Mosaic Music Festival 2011

Mosaic Fest 2011 ended last night and this year, I didn't really catch as many shows as before.

15 Mar: The National (cancelled)
Alas, my most anticipated show for this year was unexpectedly cancelled. But it was for good reason. In the wake of Japan's earthquake, they decided to cancel/postpone their Asian tour, which included Japan. My heart goes out to the victims and country. God bless the nation and may it be restored to peace soon.

16 Mar: Tze N the Looking Glass - Stories from Wonderland
My friend Tze, and his Looking Glass ensemble were performing at the HTC Living Room (@Concourse) this year, so to show my support I went there with a friend. She also agreed that he was good. Theirs was a fusion mix of music with the piano, erhu, Indian violin, and saxophone. I can't say I'm able to appreciate fusion music that well, but I enjoyed the piano solos and interestingly, the erhu blended quite well. I think the sound system and set up could have been much improved. Certain instruments were too loud at points and drowned out the others. Also, the mic on the violin fell off...twice! Causing disruption to the music. But the show went on, with the rest playing, while the tech guy tried to fix the mic problem.

Of course, I bought their debut album Stories from Wonderland to support my friend, which is sold (only) at The Esplanade Shop.

As I said a couple of times, I still prefer his solos and later that evening, I asked him if he will release his own album. He said he was thinking about it. Well, hope he does. Anyway, the album has 2 of his solos "Prelude to Fly With Me" and "Stories from Wonderland".

20 March: Ed Harcourt

 

One man and seven mics (minus 1 for the piano); plus 1 piano, 2 guitars (electric & acoustic), 1 drum. With this set-up, you can expect something out of the ordinary. I asked my friend "Is he going to play all that himself?". And so he did. Wow!

Opening with Lustre, a song inspired by the birth of his daughter, Ed surrounded the Recital Studio with his music. He used 2 mics for different effects. Actually, he had 3 mics to sing into at the piano, each for different effects, used at different points in the concert. He was really good at the piano, but not restricted to that, he played the guitars too for songs like Church of No Religion, Born in the 70s, etc.
It turned awkward at one point, early on, with a technical glitch in the amp and he did an unplugged version of The Last Cigarette as he moved among the audience, while the tech guy came to fix the problem. Other problems came along as he took some time to tune his guitars, but all worked out eventually.

Things really upped when he fascinated us (me at least) with a live mix where he had some device to record and loop what he played, while he added on parts and instruments. I've never seen something like this before. His live performance was different from his recordings, the way he mixed the songs and played them live. His spasms of humour also livened up the crowd, making us howl like wolves for Heart of a Wolf, etc. attributing the performance to "an equal balance of chaos and professionalism".

I don't know how I would describe his music, alternative probably, with some electronica? rock? at some points, I could even hear some country in him, with his "grunge" voice. As my friend puts it, he's "at once brooding country gentleman, bad boy sheriff, earnest scientist".

What I really liked about his songs is the way he writes his lyrics. There's something about them that makes them unique. His music kind of grows on you.
He ended with a four-song encore, answering requests from the audience, and ended with Haywired.

Oh ya, I'm left "haywired" in a mind loop.

Macau highlights

It's been really long since I went to Macau (over 10 years) and the sights & scenes have changed so much. In my vague memory, things were less rowdy and commercialised, like an quaint old but now, it's like a bustling city, thanks to the increase in foreign casinos I believe.
I was there only for 1 day/night.

The Venetian
We stayed at The Venetian and following an upgrade of our rooms for about S$30 per person (we stayed four to a room), we were pleasantly greeted with a enormous suite the size of a 4/5-room HDB flat equipped with 2 toilets (1 without shower), 1 walk-in wardrobe, a pantry area, a living room, a small dining area, 2 queen-sized beds, 2 TVs and a foyer. There was even a free supply of Nespresso coffee. It took us a while "touring" and taking photos of the room. Haha...

If you have been to the Vegas Venetian, you would have seen the re-creation of the Venetian landmarks inside the hotel. It's the same here, as you stroll along the "streets" under the "Venetian skies" watching gondolas float by. On the exterior, you see replicas of Rialto Bridge, Doge's Palace, Procuratie Nuove and San Marco, among others.

Well, one wouldn't have come to Macau if he/she didn't visit the ruins of St Paul's. The grand stoic facade stands firm after centuries, even with nothing else left but ruined pillars (now encased in glass enclosures, which honestly reminded me of tombs). There's a steel staircase and platform behind the facade where you can climb up and peek through the windows, but it was pretty scary for me (can see through the grill) as I'm afraid of heights and tried not to look down. It seemed a custom to throw coins on the window sill for luck, but I didn't lah.

 

City of Dreams and the Dragon's Treasure

Just across The Venetian was City of Dreams, and that's where you watch the shows. Seeing the posters and trailers of the resident show "The House of Dancing Water" was very enticing, but alas, we weren't staying long enough to catch that. But we did catch the free "Dragon's Treasure" show at their Bubble auditorium. And my, what a beautiful show it was. It was like watching an Omnimax show, and the special effects were simply amazing. You're like in an underwater world, and there were stone dragons, each when they came alive, brought you to different worlds.

