinner.

325 New Bridge Road #01/02-00

6222 3355

http://www.grandmandarina.com.sg/

National Gallery Singapore open its doors on the 24th of November with a bang, welcoming the public whom eagerly waited for that day to arrive. Upon hearing about the interactive art carnival located at the Padang field and the spectacular lights show on the city hall building itself got me excited. It happened early this December and by the time I have completed this post, it became a 'throwback' event. Let this be my last post of year 2015 then, since it would be 2016 in a few hours time!

Lately, I got really interested into art related stuffs such as gallery tours and workshops. Please invite me along as I want to blog about these! (Check out my last few blog posts as well, as they were all art related!) 

I have also uploaded a short video of the lights show against the building below. Pardon the incompleteness of it.    

After squeezing with the crowd for the show, my friend and I headed to explore the various segments of the art carnival. I just love how the entire place was littered, I mean decorated with 'dust' or maybe sawdust?

The activities available were catered towards children and in the mean time educating them on arts based on a particular painting theme. We just browsed through the place, bought some snacks from pop-up stores and my friend wanted to experience some childhood fun by joining the kids to shoot a lotus seed coated with paint using a hand-held catapult against the black wall. 

The weather was humid and I could not wait to get into the gallery spaces itself.

The very first time I visited National Gallery Singapore, a imaginery 'Instagram Alert' sign appeared already. Such huge place with beautiful historical architectural - the pillars, flight of steps as well as the corridors and of course the art pieces to capture using one's camera. Definitely a favourable place to have your ootds taken too. 

Anyway, I really love to admire artworks, despite not knowing what was painted on some or by whom. It doesn't really matter since I have a mind of my own to interprete what I think. If I were so keen on the details, I would have gone for a docent tour or download the gallery explorer application to take me around.

After scanning through the gallery spaces, I found my favourite masterpiece! A painting located in Southeast Asia Gallery 4, probably the smallest gallery that I have encountered.

Firstly, the painting was so large that it would be quite impossible to miss. Large paintings normally packed a whole lot of fine details within which intrigued me to look closely and observe every corners of it. Being a foodie like myself, I am usually drawn towards food related subjects such as the marketplace (source). I felt that I have stepped into the street as the scent of spices and dirt filled the air.

What's so interesting about it then? I felt that this painting has many points to debate about. Which country or culture is this? I see different people such as the Vietnamese lady wearing a hat and a Chinese lady in qi pao. The next moment, my eyes would be scanning through the stocks or should I say the ingredients used by the local chefs. I couldn't help but to wonder what cuisine would it be or even how would the dish taste like.

As for the other paintings below, they were also some of my favourites which I would blabber on other time. That would be all for now and Happy New Year once again in a few hours time!!

I attended another workshop and exhibition at Gillman Barracks the other day. Unlike the previous workshop which focuses on acrylic painting, this time was on basic sketching.  

We have the privilege of having 2 instructors teaching us that day and it started off with a demo on how to breakdown (virtually) the body parts of the wooden figurine into different shapes. 

Its all about line drawing. Thick lines for the shadowy parts and thin line under the light. My friend and I were from design course in polytechnic and we easily got back the 'feel' of sketching we once had many years back. I was quite surprised that the auntie and her daughter who shared the same table as us could sketch rather well too! We definitely surprised our instructors!

The next exercise which was negative drawing was quite difficult for us since we were first timers. It was basically using white pencils on black paper. The shadows were to be represented by being shaded.

For the wooden man, we all drew the angle that was facing us resulting in such amazing series of men. Check out our combined drawings below!  

After our workshop session, we headed over to the Arachnid Orchestra Exhibit which was located at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. It was by Berlin based artist Tomas Saraceno. Situated at the intersection between art and science, Saraceno's artistic practice is an invitation to conceive alternative ways of knowledge, experience and interaction with others.

Plenty of research was done about these creatures and the exhibition was in a pitch black space lighted up by spotlights showcasing the art of nature itself. I would not want to go into details but feel free to admire these webs below.

Besides that, we were once again given a paper to draw these webs! It was really challenging since these webs proved to be a complicated mess of art.

We had to draw what we see and not what we knew. Concentration was a huge issue as once I looked down on my paper, I couldn't remember where I last stopped at.

I wasn't trying to draw lines this time. I was trying to draw textures. Many people just gave up or did not attempt to start at all. I tried my best at least before the time runs out.

It was a fun experience and I wouldn't mind joining more jamming sessions in future!

The sun must be desperately trying to melt me as I made my way to Gillman Barracks. It started off with a short tour conducted around the ARNDT gallery (Block 9), with the staff sharing with us about the background of Del Kathryn Barton whom was the artist of this solo exhibition.

Barton is considered one of the leading artists of her generation, who won the prestigious annual portrait competition the Archibald Portrait Prize twice. 

Her paintings were mainly female humanoid forms or portraits and she used architectural pens directly on her canvases, which meant that there were no rooms for mistakes.

Her paintings surged with vitality from the vibrant colours she used. Upon a closer look, there were many repetitive patterns which meant either you complete the work or give up on it. The latter definitely was not her option.

Last but not least, The Nightingale and the Rose, (2014) was Barton's animated short film which was a dark fairy tale of  unrequited love that premiered at the Berlin International Film festival this year.

Check out some pictures of Del Kathryn Barton's artwork I took at the gallery below.