Walking round the building (there weren't many shops, as compared to Venetian), you can see that their man focus is on digital effects and water theme. There was a rather interesting mermaid panel where the mermaids would appear and disappear. They looked quite real.

Food
Well, as we were only there for 1 day and night, there were only so many meals we could have. A rather late lunch brought us to 祥记面家 (Loja Sopa Da Pita Cheong Kei) at Rua Da Felicidade. Maybe I should have ordered the char siew noodles instead which seem a popular choice. Their char siew were a bit different from the usual. I ordered the 牛腩面 (beef brisket), which was ok. Somehow I didn't really like the stock or overall taste. Hmm...maybe Macau noodles taste different.They had a rather unusual deep fried fish ball. The portions were very small though.

Well, coming to Macau without eating Portuguese food would be strange, and we ventured to this place called Restaurante Fernando at 黑沙. We found the food a tad salty though, but the waitress did warn us. Well, of course you've got to eat the Portuguese suckling pig (we only ordered a small portion). The fish was cured, which was very salty. And of course, when we heard there was sangria, we couldn't resist it, although I felt that it would have been nicer a little more fruity.

 

Well, one last meal for me was lunch at Treasure Palace, at City of Dreams. Most of the food was really nice, and I loved the 烧肉 (roast pork). The skin was so crispy! The roast duck (or goose?) was pretty good too. The chicken wings were pretty "power" hot. Didn't take that many photos as we were busy eating.

Oh a last snack I had was the famous Lord Stow's Bakery portuguese egg tart, where it supposedly originated. We had wanted to visit his ex-wife's shop Margaret's Cafe e Nata the previous evening, but alas, we just missed the last tart and they were sold out. Ah well, maybe if I visit Macau again.

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So I guess that's all for my trip yeah?

Hong Kong highlights (2) - food food food!

(This is a re-write for accidentally deleted my almost completed earlier draft...Argh!!!)

As I said, we ate a lot. So dedicating 1 full post, I write about the highlights of what we ate (Hong Kong only). I guess the best way would be chronologically.

Touching down only in the early afternoon, and visiting Disneyland on the same day, our first proper meal/dinner in Hong Kong was at the Plaza Inn Restaurant hosted by Maxim's inside Hong Kong Disneyland. Check out the Mickey carrots!

 

On our visit to Victoria Peak, we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. located in The Peak Tower, a Forrest Gump-themed restaurant, serving Alabama or Southern food. Here, we watched the scenery turn to fog.

And how can one come to Hong Kong and not eat dim sum? We visited 添好运点心专门店 (Tin Ho Wun) which is supposedly famous for their 叉烧包 (BBQ pork bun) which was rather different from the rest. It's rumoured that people cry of satisfaction when they bite into it. I didn't cry lah, but it was quite different. Reminded me of 菠萝包 (bo luo bao). The dim sum there was generally quite nice. We queued 45 minutes leh, before the shop opened at 10am.

Although I felt it was over-hyped the last time went, I still went along with my friends to The Peninsula for afternoon tea. This time though, we waited over an hour! Guess it's because it was a Saturday. What's more, the tea for 2 set had been inflated by HK$100 since I last went in Oct! I ordered just the scone set as I wasn't very hungry and to me, English afternoon tea's highlight would be scones with clotted cream. I must say the scones I had differed from that on the tiers. Mine had mixed fruits :). I was satisfied as I had a portion of clotted cream to myself for my scones which I distributed equally and abundantly.

HK wanton mee is the soupy kind with prawn-filled wanton and springy noodles. Different from the Malaysian ones we see which are usually dry with char siew and the wantons with minced meat. Actually, I don't know if I'm really so into wanton mee but some recent events seem to have pushed me to pay more attention to them (or maybe those events has taken some joy out of eating wanton mee?). Anyway, Mak's Noodles was closed by the time a few of us went, so we went across the street to their competitor, 沾仔记 (Tsim Chai Kee), with their king prawn wantons.

Oh, one thing you should make a "ritual" when you go to Hong Kong, if you like milk, is to eat the 炖奶 (steamed milk) at 义顺牛奶公司 (Yee Shun Milk Company). We ate this a couple of times and you should eat their 炖蛋 as well.

Since we're in Hong Kong, we should also go to their 茶餐厅 (Hong Kong cafe). We went to  兰芳园 (Lan Fong Yuen) at Gage St, Central. There's the usual nissin noodles, french toast, milk tea, pork chop bun, etc. They were nice, but what won everyone over was the 猪仔包 (zhu zai bao), a baguette-like round bun, toasted crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside, buttered and drizzled with condensed milk. It's amazing how something so simple is so nice. My friends, who have never tried it before are now hooked on it. I must admit that this was one of the best 猪仔包 that I've eaten so far.

 

 

Our last dinner in Hong Kong was on Lamma Island at 天虹海鲜酒家 (Rainbow Seafood Restaurant). We ordered the 8-course set for the 4 of us and what a fare we had. There were bamboo clams, lobsters (small), abalone, scallops, fish, sweet & sour pork, veggie and fried rice...all for just HKD938 (about S$156). Pretty cheap considering what we had.

 

That more or less covered our meals in Hong Kong...now onward to Macau!